The real cost of corruption runs well into the trillions of dollars when we consider the degree of bribery that even suppresses prosecution of the banks that have abused proprietary trading to undermined the entire world economy. A European report on corruption is out and that puts the cost in Europe at €120 billion, yet the true cost is yet to be paid. The European banking crisis is massive. They hold about $3 trillion in investments in emerging markets as well. Bankers are notorious for investing with the trend and that is why they continually have to be bailed-out time and again.
The true cost of corruption is so massive it is really off the charts. The repeal of Glass-Steagall was the result of corruption. Because politicians and their parties are for sale to big contributors, stuffing government jobs with bankers is part of the corruption game.
There is no actual “control” over the economy. For if that were really the case, we would not see this continual need for bailouts. Many want to constantly paint this as a conspiracy, but it is only a conspiracy with a short-term view that never changes – how much can we make right now. This is why the business cycle builds in intensity until the whole thing explodes in 2032. What kind of government we end up with after that will either be some form of totalitarianism or a real democracy. That requires education of the masses to at least identify the issue. Government will point their finger at the “rich” and others will target the “bankers” and that will lead to the “Jews” and you can see precisely how things like Hitler become possible.
Our republican forms of government are the problem. They are seriously corrupt and lend themselves to a complete break-down of economic structure. Julius Caesar (100-44BC) crossed the Rubicon to save the people. But the propagandists have distorted his role of “dictator” and we applied that concept to what it was back then. In fact, Cicero had also been a dictator, which was a post appointed for one year. Cato, who was the most corrupt of them all, has been memorialized by propaganda. This is much how the term “philadelphos” meant brotherly love, but not in a Christian sense – it was applied to someone who married their sister. Slightly different “brotherly love”.
If we do not get these facts straight, we are doomed to merely repeat the past time and time again. We have to just once learn from the mistakes in history. If we can do that, then we can build a better political-economy, for certainly they are two words that should have been divorced when they first met.
