Hopes and Fears: Of Unbound Capitalism

“Few things are impossible to diligence and skill… many things difficult to design prove easy to performance” Samuel Johnson “The History of Rasselas”, 1759

In the above mentioned quote from an age old fable, the wise-man Imlac advises Rasselas, the Prince of Abyssinia, towards his plans to flee from Happy Valley; the palace enclave of princes and princesses of the Abysinnian royalty which is surrounded on all sides by seemingly impassable mountains.  

Conversely, FPM principal believe the beleaguered and despondent masses of wretched workers in our present mode of capitalism are attempting to breakaway the echelons of multi-billionaire owners and institutions towards seeking greater income parity in society. A mode of capitalism, that leads to our modern human society being organised as a plutocracy. Democracy is a specious and inappropriate label for our social rule. 
Since the recent catalytic event of the Great Recession, we have all seen the all-too-quickly dismissed global protests against unbounded capitalism and the disparity in wealth created in respective populations: the American 1% versus the 99%, the Arab Spring, London Riots of August 2011, etcetera are all compounding symbols of populist dissident discontent with socio-economic-politics of the day. Non-believers or doubters of the seismic change set in motion, sceptics and cynics alike, may cliché-wise state that “it has thus been the same in the past”. Yet some flash-points in the social history of man do escalate to greater consequences from a unique confluence of tethered events. A planetary alignment of sorts with which to herald unprecedented change no less. Witness the epochal events towards America’s first black president; though only some 60 years ago segregation of black and white people was the prevalent status-quo in the US.

Despite global pockets of dissent activism, what we have not fully seen is the greater collective coherent campaign that’s tantamount to a global people revolution. FPM sensationally and inspirationally views this new millennium as an opportunity for aspiration towards lasting change in attitudes, values and belief system in socio-economic political structures. Humanity’s hopes and fears are manifested through their ultimate conscious or inadvertent actions. This past week saw eco-political activity and developments that passages FPM’s long-held analysis of a) European Union break-up, b) the demise of the US Dollar hegemony, and c) the interrelated and subsequent re-engineering of economic capitalism.

The respective world events and activity we refer to above are a) the European Union member country elections resulting in superior votes for Leftist movements (in ‘Club Med’ south European countries), Nationalist and Independence swings among north European EU members (akin to India, a living-large democracy, electing Nationalist BJP party to lead the country in the previous weekend’s elections); b) the re-emerging superpowers conduct Russia-China cooperation and East China Sea naval exercises amid spy-wars and trade-wars and non-Dollar based trade agreements  and c) aside of the disquiet of the many anti-capitalist protests mentioned above and ones planned for next month around the June 17-18 G8 Summit in Northern Ireland, there was this past week a conference on Inclusive Capitalism co-hosted by the City of London Corporation and EL Rothschild investment firm. FPM perceives the Inclusive Capitalism Initiative conference, to tackle unbound capitalism, hosted by two of the greatest symbols of wealth, as dubious and somewhat spurious. As echoed by The Guardian national newspaper in the UK under the headline “Inclusive Capitalism Initiative is Trojan Horse to quell coming global revolt”. Nonetheless we would like hold a representative of the Rothschild dynasty, Lady Forester De Rothschild, and a host of the conference to account in FPM’s reputation risk thesis; and therefore re-post the peer's synopsis Bloomberg interview as below:

In case readers of this post reflect that FPM’s bandwagon aspirations for a new global co-existence is quixotic in actuality, and sensational in macro predictive value, we refer them to UN Secretary-General’s visit to meet Pope Francis at Vatican earlier this month. There the pontiff’s message to Ban Ki-moon was for progress in UN's Millennium Development Goals: 

"…have a real impact on the structural causes of poverty and hunger… Specifically, this involves challenging all forms of injustices and resisting the economy of exclusion, the throwaway culture and the culture of death which nowadays sadly risks becoming passively accepted…" 

FPM is curious about the Pope’s turn of phrase, “The Economy of Exclusion”; especially when contrasted with the indistinctness and abstract meaning of the “Inclusive Capitalism” initiative! The circus of hypocrisy is complete when one consider that the UN Millennium Development Goals was launched in 2000 with deadline in 2015! 

Stop The Press! As of 28th May, President Barack Obama gave US foreign policy statement (via the BBC), in an address to the elite military school “West Point. The sabre rattling response to Russia and China’s recent offsetting balance of power threats are clear in this statement from the West Point speech: 

“Here's my bottom line - America must always lead on the world stage.”