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The American Empire in a Changing World



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Friday, October 5, 2012

Simon Johnson: ''Money, Power and the Rule of Law''

From NYTimes

''When money is the primary source of power, the special interests win hands down. They can create advantages for themselves. One way is through the market mechanism – as monopolists did with railroads and industrial sectors at the end of the 19th century.

Or they can capture the government and use state policies to help themselves – for example, by deregulating the financial sector and allowing excessive risk-taking in big banks. The ability to take such risks hurts all consumers and taxpayers while helping the special interests who get this advantage.

In a brilliant satire, Steven Pearlstein recently put his finger on a central problem: powerful people want one set of rules for themselves and different, less advantageous rules for everyone else. In modern America, Mr. Pearlstein points out, the rich and powerful also like to complain a lot.''

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