Did you hear the one about the robber that stuck a gun in the face of the victim and said, “your money or your life?”  Here’s the punch line:  the victim said, “take my life, I am saving my money for my old age.”  This joke conjures up the behavior of world monied elites and their high paid technocrats.  Let me explain.

The Sick Joke

Saving in a capitalist system is a desirable and economically beneficial behavior.  However, hoarding is not a good behavior.  Bottling up too much money in sovereign wealth funds, college and non-profit foundation endowments, off-shore accounts, etc. reduces tax revenues, investment in plant and equipment, and direct fiscal stimulation of the economy   We have so much “super hoarding” throughout the world that demand for goods and services is weak while the world sits on piles of capital and idle factories – otherwise known as low demand, excess liquidity and excess capacity.  Not a good thing.

The government of China now has a current account surplus of $3 trillion – much of which is invested in low yield U.S. bonds. Yes U.S. treasuries are considered one of the safest places to park oodles and piles of excess dollars today.  What does that say about the validity of the S&P downgrade of U.S. debt?  With the price for a barrel of oil at the $100 mark, the SWFs of the oil exporter nations will keep growing at a phenomenal pace.  The top 40 university endowments are sitting on at least $200 billion.  With thousands of university endowment funds plus huge amounts of super-rich family dollars parked in 501(c)(3) or some other form of tax shelter, trillions of dollars that could be invested in roads, bridges, schools, housing, and other projects – in the people of all the countries of the world – is moved about the financial markets as the super rich attempt to enhance and/or protect their “hoarded wealth.”

The problem is this:  too much capital flowing into countries like Greece, Italy, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal from countries like Germany, from massive hedge funds, or from the petro-dollar recyclers in London and the U.S., fuels crony capitalism, speculative bubbles, politically popular too-low tax rates,  and ill-conceived and wasteful governmental programs (think farm subsidies, war, and other give-aways that do nothing for the betterment of society).  This became a particularly glaring problem when the world-wide economic weltanschauung morphed into the Reagan-Thatcher promoted “dog eat dog,” “winner take all,” deregulated, free market belief system.  In other words, grab all you can get and don’t give a damn about your fellow humans, the planet, and the future of the human species.

The Sick Punch Line

The super-rich and bankers in countries that invested heavily in bonds of countries like Greece fueled out-of-control consumerism – made possible by government fiscal policy.  Ostensibly, this was irresponsible behavior only on the part of the debtor countries.  However, as in the case of Europe, the consumerism of debtor countries fueled the very robust economic growth of  creditor countries.  In other words, the healthier economies of Northern Europe were recycling their export Euros back to the less healthy economies of Southern Europe so they could keep up their consumer madness.  It was a crazy feedback loop.

Eventually, all of this hot capital flow had to end badly.  The Southern European nations can no longer service their massive debt and, with bond yields rising rapidly, this can only get worse.  With U.S. and European banks heavily exposed in the European bond markets, this financial collapse will eventually be devastating.

But wait!  There is a solution.  The European Central Bank could step in and “bail out” the Greeks, Italians, Portugese, and so forth.  They could stop this catstrophe from happening and keep everyone from suffering badly – including the Germans.  If the collapse continues – and it may be too late to stop it – we are looking at a very deep world-wide recession and perhaps a depression.

Here is the sick punch line:  Just as in the United States, the super rich of Europe – particularly the Germans and bankers of Germany – are demanding that economic collapse be solved through austerity.  Lay off teachers, cut pensions, increase unemployment – make the people suffer.  Teach those profligates a lesson.  This will be disastrous for the bankers, super rich, and nations calling for punishment of the debtor nations’ peoples.  As demand continues to dissipate from their economies,  bonds held by the bankers and other investors won’t be worth diddly squat.  But they will ride this thing down before they share some wealth to save the whole system.  Take their lives – they are saving their money for their old ages.

The Solution

Nations must regain control of their economies and their wealth.  The way to do this is to equalize their tax codes, control their own capital markets, invest – through direct fiscal stimulation and creation of meaningful jobs and projects – in their people.  Taxation must be designed to produce adequate government revenue for equitable housing, education, health care, for infrastructure, research and development, and all of the other things that modern, progressive countries should and could do (and all nations should become modern and progressive).

