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Programs Home | Climate Energy | Asia-Pacific | Silos | Rio+20 | False Solutions | Population | Post Capitalism | Technology | Archive ProgramsIFG PROGRAMS: Wealth and Power
Survey Finds Rising Perception of Class Tension
Sabrina Tavernise
January 11, 2012"Conflict between rich and poor now eclipses racial strain and friction between immigrants and the native-born as the greatest source of tension in American society, according to a survey released Wednesday." READ MORE
New Report: Outing the Oligarchy
"Billionaires Who Benefit From Today’s Climate Crisis"
December 6, 2011
The International Forum on Globalization (IFG) released a special report today, “Outing the Oligarchy: Billionaires Who Benefit From Today’s Climate Crisis,” which identifies the world’s top 50 individuals whose investments benefit from climate change and whose influence networks block efforts to phase out pollution from fossil fuels.
IFG’s report comes as global debates intensify on how best to protect the climate and how best to counter the corrupting power of extreme wealth over politics. The report draws the links between the two debates and identifies the emerging, ultra-rich tycoons who are deepening the world’s climate crisis.
The world’s richest corporations and capitalists have been branded by the Occupy Wall Street movement as the “one percent,” yet there has been scant attention to the individuals within in the “one percent” who have greatest responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions. Little information has been publicly available about the identities of the industrialists, investors and ideologues who are most responsible for the decisions over carbon-intensive activities that drive greenhouse gas emissions far past danger levels.IFG’s new report brings this information to light. The task of calculating carbon decision-making footprints is highly complex. However, IFG’s new study is an initial step in what will be a longer-term initiative of analyzing the roles played by the planet’s worst carbon culprits and how they fund sophisticated influence networks over almost all aspects of government policymaking, especially energy.
“Here we have the ‘Who's Who List’ of crony capitalists who have gotten rich by polluting the planet, and now they are plowing their cash back in to prevent any legal protections for the planet and its most vulnerable peoples,” said Victor Menotti, IFG director and co-author of the report. “Behind each of these billionaires are the stories of countless peoples and places that are being erased from the face of the earth by unregulated greenhouse gas emissions. These climate destroyers must be pulled out of the shadows so that peoples of the world can understand who is responsible for the world’s predicament and can figure out the solutions.”
Leading climate activist Bill McKibben said, “Saving our climate means knowing who is stopping solutions, and the 1 percent have a responsibility to step up and help shift today’s paradigm so that our planet stands a chance. This list helps make it clear why science has been ignored and reason thrown to the wind in the face of the greatest crisis we've ever faced.”
“India’s Great Oligarchs are exposed in the IFG report for their get-rich-quick gambles to grab more land and resources, which, in turn, concentrates even more political power in fewer hands in ‘the world’s largest democracy,’” said co-author and IFG board member from India, Dr. Vandana Shiva.
Dr. Jeffrey Winters, in the politics department at Northwestern University, calculates in his 2011 book, Oligarchy, that wealth in the US is twice as concentrated in the hands of the few at the top today as it was during the Roman Empire. Most Americans are shocked to find out that they live in a society that is vastly more unequal than Rome."
IFG is a global research and education center that helps bring grassroots perspectives to international economic and environmental policies. Based in the Presidio of San Francisco, California, IFG emerged in response to the creation of the World Trade Organization and was instrumental in educating people to turn out for the WTO's 1999 ministerial in Seattle. Among IFG’s numerous reports is the 2001 title, “Does Globalization Help the Poor?” which examines the impacts of global free trade on poverty. In addition to its research, education, and monitoring of multilateral trade, investment, finance, environmental, and human rights rule-making, IFG has been intensively engaged in global climate talks since the U.N. climate conference in Bali in 2007.
