History books record an empire's fall as a series of dates and events. Battles are fought, people resist, elections are called, arrest warrants are issued. But those are just details. An empire really falls in that moment when people stop believing that it's invulnerable. Whenever the spell is broken, whether it's by anger or just by awareness, the end becomes inevitable. It doesn't matter what happens to Rupert or James Murdoch now. They may return to positions of relative wealth and privilege or their lives may take unpleasant turns. Either way, the Murdoch empire has already fallen.
There's a lesson here for anyone who thinks the safest and surest path to success is by serving the seemingly invincible. Sure, it may lead to riches and power, at least for a while. But you may also wind up like those powerful people in Great Britain who now find themselves struggling with scandal, hiding in fear, or facing terrible legal consequences -- all because they believed in Murdoch's invincibility and served him accordingly. As Martin Luther King often said (and we've often quoted), "The moral arc of the Universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
And since the Universe is our home, the Murdoch scandal reminds us of another principle too: "Never bet against the house."
Betting against the house. That's what those Scotland Yard officials did (if they're guilty) by taking NewsCorp bribes. It's what the current Prime Minister did by soft-pedaling bribery rumors and hiring a Murdoch editor as his press secretary. ("Hacking crisis edges closer to Cameron," says one headline.) The previous Prime Minister bet against the house, too -- and now says he was effectively blackmailed by NewsCorp in a particularly abhorrent way over a sick child. And yet he said nothing.
Politicians and journalists were afraid to cross the invincible Murdoch, and we're told that Wall Street's power is unassailable, too. It seems impossible to imagine our uncrowned heads of finance facing a Murdoch-like fall, especially after the free ride they've enjoyed for the last few years. Despite a well-documented record of fraud, corruption, and abuse, they're all free as birds (birds of prey, that is). Not content with freedom or unearned wealth, they're even outraged that they don't have more of everything -- more power, more money, more prestige. Let the Murdoch story remind them: Don't overplay your hand. And don't be too sure that your day of reckoning isn't coming.
Moral compromise can be seen everywhere in Washington, even among people who undoubtedly think of themselves as ethical and upright. From Sheila Bair, outgoing head of the FDIC: "If I heard that once, I heard it a thousand times. 'Citi is systemic, you have to do this.' No analysis, no meaningful discussion. It was very frustrating." (Peter Orszag left his job as the President's budget director to work for Citigroup.) JPMorgan Chase has a long history of corporate misdeeds and malfeasance leading to large financial settlements (the latest was last week), all without criminal prosecution. Yet its CEO continues to complain about Washington's insufficient fealty. (One of his senior executives recently became the President's Chief of Staff.)
We now know that allowing banks to investigate their own misdeeds and avoid prosecution has been Justice Department policy under both President Bush and President Obama. Murdoch's organization was allowed to investigate itself, too, and suddenly a lot of people are paying a price for that decision.
But if Democrats have blurred the line, at least they've also pushed for some modest regulation of the financial industry. Republicans, on the other hand, have established new land speed records for the fastest delivery of cheap-shot takedowns, phony arguments, and obstructionism in the service of cash-bearing Wall Street bigshots. With a few notable exceptions, their only posture toward Wall Street has been that of an obsequious valet who serves an imperious master. You can't protect the nation from a banker's abuses if you're also shining his shoes and adjusting his cummerbund.
"Will that be all, Sir?"
The GOP's latest attempt at bank-directed character assassination has backfired. Because Mr. Issa's inquisitors demanded the internal records of the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, we now know that Commissioner Peter Wallison (and perhaps others) did very questionable things -- things designed to help Republicans in Congress overthrow Dodd/Frank regulatory reform, and which to all appearances violate the oath of office for a Commissioner.
You can call this sudden reversal in the GOP's fortunes whatever you want: payback, karma, or just a good run of luck. But whatever you call these reversals, they can shift the balance of power when you least expect it.
Our economy's statistics paint the picture of unchecked bank power, of a nation in thrall to an occupying financial force that's draining it of its lifeblood. Consider the evidence: Ten banks now own 77 percent of all bank assets in this country, up from 55 percent in 2002. Most people fear for our economic future and think we're still in a recession (because they are in one, even if Wall Street isn't).
After a national scandal and lawsuits from all fifty states, the banks' robosigning fraud continues. And after getting a pass for documented corruption and conflict of interest, unreliable US ratings "agencies" (really private companies who have been given too much power by the government) just gave the President of the United States the back of their hand. They'll rate junk bonds AAA to please a customer, but they they don't feel they need to please a government that's already served them so well. (Bet some folks wish they'd thrown the book at them when their misdeeds first came to light.)
It's their world, to paraphrase Sam and Dave, we're just living in it. Corporate-owned Republicans are passing legislation written in the bowels of the billionaire Koch Brothers' organization. "Bipartisan" gangsters -- of Six and otherwise -- are pushing "debt reduction" in an unemployment-wracked and crumbling nation whose national debt payments are half of what they were (as a percentage of GDP) during the financial showdown of 1995. And the non-Fox major news outlets in this country continue to repeat the deficit falsehoods cooked up by right-wing billionaire Pete Peterson's foundation as if they were facts. Most voters object to these austerity policies, yet leaders in both parties are promoting them while the American majority goes unheard. Resistance seems futile.
