Vulture Capitalism
Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom
Grace Blakeley
Having read it
★★★★★
With a good narrative, flow and steady pace and one clearly well researched and structured, this book is brilliant.
Capitalism means rule by capital – not free markets.
Its clarity and its honesty of a broken system that purports to be for ‘free markets’ and for everyone is made clear and shown to readers to be the very thing that gets in the way of real, meaningful and relevant progress for all and why its proponents and benefactors uphold it so as to retain their power and control over essentially the 99%.
The financial crisis was driven as much by crooked coordination between powerful actors as it was by unrestrained ‘free market’ capitalism. And when the crisis did hit, once again the state stepped in to shield powerful vested interests from the consequences of their own greed.
[...]
[...] Most of the time, the powerful do not need to be collected in a single room to coordinate and plan. Institutions emerge within capitalist societies that can be relied upon to maintain the stability of the system and protect the powerful.
The global North’s mission is seemingly to disparage and belittle socialism so as to keep the unbelievers and certainly the global South demeaned when trying (and proving) a different and more effective approach can and does work but is kept throttled by often unasked for and pointless ‘helping hands’ of economic rules so the human potential for collective ownership and responsibility for, by and to all can’t happen.
It was very heartening to read of references to and quotes from many a book I have read over the last few years and showed and enforced that these things are all connected and the neoliberal capitalists really are the problem.
It was also warming to know my (lifetime of wannabe) socialist attitudes and opinions were and are legitimate and empowering and worthwhile and that approaches (socialist ones, in their true democratic form), like the Lucas Plan in England and the work of Salvador Allende in Chile, both of the 1970s and mentioned in the book, are actually useful to (a progressive and more collectively focused and beneficial) society for all.
The emergence of [financial] crises may be outside of the control of any one actor, or group of actors. But some are better able to shape how these crises play out than others. The close links between financial institutions and the state ensure that those who cause financial crises – financiers – rarely suffer the consequences of their own greed. Instead, the costs of financial crisis are borne by the people, while the profits are taken by the banks.
Conversely, it was shocking to learn of the many US-led imperial attitudes, methods and approaches to protecting capital (and neoliberalism) and denigrating labour, certainly in the Philippines and Chile but also other places around the world (even in the UK) to so say protect and uphold the ‘free market’ and the global North’s supremacy of it, so definitely don’t believe the hype (or good-for-nothing charlatans that don’t believe in democracy, law or even different (and true) opinions).
As Naomi Klein is quoted as saying on its cover it is a ‘galvanising takedown’ and a helpful cry to arms for all that systemic change is possible to the capitalist system but realistically just a little difficult to oust the entrenched hierarchies even via the ballot box given there are few, if any, (political) voices nor parties speaking real, democratic and effective social change.
Power to the people, if only those in economic and political charge will pop their hegemonic (and neoliberal and capitalist) bubbles to truly level the playing field and allow for a more inclusive, responsible and legitimate and collective network of involvement and decision-making for a properly fair and democratically socialist (read collectivist, collaborative, ethical and responsible) world.
A good passage
Democracy and decarbonisation are often seen as enemies. Democratic processes are slow, and time is running out. But unless we are able to democratise our society, political and economic decision-making processes will continue to be dominated by those who have helped to cause climate breakdown up to now.172
We cannot rely on the hope that the powerful will suddenly realise the need to tackle climate breakdown and take appropriate action. Even if they do realise in time, they will seek to protect their interests at the expense of the general interest. It is not hard to envisage a world in which wealthy nations respond to climate breakdown by building walls to keep at bay those displaced by rising temperatures.
Much like the separation between states and markets, the separation between man and nature is a liberal myth.173 Humanity is a part of nature. The fight against climate breakdown is not a fight to save ‘the planet’ – the planet will continue to exist long after it is rendered inhabitable for humans. The fight against climate breakdown is a fight to protect human life on earth. And that fight cannot be won by sacrificing millions of lives or the freedoms that make life worth living. But if we continue to allow the response to climate breakdown to be shaped solely by the powerful, this is the kind of ‘solution’ we will get.
A second good passage
[...] The entire regulatory architecture that governs the modern financial system was built by and for powerful financial institutions themselves.
Modern finance would not be possible without the legal architecture that governs it, from deposit protection schemes, to capital requirements, to bankruptcy law. Because the law is so central to the operation of the financial system, financial institutions spend a great deal of time and money lobbying legislators and regulators to influence that system.
While society would clearly benefit from better and more restrictive financial regulation, the battle to shape this financial regulation is, by its nature, intensely uneven. Financial regulation is an incredibly complicated area of law, and few outside parties have either the incentive or the knowledge to challenge the coordinated lobbying power of the large financial organisations.
A third good passage
The state isn’t just a fixed set of institutions, it’s a ‘social relationship’.25 What happens within the state tends to reflect the balance of power in wider society. When workers are strong and able to organise within state institutions, state policy tends to benefit them more. But when, as is most often the case, bosses are stronger than workers, they’re better able to organise within state institutions to get their way. The transition to neoliberalism has involved a reassertion of the power of capital over labour, and state policy has come to reflect that shift.
All capitalist economies – whether neoliberal, statist, laissez faire or anything else – rely on some form of centralised planning. When neoliberal thinkers claim to reject centralised planning in favour of free market competition, they are in fact rejecting only certain kinds of planning – generally those that tend to benefit workers. But whether providing handouts to big businesses, breaking up unions or ‘nudging’ people into adopting the ‘right’ behaviours, neoliberals are only too happy with state planning that benefits capital. To paraphrase the political economist Karl Polanyi, ‘neoliberalism was planned’.26