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Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

greenwald.substack.com

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Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#221

Post by cryptica »

Aunche wrote: post #122
cryptica wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Bretton Woods system never fully ended in reality. Bretton Woods just ensured that all foreign fiat currencies would be pegged to the US dollar which at the time was pegged to gold. It was intended as a mechanism to allow all global currencies to be indirectly pegged to gold via the USD. When Nixon abandoned the gold standard in 1971, the fiat currencies of all countries around the world were still pegged to the…

>The Bretton Woods system never fully ended in reality Sure, we still have the IMF, but I'm specifically referring to part referring to the "gold standard". Again, it wasn't really a gold standard because the deal only extended to governments that happened to be desperate for capital. Regular people couldn't even own significant quantities of gold at the time. >the fiat currencies of all countries around the world we…

> This isn't true. Otherwise, exchange rates wouldn't be changing every second.

Prices fluctuate because people trade currencies on forex markets but those traders are not a significant force in the long run... Government reserve banks are the ones which keep exchange rates relatively stable by printing money. Traders just respond to and anticipate changes in the money supply caused by central banks.

If US Fed prints a lot of money (which puts downward pressure on the value of USD), all other central banks in the world will also start printing money to also devalue their currencies so that the exchange rate for their currency remains stable relative to USD (and therefore relative to all other currencies).

There is no major country in the world right now which has a free floating currency. Reserve banks are manipulating the global currency supply and enslaving the working population due to Cantillon effects.

The leader of any country which has tried to move out of this global monetary scheme has been overthrown and murdered by US military action (under some false pretext). For example, the real reason for the war in Libya is said to be that Gaddafi was trying to push Africa towards a gold based currency. Research the 'Libyan Gold Dinar'.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#222

Post by cryptica »

aaronsimpson wrote: post #71
cryptica wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one reporting that apparently. Just some things that the mainstream media lied about: - The NIH having funded gain of function research in Wuhan Labs. - The mortality rate of COVID19 (they ignored obvious issues with data collection and flawed incentives which over-counted deaths and under-counted cases). - The effectiveness of COVID19 vaccines (several outlets initially said that 1 dose would be enough to get 9…

What sort of complete moron would consider the 2008 bank bailout (what I assume you're referring to) as a crime? How is TARP and the repurchasing of toxic bank assets for the stabilization of the US/global financial system, which was fully paid back to the taxpayer with interest, a crime? Unless you think we should've just let the financial system melt into oblivion? It's this populist rhetoric of people being mad at…

Yes, the financial system should have been left to melt into oblivion and then people could have rebuilt it properly instead of allowing the crooks to keep doing what they've been doing and making the problem even worse. The financial system is an overcomplicated mess which has been hacked to pieces and is doing the opposite of what it was supposed to do. It hasn't worked for decades for value creators; it mostly works for crooks. What kind of moron cannot see what's going on with their own eyes?

If you need more proof that the financial system is destroying the economy, don't worry, there will be plenty more coming! Some people simply won't get it until they see mass starvation, mass protests and nukes blowing everything up... Heck they still won't get it, they'll blame the Bitcoin people, they'll blame some new virus, they'll blame some foreign politician... They'll blame everything except the fiat monetary system; the root of all incentives.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#223

Post by cryptica »

arrosenberg wrote: post #97
cryptica wrote: post #15

It's such a financially convenient line of thinking. It's absolute nonsense. Both at face value and once you dig into it. Mainstream media is feeding us constant lies which work against our interests, destroy our ability to trust institutions and the government. Big Tech is clearly the biggest threat to our democracy. Before Big Tech, we did not have such problems. This new narrative is pure self-serving propaganda,…

> Free-market capitalism with freedom of speech is the recipe for economic prosperity. Has been for hundreds of years. Economic prosperity for a handful of wealthy Brits you mean? Regulated capitalism created the middle class, free market capitalism is doing its damnedest to undo that outcome.

We have more regulation now than ever before. Regulations are to blame for destroying the middle class. Corporate lobbyists are the ones who craft regulations. They're not working for the middle class.