DOWNLOADS
Report (151 pages, 5.4 MB) Press Release
Individual Chapters of Report:
-Cover and Table of Contents
-Individuals of Undue Influence
-Kochtopus: Influence Networks of the Koch Brothers
-Uncle Slim: The World's Richest Man
-The Great Indian Oligarchs
-China: Oligarchy in the Making
-Power Players in Today's Global Economic System
-Wealth, Power, and the Future of the Planet: Four Arguments
Lisa Graves, Center for Media and Democracy
Derek Kressman, Common Cause
Michael Brune, Sierra Club
Cathi Tactaquin, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Tow Swan, Health Care for America Now
Allison Cook, Story of Stuff
Michael Blecker, Swords to Plowshares
Lisa Hoyos, Blue Green Alliance
Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network/Grassroots Global Justice
Ryan, Occupy
Vandana Shiva, Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology
Ross Hammond, Dirty Energy Money
Linda Sheehan, Earth Law Center
Brendan DeMelle, Desmogblog
Steve Smith, California Labor Federation*
Dr. Jeffery Winters, Northwestern University, author, Oligarchy
Rose Braz, Center for Biological Diversity
Lee Fang, Think Progress, Center for American Progress
Don Hazen, Alternet*
Carleen Pickard, Global Exchange
Natalie, Occupy
Angelo Carusone, Media Matters
Jamie Henn, 350.org*
Galina Angarova, Pacific Environment
Henry Clark, West County Toxics Coalition*
Sharon Lungo, Ruckus Society
Kert Davies, Greenpeace*
Paul Cox, Swords to Plowshares
Dale Wen, IFG China Scholar/ Rural China Foundation
Michelle Chan, Friends of the Earth US*
Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies*
Robert Greenwald, Brave New Foundation*
John Sellers, The Other 98%*
Daniel Espinosa, National People’s Action*
Anuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute
Robin Beck, Moveon.org*
Van Jones, Rebuild the Dream*
Robert McChesney, Free Press*
Stephanie Bloomingdale, AFL-CIO Wisconsin*
Helen Grecio, Common Cause
Jim Tarbell, Alliance for Democracy
Robert Collier, UC Berkeley School of Journalism
Jerry Mander, International Forum on Globalization
Debbie Barker, Center for Food Safety
Tony Clarke, Polaris Institute
Bing Gong, Lia Fund
Benita Kline, Arkay Foundation
Chriss Desser, Observer
Troy Lush, Musician
Joyce Huesemann, Author
Peter Stern, Observer
Kourosh Behnam, IFG
Lilly Alvarez, IFG
Victor Menotti, IFG* not able to attend but ask to be included in any follow up.
The backlash to bank bailouts has brought out to the streets all kinds of people protesting today’s extreme concentrations of wealth and power, including two-time Iraq War veteran, Scott Olsen, who fought for freedom abroad only to be critically injured by Oakland Police when peacefully protesting against inequality. Yet President Obama may ignore such concerns when he meets other G20 Heads of State Nov. 3 in Cannes, where French protesters are filling the streets to reign in the rights of capital.
One of the most important controls to put on capital to reduce the risk of more rescues is increasing banks’ “reserve requirements,” which is the capital they must keep on hand in case their big bets go bad. JP Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon leads a furious fight by big banks to flout one of the chief concerns of global banking regulators, who want banks to set aside more cash to absorb big losses. One of the core public controls to have over capital is its ability to create money through issuing credit. Moving your money to credit cooperatives can be a democratic alternative.
Failure to control capital at this basic level exposes taxpayers to even greater bailouts in the future. Yet encouraging such “moral hazard” is exactly what would happen if President Obama fails to force the biggest banks, so-called Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs, or ie. Too Big To Fail), to keep more cash on hand for bad bets, rather than relying on the public to rescue them.
President Obama should show the world that he is serious about addressing the questions being raised by the Occupy Movement, but not by using Honolulu to expand new free trade agreements with the Pacific, or proposing more fossil fuels infrastructure. Instead, he should see that taxpayers are protected by ensuring that banks set aside enough reserves, from their current 3-4 percent to much higher and safer levels of reserves. Governments propose a paltry 7 percent on big banks, and 9.5 for the SIFIs. China is telling its banks to raise their reserves to at least 11.5, and Stanford studies suggest safer levels begin around 20. Worse, the changes wouldn't happen for years, when we need them now to end anymore tax payer bailouts. Ecological economist Herman Daly says reserve requirements are among the most important levers of change for reducing how the growth imperative drives for higher returns on capital investments. Controlling the ability of banks to create money out of thin air is an essential control on capital that must fall under democratic accountability.
So, understanding how capital is organized politically is essential to the asserting democratic control over its governance. The demographics of ownership of capital assets reveal record concentrations at the top, and a corresponding concentration of political power over the processes of decision-making throughout society.
Carlos Slim, for example, saw his wealth jump from $52B to $74B from 2010 to 2011, almost a fifty percent increase in his overall assets amidst austerity budget cuts, job losses, and downward draining of resources for protecting people and the planet. The biggest billionaires far outgun the many owners of public pension like TIAA-CREF, CalPERS, or holders of mutual funds, who really have little say in how their money moves.
One challenge is to change what money is being invested in, and what’s being consumed so that democratic control over capital considers future generations, as well as the urgent ecological needs before us now. Indeed, Occupy Wall Street has flung open a window of opportunity to assert democratic control over capital with clear recognition that any solution must also address the converging economic and ecological crises; our world can’t wait. We must go beyond merely aligning the interests of Wall Street with Main Street to include those who survive in the streets, farms, fields, and forests of the world, now and for future generations, as well as the rights of nature.
