Global Financialized Capital. Middle Nation Podcast (E:25)

Assalamu alaikum. Warahmatullahi wa barakatu, everyone. This is Shahid Bolson. Welcome to the Middle Nation podcast. This is episode number 25.

When I talk about the American proxy war against Europe and about how if this proceeds unhindered, it will lead to the crumbling apart of the EU, I think I need to clarify a few things because I've seen a few comments on some of my shorter video clips that indicate people might think that this means the collapse of Western power altogether or American power, and then maybe Russia will emerge triumphant and so on and so on. This is not really accurate. So let me explain what I'm talking about in this regard. First of all, you should know that when I discuss policy and strategy issues, and I make reference to America, I'm not talking about the nation. I'm not even talking about the government.

It really is inaccurate to even use the term American for what I mean or any nationalistic identity. I am talking about the owners and controllers of global, financialized capital. I know this seems like a very complicated term, and I suppose it is, but it's not really precise enough to just say the 1% or super rich people or billionaires or what have you. Because I'm talking about a particular segment of the obscenely wealthy individuals and institutions who are not actually connected to or reliant upon what any of us would regard as productive activity. You see, there are tiers of interests and power even amongst the 1%.

There are rich people who earn their wealth through production of some kind, through the provision of services, through investment in real world assets and resources. They run companies, and their fortunes are tied to the real economy. But then there are those in the financial sector, and they operate in a kind of virtual economy. And this economy eclipses the real economy. I mean, the derivatives market, for example, is estimated to be about 10 times total global GDP, perhaps 1 quadrillion dollars.

Through the invention of financial instruments, they're able to make money from almost anything without being connected to the real economy. The issue of financialization would really need to be its own topic for a podcast, but for now, suffice it to say that the owners and controllers of global financialized capital inhabit the top tier of the 1% in terms of their role in the political and economic power structure. The relationship of this class of people towards the real economy is predatory and parasitic. They virtualize things of real value into financial instruments that can be endlessly traded in a kind of economic metaverse that operates according to its own brand of physics. But the problem is the disconnect from the real economy is one-sided because what they do in their economic metaverse has an impact in the real world.

This collection of institutions and individuals possess and exert more power and authority than any other participant in policy making. They are not nationalistic. They are not patriotic. They are not loyal to any country or against any country. The power that they wield appears to most of us as the power of The United States, the power of the West.

But it has been a very long time since the US government pursued policies to serve the interests of the American people. The state does not serve the national interest, and it hasn't done so for decades. Through neoliberalism, as I've talked about here before, business has captured the state, and financialization has captured business. This is the case throughout the West in many parts of the world, and it is certainly the case in America. However, America still possesses state power that is unrivaled on earth.

It is the biggest economy, the biggest military, and they host the most important companies. It is therefore the most influential captured state asset of the corporate elite and of global financialized capital. So when I talk about America or American policy or American power, what I mean is the use of American power by the owners and controllers of capital. It is the most effective tool in their arsenal, and it will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. There is social, cultural, political, and economic collapse in The US in terms of the population.

The society is in tatters, but the accumulated power of the state remains, and it is disproportionately controlled by the corporate and financial elite. This power will continue to be used on the global stage. We are not entering a post America future in this regard. You will continue to see America exerting major dominating influence, but you should understand that this is not strictly speaking American in nature. It is not of, by, and certainly not for the American people in any way, shape, form, or fashion.

With regards to Europe, again, I don't mean to suggest that Europe will just cease to exist, but it will cease to exist as we have known it in our lifetimes. In other words, it will return to what it has always been historically, which is a volatile, divided, and feudalistic continent embroiled in rivalries and conflict. The same class of corporate and financial elites prevail in Europe, which is why you see them adopting policies that are blatantly against the interests of the population. So the cultural, social, and economic collapse of the West is certainly happening, but it is happening to the citizens. And this is the consequence of disproportionate power and authority being possessed by a class of people who are disconnected from the real economy, from the society, from nationalistic identity, and from accountability.

They are supernational, anational. They are expanding and consolidating an empire of capital. They represent a collective emperor, and they don't conquer for the glory of their nations nor for any ideology. It is sheer selfish accumulation and control. The common people in the West are just as eligible for victimization and exploitation and indeed tyranny and oppression as any people anywhere else in the world.

I think this is very important for us to understand, and it is important for the people of the West to understand. The owners and controllers of global financialized capital do not care any more about them than they do for the people of Afghanistan or Syria or Iraq or Libya. Now the methods of tyranny and oppression differ, and it's not as some people suppose because Americans are used to a higher standard of living and must be dealt with more tactfully. No. That's not why.

It's actually because western culture is so fundamentally uncivilized and brutal already that cruelty and barbarity from the authorities is not necessary to terrorize the population. Roughly half a million children are abducted in The United States every year. That's more than a thousand per day. 600,000 people are raped every year. A hundred fifty work related deaths occur every day.

Twenty thousand people are murdered every year. And these are conservative figures. I don't know what else is needed to demonstrate that Western authorities do not care about their populations. By contrast, Muslim countries and indeed most of the countries in the global South are exceptionally civilized peaceful societies. So domination has tended to be exerted through vicious destabilizing violence, military invasion, occupation, drone strikes, shock and awe campaigns, death squads, so on and so on.

But whether in the global North or the global South, the message is the same. The lives of the common people are expendable, and that message is being conveyed by the owners and controllers of financialized capital. So what is happening is that this class of people has accumulated so much independent wealth and power, disconnected from the real economy, that every state is now fair game, including the states of Europe. Countries will be pushed into deprivation and chaos, probably beginning in Eastern Europe and the poorest Southern countries like Greece, Portugal, Spain. And gradually, the EU will fragment, especially if Germany is forced to choose between freezing and starving inside the European Union or ending hostilities against Russia, which is an ultimatum that was cooked in to the coordinated economic response to the Ukraine war.

Germany was always going to be pushed over the edge. What I want to emphasize is that the collapse of Europe and the collapse of American society does not mean that our countries will no longer be in danger, will no longer be threatened, will no longer be subjected to coercion and strategies and tactics of domination. The social and economic collapse of Western societies does not mean that there are no more conquerors. It just means that the conquerors no longer represent nations, but they will continue to pursue conquest nonetheless.