However, if the rich and powerful persist in punishing debtor nations gone bad, and if they persist in hoarding their wealth in endowments, 501(c)3s, in off shore accounts, and through finding various and sundry other forms of legal gimmicks for escaping their tax responsibilities, the current catastrophic failure mode of the world economy will end very badly for them as well as for all of us.

The American Health Care System is Despicable

Just how despicable is the U.S. health care system?  Although the U.S. spends over $8000 per capita and 18% of GDP on health care – more than any other country – at least 50 million Americans are uninsured.  According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), countries such as Japan, Sweden, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and England generally spend half as much per capita and as a percentage of GDP  while providing health care access to all of their citizens.

So who pays and who benefits from  the bloated, corrupt, immoral U.S. health care system?

Here is a list of who pays: (1) all wage & salary earners who pay a 1.5% tax on everything they earn, (2) the U.S. government, i.e. taxpayers in general, which transfers the 1.5% tax and hundreds of billions more to the medical-industrial complex, (3) businesses offering health insurance to their employees, (4) employees lucky enough to have employers provided health insurance, i.e., premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, (5) Medicare beneficiaries forced to pay large premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, and (6) uninsured patients and consumers stuck medical bills that often drive them into bankruptcy.

Here is a list of who benefits from the massive wealth transfer through health care gouging: (1) for profit hospital chains, (2) nursing home chains, (3) pharmaceutical companies, (4) medical device manufacturers, (5) corporate owned physician practices, (6) insurance companies, and (7) senator and congresspersons who receive untold millions in political contributions from the medical-industrial complex.

The American Medical Association Has Played a Major Role in Shaping the Shameful U.S. Health Care System

The Occupy Wall Street Movement needs to turn some of its attention toward Occupy the American Medical Association.

Amongst political groups fighting to block humane and decent health care, the American Medical Association – the association representing healers of sick people – has  been one of the most effective and potent forces throughout the past century.  It is hard to understand how an organization representing physicians, who have taken an oath to heal, could fight universal health care and, by virtue of that fight, insure that tens of millions of U.S. citizens will suffer and often die due to medical neglect.

Who are the 50 million uninsured Americans resulting from AMA efforts?  A couple of years ago, I spent two days volunteering at a free clinic sponsored by the National Association of Free Clinics at Bartle Hall.  I met some of the 50 million medically neglected people in our country.  By the thousands, they streamed through the convention center – humbly, thankfully, without rancor and resentment.  They came for help with complications of diabetes, hypertension, abscesses, tumors, and generally the full array of ailments needing medical attention.

The AMA and the politicians they pay off to perpetuate the current national health care embarassment should have spent a couple of days at Bartle Hall looking the uninsured in their eyes and explaining why they scream socialism and extol the virtues of an unbrided free market health care system that has failed our country so miserably.  Perhaps this representative of doctors could come forth and explain how its fight for a cruel health care system is compatible with medical ethics.

Who are the Politicians Raking in AMA Dough and Other Medical-Industrial Complex Pay Offs?  Let’s Take a Look at One Democrat on the Undemocratic, Super-Secret, Super-Committee

Democratic congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is a darling of the medical-industrial complex.  If you check the top contributors to the members of the undemocratic, super-secret, super-committee, you will notice that Van Hollen does best amongst health care industry lobbyists and better amongst that group of givers than other members of the committee.  For instance, the AMA, which donated $22,000 to Van Hollen, ranks 27th in the amount donated out of the nearly 3,000 contributors to the senators and congresspersons.  Van Hollen received more than other members from the AMA and other medical-industrial givers.  Nevertheless, Democratic congressman James Clyburn did very well amongst the this group of givers as well.

According to the Sunlight Foundation, Dr. Jeffrey Drezner, owner of Clinical Care options and a founder member of the CME Coalition (a medical industry front group) held a fund raiser for Van Hollen days after the first meeting of the super committee.  The foundation blog noted that “Drezner sent tens of thousands of dollars to multiple committees associated with Van Hollen from 2007 to 2010, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which Van Hollen led during those years, according to to data from the Center for Responsive Politics” (http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/20ll/van-hollens-alternative-fundraising-vehicle-wakes/).