[Reader-list] Death of 'Soul of Capitalism'

[Jeebesh]

dear all, this text is from the heart of capitalism. warmly jeebesh

Oct. 20, 2009, 12:50 a.m. EDT

Death of 'Soul of Capitalism:' Bogle, Faber, Moore
20 reasons America has lost its soul and collapse is inevitable

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americas-soul-is-lost-and-collapse-is-inevitable-2009-10-20

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Jack Bogle published "The  
Battle for the Soul of Capitalism" four years ago. The battle's over.  
The sequel should be titled: "Capitalism Died a Lost Soul." Worse,  
we've lost "America's Soul." And worldwide the consequences will be  
catastrophic.

That's why a man like Hong Kong's contrarian economist Marc Faber  
warns in his Doom, Boom & Gloom Report: "The future will be a total  
disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it  
today."

No, not just another meltdown, another bear market recession like the  
one recently triggered by Wall Street's "too-greedy-to-fail" banks.  
Farber is warning that the entire system of capitalism will collapse.  
Get it? The engine driving the great "American Economic Empire" for  
233 years will collapse, a total disaster, a destiny we created.

OK, deny it. But I'll bet you have a nagging feeling maybe he's right,  
the end may be near. I have for a long time: I wrote a column back in  
1997: "Battling for the Soul of Wall Street." My interest in "The  
Soul" -- what Jung called the "collective unconscious" -- dates back  
to my Ph.D. dissertation: "Modern Man in Search of His Soul," a title  
borrowed from Jung's 1933 book, "Modern Man in Search of a Soul." This  
battle has been on my mind since my days at Morgan Stanley 30 years  
ago, witnessing the decline.

Has capitalism lost its soul? Guys like Bogle and Faber sense it. Read  
more about the soul in physicist Gary Zukav's "The Seat of the Soul,"  
Thomas Moore's "Care of the Soul" and sacred texts.

But for Wall Street and American capitalism, use your gut. You know  
something's very wrong: A year ago "too-greedy-to-fail" banks were  
insolvent, in a near-death experience. Now, magically they're back to  
business as usual, arrogant, pocketing outrageous bonuses while Main  
Street sacrifices, and unemployment and foreclosures continue rising  
as tight credit, inflation, skyrocketing Federal debt killing taxpayers.

Yes, Wall Street has lost its moral compass. They created the mess,  
now, like vultures, they're capitalizing on the carcass. They have  
lost all sense of fiduciary duty, ethical responsibility and public  
obligation.

Here are the Top 20 reasons American capitalism has lost its soul:

1. Collapse is now inevitable

Capitalism has been the engine driving America and the global  
economies for over two centuries. Faber predicts its collapse will  
trigger global "wars, massive government-debt defaults, and the  
impoverishment of large segments of Western society." Faber knows that  
capitalism is not working, capitalism has peaked, and the collapse of  
capitalism is "inevitable."

When? He hesitates: "But what I don't know is whether this final  
collapse, which is inevitable, will occur tomorrow, or in five or 10  
years, and whether it will occur with the Dow at 100,000 and gold at  
$50,000 per ounce or even confiscated, or with the Dow at 3,000 and  
gold at $1,000." But the end is inevitable, a historical imperative.

2. Nobody's planning for a 'Black Swan'

While the timing may be uncertain, the trigger is certain. Societies  
collapse because they fail to plan ahead, cannot act fast enough when  
a catastrophic crisis hits. Think "Black Swan" and read evolutionary  
biologist Jared Diamond's "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or  
Succeed."

A crisis hits. We act surprised. Shouldn't. But it's too late:  
"Civilizations share a sharp curve of decline. Indeed, a society's  
demise may begin only a decade or two after it reaches its peak  
population, wealth and power."

Warnings are everywhere. Why not prepare? Why sabotage our power, our  
future? Why set up an entire nation to fail? Diamond says:  
Unfortunately "one of the choices has depended on the courage to  
practice long-term thinking, and to make bold, courageous,  
anticipatory decisions at a time when problems have become perceptible  
but before they reach crisis proportions."

Sound familiar? "This type of decision-making is the opposite of the  
short-term reactive decision-making that too often characterizes our  
elected politicians," thus setting up the "inevitable" collapse.  
Remember, Greenspan, Bernanke, Bush, Paulson all missed the 2007-8  
meltdown: It will happen again, in a bigger crisis.

3. Wall Street sacked Washington

Bogle warned of a growing three-part threat -- a "happy conspiracy" --  
in "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism:" "The business and ethical  
standards of corporate America, of investment America, and of mutual  
fund America have been gravely compromised."

