Tag Archives: wall street

Trump unravels as do some myths about the USA

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Artwork by street artist Pegasus

Trump 2.0 has gone Bonkers- disrupting the entire world order over the last 12 months. The abduction of the Venezuelan President Maduro by US forces reeks of the Mob Boss underworld. His threat to annex Greenland and walk out of NATO has alienated long-term Western Allies. His mocking of Canada & its PM has destroyed decades of a mutually beneficial neighborly brotherhood. His disparaging remarks to the Holy Pope have angered millions and undermined his own Evangelical base. His bullying with tariffs and sanctions are hurting US consumers the most; other nations are resetting their trade plans through treaty deals with new partners, trade blocks, some major Free Trade Agreements and even through de-dollarization agreements. 70 days into the Iran war and everybody is a loser; the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the oil and gas shortage has upended economies especially in Asia.

Trump himself has become a laughingstock across the world. Nicknames like ‘Mango Mussolini’, ‘The Nod-father’, ‘Don the Con’ are trending whilst memes like ‘Serial Liar’, ‘The Boy who cried Assassination’, TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out), NACHO (Not a chance Hormuz Opens) are going viral. But inadvertently, the Supreme Leader of the USA has exposed the grim faultlines within his own country. How have the High and Mighty Fallen!!!

Let it be acknowledged that the USA remains the biggest economy in the world. The troubling fact is that its national debt of $ 31.27 trillion has overtaken its GDP of $ 31.22 trillion. It remains the cutting-edge leader in Hi-Tech & AI; also holds the pole position in Big Pharma, Energy and Financial Services. The roster of the most-valued firms reads like NVIDIA, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, META, Berkshire Hathaway, Tesla, Walmart, United Health Group… The US has also been the Soft Power Narrative Controller through Disney Fims, Marvel Cinematic Universe and Blockbusters like ‘The Godfather’, ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Top Gun Maverick’… Music legends like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears developed massive cult followings worldwide. We owe it to Hollywood for making dance forms like Jazz, Tap and Urban Hip-Hop so contagiously popular. But now, K-Pop groups are topping the charts helped on by Spotify, YouTube and world tours; Japanese Anime is breaking down cultural barriers; Chinese drama and Indian films & song and dance are capturing the imagination of a global audience. Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls deserve the credit for taking basketball from an American sport to a global craze. But this does not mean that the NFL and the Super Bowl represent the world championship of football. The real thing, the world’s most popular sport -football or soccer- will kick-off at the FIFA World Cup in June this year across the USA, Canada & Mexico.

But having doffed our cap to the USA, the world order and perspective is rapidly changing. The Statue of Liberty no longer stands tall. The bumper stickers of ‘Land of the Free & the Brave’ do not ring true. Leader of the Free World??!! Really?!

Let’s start with the Iran War. This unnecessary war was created to divert attention from the Epstein Scandal which threatened to engulf The White House. Some analysts’ take is that this panic was tapped into by Bibi Netanyahu and then a silent nod from MBS sparked the war; they seriously underestimated the Iranian missile stockpile and drone weaponry and least expected Iran to rain missiles on Saudi Arabia, Qatar & Dubai. Please watch the satirical comedy ‘Wag the Dog’ where the President’s men create a war to take the heat of a domestic sex-scandal. Yes, Jeffrey Epstein sex-offender, trafficker and pedophile who was Trump’s close buddy for many years. Donald’s name pops up thousands of times in the Epstein documents. Epstein died in prison in August 2019 under suspicious circumstances (ruled as suicide) during Trump’s first term. In his second term his personal lawyer and Deputy Attorney General has met convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell following which she has been transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison in Texas. The depraved Epstein’s’ partner in crime has even asked for a Presidential pardon.

