State and capital: Green New Deal, Trump, the politicization of the financial markets and the struggle of the capital fractions
The relationship between the state/ politics and the economy/capital is often described by vulgar conspiracy theorists in such a way that „money rules the world“, the economy controls the state and is controlled via lobbies and personal union and consulting firms such as McKinsey or rating agencies and on the part of the left, Lenin’s writing „Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism“ with its idea of monopoly capitalism and the personal union of capital and politics has given up Marx’s analysis of the state as „the ideal total capitalist“ and its relative autonomy and primacy of politics in favor of a modified stamocap political thriller agent theory of capital, which can also be found in popular sentiment and right-wing circles or in matters of blind economism as Clinton’s „It’s the economy, stupid“ or the idea of detached parasitic finance capital verus productive real capital as a modification of Hitler’s creative and scavenging capital , which then also as a shortened critique of capitalism in a new type of anti-Semitism – according to the motto.; Money rules the world, the Jews the East Coast, international finance capital or just finance capital rule the money and thereby the states and the world, , charge interest rates or have invented it, so they are parasites that have to be eliminated in order to achieve a better peace order worldwide,
But there is no need for these extreme forms of anti-Semitism, many conspiracy theories, like many Leninists and Marxists, have a false theory of capitalism due to their economism, the relationship between state and capital, the laws of movement of capital that perpetuate crises, the relationship between economy and ideology. Often an international financial capital is also spun together, which determines the course of the world and, like the Illuminati, Free Masons or now so-called globalists, it is about a uniform parasitic elite that has the rest of humanity under their thumb and by means of divide et impera / divide and rule play the peoples against each other in their already existing secret world government. The fact that different capital groups in a country and also capitalists from different countries and their governments are now fighting each other so fiercely that „change through trade“ and economy trumps security are now increasingly being replaced in favor of trade wars, wars and security trumps economy seems to show the error in thinking in relation to the omnipotence of capital and the alleged insignificance of the state and its violence apparatus as a relatively autonomous collective capitalist. In addition, the idea of war Keynesianism, according to which the arms companies start wars and make money from them, is also questionable. Politicians still make decisions about war and peace, and the fact that the armaments industry earns money from wars cannot be equated with the fact that they also make war decisions in Washington. This is more Stamokap ( state monopolist capitalism) theory and forgets the realtive autonomy of the state and the politicians who make the decisions.
That does not exclude a certain amount of lobbying and attempts to exert influence, as well as certain exploitation of the situation by the arms industry, if a war has been decided. But Lockheed and Martin Marietta didn´t decide the Vietnam war or Korea war or the Gulf war. Cui bono doesn´t mean that they are the decision- makers. Especially since most of the business is not made in the war, but in civilian production and according to this logic should actually rule perpetual peace or vice versa perpetual war. In addition, the armaments industry in the USA accounts for just 10% of GDP, just as there are hardly any pure armaments companies, but many even have significantly higher civilian production sectors. And the vulgar Marxist idea of capitalist crisis and therefore war is not right either. World War I occurred during a global economic boom, while World War II occurred in the shadow of the Great Depression of 1929. Therefore, the mental and automatic equation of politics and economics is wrong.