Why do corporations pay lobbyists? They wouldn't pay them if they weren't delivering returns for those corporations.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#224

Post by AbrahamParangi »

jmyeet wrote: post #194
thesuitonym wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This war has highlighted just how simplistic people are in that someone has to be the bad guy and someone has to be the good guy Everyone who has ever said this has gone on to say that the US is the bad guy. And you're always arguing against people who say "Yes, the US is a bully, but that's not important right now."

To be fair, the US is almost always the bad guy. I don't say this flippantly. Look at the governments the US has overthrown, rebels supported, natural resources stolen, corrupt leaders supported and arms supplied to those committing genocide (eg Saudi Arabia in Yemen).

If the US is the bad guy, who do you think is the good guy?

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#225

Post by aaronsimpson »

bavell wrote: post #99
aaronsimpson wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of complete moron would consider the 2008 bank bailout (what I assume you're referring to) as a crime? How is TARP and the repurchasing of toxic bank assets for the stabilization of the US/global financial system, which was fully paid back to the taxpayer with interest, a crime? Unless you think we should've just let the financial system melt into oblivion? It's this populist rhetoric of people being mad at…

I don't consider the 2008 bailout a "crime" per se but it was definitely a govt handout and did not punish the bad actors who caused the issues in the first place. It's interesting to me that you ignored the rest of the lies that were pointed out and focused only on one bullet to make your point. You seem to think people are mad when they shouldn't be? Is constantly being gaslit by cable news (just to give one exampl…

People seem to think being "constantly gaslit by cable news" is something that news companies do of their own accord, rather than as market agents responding to market signals that we the people send off to them. Fundamentally, the blame lies with us. If you want to change what they show, change what you signal you want to consume. It's literally that simple. I'm not saying this interaction is one way, but people tend to focus on way too hard on only one half of the equation.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#226

Post by arrosenberg »

cryptica wrote: post #223
arrosenberg wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Free-market capitalism with freedom of speech is the recipe for economic prosperity. Has been for hundreds of years. Economic prosperity for a handful of wealthy Brits you mean? Regulated capitalism created the middle class, free market capitalism is doing its damnedest to undo that outcome.

We have more regulation now than ever before. Regulations are to blame for destroying the middle class. Corporate lobbyists are the ones who craft regulations. They're not working for the middle class. Why do corporations pay lobbyists? They wouldn't pay them if they weren't delivering returns for those corporations.

Corporations pay lobbyists so they can bend or ignore the regulations that would otherwise constrain them. Thank you for helping me make that point.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#227

Post by Supermancho »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #166
Supermancho wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you are refrring to the laughable statement: > The only thing the US is responsible for is that they could have maybe threatened Russia enough to not invade. as if that wasnt a factor (by proxy via NATO) initiating Russian aggression.

> as if that wasnt a factor (by proxy via NATO) initiating Russian aggression. This is basically the "she wore a short dress" defense... The only country that initiated Russian aggression is Russia.

> This is basically the "she wore a short dress" defense...

I'm not sure why you characterize the assertion as a "defense". It's a reason.

People do things for reasons. Everyone makes choices based on how they perceive the world and predict the future from there. To flatly ignore circumstance is not constructive.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#228

Post by Mikeb85 »

Supermancho wrote: post #227
Mikeb85 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as if that wasnt a factor (by proxy via NATO) initiating Russian aggression. This is basically the "she wore a short dress" defense... The only country that initiated Russian aggression is Russia.

> This is basically the "she wore a short dress" defense... I'm not sure why you characterize the assertion as a "defense". It's a reason. People do things for reasons. Everyone makes choices based on how they perceive the world and predict the future from there. To flatly ignore circumstance is not constructive.

It's a shit reason.

Just like wearing a short dress is a "reason" rapists claim to rape.

Russia is raping and killing for reasons. But those reasons are shit and Ukraine doesn't deserve what's happening to them.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#229

Post by antifa »

sangnoir wrote: post #215
paulryanrogers wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't the US just cap market share of any company foreign or domestic?

How might that be implemented?

Sounds like we're about to create The Freedom Firewall to protect us from global competition.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#230

Post by paulryanrogers »

sangnoir wrote: post #215
paulryanrogers wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't the US just cap market share of any company foreign or domestic?

How might that be implemented?

Biggest players in significant industries get measured periodically. Those who cross some threshold of those markets get warned. Then if they exceed some higher threshold must be broken up or reduce their share.
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