Inside
the American Empire
Dear
Team:
Economic,
political, and military power is highly concentrated in the
world today. 50% of all major multinational companies and banks
in the world are American. 30% are European. 10% are Japanese.
If we look at the top 10 companies, 90% are American.The top
25, 75% are American. The top 50, 70% are American. Outside
of America, Europe, and decreasingly in Japan.There are no major
economic anything to be owned by any country.
What
this means is that there is no such thing as free trade or global
market liberalization. These are euphmisms for instant American
seizure of these third world markets. Free trade is impossible
when there is such a lop-sided concentration of economic power
in the American and European companies. This concentration is
due to economic and technological know-how, but also state subsidies
to American and European companies making the idea of "
free trade " even more of a joke.
World
markets are divided among these concentrated companies and this
defines the imperial nature of the world economy, together with
the markets that are controlled, the natural resources that
are pillaged, and the labor markets that are exploited. Also
80% of all leading oil and gas companies are American. But now
serious trouble is brewing....
The
military cost of sustaining this empire is escalating dramatically.The
US military budget has risen 20%. Tax cuts for the rich which
stimulate overseas investments have led to a serious budget
deficit and greater cuts in social spending, threatening fisical
and political stability in America. More important the power
and economic concentration of US companies and banks has been
based on overseas investments, profits, and re-exports to the
US via multinational subsidiaries. This has created a disasterous
balance of payments for the US reaching an unsustainable half
a trillion dollars.
What
this means is that the US economy is dependent on a massive
flow of funds from overseas investors to sustain its external
deficit. As the empire grows, the " republic " goes
into deeper crises, stripped of its competitive enterprises
and unable to limit its consumer imports. This contradiction
cannot be easily resolved because the American political leadership
is totally committed to empire building and the only concession
it can make to the domestic economy is greater subsidies and
greater protection which in turn increases tensions and conflicts
with other imperial competitors in Europe and its client export
regimes in the third world.
The
Bush dictatorship's resolution of this crisis of increasing
imperial growth and continuing domestic decay is to conquer
overseas markets with vital resources. Expansion into Central
Asia and war with Iraq are part of a plan to transfer back wealth
to the US to finance the exploding domestic deficits. The Latin
American Free Trade agreement is a perfect example of this strategy.
Capture of Latin American markets and lowering of American trade
deficits is the goal here. Exports to Mexico increase as as
US owned factories in Mexico flee to China, Vietnam, and India
where labor costs are cheaper.
US
imperial control of the world economy is now based on increasingly
fragile foundations within an increasingly polarized world.
Increasing third world rsentment and a collapse of the dollar
could lead to the fall of the empire. The media cartel operated
by the American elites will never tell you this. It is extremely
interesting to compare America today with the Roman empire of
Augustus. During this mid-phase of Roman expansion global resources
were sucked into Rome from the periphery of the empire. This
over-extension was beginning to create serious internal problems
for the then defunct " republic. " This decay was
stopped by Emperor Hadrian who began scaling back the the Roman
empire. Resources and power began to flow back outward to the
outer provinces and more and more provincals became Roman citizens.
The reduced empire however was still controlled by the sword.
Anyone who opposed this cultural and economic monopoly were
crushed. The Jews were an excellent example of this. When they
revolted they were smashed and scattered all over the world.
The
same pattern could be seen in imperial China. Both emperor Hadrian
and the Chinese built walls to keep the barbarians out. The
very word barbarian was denoted to anyone who couldn't speak
Greek. They just said " Baa, baa, baa...." and today
the USA is building a wall too. So is Europe and even Israel.
To keep the " barbarians " out. But the barbarians
do not see themselves as barbarians. The black stress of the
American empire which has future-shocked the third world is
generating a backlash as the " barbarians " future-shock
the empire back.
What
this observor sees is possibly the worst of both worlds now.
The Augustun expansion of America with a half-assed Hadrian
or Chinese consolidation of the empire. Indeed the American
Augustun expansion which gobbled up Russia and Eastern Europe
is now finally bumping into China and Islam. Also the ecological
deterioration of the planet from both a physical and a psychic
point of view could also cause serious problems. Something the
Romans and Chinese never faced. At least not on the scale we
are witnessing now. The future will be interesting. Stay tuned.
The international Yuppies of Sausalito send greetings.
Michael
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