What we need, as is being said in the street as well as among ecological economists everywhere, are broad, but binding, rules recognizing what is best for wealth redistribution to protect the poor, while also investing in reducing demand for natural resources, increasing resource efficiency, replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy supplies, and encouraging true ecological innovation in technology. All of these agenda items, especially, full cost internalization, require more democratic governance over investment decisions, not only of public but also private capital, as well as a systemic shift in all forms of state support to guide consumption toward sustainably produced goods and services.
So, “getting growth back on track,” could either accelerate catastrophe or chart a new course to move the money toward what the world needs most. Today's logic of capital is governed by a system of incentives that make it profitable to invest in activities that increase inequality and intensify ecological collapse.
Fund managers are mandated to move money to where they will get the most results for the owners of capital. Therefore those who actually own the most capital bear the most responsibility for today’s converging economic and ecological crises.
Ultra–Hi Net–Worth Individuals, or UHNWIs, will face increasing public pressure to behave differently, beginning by sharing their wealth under processes that democratically redistribute stable flows of finance that protect people and the planet. Corporations themselves must pay for the damage they have done, and fund the restoration of specific ecosystems where they operate, or have already spoiled.
Today's crisis of capitalism requires a rethink of the system that governs it. If unruly capital was a foreign dictator, the US State Department would demand that it step down because it's lost legitimacy, seize state assets until they can be sorted out, then fund fair elections for new government to decide how do we distribute resources to fulfill the peoples needs and aspirations.
Holding ourselves to the same standard would impose an immediate windfall tax on the rich, and corporate personhood, fund fair elections (with public money only), pursue participatory budget processes, fully fund social safety nets and environmental protection, phase out of fossil fuels while rewarding renewables, and encourage overall reductions in resource use. These are among many of the sequence of job-creating steps that must be taken urgently during this window of opportunity caused by today's crisis of capitalism.
Olsen: When police violence masks corporate violence
Oakland Police’s attack on Scott Olsen and other peaceful protesters should be seen in a global context of Olsen’s serving his country to protect the freedom of people worldwide. He is part of human history’s habit of bringing public grievances to public squares and occupying that space until demands for democratic accountability are met.
This time-tested and legitimate form of protest happens everyday in China, Mexico, India, Nigeria, and countless other countries that many Americans may consider to be undemocratic. Perhaps one place where is does not happen is in countries that explicitly allow no political opposition, which often are the very countries most likely to have terrorism. Terrorism is what happens when people have no political space in a society to peacefully bring forth complaints.
Regardless of the rightful outrage about the attack on Olsen, movements might recall an important lesson learned by global justice groups in the 1999 Battle of Seattle and other efforts to occupy public spaces: do not allow predictable police provocations to divert public attention and pressure away from the silent yet often more violent exploitation of people and the planet by corporations, which are the very reasons that so many people to took to the streets in the first place. We must expose all injustices without losing sight of those responsible at the very top.
We will demand answers about who hurt Scott Olsen. Investigations into the police actions will be watched closely.
We will also demand that those who are charged with the responsibility of reigning in the power of private capital, such as President Obama, stand up, or lose legitimacy.
Will Wall Street Become Seattle on Steroids?
When Marines march with peaceful protesters against Wall Street avarice, we see a new day dawning in America. The Forbes 400 may be fearful, but the world’s most marginalized peoples, and our precious planet, should find hope.
IFG now sees that a major October 13 meeting we began organizing months ago—which aims to align activists’ energy around a set of ultra-rich global elites who have too much power—can contribute greatly to what’s going on with Wall Street today.
J.P. Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon’s attacks against regulators for proposing tighter rules on capital, and his enabling attacks against peaceful protesters by his timely and unprecedented gift to the NYC Police Foundation, show that some are still willing to violently defend record wealth inequality at any cost.
Our involvement in Occupy Wall Street is viewed through the lens of IFG's inside-outside role in the 1999 peaceful protests against the WTO in Seattle, where police riots outside averted too much public attention from the corporate looting of people and the planet that was happening inside.What will happen next on Wall Street is unknown, but we do know that peoples’ movements must not allow that mistake of the media to happen again; messaging is paramount. (read more)
NO CUTS. TAX WALL STREET.
Tell Congress there's a sensible tax on Wall Street that would help solve our budget problems.
When reckless trading on Wall Street crashed the global economy, American taxpayers bailed out the big banks to the tune of $4.7 trillion. That is trillion with a “T”.Today, Wall Street is booming. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo executives are earning just as much as they did before the financial crisis. In 2010, the CEOs of these three banks made $52 million dollars combined.
Yet on Main Street family incomes are tanking, job creation has stalled, and 42 million people are living in poverty - more than at any other time in the last 50 years.
We have done our part, now it’s time for Wall Street to do more – through a tiny sales tax on each Wall Street trade called a financial transaction tax.
