WW III: The Great War on Capital of 2008
Posted on March 11th, 2009 by MichaelThe WWII era with its postwar capitalist bubble is now extinct.
Capitalism is dead!
The 100-year-old edifice of capitalism is cracked. It finally began its death throes in the last quarter of 2008 with the great lurching and cascading collapse of the global tower of capital.
The whirling, howling, cacophonous wilderness of the global marketplace has taken its inevitable toll on the capitalism system–with its ferocious fads, toxic wastes, and vicious moods, its callous explosions and cruel darwinian extinctions the global marketplace has put capricious end to the blind and righteous rivalry between spoiled and cosseted CEOs in clueless medieval double-entry boardrooms.
The CEO Delusion
In Richard Dawkins book, THE GOD DELUSION, he shows how the ancient belief that there are omnipotent GODs who are on-duty 24/7 and are busily and conscientiously intervening in worldly affairs is a medieval pre-scientific belief and is very likely to be also a mental delusion.
I have observed, for the past 40 years, that the same may apply to CEOs.
The capitalist belief that CEOs can be relied on to ensure the survival and growth of the enterprise is also a delusion and one that is not supported by the evidence (Welch, Jobs and Murdoch are the kind of exceptions that prove the point). This belief has also proven to be a very costly leap of faith for shareholders, employees and customers alike.
Cost of CEOs
When you consider the global cost to shareholders of CEOs over the recent era, the ROI has been a dramatic disappointment of Shakespearean proportions.
Intellectual Capitalism – IC
I have written about my belief in Software For Your Brain that we need to go beyond capitalism to intellectual capitalism where the brainpower of the stakeholders–shareholders, employees and customers–is used to lead the enterprise.
Sack the CEOs and harness the enterprise brainpower to grow the business!
Shareholders around the world have seen extravagant expenditures of their wealth squandered by loitering CEOs with their arm-waving and talmudic reading of balance-sheets and P&Ls, like the obsessive pre-scientific study of entrails, when less than one CEO in a hundred could give an intelligent, educated account of what strategy it would take for their business to survive in the fast-changing, darwinian environment of the next decade.
Like the Theory of Communism, which lasted 70 years before it became obsolete, The Theory of Capitalism is dead. Bereft. Discredited. Empty. Depressed.
2008 began the global assault on capital which has so overwhelmed the market that we find ourselves in an economic war involving every national economy in both hemispheres. A war which I’ve called WWIII: The Great War on Capital of 2008.
“Economic Pearl Harbour”
Even the guru of capitalists, Warren Buffett, admits the US economy has “fallen off a cliff”, describing the crisis as “an economic Pearl Harbour”, as concerns spread about the US administration’s fitful attempts to halt the collapse of the US banking sector.
The leading investor, an informal adviser to President Barack Obama, whose financial diagnoses are widely respected — although he conceded he failed to predict the severity of the crisis — said the economy had come “close to the worst case” imagined, and that recovery would be slow.
Mr Buffett, one of the wealthiest capitalists in the world, said the entire banking sector had been hours from collapse in September, and would have imploded without the $US700billion ($1trillion) Wall Street emergency bailout.
••Click through to original article…
(This is an SOT preview. This article will be published in the April edition of Australian Anthill magazine).
April 27th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Capitalism under pretence Democracies = dictatorship or very close to it when followed through to the end. The big power brokers buy the Gov’t and its so called relatory authorities (Medical, Scientific, Food Administrations, Drug Administrations, Resources etc etc) who in turn look after those that put them there. The Gov’t passes laws to keep the layman down and under control to keep the CEO’s, BIG business owners and Gov’t in place. The irony is, is that I don’t blame any of them. I blame the peoples lack of awareness and interest to learn why and take action to correct it. What is required is the a new 3rd missing element in all Gov’t and Business undertakings…and that is the people (local communities) to be represented in all decision making (I’m not referring to Unions either). In fact Gov’t and Business should be inviting the local communities in as an essential part of the decision making processes, ie as a critical part of their sustainability and long term success! And the communities should be very actively making the effort! So we’d end up with democratically elected Gov’t (1), Business (Economy) & the Community (people for the good of the people), so no longer Gov’t can pass laws at 3:00am in the morning to support themselves and businesses to profit in either Power or $.
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:15 am
As in years before, the ways of the world change and the way we view the world change, as capitolism came into affect in the first half of the 20 century, now comes a time for change and new views and new direction.
Whatever that change may be, we must work hard at making the change, as capitolism is nearign its end.
March 27th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Catastophies happen in all forms. We must learn form this ecconomic situation in an attempt to prevent the same or like occurances in the future. Lets not kid ourselves that Captialism is dead.
March 20th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Sack the CEOs and harness the enterprise brainpower to grow the business!
March 18th, 2009 at 1:36 am
Surely the same applies to our Presidents and Prime Ministers – anyone for Intellectual Democracy ?
Lets start taxing capital – how about shifting burden from income to spending – you want a yacht buddy – you’re going to have to pay for it ! ( All chidrens clothes, books etc exempt)
March 18th, 2009 at 12:09 am
A thought-provoking article.
March 17th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Kudos, and right on! I plan to Twitter this page to all my list!
March 17th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Imagine 2010 & on. There is no money. Everyone does what they love to do. Everyone gives freely of their excess produce, service & products. Imagine that world.
March 17th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Good riddance!
Faulty foundation, faulty outcome. Just a pity that so many beguiled innocents have to suffer with the failing of this system.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:02 am
whats next, maybe best try realism. cvs2bvs difficult to do wrong.
capitalism, was to good to be true.