The influence of the wealthy in politics is nothing new, and certainly
not just in the United States of America. ---- In Russia, with the
collapse of the Soviet Union, Communist Party bureaucrats and industry
and factory managers converted themselves into highly rich oligarchs by
buying up the economy when it came up for grabs, moving from state
capitalism to a market economy. They payrolled Yeltsin in the 1990s,
financing his election in 1996. When Putin came to power, the influence
of the oligarchs weakened for a while, but a second wave of oligarchs,
individuals close to Putin himself and sponsored by him, came to the
fore. This indicated a turn from crony capitalism to a form of state
capitalism where oligarchs did well out of funding from state banks and
from access to public procurement projects. Putin's relations with
oligarchs have not always been easy, with his eventually coming to an
agreement that they must give him full support if they wished to survive
and prosper.
In China, when Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1978, he maintained a firm
Communist Party control over the state capitalist economy, but allowed
some free enterprise. Private businesses were encouraged, leading to the
emergence of billionaires. China now has more of these than anywhere
else in the world, a whopping 814. Some of these billionaires are
members of the Communist Party, and even served as delegates to the
yearly National People's Congress. The Chinese state seeks to maintain
control over these super-rich whilst at the same time encouraging them.
Some of the wealthiest billionaires, who have increased their wealth
phenomenally, are in the car industries, renewable energy, and the
richest is Zhong Shanshan, head of a bottled water company, with a
wealth of $50.8 billion.
In India, Narendra Modi runs a regime of crony capitalism where hugely
wealthy oligarchs like Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani are granted rich
pickings in public projects like roads, ports, airports and railways,
and digital connectivity. Unsurprisingly, Ambani and Adani are
enthusiastic supporters of Modi. Billionaires had an increase of 42% in
combined wealth in the last financial year, to more than $905 billion.
In Britain, the last Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, was the
first millionaire to rule. He and his wife, Akshata Murty, have a
combined wealth of £651 million. In 2023, the Tories made Mohamed
Mansour, an Egyptian billionaire with a wealth estimated by Forbes
magazine at $3.3 billion, senior treasurer of the Party. Mansour served
as Minister of Transportation under the dictatorial regime of Hosni Mubarak.
Alongside this we have a party of the far right, Reform UK, whose
leaders and MPs are all wealthy. They include billionaire property
developer Nick Candy, party treasurer, and deputy leader Richard Tice,
with a wealth of £40 million, made from property investment.
In the United States, the influence of the super-rich is taking on new
dimensions. Whereas elsewhere billionaires exert influence mainly from
outside the State and parliament, here 12 billionaires have actually
taken on government roles. This present US administration is now the
wealthiest in modern history.
The wealthiest of these is Elon Musk, now co-head of the Department of
Government Efficiency. His wealth is at least $400 billion and rising,
alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, who made a fortune of $1 billion from
biotechnology. After this are billionaires Howard Lutnick, Secretary for
Commerce, Linda McMahon as Secretary for Education, and Scott Bessent
as Treasury Secretary. The financier Warren Stephens will serve as
ambassador to the UK, airline magnate Leandro Rizzuto Jr. as ambassador
to the Organization of American States, property billionaire Simon
Witkoff as Special Envoy in the Middle East, the property developer
Charles Kushner, wealth $1.8 billion, as ambassador to France, Jared
Isaacmann , NASA administrator, also with a wealth of $1.8 billion made
from payments processing and aviation, Tom Barrack, ambassador to
Turkey, with a wealth of $1 billion, Frank Bisiganano, Social Security
Administration Commissioner, who made his wealth of $1 billion from
financial technology, and David Sacks, venture capitalist who has been
appointed Trum's AI and Crypto Czar. There are also Kelly Loeffler,
Administrator of Small Business Administration, who got rich from crypto
currency, Doug Bergum, Interior Secretary and venture capitalist, Mehmet
Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
with a wealth of $100 million, a snake oil salesman who promoted an
anti-malaria drug as an antidote to Covid.
As for Donald Trump himself, Bloomberg, the business news and data
company, estimates his wealth at $7.08 billion.
Trump's cabinet has a wealth of at least $7 billion, whilst the combined
wealth of the wider administration stands at least $460 billion.
Is this unprecedented development a new stage in the development of
capitalism, as oligarchs merge with the State? It remains to be seen
whether this is a momentary hiccup , as Trump is notorious for falling
out with his backers, and he could still clash with the likes of Musk
over the latter's fairly favourable attitude to China and his support
for cheap immigrant labour under the H1-B visa scheme.
Whatever the outcome, the integration of these billionaires and
multi-millionaires into the administrative structures only spells misery
for the working class. Musk and Ramaswamy will scrap programmes that
combat homelessness, and cut hundreds of billions of dollars from
Medicare and Medicaid, the two main government healthcare programmes.
