Our Guides to the Bottomless Pit: Wolfram, Von Hayek, Lewis F. Powell, & A.L.E.C.

"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power."
-- Benito Mussolini

Prof Gary Wolfram holds sacred Friedrich von Hayek and his theorems and postulations about economics. ("The most rapid progress toward a coherent and useful aggregate economic theory will result from the acceptance of the problem statement (in economics) as advanced by Hayek" - Robert Lucas).

****

How did we get ourselves into this tangled economic nightmare? The Cult of Reagan.

The real work of the Cult of Reagan has carried its effects into the present economy and the politics behind the "business is superior" legislation involved in the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) national putsch/winner-take-all coup using the various state legislatures to put forward a cornucopia of revisions, repeals, and replacement of items that directly benefit the Corporatocracy now so much in control of American life and economy.

WHERE A.L.EC. AND ITS CORPORATE RUN DEMOCRACY ARE HEADED IS BOTH DANGEROUS AND TRAGIC.

Friends of Wolfram's hero, Hayek, speak:

"Most plans for economic reform in the socialist countries seem to be coming closer to the realization that increasing decentralization of decision-making is needed to solve the problems of rational economic planning."

From Fritz Machlup, "Hayek's Contribution to Economics", Swedish Journal of Economics, Vol. 76, Dec. 1974.

Yet what A.L.E.C. (The American Legislative Exchange Council) is attempting in its nationwide, state by state coup d'état is a precise, centralized system of decision making and legislation, not at that much maligned federal level control and regulation, but at the individual state's level. Centralized and tightly controlled by a cabal of corporations who run and control A.L.E.C, manhandling state legislators caught up its secretive web of power grabbing, regulatory rollbacks, gimmicks and boutique business legislation/advantages.

A.L.E.C.'s Model Legislation Dominance in State Legislatures

Given the homogeny and singularity of A.L.E.C.'s Model Legislation, what is being attempted is a uniform set of laws and system of decision making that is at the various state levels, diversified and separate from the national or federal government, but collectivized and centralized under the aegis of the A.L.E.C. dominance and control of state legislation and lawmaking. This is coup is becoming America's Corporate-controlled-democracy; a new and aggressive "friendly fascism" not like that of the Nazis but more akin to that of Mussolini's régime in pre-WW II Italy. An American Corporatocracy that has many of the characteristics of 1930's Italian fascism.

The real mischief maker/promotionist in the historic directed march to business-run government, by corporations and for corporations, was Lewis F. Powell.

Prof Gary has spent very little time pondering the impact of this very powerful force in the economic policies of first the Reagan reign and subsequently the follow-on which Powell created.

Powell was "corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations" prior to being elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court. Powell's work in regards to the economy and the practices of corporatist politics was first revealed AFTER he was ensconced as a justice. Powell wrote "a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell's nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court."

The POWELL MEMO, as it is now known, was not revealed prior to his senate conformation for good reason. "It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powell's legal objectivity. Anderson cautioned that Powell 'might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice...in behalf of business interests.'"

Reagan's Hands Off Policy in Service of Corporations Gets a Jump Start

"Though Powell's memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of:

1. the Heritage Foundation
2.  the Manhattan Institute
3.  the Cato Institute
4. Citizens for a Sound Economy
5. Accuracy in Academia
6. and other powerful organizations.

"Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration's 'hands-off business' philosophy."

****

What impact has this new (focused by business chambers of commerce) sponsored economic/political/social thinking had on the nation?

Plenty.

"Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building..."

These areas of "hot button gripes" have fuel an entire generation of class warfare, or as Pat Buchan put it so indelicately at the Houston GOP National Convention, a Cultural War. Not satisfied with the impact of "cultural war" many rad-rightists have characterized their campaign to achieve ideological homogeny over all other groups and partisan political parties in a stronger, move evocative color: It's Civil War.

The rad-right with many new comers to immense wealth, the Waltons of WalMart, the DeVos/VanAndels of Amway, et al have carefully and abundantly funded the above group of "think tanks" with their coveted 501 (c) (3) take advantage of government tax free advantage in their "educational" activities. Most notable about these rad-right institutions was, and is, "their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building." Progressives and other poltical groups do not have the "sugar daddy" funders that are the underwriters of the rad-right and their implementation of the Powell Memo.

