Thom Hartmann. The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America- And What We Can Do to Stop It.
New York: Twelve, 2013.
As reviewed by Ted Odenwald
Thom Hartmann argues that our nation is nearing the climax of its fourth 80-year economic cycle, each ending in a great crash and leading to war. In each cycle, the nation’s economy was dominated by what FDR called “Economic Royalists”—the rich who manipulated the economy through a variety of methods—often unethical, immoral, and self-serving—at the expense of the lower classes. In essence, the poor became poorer, and the middle-class was nearly squeezed out of existence. In each cycle, according to Hartmann, we became a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.
The first cycle ended near the time of the American Revolution—a revolution sparked by the British government’s imposition of heavy taxes upon the American colonies to support its debts, particularly its war with France. At the same time, the wealthy East India Company was allowed to operate with great profit while paying very little in taxes. Eighty years later, the Royalists of both southern and northern states led the cannon-fodder poor into a disastrous civil war in order to preserve the economic sovereignty of their respective wealthy classes and industries. Another eighty years later, the profligacy of the rich, coupled with the exploitation of the working poor, led to the Great Depression. All three economic crises led to war. Hartmann believes that on our present course, another crash is inevitable with an even more horrific war in the offing.
Of course, Hartmann’s emphasis deals with the most recent crisis cycle. “As long as you don’t look too closely at our nation, things seem under control—the United States seem whole. The economically, militarily, and scientifically superior [US] seems intact… But when you go around to the ‘dark side’ of the nation, you see the shocking truth.” His first objective is to expose the actors who set today’s cataclysmic chain of events into motion: “the architects, the conspirators, and the propagandists who have both shaped the twenty-first century crisis and are trying so hard to exploit it for their own gain.”
The author believes that the stock market crisis of 2006 has already triggered the next Great Crash, and that the Economic Royalists “are on the march in the [US] and abroad, toppling democratic governments in Greece, Italy, and Spain. The Royalists’ ”technocrats” oversaw “harsh austerity measures that crippled the working class in order to pay off bankers who had made bad investments.” The crisis of 2008 was the product of a pattern begun in the 1970’s as Reagan waged war on the middle class by greatly reducing tax rates of the Royalists and attacking unions. “Minimal regulations had led to a hollowing of the American economy along with a massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the very rich”; corporations sought the lowest wages around the world, thereby crippling the middle class. Businesses wound up being sold; profits went elsewhere. “It’s like a great liquidation sale in a nation that’s on the verge of going out of business.”
Financial deregulation led to major problems. It was “flirted with “by Carter, embraced by Reagan, and “put on steroids by Clinton and the Bushes.” “Banking became the wild west of lawlessness and get-rich-quick schemes.” Oil and food prices soared as speculators bought huge amounts at low prices and held onto commodities until prices went up. “Banksters” ran wild with $800 trillion investments in unregulated derivatives. And it all crashed. “In 2006, the Great American Housing Bubble started to burst, causing millions to lose their jobs and homes.”
Hartmann claims that on the night of Obama’s inauguration, a plot was hatched to insure that the Economic Royalists would take full advantage of the economic crisis which they had caused. They would undermine (through their financial grip over politicians) health care proposals and reject any bills which challenged corporations and industry, e.g., reduction of pollution, and addressing issues of climate change. He believes that the Supreme Court turned Obama’s democratic republic into a “royalist oligarchy” by allowing unrestrained corporate participation in government and elections. “The sealing blow was the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision which saw corporations as humans having the same rights as human beings…deep down …[democracy’s] been rotted by greed and corruption…The Royalists have crept into power, destroyed the fundamentals that supported a strong middle class, allowed Wall Street and corporate psychopathy to devour working people and transform the economy into a massive get-rich-quick scheme….”
The author suggests a number of remedies to move our country away from the disastrous collapse. He advocates tipping the scales of power away from organized money by getting rid of “personhood.” This would require a reversal of the Supreme Court decisions that corporations and “natural persons” were the same, having the same rights. He recommends repair of the basic fundamentals that had made the middle class stronger, e.g., single payee health care; citizens sharing the wealth “beneath their feet,” rather than having all the profit going to Economic Royalists. Additionally, business decisions must be geared to benefit shareholders. Big oil and other polluters must pay for all toxic substances they introduce to the environment; a “Robin Hood” tax should be placed on all financial transactions; a reversal of the war on labor is essential; and a year of “Jubilee” should be granted on governmentally held loans to alleviate the public’s indebtedness.
FDR had stated, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” Certainly Hartmann buys into this belief as he has demonstrated that our country (and the entire global economy) has gone through a period of forgetfulness—failing to learn from the history of earlier financial collapses. We have moved inexorably toward another Great Crash—and we need to do a great deal of fixing.
Ted Odenwald and his wife, Shirley have lived in Oakland for 43 years. He taught HS English at Glen Rock High School for all of those years plus one more. Now he is enjoying time spent with his family, singing in the North Jersey Chorus and quenching his wanderlust. Ted is also the Worship Leader at the Ramapo Valley Baptist Church in Oakland.