But since his book, "Wall Street America" went over to the dark side,  
got mega-greedy and took control of "Washington America." Their spoils  
of war included bailouts, bankruptcies, stimulus, nationalizations and  
$23.7 trillion new debt off-loaded to the Treasury, Fed and American  
people.

Who's in power? Irrelevant. The "happy conspiracy" controls both  
parties, writes the laws to suit its needs, with absolute control of  
America's fiscal and monetary policies. Sorry Jack, but the "Battle  
for the Soul of Capitalism" really was lost.

4. When greed was legalized

Go see Michael Moore's documentary, "Capitalism: A Love Story."  
"Disaster Capitalism" author Naomi Klein recently interviewed Moore in  
The Nation magazine: "Capitalism is the legalization of this greed.  
Greed has been with human beings forever. We have a number of things  
in our species that you would call the dark side, and greed is one of  
them. If you don't put certain structures in place or restrictions on  
those parts of our being that come from that dark place, then it gets  
out of control."

Greed's OK, within limits, like the 10 Commandments. Yes, the soul can  
thrive around greed, if there are structures and restrictions to keep  
it from going out of control. But Moore warns: "Capitalism does the  
opposite of that. It not only doesn't really put any structure or  
restrictions on it. It encourages it, it rewards" greed, creating  
bigger, more frequent bubble/bust cycles.

It happens because capitalism is now in "the hands of people whose  
only concern is their fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders  
or to their own pockets." Yes, greed was legalized in America, with  
Wall Street running Washington.

5. Triggering the end of our 'life cycle'

Like Diamond, Faber also sees the historical imperative: "Every  
successful society" grows "out of some kind of challenge." Today, the  
"life cycle" of capitalism is on the decline.

He asks himself: "How are you so sure about this final collapse?" The  
answer: "Of all the questions I have about the future, this is the  
easiest one to answer. Once a society becomes successful it becomes  
arrogant, righteous, overconfident, corrupt, and decadent ...  
overspends ... costly wars ... wealth inequity and social tensions  
increase; and society enters a secular decline." Success makes us our  
own worst enemy.

Quoting 18th century Scottish historian Alexander Fraser Tytler: "The  
average life span of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200  
years" progressing from "bondage to spiritual faith ... to great  
courage ... to liberty ... to abundance ... to selfishness ... to  
complacency ... to apathy ... to dependence and ... back into bondage!"

Where is America in the cycle? "It is most unlikely that Western  
societies, and especially the U.S., will be an exception to this  
typical 'society cycle.' ... The U.S. is somewhere between the phase  
where it moves 'from complacency to apathy' and 'from apathy to  
dependence.'"

In short, America is a grumpy old man with hardening of the arteries.  
Our capitalism is near the tipping point, unprepared for a  
catastrophe, set up for collapse and rapid decline.

15 more clues capitalism lost its soul ... is a disaster waiting to  
happen

Much more evidence litters the battlefield:

Wall Street wealth now calls the shots in Congress, the White House

America's top 1% own more than 90% of America's wealth

The average worker's income has declined in three decades while CEO  
compensation exploded over ten times

The Fed is now the 'fourth branch of government' operating  
autonomously, secretly printing money at will

Since Goldman and Morgan became bank holding companies, all banks are  
back gambling with taxpayer bailout money plus retail customer deposits

Bill Gross warns of a "new normal" with slow growth, low earnings and  
stock prices

While the White House's chief economist retorts with hype of a  
recovery unimpeded by the "new normal"

Wall Street's high-frequency junkies make billions trading zombie  
stocks like AIG, FNMA, FMAC that have no fundamental value beyond a  
Treasury guarantee

401(k)s have lost 26.7% of their value in the past decade

Oil and energy costs will skyrocket

Foreign nations and sovereign funds have started dumping dollars,  
signaling the end of the dollar as the world's reserve currency

In two years federal debt exploded from $11.2 to $23.7 trillion

New financial reforms will do little to prevent the next meltdown

The "forever war" between Western and Islamic fundamentalists will widen

As will environmental threats and unfunded entitlements

"America Capitalism" is a "Lost Soul" ... we've lost our moral  
compass ... the coming collapse is the end of an "inevitable"  
historical cycle stalking all great empires to their graves. Downsize  
your lifestyle expectations, trust no one, not even media.

Faber is uncertain about timing, we are not. There is a high  
probability of a crisis and collapse by 2012. The "Great Depression 2"  
is dead ahead. Unfortunately, there's absolutely nothing you can do to  
hide from this unfolding reality or prevent the rush of the historical  
imperative dead ahead.