THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD?
Who are the most powerful people in the world? Forbes recently released a special report on the world’s most powerful people. The list contains many of the usual suspects: Obama, Hu Jintao, Putin, Bill Gates, etc. I think they’ve got it entirely wrong.
After the events of the last 18 months it’s shocking to me that the list isn’t loaded with bankers. In my opinion, Bernanke is by far the most powerful man on the planet. Over the course of the last 20 years the bankers have driven markets higher on the back of their debt based economy and they nearly drove it into the wall last year when their debt based system nearly unraveled in front of them. The beauty of a fractional reserve banking system is that the bankers can essentially control the entire infrastructure of the global economy via the money they control. Want a house? Step into my office. Want a car? Step into my office. Want to start a small business? Step into my office. Oh, Mr. Obama, I see you’d like to buy some more tanks or perhaps a new healthcare system? Step into my office please. Oh, I see you have been prudent for the last 10 years and are now flush with cash. Let me see if I can’t devalue your dollars until you dump them into my debt based system as the competition makes reckless decisions that places you at a disadvantage….It would be hilarious if that wasn’t exactly how the system works.
This has been most obvious over the last 18 months. Despite nearly destroying the global economy the bankers have actually exited this crisis in better shape than ever. They’re bigger, make more money and are even more powerful than they’ve ever been. Despite nearly causing full blown armageddon they pulled off the most spectacular power grab in economic history and in doing so they managed to makes themselves even more instrumental, important and certainly far too big to fail. It would sound conspiratorial if it weren’t entirely true!
Who are the most powerful people on the planet? Why, they’re the ones who control the money of course. The rest of the people on that Forbes list are just puppets at the mercy of the truly powerful:
1. Ben Bernanke
2. Tim Geithner
3. Larry Summers
4. Zhou Xiaochuan
5. Masaaki Shirakawa
6. Dominique Strauss-Kahn
7. Lloyd Blankfein
8. Jamie Dimon
9. Larry Fink
10. Bill Gross
Loads of money these people have.Alas!I would have born in either of these people family….Life would have been so luxurious.
I think we are in the last Act of the Age of bubbles, but it will take many, many years for this last act to play out. The last bubble will be the US treasury market. Our out-of-control, debt-based global monetary system will keep producing boom/bust cycles as long as the US treasury and the FED are allowed to borrow and print money with impunity, effectively making US monetary policy global monetary policy. Therefore, we can expect to keep having bubbles as long as the US govt has borrowing capacity.
In the meantime, bailouts, govt hand outs, wars, and unfunded liabilities will keep adding to the US debt until US finances finaly implode, sending IR’s through the roof and the dollar through the floor. I’m not sure when this day of reckoning will come for the US, but for the foreseeable future, all of my investment decisions will be based on the following core assumptions: 1) the dollar may rally in the ST but it will continue to weaken over the LT 2) commodity price volatility will be here to stay 3) ZIRP means cheap money finds its way into the financial economy first before it goes into the real economy, ie more boom/bust cycles.
Well they may control the money but the people who control the guns are the ones who have the most power. It has always been that way and always will be that way…
TPC Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 1:01 PM
And if you study the history of warfare you’ll notice that it’s the people with the money who control the guns. Every war comes down to who has the most money and availability to finance their campaign. That’s where the bankers come in….
James Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 1:07 PM
Who gives the bankers the ability to back themselves up? Bankers can’t get people to leave foreclosed homes themselves. It is interdependence. Bankers need other people to enact their will on others and everyone needs the economic illusion to finance our lives.
TPC Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 1:10 PM
The bankers own the government. In the case of the U.S. it is almost laughable. Do you really think this incompetent government could exist without daily financing from foreign & domestic banks? Of course they’re interdependent, but the real power lies in the banker’s hands and NOT in the politicians.
Exertia Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 11:45 PM
I tend to disagree TPC. Bernanke (or any of the central bankers) could be fired by their respective politicians, Obama in this case, if they wanted. The politicians themselves cannot be fired since they have the mandate of the people. Democracy trumps capitalism.
ilene Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 12:41 PM
Democracy trumps capitalism
- no, the money controls who gets re-elected.
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