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2025/01/26/oligarchs-rule-ok/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
not just in the United States of America. ---- In Russia, with the
collapse of the Soviet Union, Communist Party bureaucrats and industry
and factory managers converted themselves into highly rich oligarchs by
buying up the economy when it came up for grabs, moving from state
capitalism to a market economy. They payrolled Yeltsin in the 1990s,
financing his election in 1996. When Putin came to power, the influence
of the oligarchs weakened for a while, but a second wave of oligarchs,
individuals close to Putin himself and sponsored by him, came to the
fore. This indicated a turn from crony capitalism to a form of state
capitalism where oligarchs did well out of funding from state banks and
from access to public procurement projects. Putin's relations with
oligarchs have not always been easy, with his eventually coming to an
agreement that they must give him full support if they wished to survive
and prosper.
In China, when Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1978, he maintained a firm
Communist Party control over the state capitalist economy, but allowed
some free enterprise. Private businesses were encouraged, leading to the
emergence of billionaires. China now has more of these than anywhere
else in the world, a whopping 814. Some of these billionaires are
members of the Communist Party, and even served as delegates to the
yearly National People's Congress. The Chinese state seeks to maintain
control over these super-rich whilst at the same time encouraging them.
Some of the wealthiest billionaires, who have increased their wealth
phenomenally, are in the car industries, renewable energy, and the
richest is Zhong Shanshan, head of a bottled water company, with a
wealth of $50.8 billion.
In India, Narendra Modi runs a regime of crony capitalism where hugely
wealthy oligarchs like Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani are granted rich
pickings in public projects like roads, ports, airports and railways,
and digital connectivity. Unsurprisingly, Ambani and Adani are
enthusiastic supporters of Modi. Billionaires had an increase of 42% in
combined wealth in the last financial year, to more than $905 billion.
In Britain, the last Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, was the
first millionaire to rule. He and his wife, Akshata Murty, have a
combined wealth of £651 million. In 2023, the Tories made Mohamed
Mansour, an Egyptian billionaire with a wealth estimated by Forbes
magazine at $3.3 billion, senior treasurer of the Party. Mansour served
as Minister of Transportation under the dictatorial regime of Hosni Mubarak.
Alongside this we have a party of the far right, Reform UK, whose
leaders and MPs are all wealthy. They include billionaire property
developer Nick Candy, party treasurer, and deputy leader Richard Tice,
with a wealth of £40 million, made from property investment.
In the United States, the influence of the super-rich is taking on new
dimensions. Whereas elsewhere billionaires exert influence mainly from
outside the State and parliament, here 12 billionaires have actually
taken on government roles. This present US administration is now the
wealthiest in modern history.
The wealthiest of these is Elon Musk, now co-head of the Department of
Government Efficiency. His wealth is at least $400 billion and rising,
alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, who made a fortune of $1 billion from
biotechnology. After this are billionaires Howard Lutnick, Secretary for
Commerce, Linda McMahon as Secretary for Education, and Scott Bessent
as Treasury Secretary. The financier Warren Stephens will serve as
ambassador to the UK, airline magnate Leandro Rizzuto Jr. as ambassador
to the Organization of American States, property billionaire Simon
Witkoff as Special Envoy in the Middle East, the property developer
Charles Kushner, wealth $1.8 billion, as ambassador to France, Jared
Isaacmann , NASA administrator, also with a wealth of $1.8 billion made
from payments processing and aviation, Tom Barrack, ambassador to
Turkey, with a wealth of $1 billion, Frank Bisiganano, Social Security
Administration Commissioner, who made his wealth of $1 billion from
financial technology, and David Sacks, venture capitalist who has been
appointed Trum's AI and Crypto Czar. There are also Kelly Loeffler,
Administrator of Small Business Administration, who got rich from crypto
currency, Doug Bergum, Interior Secretary and venture capitalist, Mehmet
Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
with a wealth of $100 million, a snake oil salesman who promoted an
anti-malaria drug as an antidote to Covid.
As for Donald Trump himself, Bloomberg, the business news and data
company, estimates his wealth at $7.08 billion.
Trump's cabinet has a wealth of at least $7 billion, whilst the combined
wealth of the wider administration stands at least $460 billion.
Is this unprecedented development a new stage in the development of
capitalism, as oligarchs merge with the State? It remains to be seen
whether this is a momentary hiccup , as Trump is notorious for falling
out with his backers, and he could still clash with the likes of Musk
over the latter's fairly favourable attitude to China and his support
for cheap immigrant labour under the H1-B visa scheme.
Whatever the outcome, the integration of these billionaires and
multi-millionaires into the administrative structures only spells misery
for the working class. Musk and Ramaswamy will scrap programmes that
combat homelessness, and cut hundreds of billions of dollars from
Medicare and Medicaid, the two main government healthcare programmes.
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2025/01/26/oligarchs-rule-ok/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten