Neoliberalism and the MFIC*

(MFIC : see Urban Dictionary Hint: Doesnt mean Missionary Fathers of the Immaculate Conception)

There's a new virus going around and it's infecting nearly every country in the world. It's not an epidemic nor is it bio-terrorism, it's an economic virus and it's called Neoliberalism. Like its cousin Neoconservatism, which is neither neo nor conservative, Neoliberalism has nothing to do with traditional social or political liberalism, which is a belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Instead it is a social and moral philosophy driving a set of economic policies that have become widespread during the last 25 years or so. You can clearly see its effects worldwide, as the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer. "Neo" means we are talking about a new kind of liberalism. So what was the old kind? The liberal school of economics became famous in Europe when Adam Smith published a book in 1776 called THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. He advocated the abolition of government intervention in economic matters. No restrictions on manufacturing, no barriers to commerce, no tariffs, he said; free trade was the best way for a nation's economy to develop. Such ideas were "liberal" in the sense of no controls. This application of individualism encouraged "free" enterprise," "free" competition -- which came to mean, free for the capitalists to make huge profits as they wished. Economic liberalism prevailed in the United States through the 1800s and early 1900s. Then the Great Depression of the 1930s led an economist named John Maynard Keynes to a theory that challenged liberalism as the best policy for capitalists. He said, in essence, that full employment is necessary for capitalism to grow and it can be achieved only if governments and central banks intervene to increase employment. These ideas had much influence on President Roosevelt's New Deal -- which did improve life for many people. The belief that government should advance the common good became widely accepted. But the capitalist crisis over the last 25 years, with its shrinking profit rates, inspired the corporate elite to revive economic liberalism. That's what makes it "neo" or new. Now, with the rapid globalization of the capitalist economy, we are seeing Neoliberalism on a global scale. The main points of Neoliberalism include: 1. THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating "free" enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers' rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say "an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone." It's like Reagan's "supplyside" and "trickle-down" economics -- but somehow the wealth doesn't trickle down very much. DECREASING TAXES FOR WEALTHY INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES. Creating tax structures favoring investment at the expense of labor: exempting interest and capital gains while increasing payroll, sales and use taxes. Taxing social benefits (or whats left of them). Flattening the tax rate. CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and health care. Reducing the safety-net for the poor and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply -- again in the name of reducing government's role. Of course, they don't oppose government subsidies and tax benefits for business. DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminish profits, including protecting the environment and safety on the job. PRIVATIZATION. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs. ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF "THE PUBLIC GOOD" or "COMMUNITY" and replacing it with "individual responsibility." Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves -- then blaming them, if they fail, as "lazy." (Though our Constitution promotes general welfare twice, neoliberals pretend it means something different.)

2.

3.

4. 5.

6.

Around the world, Neoliberalism has been imposed by powerful financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Its dress rehearsals debuted all over Latin America. The first clear example of Neoliberalism at work came in Chile (with thanks to University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman), after the CIA-supported coup against the popularly elected Allende regime in 1973. Other countries followed, with some of the worst effects in Mexico where wages declined 40 to 50% in the first year of NAFTA while the cost of living rose by 80%. Over 20,000 small and medium businesses have failed and more than 1,000 state-owned enterprises have been privatized in Mexico. As one scholar said, "Neoliberalism means the neo-colonization of Latin America." Due to inability to compete with factory farms, Mexican small farmers have been driven off their land in large numbers, causing them to seek a better life by entering the USA illegally.

In the United States Neoliberalism is destroying welfare programs; attacking the rights of labor (including all immigrant workers); and cutting back social programs. The Republican "Contract" on America was pure Neoliberalism. Its supporters and their successors like the Koch Bros. And Cong. Paul Ryan are working hard to deny protection to children, youth, the elderly, women, the planet itself -- and trying to trick us into acceptance by saying this will balance the budget and "get government off my back." The beneficiaries of Neoliberalism are a minority of the world's people. For the vast majority it brings even more suffering than before: suffering without the small, hard-won gains of the last 60 years, suffering without end. (Ref: Corpwatch; What is Neoliberalism? by Elizabeth Martinez and Arnoldo Garcia )
In his Farewell Address to the Nation (January 17, 1961) President Eisenhower warned us against the conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry which he termed the Military - Industrial - Complex: In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. He had it almost right. Though he warned that the power of money is ever present - and is gravely to be regarded , he failed to mention the men behind the curtain pulling the strings. America's huge financial industry had benefited enormously from the war as they do from all wars. And they have grown enormously huge-er since then. By rights he should have referred to the Military-Financial-IndustrialComplex, the MFIC. [For another interpretation, Google MFIC @ internet Slang (hint: It's not Missionary Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception).]

MFIC = NWO As mentioned above, with the rapid globalization of the capitalist economy, we are seeing Neoliberalism on a global scale, This is now called Globalization, which is actually a euphemism for what former US presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and George H.W. Bush - each at different times in modern history - described as the New World Order. This can mean either a condition of the world's politico-economic systems or the powers that control these systems (Globalists or Power Elites AKA the MFIC). When former president George H.W. Bush used that term on September 11th 1991, the Establishment quickly moved to ensure that it should not be commonly used, and in its place coined the much more neutral and seemingly harmless sounding idea of globalization which, nevertheless, today still has one main meaning: Imperialism on a planetary and all-encompassing scale. In order to understand how the world really works, we must first understand the difference that exists between Formal Power and Real Power. What the media propagate with a very high public profile every day in their television and radio newscasts and in the press are basically the concrete and visible results of the actions carried out by Formal Power structures, especially those of national governments. However, Real Power levers that actually make things happen are far less visible. They are the ones which plan out what will occur in the world, when it will occur, where it will take place and who shall carry it out. These power elites constitute the MFIC. This reflects the fact that the institutions of the Nation-State (the prime public Formal Power entity) have become subordinate to private interests. As is often stated (and confirmed by the recent Citizens' United decision) we have the best government money can buy. What I have described is in no way anonymous - much less, secret - because the MFIC are doing this in full public view: i.e., multinational corporations (e.g., the Fortune Global 500s accounting for over 80% of US economic activity); the global financial infrastructure (which includes banks, investment funds, stock exchanges and commodity market operators); multimedia monopolies; major Ivy League universities; international multilateral organizations (such as the World Bank, the IMF/International Monetary Fund, the IADB/Inter-American Development Bank, the BIS/Bank of International Settlements, the UN/United Nations and the WTO/World Trade Organization) and, most important, key government posts in the all industrialized nations. So, we definitely do not have something that can be explained away as a "conspiracy theory". What we have are the inner trappings and logic behind the way Power is built and managed. What is not immediately visible is the fact that all of these players form part of a "Wheel of Global Power". MFICs have one thing in common: the key managers, financiers, bankers, government officers, academics, strategists, shareholders and other fundamental players all belong to the same inter-twining network of think-tanks and lobbying organizations. This network forms a common hub that steers the wheel of world power on its present destructive course. Among these key think-tanks - which should actually be described as geopolitical planning centers -, the role of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Trilateral Commission (TC), the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), the Brookings Institution, the RAND Corporation, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC), and the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), among others, are of vital importance. CFR: Brains of the MFIC Although it is little known among the public, the CFR is very powerful and has grown in influence, prestige and breadth of activities. So much so, that today we can say without a doubt that it operates as the Worlds Mastermind, silently directing the course of many complex and highly volatile social, political, financial, military and economic processes throughout the world. There are no peoples, regions or aspects of human life which are not affected by CFR influence whether we realize this or not and the very fact that it has been able to

remain behind the scenes makes the CFR exceptionally powerful and elusive, even amongst US public opinion. Today, the CFR is a discreet organization counting among its more than 4.500 members, the best, most capable and brightest minds, operating together with very powerful and influential individuals wielding great influence in their respective professions, corporations, institutions, governmental posts and social environments. In this way, the CFR brings together top corporate officers from financial institutions, industrial giants, the media, research organizations, academics, top military officers, government leaders, university deans, trade union leaders and study center investigators. Their fundamental objectives consist in identifying and assessing a wide range of political, economic, financial, social, cultural and military factors spanning every imaginable aspect of public and private life in the United States, its key allies and the rest of the world. Today, thanks to the enormous power wielded by the US, the CFR's breadth of activities literally spans the whole planet. Its research and investigations are carried out by different task forces and study groups which identify Opportunities and Threats, assess Strengths and Weaknesses, and design far-reaching strategies to promote its interests worldwide, each with their respective tactical and operational plans. Although such intensive and far-reaching tasks are made inside the CFR, the key issue to understand its enormous success lies in the fact that the CFR per se never actually does anything under its own name. Rather, it is its individual members who do so. And they do this from their formal posts as chairmen, CEOs and directors of major corporations, financial institutions, international multilateral institutions, media, and key posts in government, universities, the armed forces, and trade unions, never invoking or even referring to the CFR as their main seat of planning and coordination. In the business world, top Fortune 500 corporations all have senior directors who are CFR members. These corporations together have a combined market value equivalent to almost twice the gross domestic product of the United States and concentrate the better part of the wealth and power of the country, controlling key resources and technologies around the world. Together, they employ over 25 million people in the US alone and account for over 80% of its GDP. In short, they wield gigantic power, leverage and influence in the US and beyond. We thus find here the key to the CFRs enormous effectiveness and power: its decisions and plans are drafted out and agreed in closed meetings, study groups, conferences and task forces. But when the time comes to execute those plans, they are then carried out by its different members, each from his or her formal post in different powerful organizations, both public and private. And what powerful posts and organizations these are! If, for example, a plan has been drafted and agreed regarding how globalization of the economy and the financial system is to evolve, or which countries are to enjoy peace and prosperity and which are to be ravished by war, invasion and famine, then the coordinated actions of MFIC personalities like the president, his cabinet secretaries and czars, CIA, NSA and FBI directors, key international bankers and financiers, Fortune 500 CEO's, media owners and moguls, reporters and writers, military officers and academics, heads of the IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organization, are all brought together at the right time, in the proper sequence and on a myriad of specific matters. In this way, they are able to coordinate concrete, effective and almost irresistible action, anytime and anywhere. (Ref: The Hidden Face of Globalization by Adrian Salbuchi) For those whose understanding of the world is derived from what their governments and political leaders tell them to believe, and from the mainstream media which regurgitates the government's views and ideology, the world is black and white, us vs. them, a simple myth to hold on to. For these people: the economic crisis is over and we are now in a "recovery"; the 'War on Terror' is an age-old battle between the forces of good and evil, retribution for the attacks of 9/11, and is designed to battle 'terrorism' in every corner of the world; the era of imperialism ended with World War II, and America is not an 'empire', but rather a bastion for freedom which spreads democracy around the world; the war against Libya was intended to save innocent lives out of 'humanitarian' concerns; we must accept the loss and restriction of our fundamental rights and liberties in order to protect us from terrorists; Barack Obama has brought 'change' and is a beacon of 'hope'; and the death of Osama bin Laden shows that the 'War on Terror' is working, and is worthy of going out in the streets to celebrate and cheer! For those whose understanding of the world is derived from independent investigation, the planet is on fire. It comes from above, as bombs come crashing toward Libya in Obama's new military exploit. And it comes from below, as people from Cairo to Madison stand up to for their rights against dictators and hard-line politicians. Not for decades have we seen such a global uprising from below. Not for decades, except for perhaps in Latin America, where, over the last 13 years, social movements have lifted leftist presidents to power across the region. These leaders have heralded in unprecedented change, and they have been a beacon of hope during one of the darkest periods in US history, with the MFIC and its endless war on terror. Then came the financial meltdown and the "change" we could believe in. And we, too, believed that we were following down the road of our Latin American brothers and sisters, that Obama would lead us to a more just society, by and for the people and not Wall Street. Then something happened. We realized that Obama can't or won't do it for us. As the signs read in Wisconsin, the "sleeping giant has awoken." We awoke to the essential thing that movements across Latin America learned years ago when faced with progressive governments who were supposed to represent their interests and didn't. We awoke to the fact that we must stay in the streets and continue to organize. We awoke to the MFIC. A social explosion is shaking the Arab world. U.S. imperialism and all the old regimes tied to it in the region are trying desperately to manage and contain this still unfolding mass upheaval into channels that do not threaten imperialist domination of the region. The U.S. and its collaborators are also trying to divide and undermine the two wings of the resistance -- the Islamic forces and the secular

nationalist forces -- which together overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia. There is now a concerted U.S. effort to turn these same political forces against two regimes in the region that have opposed U.S. domination in the past -- Libya and Syria. Both Libya and Syria have their own development problems, which are exacerbated by the general global capitalist crisis and decades of compromise imposed on them as they tried to survive in a hostile environment of unrelenting attacks -- political, sometimes military and including economic sanctions. The U.S./NATO bombing and subsequent Liberation of Libya has clarified where imperialism stands regarding that country. The transnational exploiters are determined to totally seize hold of the richest oil reserves in Africa and cut off the billions of dollars that Libya was contributing toward the development of much poorer African countries. Syria is also targeted by imperialism -- because of its heroic defense of Palestinian resistance over decades and its refusal to recognize the Zionist occupation. Syrias assistance to Hezbollah in their struggle to end the Israeli occupation of Lebanon and their strategic alliance with Iran cannot be forgotten. See also: http://alt-market.com/articles/1308-the-linchpin-lie-how-global-collapse-will-be-sold-to-the-masses Many thanks to Elizabeth Martinez, Arnoldo Garcia, and Adrian Salbuchi without whose help this essay would not have been possible.