In the last decade, as climate change and its disastrous effects attacked the very basis of production, reproduction and livelihoods, more and more capitalists gave more and more to the idea of a Green New Deal, a decarbonized and non-fossil green sustainable capitalism with renewable energy and hydrogen technology as the energy base and source of profit at the same time, be it Blackrock, Siemens, the Rockefeller Foundation, Schwab’s World Economic Forum and his Reset, several other companies and funds that are committed to the ESG sustainability standard, which is seen by ecologists and Greta Thunberg as cheap greenwashing, but on the part of the oil, gas and old industries and by the Trumpians and old industries denounced as a „Marxian project“ of ideologically infected capitalists, neosocialism and new communism, so it is ideally a struggle between old and new industries, between capitalist factions, which are now being further politicized by Trump and other right-wing populist governments which they also reward with donations. One does not know who is the chicken and the egg, at least it is an interaction that is highly polarized and catalyzed that there is now talk of a politicization and division of the financial markets within the West and the USA.:
“Politicizing the Financial Market: Make Investing Great Again In the US, funds are banning sustainable companies from their portfolios to lure conservative investors. The investment ideologues threaten to split the financial world. Make Investing Great Again The culture war in the USA has reached the financial markets. New fund providers are always courting patriotic, libertarian or conservative investors. For example, the publishers of the God Bless America ETF, who specifically weed out companies that they see as „left-leaning“ and „activist“. The fund company primarily includes companies that are committed to ESG principles. A company that adorns itself with this abbreviation wants to operate more sustainably in terms of the environment (Environmental), social issues (Social) and good corporate governance (Governance). That, at least according to the publishers of the God Bless America ETF, comes at the expense of the actual purpose of the company, which is to maximize profits for shareholders. However, the exact selection criteria are a trade secret. It is known that Tesla is currently the ETF’s most important investment. It is not clear how Elon Musk’s full-bodied promise to save the planet from the climate catastrophe with his electric cars fits in with the fund’s not-so-environmentally-minded attitude. Chipmaker Nvidia and biotech group Amgen are also among the fund’s top three stocks. When it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange last week, the shares of the God Bless America ETF ended trading with a slight minus. However, the S&P 500, the broad US stock index, also closed in the red that day. The America First ETF, with the ticker symbol MAGA, also wants to offer right-wing investors an investment opportunity. One of the criteria used by MAGA’s creators is that the company or its employees have paid more than $25,000 in election donations to the Republican Party or its nominee. Among the top ten stocks in which MAGA invests are five oil and gas companies such as ConocoPhillips and Marathon Petroleum. The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Allstate, an insurance company, are also among the largest investments in the portfolio. Newsletter The fund provider Inspire and its index funds designed according to Christian principles are all about investing your money “for the glory of God”. A “biblically responsible investment” is thus possible, according to the Inspire website. The funds, in which investors have invested at least two billion dollars, bear abbreviations such as BIBL for bible or BLES for blessing. Crusade against woke capitalists Until recently, Christian funds promised to follow ESG principles when picking stocks. But that’s over now, says Robert Netzly, founder of Inspire, because ESG has been co-opted by „radical leftists“ pursuing a „proto-Marxist agenda.“ However, Netzly has not been leading his crusade against ESG investment criteria alone for a long time. Florida, for example, prohibited the state’s public pension funds, which manage the almost $190 billion in pensions for public employees, from investing according to ESG criteria. This happened at the instigation of Governor Ron DeSantis, who is considered a possible competitor of Donald Trump in the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. „Corporations are increasingly using their power to impose their ideological agenda on the American people,“ DeSantis said. He called ESG a „perversion“. Previously, West Virginia, where coal mines have shaped the economic fortunes of the state and its residents for more than a century, enacted a similar anti-ESG regulation for pension funds. In that case, it was state Treasurer Riley Moore, also a Republican, who used his position as Treasurer to impose his agenda. He referred to Europe as a deterrent example of the dangers that he believed to be posed by climate-friendly and social investment. The current situation there clearly shows the dangers when woke capitalists weaken and destroy domestic energy producers. „It’s time to fight back,“ Moore said. His counterpart Glenn Hegar, Texas Treasury Secretary, last year issued a long list of 10 major banks and over 300 fund providers that municipal treasurers and state pension administrators can no longer do business with for allegedly boycotting the oil and gas industry. The financial firms had a „secret social and political agenda,“ Hegar explained. Blacklisted institutions also include European banks such as France’s BNP Paribas and Switzerland’s Credit Suisse and UBS.
