"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."--Samuel Johnson, British poet and writer

"The aggressive mindset of the world's economic powerhouse may need to be replaced with the humility appropriate for the world's biggest debtor nation."-- Berry Riley, Financial Times, April 2001

It was only few days ago that we highlighted the behaviour of our big American corporations to pay ever less income taxes to the extent that while in the 60s they were paying 33% of all Federal income taxes (corporate and personal) now they are paying only 17% of Federal income taxes. Therefore, our governments have shifted their attention to look after the welfare of people and they are now looking after the welfare of corporations and their fortunate sons. But the story is not one of shifting the focus of the governmental attention from people to corporations, the focus is that in a Free Market economy based on making money with money anything goes for the sake of making money, and as anything goes for making money with money so today's Free Market has been the culprit for both a more divided world, between the rich and the poor, and a more violent world.

In the aftermath of 9-11, president George Bush wrapped himself in the American flag and warned all the countries of the world and all of its citizens to be either with "US" or with "Them" that is the terrorists. And under this credo of either being with US or with Them, president Bush has been waging his patriotic never ending war against any of "Them", and in so doing, president Bush has formed a coalition against terrorism by aligning "US" with undemocratic countries. Today we have vice-president Dick Cheney taking a PR tour in Europe and in the Middle East trying to sell the idea of spreading the war against terrorism by attacking Iraq. Now, as president Bush is considering the pre-emptive opportunity to use tactical nuclear attacks against rouge countries of the world, including Russia and China, we have vice-president Dick Cheney talking to sultans, kings and sheikhs to gather support for an attack against the Iraq.

Does this aggressive stance of US make any sense? Yes, it does make sense, and as we understand countries and people by the company they keep so we understand what has become of US. The Bush Administration's belligerent behaviour is a reflection of what has happened to our social and economic system, a system dominated by the convergence of the interests of making money between governments and big corporations.

We have been always of the opinion that we cannot fight terrorism with terrorism, that we cannot fight terrorism by being ourselves criminals. We cannot distinguish terrorists from criminals, and therefore in order to fight terrorism we have to fight any crime as understood by our civilized world. We are understanding now that our own economy is imbedded in criminal activities perpetrated by the big corporations and their fortunate sons.

The United States is the biggest chronic debtor of the world and its trade deficit in 2000 was a staggering $450 billion or 4.3% of GDP. Economist Dean Baker has reported that at the end of 1999 the net foreign indebtedness of the United States was approximately $1.9 trillion or 20 percent of GDP. Further, the International Monetary Fund has stated that the aggregate size of money laundering in the world could be somewhere between two and five percent of the world's gross domestic product, and we understand that at least half of this laundered money finds its way into the United States. As a consequence, there is an understanding that dirty money in excess of $500 billion would contribute to the approximately $10 trillion American economy.

I have acquired the understanding that Corporate America is corrupt, and that the Bush Administration is corrupt. America behaves as a bully as the Bush Administration is not recognizing its indebtedness to the rest of the world, it is not recognizing its own dirty money greasing its own economy at the expense of the rest of the world, and it is not recognizing the criminal behaviour of its big corporations. This explains why Corporate America is waging a war against terrorism rather than waging a war against international crimes, and this is why Corporate America is promoting the dollarization of foreign currencies rather than promoting the democratic exchange of its resources with the resources of the rest of the world.

References:
Pertinent articles in Ensign

Corporate taxation, or the lack thereof, Tim Francis-Wright, Bear Left! March 4, 2002 http://www.bear-left.com/original/2002/0303corporate.html

U.S. Works Up Plan for Using Nuclear Arms, by Paul Richter, Times Staff Writer, March 9, 2002 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-030902bombs.story

Cheney May Find Mideast A Hard Sell, By Tom Raum, Associated Press Writer, March 12, 2002 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20020312/ap_on_go_pr_wh/che ney_4

Macroeconomic Consequences and Implications U.S. Trade and Current Account Deficits by Allen Sinai, U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission, December 1, 2000 http://www.ustdrc.gov/research/trade12-5.pdf

Double Bubble: The Implications of the Over-Valuation of the Stock Market and the Dollar, by Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research http://www.cepr.net/columns/baker/double_bubble.htm#Executive_Summary

Money Laundering, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, July 1999 http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/pdf/PB9906_en.pdf