By Bill Lindo
Belize City, Nov 17th, 2024: Human civilization has existed for over ten thousand years, and during this time there has been a never-ending struggle – a fight still very much alive today on our planet.
This epic fight is between the majority and the oligarchy – between the poor and the rich, between debtors and creditors, or as some say, between the have-nots and the haves, or others say – the people versus the elites or big-boys.
Today this fight is between the promoters of industrial capitalism and against financial capitalism where the BRICS represents industrial capitalism, and the G7 represents financial capitalism.
Recently, on November 5th, 2024, citizens of the United States voted in a land-slide election victory for Donald Trump, very much in opposition to what the polls, owned by the oligarchy faction opposed to him, predicted as a neck-and-neck race. But every political-operator knew that the Americans were in revolt-mood against the greed of the oligarchy — against the 1%.
With the advent of neo-liberalism or globalization and the death of American industrial capitalism over the last 40 years, the rent-seekers triumph was complete – Wall Street was the boss. Or so they imagined.
Financial capitalism in America not only controls the economic sphere, but the political as well through their control of the major political parties, the universities, medical institutions, and over the last few decades, the American oligarchy started to push their radical cultural agenda down the throats of the American citizens – the woke ideology, the anti-Christian agenda, along with the moves to legalize drugs which is used to keep the population in a stupor – a people who are forever “high” cannot rebel against the oppressors, against those who steal your wealth.
Most Belizeans hate Donald Trump because of lack of knowledge. We are too quick to accept the narratives of the oligarchy. A quick history of the United States of America (USA) is important to understand the results of November 5th 2024.
After the USA fought and defeated the mighty British Empire in 1784 after 8 years of bitter fighting, the first president, George Washington appointed his brilliant Aide-de-Camp, lawyer and America’s first political economist, Alexander Hamilton as the first Secretary of the Treasury. It was Hamilton who mostly wrote the Federalist Papers which convinced most States of the Union to adopt the US Constitution. Hamilton also set out the path that the young Republican Republic would or should follow – Report to Congress on Manufacturing and Industry; Report to Congress on National Bank; Report to Congress on Public Debt. He formed the Federalist Party which after his assassination became the Whig Party (Henry Clay) and later today’s Republican Party of Abe Lincoln and Henry Charles Carey, America’s famous political economist. Alexander Hamilton was a firm supporter of the Haitian Revolution and wrote their first Constitution, as well as a firm supporter of Simon Bolivar, the freedom fighter, of South America.
After Hamilton was assassinated by Arron Burr, the new Republic forgot its roots and followed the instructions of the British, until the Whig Party was dissolved, and the new Republican Party was formed in 1854 by Carey and his allies. The other major political party is today’s Democratic Party. In 1860 the Republican Party won its first Presidency, with Abe Lincoln as President and Henry C. Carey as his economic advisor. If one reads the biography of August Belmont, the American financier who worked for the Rothschilds (who started Belmont Stakes –thoroughbred horse racing) who for over 14 years was the actual leader of the Democratic Party, maintained that the main reason for the Civil War of 1860, which up to today has claimed the most American lives in war , more that both the First World War and the Second World War, was not slavery. The war was fought not so much to free the black slaves as it was to install the Morrill Tariff (1861) of Henry Carey who was determined to make the United States the world leader of industrial capitalism which would then ensure a harmony of interests between capital and labor, Carey’s dream.
Otto von Bismark, first Chancellor of the German Reich, after 1890, wrote that the elites had to assassinate Abe Lincoln because the eight principles of the economic system adopted by the Lincoln/Carey axis (called at that time the American System) were too dangerous to the financiers, the landed aristocrats, slaveholders of both America and Europe. Under Lincoln and Carey, in just four short years, America fought a major war; developed the first continental railroad (joining The Atlantic and Pacific oceans); issued the Morrill Act of 1862 (the establishment of Land-Grant Universities to teach industrial capitalism); issued its own sovereign money (the Greenbacks, free from bankers control); developed the new Department of Agriculture which in ten years made America the bread-basket of the world; and, developed the steel industry into the world’s largest and most productive by 1876.
And when the Americans continued this tradition by electing James A. Garfield a Republican, as the 20th President he too was shot and killed after 6 months in office in 1881. He was known as a leading mathematician. He published his proof of the Pythagorean theorem in 1876. In political circles he was known as Henry Carey’s mouthpiece in Congress pushing the eight principles of the American System.
Some twenty years later, the 25th President, William McKinley, also a Republican and strong advocate of the American System was assassinated by the elites. His crime was to state that he was going to export the American System to Latin America. The programs and policies McKinley’s Vice President, Teddy Roosevelt, and the new President were completely opposite to his former boss, McKinley. From the death of McKinley in 1901, the elites were in control of America.
By 1923 the joke in polite circles was who would appoint as the next president – will it be J P Morgan or John D Rockefeller? But the greed of the elites in the roaring 20’s was so great that by 1929 the bottom dropped out of the economy. By 1932, more than 28% of Americans were unemployed and suddenly industrial capitalism was replaced by financial capitalism. And the Republican Party of Lincoln, Garfield and Mckinley was completely under the control of John D Rockefeller, J P Morgan and the lesser oligarchs of America.
