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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Oligarchies Masquerading as Democracies

Oligarchies are born. But those that survive in an economically competitive world must recruit bright young men to overcome the regression to the mean: the average sons of the oligarchs.
This is done through educational screening. That is the message of The Bell Curve. It is also the message of Superclass.
Where did America's Presidents attend school? I have marked with an asterisk those who were not Ivy League graduates or military academy graduates.
1904: T. Roosevelt (Harvard/Porcelian)
1908: Taft (Yale/Skull & Bones -- 2nd generation -- father was a founder)
1912: Wilson (Princeton -- student and president)
1920: *Harding (no college)
1924: *Coolidge (Amherst -- Harvard lite)
1928: *Hoover (Stanford -- West Coast Ivy League)
1932: F. Roosevelt (Harvard)
1948: *Truman (no college)
1952: Eisenhower (West Point)
1960: Kennedy (Harvard)
1964: *Johnson (Southwest Texas State Teacher's College)
1968: *Nixon (Duke Law School)
1976: Carter (Annapolis)
1980: *Reagan (Eureka College)
1988: Bush I (Yale/Skull & Bones)
1992: Clinton (Yale Law School)
2000: Bush II (Yale/Skull & Bones)
2008: Obama (Harvard Law School)
Note: T. Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman, and Johnson were Vice Presidents who became President. Reagan was the outsider. He sneaked up on them. But his staff was controlled by James Baker III, who was allied with the family of Bush I.
What we see here is an oligarchy: an oligarchy based on academic screening.
The symbolic year was 2004, when two Skull & Bones members were nominated -- an organization that initiates 15 men a year. A Bonesman had to be elected in a nation of 100 million adult males. Random? I don't think so…………

There are only two economic movements opposed to the oligarchy of central banking: Greenbackers and Austrian school economists. Greenbackers want to see the Federal Reserve replaced. So do Austrian economists. But what, if anything, should replace it?
Greenbackers call for 100% fiat money under Congress. They trust Congress. Austrian economists call for a market-based money system with no state or federal licensing. They trust the consumers.
Greenbackers believe in democratic political power: one man, one vote. Austrians believe in democratic economic power: one dollar, one vote.
Oligarchs trust Congress. That is because they bought it. They do not trust the unregulated free market. Consumers would control it.
Greenbackers dream of a Congress 100% dependent on the voters, not on the oligarchs. Austrians dream of a Congress presiding over a bankrupt federal government and the repeal of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
Whose dream do you think is more likely?