Ideology is not a good investment advisor
Hegar also ruled out BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with almost eight trillion dollars. BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink has asserted in open letters, interviews and speeches in recent years that the asset manager he founded is committed to sustainable investment. Apparently, this has led to pension funds in conservative US states withdrawing their mandate from the investment giant. This week, for example, Missouri announced that it would withdraw $500 million from BlackRock’s funds. Louisiana had just withdrawn $ 794 million from the wealth manager. Arkansas, South Carolina and Utah also resigned from BlackRock’s mandate. BlackRock resisted the ban, pointing out in the case of Texas that BlackRock had invested over $100 billion for clients in the Texas oil and gas industry. However, it is precisely because of such commitments that BlackRock is criticized in states governed by Democrats such as New York. Brad Lander, New York City’s chief financial officer, warned in a letter to Larry Fink that BlackRock must deliver on its sustainability promise – or face repercussions. Banks and asset managers fear the increasing politicization of the financial market. The anti-ESG movement in particular complicates their task, says Josh Lichtenstein of Ropes & Grey, a lawyer who specializes in advising asset managers: “Considering sustainability is also part of risk management, especially for investors such as pension funds who have a very long investment horizon.” Depending on the specific bans, it could also severely restrict the investment options of pension funds, which is detrimental to achieving the best returns, says Lichtenstein.
Credit cards from cartridge cases
Wealth managers are increasingly concerned that the trend could eventually lead to a rift in the investment world. Fearing being banned by one side or the other, they could no longer offer a choice of funds with different strategies. They feared that they would then have to choose between customers, reports Lichtenstein. However, a smaller client base would drive up wealth management costs — and could lower their profitability. But there are also disadvantages for ESG opponents. Because large banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America withdrew from business with the municipalities there after the ESG ban in Texas, fewer buyers are competing for the municipal bonds. As a result, Texas communities are paying up to $500 million more in interest, according to an analysis by the Wharton Business School. GloriFi’s difficulties show that ideological conviction is not enough to be successful in the financial market. The online bank, which debuted its app in September, touts „love of God and country“ and „true American values“ and has celebrity backers including libertarian billionaire Peter Thiel, who invested millions of dollars. Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff was also present. One of the ideas of founder Toby Neugebauer was to use cartridge cases for the planned credit cards. The project failed because the cards proved to be too thick for the readers and the material also interfered with the function of the cards‘ electronic chips. There were other problems as well, the Wall Street Journal reported. Employees complained about the fact that the bank initially operated out of Neugebauer’s home, a replica of the White House, and that the founder had taunted them with abuse and was often drunk. According to a lawsuit filed by a company that was supposed to provide technology to the financial start-up, a scantily clad GloriFi manager unexpectedly appeared on the screen after a virtual meeting – in bed with a second person who – according to the complaint – was also almost naked has been. According to the Journal’s report, the bank was also in danger of running out of money. Neugebauer rejected all of the paper’s allegations. In the meantime, all employees have also moved into offices. Last Sunday, however, he resigned as CEO and is only represented on the GloriFi board of directors. The combination of moral values and finances can quickly become a minefield for everyone involved
Such divisions and split of capital are not to be feared in authoritarian states such as China or Russia, since a uniform economic line is prescribed there, the primacy of politics has a much more immediate effect and people are also much more cautious when it comes to the Green New Deal, yes Russia with its concept of the Resources Empire is interested in the continued existence of the oil and gas industry,hopes that the climate change will boost its rable agricultural land, in conjunction with OPEC plus, although the question is why the USA is not yet a member as it is now the largest oil-and gas-producing and exporting country. Is it that the USA doesn’t want to get involved in multilateral cartels, especially since there is also a NOPEC-movement in the USA that wants to destroy OPEC, iis it Biden’s Green New Deal, who doesn’t want to further strengthen or promote the carbon economy, is it Trump’s America First , principled rejection of multilateralism or international organizations and the socialization in earlier years by the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 in the context of the Yom Kippur War, which made it remembered by oil sheikhs as a threat and Israel as the only reliable ally?