But the Murdoch story holds a lesson for everyone who longs for justice: Even when your opponents seem to hold overwhelming power, a change may be just around the corner. Even when they seem invincible, the tiniest crack may bring down an entire edifice. So never give up the fight. Never -- even when it seems hopeless. Especially when it seems hopeless.
Thin-skinned politicians who are annoyed by these reminders might want to remember the words of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. "Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of notoriously wicked men," said Garrison, "but to rebuke great and good men for their conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of moral courage." Slavery seemed like an indestructible institution when Garrison began his work, but thanks to his tireless efforts and those of his fellow irritants it was abolished in his lifetime. "I am aware that many object to the severity of my language," Garrison said, "but is there not cause for severity?" Hey, the guy sounds like a blogger.
Empires are powerful, but they do fall. A wall crumbles in Berlin. A street vendor gets slapped by a cop in Tunisia. A public that's indifferent to reports of criminality at News of the World is repulsed by the deletion of a murdered child's phone messages. Today's "this is how the world works" deal-making becomes tomorrow's career-killing scandal... or worse.
Bankers broke the law and got away with it. They held the economy hostage and demanded a king's ransom from the public. Then they laughed in its face when they got it. But the littlest things can turn the tide. Someday they may defraud the wrong pension fund or illegally foreclose on the wrong home. Sure, they're riding high these days, but they -- and their allies -- should never forget the ancient lesson that history has taught us a thousand times over:
Never, never bet against the house.
Follow Richard (RJ) Eskow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rjeskow
Robert Reich: The Shameful Murder of Dodd-Frank
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Also, thanks so much for filling in for Cenk on TYT and please consider doing more appearances there!
But please, hold off on any investigations until this budget debate is settled and we have planted our feet soundly on the road to pulling out of the atrocious mess we are in.
the Neocon's that dominate so much, and of course that
death the other day reinforced the message.
I do hope we call Congress and demand the Senate
investigate Murdoch/Fox asap. Take down the
Evil Empire !
If he is as honorable as he thinks he is he should divest himslf of these stocks and say he does not want to deal with these crooks..
GWBush simply gave them a signed checkbook ton fill in as they pleased.
Pres.Obama has gone to them for a major part of his campaign financing. He enabled them to come out of the financial disaster that they caused with far greater wealth while the country suffers.
Why can't we bring all of this to a head as was done in England?
It did. Politicians bailed it out. To whom is Wall Street going to be accountable? The cops are all bought off - there is no one to mete out punishment, or promote incentives for good behavior.
The "Murdoch Moment" will be faced by the nation as a whole, and only after it's too late. Management by crisis is the only thing our political-corporate ruling class is capable of, and voters are too fearful and/or ignorant of anything beyond the status quo to change that.
Wall Street: the concept, the concentration of incorporated capital, works like a drug on the civilization that enables it. Are Americans ready to "kick the habit" yet? You can always tell who the willing participants are: they discuss Wall Street as an American phenomenum without reference to BIS and the IMF.
Time will tell. The incorporation of political parties and labor unions to fight the incorporation of monetary capital shows that we still can't recognize the danger of incorporation-in-the-first-place. The Constitution was the ONLY act of voluntary incorporation this civilization needed and it was based on the wide-spread support and ratification of the majority (with its numerous "shall not" limitations on power). Honest men would have ended it there. Dis-honest men will continue to incorporate corporations until prosperity is concentrated in the coffers of the Ultimate Corporation: Globalcorp. Sound good to you? How about IMF or BIS? UN, anybody? We already got G8 and G20 and it won't stop there.
I recognize in these words truth that has seldom been articulated, let alone grasped. It is territory like this that I ponder constantly, though I am barely able to find words to speak about it. It is not even just evil empires, but the tapestry of a life, a generation, a marriage, an American dream, a youthful invulnerability, that may prove to be dependent upon an unexpectedly delicate and fantastical thread.
I've been hunting for a principle. I think it is a lot like the compounding of interest. The worse it gets, the worse it gets. If over-confidence invites flaunting of traditional support systems, the smallest crack can start the cascading collapse of the whole structure. There is a positive corollary, though -- the better it gets, the better it gets. Consider the beautiful and enduring ideas that have emerged from humanity, and the frequent richness of a humble life well-lived.
We progressives have gotten good at identifying the problems. IMHO, we've been short on solutions. It seems as though the dark side has set the rules of engagement, which is to say no rules. I'm not willing to urge we take up their tactics in order to win a battle. So where does that leave one? This will satisfy no one, but we each have to work on ourselves. Make of yourself a light, Buddha said. Does that feel like inaction? I understand if it does. Does to me too, sometimes. I find though that it is extremely difficult action.
Murdoch will lose some minions and a little skin. But anyone waiting for him to really bleed will likely be disappointed. I for one will try to be less dissatisfied and angry and deluded, and I'll try to do whatever I can to help out. And I'll leave Murdoch to his own karma.
Wow...
I definitely could not have said it better, even on a really great day :)