Fascinating and lucrative patriotism, [1]
Keep the people frightened
Of things they cannot know
Is the secret of the Tomb
If they knew what you and I know
They would know it is just men
Who rob them, cheat them, kill them
Then start it all again
The negative return economy: a discourse on America’s black budget
By Chris Sanders
Jul/01/2004
The term Black Budget is often used in the context of spending on covert operations and top secret weapons development. This understanding of the term is incomplete, however. The American Black Budget involves much more. Its management is dependent on monopoly control of the currency system and on the ability to control the Federal credit, as well as cash flows from a variety of sources, illegal as well as legal. The truth of the matter is that the Black Budget is the real budget, of which the published Federal budget is only a part. Are you curious about how the Federal government could accumulate more than $4 trillion in “undocumentable transactions,” or how Federal agencies cannot pass audits year after year? Understanding the Black Budget is central to understanding the modern American economy. Read on…
(Forthcoming in World Affairs , Journal of International Issues )
Fascinating and lucrative patriotism, [1]
Keep the people frightened
Of things they cannot know
Is the secret of the Tomb
If they knew what you and I know
They would know it is just men
Who rob them, cheat them, kill them
Then start it all again
Introduction
The United States government has operated a secret budgeting and spending program for decades outside the framework of the American Constitution. The institutional and political roots of this system of clandestine finance reach back to at least a century. The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries saw the consolidation of American industry and banking under the control of a restrictive cartel that for all practical purposes assumed control of the economy. The great magnates of American industry and finance in the late nineteenth century were superb practitioners of covert operations. Witness to this fact are the institutions set up during the twentieth century through which their descendants maintain control.
This paper is a summary of the structure of the American political economy which fits the facts better than the official model. Officially, American capitalism is characterised by democracy, opportunity, self-improvement, open and free markets, and constructive regulation for the public good, in short, happiness. Under this construct America has never fought a war of aggression and harbours no designs to do so. Its leaders have the nation’s interests at heart, and its politicians listen to their constituencies. The truth is different. Why the United States is so widely misunderstood is due in part to a controlled educational system and media. As the system evolved over the decades, time lent it legitimacy spanning the political spectrum. Gustavus Meyers, author of the seminal work History of the Great American Fortunes and no panegyrist, believed – following Marx as did many on the left – that the consolidation of American industry was inevitable and that the men who accomplished it were acting their part in a predetermined historical evolution. Once monopoly control had been achieved, the proletariat would rise and its dictatorship would begin. We shy away from such determinism; nothing happens but as a consequence of what men do and choose to do. If Meyers were alive today, he would still be waiting.
Black Budget? What Black Budget?
Rest of good article, charts, etc at:
sandersresearch.com |