A few from the oligarchy class went into panic mode over the collapse of the economy and drafted their fellow member Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) to run for the US Presidency in 1933 as a Democratic Party member. Europe was in turmoil after the First World War, Russia had gone Communist and in acts of revenge killed all those from the ancient regime. The industrial heartland of Europe, Germany seemed ungovernable. The Nazis/Fascist were poised and supported by the elites to bring order to the German nation. In this global situation, some members of the American oligarchy were willing to go back to Hamilton’s American System or return to industrial capitalism to prevent a dangerous revolution occurring in America.
Make no mistake, since the beginning of human civilization, ALL human societies have been ruled by oligarchies using different methods of government. Globally, none, NONE have been governed by the people. That is just a myth. The ancients, before Rome or before the birth of Christ, antiquity had what were called Jubilees. The never-ending problem of human society is debt. Loans must be repaid and usually with interest. In antiquity loans which could not be repaid meant land were foreclosed, children and wives became slaves and sometimes the borrower was sold into slavery. The solution, in order to prevent revolts was to grant a Jubilee. Debts were written off, land was returned, wives and children were returned – a clean slate, a new beginning was established, especially when a new king was crowned. In Western Europe this stopped with the assassination of Julius Caesar. Brutus and other members of the Roman Senate murdered Caesar to prevent him declaring a Jubilee on his Coronation as Emperor of Rome.
Adam Smith and other classical economists were opposed to the rent-seekers (the landed aristocracy), the banking class, and other monopolies or cartels. Why? These oligarchs always lead society to doom and destruction – violent revolutions. Note, that the first act of FDR as America’s new 32nd President was to declare a bank holiday and pass the Glass Steagall Act which for 66 years prevented bankers collapse of the US economy. Bill Clinton repealed Glass-Steagall in 1999 and within 8 years we had the global financial collapse of 2008. FDR disciplined both J P Morgan and John D Rockefeller and his son, Junior. You see, under industrial capitalism, no single individual nor family is more powerful than the State – the nation.
Today’s China learned the American System from the first President of China – Dr Sun Yat-sen, who led the 1911 successful overthrow of the 2,000 years monarchial rule in China. Yat-sen was educated in Hawaii by a protege of Henry C. Carey – Frank Damon and his brother Samuel Mills Damon. The man credited with the last 40 years of China’s development, Deng Xiaoping, wrote in 1985, that the system that China follows is socialism with Chinese characteristics. His current successor, Xi Jinping has also written about China’s approach, but the reality is that China follows the eight principles of the Mixed Economy of George C Price or the old Hamilton/Lincoln/Meiji Restoration/FDR/Sun Yet-sen’s American System.
The following are George C Price eight principles of the Mixed Economy,
- Exploiting nature rather than men.
- Tariff Protection of local agriculture and manufacturing
- High wages to workers
- Money creation is a public utility
- The theory of Diminishing Returns is not valid to physical reality.
- A view of soil fertility and agricultural productivity as a product of capital investment.
- Public infrastructure as a means to lower costs in an industrial society
- Government intervention in the economy.
Recently in Africa, especially in the former French colonies, the military has overthrown democratic elected governments. Take the case of 35-year-old, Captain Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso, a country that produces zinc, gold, manganese, copper, nickel and several other minerals. According to the World Bank, Burkina Faso is ranked 185th of 193 countries, in other words – poor. Two years ago, Captain Traore overthrew the government and established military rule. Some 64 years ago the country had gained its independence from France, but nothing changed over the years as leaders looked to France for help and guidance. In the two years since he gained power, Captain Traore has set his country on a development path by industrialization and tariff protection for local producers. Gold is no longer exported raw, but a new refinery is being constructed to only export refined gold. A nuclear power plant is being built with Russia’s help to enable solar and hydro-electric power generation to make the country self-sufficient in energy, so the industrialization program can be successful. Some 18 billion dollars are being invested in the industrialization program with help and technology from Russia, Iran, India, and China.
As for Trump in his first Presidency he spoke about using the American System to make America great again, now he says he is fully committed to this uniquely American idea of political economy. Here in Belize, we know this economic system as George C Price’s Mixed Economy and I have been promoting it in my writings since 1974, and in my 1995 book – ABC’s of Economics. The ruling faction of the oligarchy is and has always been opposed to industrial capitalism. They hate it more than socialism or communism. WHY? Because it’s the only form of rule that creates a HARMONY of interests between labour and capital. Look at what the World Bank calls a miracle – China’s has raised itself from 160th of 190 countries in 1976 to today’s first or second country depending on how you measure countries.
Will President Trump be able to transform America from financial capitalism back to industrial capitalism that had made America the greatest nation-state on Earth? I wish it would happen, because it means that our Belize will no longer be prevented to go the route of industrial capitalism which means the end of the 38% poverty rate in Belize, and an increase in the standard of living for our Belizean citizens to a level of at least USD $ 45,000 per annum.
The government of Belize must follow the Creed of the PUP Constitution and make money a public utility and discipline the oligarchy so we can create industrial capitalism in Belize.
Time to stop being the People is a Beast of Muddy Brains (by Tomasso Campanella – 1598)
Let’s remember the wise words of George Price, “Development is a task for giants, little people have tried and turn away.”
Long Live Belize!
The Promoters of Industrial Capitalism –
Franklin Roosevelt George C Price Sun Yat-sen
Bill Lindo blog 