War mongering has been a dark American truth. In a recent Truth Social post Trump bragged about how he would finish Iran in 24 hours with the US troops taking Cuba on the way back. Back in 1953, the CIA & MI6 (British Intelligence) overthrew the popular democratically elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh as he had nationalized the Anglo-Iran Oil Company in 1951. The monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took over. In 1954, another democratically elected Guatemala President Arbenz was ousted to protect the profits of United Fruit Company, at risk, because of land reforms. In 1973 popular Chilean leader Salvadore Allende was replaced by a brutal military dictator, Augusto Pinochet. Same playbook played over in Congo, Brazil, Indonesia. In 2003, President Bush Jr started the 8-year Iraq war stating that Saddam Hussein had WMD’s (Weapons of Mass Destruction). The despot was killed but no WMDs were found. The people of Iraq paid a heavy price. Cut to August 2024. Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina flees the country to escape a student led uprising. Again, the US Deep State in action. This scenario had been predicted by a Russian Foreign Affairs spokesperson around 10 months earlier. The US wanted control over the St Martin’s island in the Bay of Bengal. The Bangladeshi leader said No. Mohammad Yunus a close acolyte of Clinton and George Soros was installed as interim leader. The Nobel Peace prize winner was soon seen sharing the stage at a Clinton Foundation event in the US with 4 of the so-called student leaders. On October 2nd, 2024, his esteemed guest at Dhaka was none other than Alec Soros, heir of George Soros.

On Truth Social Trump threatened that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight never to be brought back again.’  A war crime by itself. The US Air Force killed 160-175 primary school girls in a deadly air-strike in Iran. A war crime. But let’s go back to the 1963-1973 period when the USA dropped more bombs on Vietnam & Cambodia than in the entire Second World War. Mass genocide. Plus, the brutal use of napalm – the scorched earth policy- and poisoning of rivers which killed lakhs of common-people and livestock. No talk about war crimes- no talk of even human rights violations. In the 1980’s the USA funded and armed the Taliban (later a designated terror group); they were trained and nurtured by its vassal state Pakistan to drive out the Russian troops from Afghanistan. Following the 9/11 attack US troops occupied the country for 20 years only to exit with their tails between their legs as the Taliban returned. 100,000 dead and $ 90 billion in military assistance. Also, it was not exactly surprising to learn that the Most Wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden, taken out by US Seals in May 2011, had been safely living for many years in a separate house, next to the Pakistan Military Centre at Abbottabad.

The USA is a military industrial empire. It’s 2026 Defense Budget is a whopping $1.5 trillion focused on AI, drone technology and military dominance. This is up from the 2025 defense expenditure of $ 954 billion- more than the next 6 countries combined. This is to primarily fund the more than 800 military bases it has across 75+ countries. Iran missiles were launched to hit such bases in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Dubai. It’s also to fund regime change, geopolitical control and access to resources.

Contrast India. India has been the leading contributor to UN Peace Keeping missions. Since 1953, more than 200,000 troops plus medical servicemen have been to 49+ hotspots across the world. Around 160 Indian army personnel have made the supreme sacrifice for the cause of peace.

The USA is not the bastion of democracy. Thomas Jefferson, a founding father and the author of the Declaration of Independence owned 600 slaves. He lived a lavish life and was in heavy debt and as the story goes, he could not free his slaves as they were mortgaged. In the 2016 Presidential elections, Hillary Clinton won the popular votes by over 2.8 million. She still lost to Trump who secured 304 electoral college votes to her 227. Then, there is the common practice of gerrymandering- of carving up districts and constituencies -which enables politicians to choose their voters instead of the voters choosing their representatives. There are also voter suppression laws to target communities like Blacks and Hispanics who are less likely to vote for those in power. It’s also a known fact that a handful of corporate billionaires and Wall Street firms write the Government policies; politicians respond to donors and lobbyists and not to their constituents.

The USA is a deeply divided country. Imagine a corrupt, racist, incompetent and narcissist Trump being elected as President for 2 terms. Especially after inciting a riot on the Capitol where the mob screamed ‘Hang Mike Pence’ (Trump’s VP). A cult leader who has fooled or manipulated a sizable portion of the populace over the years with influential sections of the media and big business being complicit. Am searching for the colorful Trumpian word to describe this ‘State of the Nation.’

