Charles Hugh Smith – Capitalism fails in two situations: monopoly and state-capital cronyism. Monopoly extinguishes competition and that effectively extinguishes capitalism.
When the elites of the state and private capital collude, i.e. crony capitalism, the few gain power and wealth at the expense of the many.
The state (broadly speaking, government) fails when it serves the few at the expense of the many, while claiming to serve the interests of the many. The state only fulfills its purpose when it serves the interests of the many at the expense of the few who control the majority of the political power and private wealth.
Monsanto is the epitome of monopoly and crony-state collusion. But Monsanto’s grip is not only on the throat of the nation– through its monopoly on seeds that it enforces globally, its grip is strangling the entire world.
Monopolies on food, energy and water (what I term the FEW resources) are not like monopolies on discretionary goods and services. People have to pay whatever the monopoly charges, as substitutes are either unavailable, very expensive or under the control of the same cartel/quasi-monopoly. Continue reading
Greg Hunter – Bill Murphy, Chairman of GATA (Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee), says precious metal prices have been relentlessly rigged by central banks and governments. Murphy contends, “If gold were to just have kept pace with inflation, forget all the QE, it would be double what it is today. That’s how artificially low the price of gold is today, and also silver. Once they lose control of silver, it will go from $22 to $100 per ounce very fast.”