Give the rad-right credit: They are patient, they are focused, they are on script and they know how to take extreme advantage of economic unrest and disaster. Pro-family, community supporting groups lack this kind of control. In opposition to the growing take-over by the Corporatocracy, citizen groups are relegated to: "band-aids and short-term results which provide little hope of the systemic change we so desperately need to reverse the trend of growing corporate dominance."

"So did Powell's political views influence his judicial decisions? The evidence is mixed. Powell did embrace expansion of corporate privilege and wrote the majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, a 1978 decision that effectively invented a First Amendment "right" for corporations to influence ballot questions. On social issues, he was a moderate, whose votes often surprised his backers."

A Quick Overview of the Powell Memo drawn as excerpts from Lewis F. Powell's "Manifesto":

THEME: "No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack..." "(T)he assault on the enterprise system is broadly based and consistently pursued. It is gaining momentum and converts.."

SOURCES OF THE ATTACK:

• "The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities. Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking."

TONE OF THE ATTACK:

• Stewart Alsop: "Yale, like every other major college, is graduating scores of bright young men who are practitioners of 'the politics of despair.' These young men despise the American political and economic system . . . (their) minds seem to be wholly closed. They live, not by rational discussion, but by mindless slogans."
• (F)amed Dr. Milton Friedman of Chicago warned: "It (is) crystal clear that the foundations of our free society are under wide-ranging and powerful attack -- not by Communist or any other conspiracy but by misguided individuals parroting one another and unwittingly serving ends they would never intentionally promote."
• All around one can hear criticism of business as usual. To illustrate "here are countless examples of rifle shots which undermine confidence and confuse the public. Favorite current targets are proposals for tax incentives through changes in depreciation rates and investment credits. These are usually described in the media as "tax breaks," "loop holes" or "tax benefits" for the benefit of business. As viewed by a columnist in the Post, such tax measures would benefit "only the rich, the owners of big companies."

"This setting of the 'rich' against the 'poor,' of business against the people, is the cheapest and most dangerous kind of politics."

The Apathy and Default of Business

• "The painfully sad truth is that business, including the boards of directors' and the top executives of corporations great and small and business organizations at all levels, often have responded -- if at all -- by appeasement, ineptitude and ignoring the problem."
• "In all fairness, it must be recognized that businessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system, seeking insidiously and constantly to sabotage it. The traditional role of business executives has been to manage, to produce, to sell, to create jobs, to make profits, to improve the standard of living, to be community leaders, to serve on charitable and educational boards, and generally to be good citizens. They have performed these tasks very well indeed."
• "But they (business leaders) have shown little stomach for hard-nose contest with their critics, and little skill in effective intellectual and philosophical debate."

RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS EXECUTIVES
The day is long past when the chief executive officer of a major corporation discharges his responsibility by maintaining a satisfactory growth of profits, with due regard to the corporation's public and social responsibilities. If our system is to survive, top management must be equally concerned with protecting and preserving the system itself. This involves far more than an increased emphasis on "public relations" or "governmental affairs" -- two areas in which corporations long have invested substantial sums."

****

The catastrophic economic collapse brought on by George W. Bush's wars and economic policies has opened the door to "disaster capitalism" as outlined in good part by Naomi Klein and put to good and immediate use at this time as Michigan is in a 'One State Depression' and other states are close behind.

To wit: Disaster Capitalism/Shock Doctrine Explained by Professor of Economics and Public Policy Hillsdale College, Dr. Wolfram:

"As a certain Presidential chief of staff once said, you shouldn't let a crisis go to waste. We have a chance to introduce structural reforms on our educational system, our business tax, our corrections system, and our Medicaid system because the budget problems have forced an examination that would not otherwise have taken place. The budget cuts can best be accomplished by addressing how services are delivered and which services are properly the role of state government. It will be interesting to see how this ends up."
(emphasis added)

Original.