Let’s talk about the rigged SCOTUS (Supreme Court). 3 of the Judges (all life-time appointees) were appointed by Trump at the behest of his ultra conservative and evangelical base. In 2022, the Court overturned the 1973 Roe vs Wade judgement ruling that the right to abortion is not protected by the Constitution allowing States to independently regulate or prohibit the procedure. You can guess what the Red or Republican States have done. In 2008, SCOTUS affirmed that the Second Amendment protected individual rights to possess firearms, unconnected with services in a militia, specifically for lawful purposes like self-defense within a home. The 1791 Second Amendment had clearly restricted’ the right to a well-regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free State.’

Is the US still the Wild West or is it the powerful gun lobby NRA (National Rifle Association) calling the shots. Thus, we have more than 433 million firearms including assault weapons- more than the population of the country. Why is it needed in a country with the most heavily funded and armed police forces in the world? In 2026 itself, there have been 131 mass shootings. And all we have are puffed -up TV anchors saying, ‘that this is not who we are’ and ‘that our thoughts  and prayers are with the deceased and their families.’ The US also holds the record for the highest incarceration rates- more prisoners per capita than even China or North Korea.

President Reagen’s deregulation doctrine of the 1980’s to drastically reduce government oversight led to the global financial meltdown of 2008. It grossly increased income inequality; the top 1% control 30% of US wealth and 50% have only 2.5% of the cake. Unbridled Capitalism. ‘Greed is Good’ as Gordon Gekko says in the movie ‘Wall Street’. In developed Western countries, Universal Health Care, subsidized and free higher education and a robust public transport system are the norm. But for the rigidly binary US mindset this is Commie-Leftist mentality. So, we have a student debt at a staggering $1.7 trillion. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) covers around 25 million Americans whilst another 27-30 million have no health insurance. Plus, the private health care system is the most expensive in the world.

For those enamored by the hallowed Ivy League Colleges take a closer look. From 2012 to 2024 Harvard has received gifts and donations of over $ 1 billion from Chinese sources. Have you heard any protests about the brutal persecution of a million Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang province of China and about the demolition of thousands of mosques. A Deafening Silence! Show me the Money. The Revolving Door policy between Wall Street, the US Government and top Academia have been a recurrent feature in the Treasury Department, Economic Advisory Roles and Regulatory Agencies. MONEY. POWER. The much-quoted phrase from ‘Hamlet’ – ‘there is something rotten in the state of Denmark’ does not even describe the venality in US power circles. So, we have Larry Summers- Treasury Secretary, Director of the National Economic Council, President and Professor at Harvard being exposed for his close ties with Jeffrey Epstein. Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law Professor was part of the legal team which defended Epstein in the 2008 non-prosecution agreement- pleading guilty for soliciting underage sex-but shielded from serious federal sex-trafficking charges and again was on the Trump defense team during his impeachment proceedings successfully pitching Presidential immunity. Finally, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and his mysterious relationship with sex-offender Epstein. They met Thorbjorn Jagland in Strasbourg, France in March 2013. Jagland was the Nobel Peace Committee Chair from 2009-2015. Connect the dots.

It will take another 25-30 years for the USA to be reduced to just another major power in the comity of nations. It will remain the ‘land of opportunity’ for millions of aspirant people from all over the world. Americans have the cutting edge in Hi Tech and AI; the dollar remains the dominant currency (especially due to the petro-dollar masterstroke by Nixon and Kissinger in 1973); Wall Street remains the financial nerve-center and trillions of dollars have been invested in the US Stock market, Treasury Bonds and pension plans and properties from China, Japan to Russia, Saudi Arabia to even Finland.

But the decline has begun. The 100 years of the Imperial USA is coming to an end.

Communism- A Utopian Fallacy

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The Red Pantheon

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were the co-authors of the Communist Manifesto which goes back to 1847. It defined the principles of the new political party-the Communist party.  Both were Germans, political theorists, philosphers and revolutionaries in the guise of social scientists. But it was not until the Russian Revolution of 1917 led by Lenin did this dogma shake up the world, dominate the 20th century geopolitics and culminate in the prolonged and bitter cold war hostilities.

A communist state became a State that was administered by a single party- guided by the Marxist/Leninist/Maoist philosophy.

The doctrine quickly took over Eastern Europe, conquered China and parts of Asia, spread to Africa and Latin America with Cuba becoming a flag-bearer and a flash-point. Think Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, North Korea, Congo, Angola, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Chile. The footprint grew rapidly.

