This is some backhistory on policy decisions that still affect us today. I think its important to be aware of the cause and consequence, that the deteriorating conditions experienced by Americans are not accidental - they are policy decisions.
TPP
TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) - here is the leaked document. It’s quite a lot of reading to go through and understand (and not timely any more) but there are other analysis that you can find on the internet. Interestingly, many of the articles on it are from the World Economic Forum or other in-favor organizations, and Google itself tends to be biased towards these. So you may have to dig, but you can find a lot of criticism of the bill. For instance the US shrimp industry expressing concerns that the bill would gut the FDA’s ability to prevent shrimp contaminated with antibiotics from entering the US market. That scenario is not hypothetical, here is the FDA’s statement on their findings of contamination in 2016.
The TPP was created by a consensus of corporate lawyers. Senators who viewed the TPP were given a few hours at a weekend convention to look through an 800 page document on a podium at a hotel with tight security. During the process, congress decided to “fast-track” the bill, shortcutting the normal time taken to debate the measure. Here’s further commentary on the lack of transparency and some highlight problem areas with the bill.
One of Trump’s first acts was to veto the TPP.
NAFTA & Glass Steagall
Bill Clinton during his term as president, signed NAFTA into law, which you can debate as good or bad, but is in the same vein as the TPP only less countries, less total GDP involved. Many people believe that the 2008 market crash was a direct result of Clinton’s repeal of the Glass Steagall Act in the 90’s. Glass Steagall was signed into law after the Great Depression, with the intention of separating speculative banking such as derivatives markets from you and I’s checking account balance. In other words, banks could not gamble with people’s deposits - until Clinton’s repeal.
After the 2008 crash, Obama signed into law the Dodd Frank act, which specifically prevents banks from investing your money into sub-prime mortgages, but it doesn’t prevent them from engaging in any of the other innumerable forms of “speculative investments”. So some curious analysts have been waiting for the other shoe to drop - what bubbles have been building up since then? When will they burst, and what will the damage be? It could be argued that the massive stimulus package issued during the pandemic in combination with the lockdowns freezing the economy worked to prop up a financial system that otherwise would have collapsed in this time period - all under the cover story of a pandemic.
Ukraine, Blackrock
The Clintons, the Obama’s, the Biden’s are very chummy, and they take donations from the banks and pharmaceuticals. Biden’s son was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. The House Oversight committee provides a timeline of the Biden family’s involvement in Ukraine, Romania, and Russia. The most oil and mineral rich regions in Ukraine are the Donbas region - yep - that’s the region in the east populated by Russian speaking citizens. And since the 2014 CIA led coup that led to Zelenskyy’s presidency, the Donbas region has been under mortar and rocket fire (including by Nazi’s such as the Azov batallian). This was President Putin’s stated reason for invading. The violence was in violation of the Minsk accord. And also I’m sure they care about the oil and minerals there as well.
During the pandemic Blackrock, one of the largest asset managers in the world, got their way when they recommended the “Going Direct Reset” (announcement direct from Blackrock). The Fed for the first time in history put money directly into the retail market, instead of the reserve market where they typically act. While people celebrated getting their checks for $1200, much of the money was put into the hands of Blackrock to be invested as they chose. Blackrock has been buying up homes and apartment complexes across the country (which was a factor in the home prices continuing to rise) and now rents them out. We call this free market capitalism, right?
Guess who was in talks with Zelenskyy to fund the rebuilding of Ukraine? Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock. They want to turn Ukraine into a testbed for smart cities - an Orweillian future in which every footstep, every breath is monitored and monetized. Course that’s turning south since it seems very much that Russia has the capacity and will to hold onto this territory.
WHO Pandemic Treaty
In more recent news the WHO says it’s “urgent” that we all must agree to give them more power (direct from WHO site). Here’s Kim Iverson’s commentary on it, suggesting this is a forfeiture of national sovereignty.
I post this for awareness of the trends which do affect us, but I’m not expecting a messiah figure to come and save us, and certainly not one wearing the title of US President. I believe we need to create resilient networks on the ground - productive economies and mutual aid networks to kick in when disaster strikes.
Come to our in person events, our Idea Labs, and let’s talk more about how we can build something positive in the face of a shifting world.