Right now Congress is considering huge cuts to Medicare and Social Security as well as other important programs in health, education and housing.
Enough is enough! We know where the money is. It’s time for Wall Street to start Paying US Back! A tiny tax on financial services can generate billions of dollars. (read more)SIGN THE PETITION TO CONGRESS BY OCT. 30
Nurses to Send Message to President Obama Nov. 3,
March on Treasury Department, G-20Media Advisory
October 21, 2011
With a growing international call for a tax on financial transactions to heal global economies, National Nurses United will bring the demand to the doorstep of the U.S. Treasury Department November 3 calling on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the Obama administration to get on board, and to end lobbying efforts at home and abroad against a Wall Street tax. Read more
OUTING THE OLIGARCHY PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
As IFG intensifies its "inside" work to change institutions, we will also support "outside" efforts to build power of peoples' movements. Increasingly few, stupendously wealthy plutocrats have lately made enormous strides toward dominating global governance, finance and national democracies, while actively undermining traditional democratic expressions, such as collective bargaining rights, clean air protections, and services for social safety nets. The wealth of these individuals is so great that we begin to see a kind of global “neo-feudalism” evolving, where they themselves become the pivotal arbiters and factors shaping economies, politics, media, and many other elements of once democratic systems.
The laws and regulations that have permitted such wealth concentration have themselves been shaped by the very special interests that benefit the most, while the public treasury is almost ignored. This situation must be reversed.
Putting greater focus on this problem will prove essential to dealing with it. The turbo charged economic growth of the past few decades has brought increasing concentration of financial wealth into the hands of very few individuals or families. The top one half of one percent (0.05 %) of the wealthiest individuals on the planet currently control approximately 35 % of the world’s financial wealth – more than the wealth of the bottom 90% of humanity! The top ten billionaires control more wealth than half of the countries in the world. This bloated concentration of wealth has enabled a few wealthy individuals to exert undue influence on national and international institutions to continually ratchet up opportunities for even more economic wealth concentration at the expense of both the environment and of efforts to meet the basic needs of the majority of the world’s population. Such a level of disparity is both unprecedented and unacceptable.
This new class of plutocrats exerts influence by various means including controls on media, funding of think tanks and special interest groups, domination of election processes and financing, control over legislatures and government policies, and over governments themselves, as witness the Wisconsin situation, aimed at suppressing democratic expressions such as unions. They also apply pressures on government for subsidies, favorable tax laws, tax shelters, weak regulation of critical services such as banking and trade, etc. And they actively battle for privatization of any and every government service possible, from health, to social security, to military security functions, to control over the natural commons.
We believe that these individuals are successfully undertaking a major strategic shift, thus far insufficiently observed, in relation to corporate/state control of essential goods and services – food, water, energy, basic resources, mobility, etc. Though many of these mega-wealthy individuals have themselves benefited from global corporate growth and profit, they have also grasped that corporate growth is coming up against planetary limits. They see that economic growth is ever-more difficult; short on resources, and skyrocketing costs. With prospects for future growth, and for sustained “surplus value” seriously diminished, they are no longer focused solely on business growth per se. More and more are seeking political control as well. Controlling the political process they can squeeze out more wealth by toppling unions and lowering worker salaries, gaining subsidies, cutting their taxes, gaining off-shore havens, and also through privatization of services like insurance and the military, and Medicare and Social Security. Most importantly, control of scarce but valuable resources, and other aspects of the natural commons, like fresh water, are also within their crosshairs. That’s the shape of a new “market.” It is a profound shift in corporate/state strategy, but potentially much more pervasive and dangerous. The late US Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis said “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.” This insight now applies to the entire planet.
Our first tasks will be to make a detailed “mapping” of the oligarchs who are blocking the many well articulated progressive movements in every jurisdiction, expose their unfair advantages and immoral interference in the democratic processes, and demand reforms that limit their undue power and influence. Progressive movements which ignore the critical roles of the oligarchy will be shadow boxing with the oligarch’s hired hands – legislators, pundits, corporate spokespersons. Ignoring the oligarchs allows them to continue exerting their self interested influence with a free rein.
A new IFG report will make a great step forward in “Outing the Oligarchy.” (Tentative title.) With that as the reference point, we hope to arrange a series of strategic convenings among movement activists internationally, to create concerted action to expose and limit the influence of this new pernicious force.
Plutonomy Resources
The Truth About The Economy In 2 Minutes
Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains the problems with the economy in less than 2 minutes, 15 seconds
Originally submitted by MoveOn.org
Peninsula Peace and Justice Center Presents
Outing the Oligarchy from PPJC Videos on Vimeo.
The Story of Citizens United v. FEC is an exploration of the
crisis of corporate influence in American democracy (more)
released March 1, 2011
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