Ironically this is all a pretty effective demolition of the idea that American politics is controlled by a shadowy cabal of oligarchs seeking to enrich themselves
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I can't agree with this.
The billionaires always have cash to buy your stuff when they crash the economy.
60% of Americans can't survive a $2,000 surprise expense. One or two missed social security checks and billionaires could be buying up millions of foreclosed seniors' homes.
The problem with this is the billionaires are much more shares-rich than cash-rich. As Tesla share price tanks Musk loses billions. Sure, he can always liquidate some and he’s much more cash rich than most, but he actually loses proportionally more net worth than normal people when stocks go down.
Well, I hope you're right that it hurts them. I believe the only thing that will affect the Republican party is if the Republican billionaire donor class turns on them. That's the only thing they care about. Money and power.
And this is compounded by the fact that if he decides to get some cash by selling his shares, the act of him doing that will devalue the shares. To make himself more cash rich he has to take a further self-inflicted hit on net worth.
There is no functional difference in power between a wealthy oligarch in a stable economy or a failed economy. Everyone is losing money, just because that includes billionaires doesn't actually mean literally anything changes for them. They already had "fuck everyone" money. And they still will.
It's the exact same as when execs tank a company into the ground. They don't actually lose money or status, they have the golden parachute. It's the rest of the real employees (citizens) who lose.
Tesla could go down 80%
1/5th of functionally infinite money is still functionally infinite.
it usually is and they have their usual methods like lobbying congress. This is not usually. We went from predictable plutocracy with democratic formalities, to something else entirely.
I mean, they'd probably *like* to pull off the shadowy cabal of oligarchs bit, but that would require them to be something other than absolutely rock-stupid.
Not at all. When you have inside information before anyone else you have a massive advantage. That’s what they give themselves with this crazy behavior. It allows them to know when to buy the depressed assets knowing that the price is about to go back up.
It’s project 2025 with a crazy cheetolini twist.
There will be a ‘battle’ with the Yarvin bros down the line, tax cuts will appease them for a while but eventually it will be Christian Fundies vs the twisted tech bros.
If of course they aren’t stopped, which is not an option we can allow.
Look, Elon Musk, has a plan. They're just going to light all the money on fire, then it will be ash, and there will be more of it. It's an old Illuminati trick for making non-fungible ash.
So far at least, he's been on/off/on/off with the tarriffs. That much at least could easily be making them richer since they'd know when to buy/sell. Not sure if this will be the same.
Yeah. It’s not at all a shadowy cabal, is it? The plutocrats are front and center enriching themselves and gorging on the offal as Drumpft carves up the carcass of our murdered government.
Turns out it’s currently controlled by an extremely open cabal of oligarchs happy to immiserate themselves along with everyone else to appease the worms who live in their brains
It’s possible that “they are doing this to make themselves richer!” is a good political message, in which case I guess I can accept Dems using it in comms, but who boy does it not work as an actual explanatory model
That their methods will fail does not change the motivation driving them to make their choices. They do want to make themselves richer. They are just that fucking wrong about how things work.
it's just they have capital and when everything is cheap in a recession is allows them to coalesce more assets with that capital they have stored in a safe and untaxed shelter.
If he actually wanted to make his billionaire friends richer by devaluing some stocks so they could coalesce assets, there are a LOT of other easier and better ways to do it than crashing the entire world's economy and driving the United States into a recession.
This is such an empty conspiracy theory. No, rich people do not want to see the economy crash just so they can get a fire sale on "assets." Rich people, without exception, are MORE exposed to widespread asset crashes than the average Joe, not less. And you cannot avoid tariffs with a "tax shelter"!
And they can weather losing 50% of their current wealth and still have more than 99% of people, and with that they but what they want to for pennies on the dollar, sometimes even bailed out.
It’s not about wealth, it’s about power and control.
Money was always a means to this end. That’s why by tying money to control, the system could classify people according to wealth. Asset valuation further accumulates power.
What we’re seeing is termed a ‘capital strike’ on a global scale.
And yet what I see happening is a small group of oligarchs swooping in to buy the stocks of corporations at below market value following the First Felon's crashing of our economy & riding out the recession in style with a portfolio that will enrich them even further in the future. Hmmm....
Nute, I'm sorry to say that you're not thinking big enough or dark enough. The broligarchs *do* want to tank our economy & they are not planning on immiserating themselves in the process. This is "disaster capitalism" (Naomi Klein's term) & they're doing it to get richer. https://bsky.app/profile/ebharrington.bsky.social/post/3llk6glkbhc2z
It's such a really odd situation as it's really not clear at all how long, say, this phase (e.g. this new lunatic tariff regime) actually holds up for. Administration of it is going to be a nightmare.
Man, your comment just made me think... It’s amazing how a little over 10 years ago i laughed in someones face for saying this exact same thing about Obama & thought he was crazy. I always rolled my eyes at this house on my way to school that had a yard sign indicating that he was the anti-christ,
and i always rolled my eyes at it. Joke’s on me now, i guess, because now i’m the one saying these things about a president. It all feels so unreal that there are times where I hear myself saying these things and i have to remind myself that i’m not losing my mind.
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Worked good for a certain network of hedge funds.
The billionaires always have cash to buy your stuff when they crash the economy.
60% of Americans can't survive a $2,000 surprise expense. One or two missed social security checks and billionaires could be buying up millions of foreclosed seniors' homes.
Tesla could go down 80%
1/5th of functionally infinite money is still functionally infinite.
The smarter ones
There will be a ‘battle’ with the Yarvin bros down the line, tax cuts will appease them for a while but eventually it will be Christian Fundies vs the twisted tech bros.
If of course they aren’t stopped, which is not an option we can allow.
'They' just ain't YOU. Or most of US.
Money was always a means to this end. That’s why by tying money to control, the system could classify people according to wealth. Asset valuation further accumulates power.
What we’re seeing is termed a ‘capital strike’ on a global scale.
https://bsky.app/profile/ebharrington.bsky.social/post/3llk6glkbhc2z
1. Having taught the history of capitalism for 25 yrs at the college level.
2. Having published 3 peer-reviewed* books & a couple dozen articles about capitalism in the US & globally.
* That means other experts vetted what I wrote before publication.