The charm of this philosophy lay in its egalitarian, utopian, humane, and idealistic welfare promise. A better socio-economic order. Remember the oft quoted definition of communism- “a theory or system of social organisation in which all property is owned by the community or state where each person contributes according to their ability and gets according to their needs”.

Even the academia and activists in Europe were swept away by the fervour. There were secret societies at Oxford and Cambridge affiliated to the Communist ideology in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Remember Kim Philby, the spy who went into the cold in the 60’s.  Also the romantic idolisation of Che Guevera, the bearded guerrilla whose face continues to adorn T shirts around the world.

Independent India was not immune to the charms of this ideology. Nehru was a huge admirer of the Stalinist 5 year plan and the heavy industries model. Many politicos, bureaucrats, professors, economists, authors, social activists fell into line. West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura had communist govts. The southern state remains a bastion. We became an ally of the Soviet bloc despite our non-aligned pretensions. Remember Tashkent Files.

Despite the collapse of communism in the early 1990’s, the rosy narrative continues to hold its grip. People who continue this storyline remain comrades dedicated to the movement.

Let’s look beyond the spin.

Hitler continues to be the poster-boy of genocide. But what about the millions and millions brutally killed by Stalin, Mao, the Dear Leaders in North Korea? The horrific stories about the Gulag prisons in Siberia surfaced in the early ‘70s.  Why do these guys not talk about the vicious Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia? Millions died and disappeared. Remember Chairman Mao’s famous words- “Power grows out of the barrel of a gun”, put into practice during the infamous ‘Great Leap Forward’ and the ‘Cultural Revolution’. His portrait continues to adorn some of our universities and political offices. Lenin, Stalin, Mao and later Castro and Chavez are the pantheon of great leaders. All cruel dictators and proponents of an authoritarian, violent ideology. They continue to be deified. Their present-day followers continue to hold forth in a patronising way- as intellectuals, human rights activists and social reformers.

The Naxalbari movement took root in a village near Siliguri in 1967. Led by Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal it heralded a peasant revolution. It did lead to substantial land reforms- equitable distribution of land to the landless and enumeration of farmers. The loyalty dividends were such that the Left Government in West Bengal lasted from 1977 to 2011. But then the Naxal movement degenerated from its noble high to a violent, underground movement which holds sway in parts of Chhatisgarh, Orissa and Maharashtra. The AK series rifles and IED’s are provided by China and Pakistan. An interesting review conducted a few years back revealed that young tribal recruits were enamoured by the uniforms and the guns. Then they lord over their communities and detonate the mines which kill thousands of our security forces. Another interesting dimension is that they have metamorphed into a mafia-like business syndicate. After all, power grows from the barrel of a gun.

What then about these state-contolled economies? How do they fare now?

Deng Xiao Ping who followed Mao jettisoned the Great Leader’s ideology. His mantra was-  “What does it matter if a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice”. Sacrilege! But 40 years later China is the world’s second largest economy. The factory to the world. The capital of off-shoring. Leveraging its cheap labour to power the world’s biggest brands and plants. Benefiting from and eating into the tech-transfer. Transforming this huge country into one of the world’s biggest markets. It continues to be governed with an iron fist by a single party and a strongman at the head. This is State Capitalism- a la Chinese.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has struggled with its economy which is heavily dependent on oil, natural gas and minerals. It has been hurt by economic sanctions. An embarrassing downslide for a country which once was the other superpower. A big climb-down from the rapid industrialisation which took place in the ‘30s and the ‘50s- heavy industries such as steel, minerals, power, infrastructure, aviation, automobile……. Interestingly at the outset many of these factories were dismantled ones from the US and Europe and many technicians from these countries were lured with higher salaries. Meanwhile, the collectivisation experiment in agriculture was a disaster.

The melt-down of oil-rich Venezuela is another example of the collapse of the command economy model. Many Eastern Europe countries are struggling to play catch-up with their Western counterparts.

The contrast between the erstwhile West and East Germanys is glaring. Even four decades after reunification and the pumping in of $2 trillion in aid, wages in the East are 25-40% behind the West and unemployment is almost double.

