Communication that shifts power

Communication that shifts power

TANKER

GREED ISN´T GOOD
17.05.2008

Enormous riches have been amassed into a very few hands through the last 25 years. The 50 largest financial institutions in the world control values of nearly 50 000 billion dollars. This corresponds to one third of the world’s riches and entails a concentration of power so significant that it challenges democracy.

David Rothkopf wrote the book “Superclass; The Real power elite, and the world they are making”. In an article in the Financial Times, he poses the question whether today’s financial crisis indicates the climax for the transatlantic elite. Rothkopf here identifies three reasons why the world’s power hegemony is changing. Firstly, he claims that the crisis enforces new regulations as authorities perceive that accumulation of riches into a very few hands happens at the expense of the majority. Secondly, that the crisis makes it more unpalatable for the general population to accept the top executives’ conspicuous consumption. 30 years ago, the executives earned 35 times as much as the average wages for employees. Now, the number is 350 times higher. The world’s 1,100 richest people own twice as much as the world’s 2.5 billion poorest, and the poorest no longer accept the discrepancy. Thirdly, increased amassing of riches in Russia, China and the Persian Gulf shows that the world’s financial hub is about to move. The Davos aristocracy is under threat. It will be exciting to follow Norway’s position in this power struggle as the country possesses a significant financial fortune as well as large energy reserves.

There’s little to signify that the transatlantic financial elite will have a mind to give up power voluntarily. A lot signifies that the Western politicians are facing a huge power struggle where peoples’ power will be up against monetary power. Further, we’ll be seeing Western monetary power fighting against Russian, Chinese and Arabic monetary power. When Ben Benanke, the leader of the American Federal Reserve, lets American interest rates and the dollar fall, he actually sends part of the bill for the American financial crisis to foreign, often Asian, investors.

The outcome of power struggles is difficult to predict. The party who succeeds in arguing his case most advantageously, increases his chances of success. My prediction is that the Western financial elite will increase the possibilities of further progress if they perceive that free markets have created enormous riches as well as enormous discrepancies. The selfsame financial elite may themselves contribute to preventing further increase of these discrepancies. This presupposes that wisdom conquers greed.

Hans Geelmuyden