Trump, Clinton, Obama and the TPP

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement between the US and eleven other Pacific Rim countries was under negotiation for the first seven years of the Obama presidency. For the first four years, Hilary Clinton was the Secretary of State, directly supervising the negotiations. Even after she quit her cabinet position to launch for her second presidential bid, she continued to tout it in superlative terms.

Yet, by early 2016, most presidential aspirants, including Mrs. Clinton, had disowned the TPP. No new information about the TPP had come to light to prompt this volte face. Nor had the then new Secretary of State John Kerry added anything radically new to the proposals she was associated with during her tenure.

While largely in the interests of corporate America, the TPP is not in the interests of the US economy or the public at large. While it is in the interest of US transnational corporations (TNCs) to source manufactures and services from low-wage Asian economies for the US market, by doing so, they are likely to displace those previously producing those goods, increasing US unemployment. This, in turn, reduces aggregate demand and increases the current account deficit in the US balance of payments.

US Corporate Interests

The TPP will promote US corporate interests by institutionalizing new arrangements which undermine the sovereignty of TPP countries, including the US itself. For instance, the TPPA’s patent and copyright provisions are stronger and for longer durations. This would strengthen corporate monopolies, especially of US TNCs, raising the prices of goods, especially pharmaceutical drugs, in all TPP countries. Thus, while US TNCs stand to profit greatly, consumers in all TPP countries, including the US, would be worse off.

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Wall Street Goes "All In" For Hillary Clinton

Wall Street, America’s most despised industry, is putting all of its eggs in the Hillary Clinton basket. I must say, I’m actually pretty shocked at the extent to which the industry’s heavyweights are backing her. There’s really only one explanation - they know she’s a sure thing. 

You don’t go into Wall Street to help the world. You go in to make money, stroke your ego and perhaps one day be lucky enough to be deemed “master of the universe” by some finance humping media outlet like Bloomberg or CNBC. Wall Street oligarchs aren’t rallying around Hillary because they find Trump offensive. The only thing these people find offensive is not making money. They know Hillary, they’ve paid Hillary, and they are 100% confident she will do their bidding. Trump on the other hand is unpredictable and injects into the environment what the current crop on Wall Street hates more than anything else, risk.

The U.S. economy is totally rigged. While in the past, you were expected to take on a great deal of risk to earn an outsized return, most large returns these days have been gamed to such and extent that they amount to riskless schemes through which the U.S. taxpayer funnels money upward to a handful of oligarchs. Hillary will unquestionably keep this system in place. Trump, we just don’t know.

This is why the real players Wall Street want Hillary. They want the riskless pillaging of society to continue uninterrupted. As usual, money talks.

As The Hill reports:

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Clinton Cash: "Devastating" Documentary Reveals How Clintons Went From "Dead Broke" To Mega Wealthy

Clinton Cash, a feature documentary based on the Peter Schweizer book, has been posted to YouTube for all to view free just in time for the DNC.  Clinton Cash investigates how Bill and Hillary Clinton went from being “dead broke” after leaving the White House to amassing a net worth of over $150 million, with over $2 billion in donations to their foundation.  This wealth was accumulated during Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State through lucrative speaking fees and contracts paid for by foreign companies and Clinton Foundation donors.

The New York Times hailed the book as “The most anticipated and feared book of a presidential cycle" while MSNBC described the documentary as devastating for the Hillary campaign.  

The Clinton camp has, of course, dismissed the documentary as a right-wing smear campaign filled with unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.  That said, perhaps the most shocking aspect of the release is that many of the biggest bombshells revealed in the documentary have been vetted and confirmed by various mainstream media outlets.  More recently, some information uncovered in the Panama Papers has echoed some of Schweitzer’s allegations in the movie and book.  

Just to highlight a few of the scandals detailed in the documentary:

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