Cuba has achieved success in providing healthcare and was once rated as high as 25th on the world healthcare index.

In a similar vein the Indian state of Kerala can boast of some of the best medicare and wellness in the country. The literacy rate is also in the mid-ninetees. Yet most of its young population looks to go to the Gulf and South East Asia to secure a better future. The State economy does not provide enough employment opportunities.

The ideal of Marx and Engels did not factor in power-grab, hierarchy or the ills of corruption. The oligarchs who surround and support Putin are virtually the Mafia. In China, corruption is endemic. When big brother is watching and has the power to summarily put one behind bars, the business world cooperates. Russian and Chinese names figure prominently as money launderers in the Panama Papers along with their capitalist brethren from the US, Europe and Asia. Money truly does unite.

What about India? The cut-money scandal in West Bengal to facilitate government scheme benefits has come as a huge embarrassment for the Mamata Banerjee government. But what the media is keeping quiet about is that this was a common practice with the CPI (M) cadres also for many decades. Also that the goon squad of the communist party crossed over en-masse to Didi’s side when the power equation changed.

Moving on from the material to the spiritual, we remember Karl Marx famously proclaiming, “Religion is the opium of the masses”. The communist states officially practised atheism and there were many stories of persecutions. But how the times have changed. Even China has 5 registered religions in Buddhism, Chrisitianity, Protestanism, Islam and Taoism, although the incarceration of a million Muslims in Xinjiang province of China is a major human-rights talking point today. Thirty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain Conservative Christianity has regained its popular hold in East Europe and Buddhism is making inroads in Vietnam and Cambodia.

So am I batting for capitalism? No way!

Let’s travel to the heart of capitalism-the US of A. Dial back to Gordon Gekko and the movie ‘Wall Street’- “Greed is good”, summarizing the complete deregulation of the Reagan years to the recession of 2008 where the US Govt bailed out too big to fail banks and companies. The top-honchos walked away with fat bonuses and salaries. The middle-class and working class people lost their pensions and their employment. Real incomes after the recession were lower than in the mid 1980’s. The lobbying, the quid pro quo and the nexus between Wall Street, the White House, Capitol Hill and even the Ivy League Colleges is stark and there for all to see.

Just 2 other indicators to show the hollowness of this capitalist model. After the undermining of Obamacare, the US has the worst health-care system for its people amongst all developed nations. It should look to neighbouring Canada for inspiration. As for student loans it stands at a whopping $1.5 trillion. A huge burden even for the young college grads getting into the work force. Forcing them to not buy houses or get married. At times, a huge cross to bear for their parents also.

The bitter fight of the capitalists against communism has not earned them a higher moral ground. The McCarthy witch hunt against many innocent US citizens started it all. The Cold-War rhetoric was inflamed to support the US military-industrial complex. More bombs were dropped on Vietnam than in the entire 2nd World War. Scorching the earth through napalm and poisoning rivers are the dark truths that the country will always seek to suppress. I stumbled on the irrationality of it all whilst  watching a  documentary ‘Hunting Klaus Barbie’ about the Nazi Butcher of Lyon. The US Intelligence nabbed this known killer after the war and instead of bringing him to justice used him to dig up Commie secrets for many years. He remained a free man till the mid ‘80s.

Another example is how capitalism has evolved in South Korea. A developed economy with some of the biggest brands to resonate across the world. These few family run conglomerates like Samsung not only drive the economy but call the shots in the highest government quarters. The Chaebol, in a way, runs the country.

And so we wait for the next grand experiment. A happy mix of a welfare state and a free market. Where basics like food, shelter, health, education, public utilities, law, and order are guaranteed, coexisting with entrepreneurship and innovation,  aspirations and wealth-creation.

Let the final word rest with George Orwells’s classic ‘Animal Farm’- the best unravelling of the communist culture and state of mind. What starts of as the Utopian ideal of creating a paradise of progress, justice, and equality where all are happy and free but fatally ignores the universal human weakness for power, control, and greed. Alas, the revolution against tyranny leads to totalitarianism, just as terrible.