In Germany, a good ally of ESG capital was the then Siemens boss Joe Kaeser, who also advocated unconditional basic income like a number of Silicon Valley princes. With his AfD criticism, the remark that he prefers headscarf girls to BDM girls and his offer to Luise Neubauer, member of the Green Youth and leadership alpha woman of Friday for Future Germany to become a member of the Siemens supervisory board, Siemens boss Joe Kaser showed a clear profile . Now he also appeared on the Economic Council of the Greens and there was broad agreement between Annalena Baerbrock and him. While the Siemens Foundation under Armin Mohler was the main black-brown think tank of the New Right in the 1980s, his work was by no means over after he retired and died. Parts of what was then the New Right restructured and formed new networks, which found their new center through a new generation of historians and humanities scholars and the secession, Götz Kubitschek’s Institute for State Politics (IfS), as well as Karl Weißmann’s and other right-wing extremist publications such as the Blue Narcissus and now in the AfD its parliamentary neo-fascist wing. In the left and Marxist literature, analyzes were often made between the connection between the respective capital groups and political movements and parties – from Sohn-Rethel to „Strategies of German Capital“ or in the entire Chinese, Soviet or GDR literature. In simplified terms, it was claimed that the representatives of the old industries (coal/steel Stinnes/Krupp/Thyssen: I paid Hitler ) supported right-wing and right-wing extremist parties and movements, while the new industries (electrical/chemicals–Siemens/IG Farben) supported the democratic forces in the Weimar Republic. In addition, the corresponding bank details, especially Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank, were examined. Only with the world economic crisis 1929 did the new industries defect to the right. So it will be interesting to see whether this scheme can still be used today in the event of another global economic crisis or financial crisis and whether the new industries, above all Siemens, will then switch back and, like Mohler, will switch to an AfD/Front National axis or whether the general economic conditions and international constellations have changed as a result of globalization and neoliberalism, especially as there is also the question of whether the electronics and chemical industries will still be among the new industries in the future. Also interesting in this context are the discussions as to whether, as a result of Trump’s America First economic nationalism and criticism of globalism, as well as the corona crisis, there will now be a decoupling of the global economy and the international supply chains and a restructuring. The question of whether globalization is irreversible, partially reversible or restructurable and the question of whether the globalized economic system is still sustainable and desirable is also being catalyzed by the climate crisis, Friday for Future and the supply difficulties in pharmaceutical drugs and other sectors and goods . Here again in detail how Siemens mutated from black-brown to black-green:
Siemens and the Siemens Foundation: Shift from a ideology think tank of the black-brown New Right in the 80s and 90s to a black- green think tank under Joe Kaeser and the roll back under Bosch?
It remains to be seen how German capital will accommodate US sanctions against Russia and China, or which sections will rebel against it and then support which political parties. It will also be interesting to see how Trigema boss Grupp will react to the economic war. So far he has voted for the Greens because of sustainability and has also aligned his company according to these criteria in an exemplary manner. But now that his own energy costs and the Russian sanctions are jeopardizing his business model, it is quite possible that he could then become AFD’s torchbearer for German companies that want to lift the Russian sanctions. Trigema – that is the original German, economic nationalist, if not Trump, but Trupp, i.e. Mister Grupp and – with the exception of the patriarchal behavior – not to be confused with Krupp, who was the last remaining textile industrialist producing in Germany to resist the outsourcing globalization mania and who promises German jobs with his advertising chimpanzee. You know that everything is German, especially since it is known that Germany is the world’s leading cotton producer. At least Mr. Grupp is sitting in Kretschmann- Baden Wurttemberg which is governed by the green government, and according to his own information he votes green, while his two children are the black sheep of the family who voted for the CDU and Merkel. Well, that’s what generational conflicts look like today when „the youth rebels“. But Mr. Grupp shouldn’t miss the latest trend, as he stated that he had no qualms about buying and consuming Ladas and other products from Russia. Putin will look for symbolic, charismatic multipliers. One possible development is that Trigema boss Grupp will defect to the AfD and become its prominent spokesman for German medium-sized entrepreneurs threatened by sanctions and act as an anti-American mouthpiece. So far he has voted green, in contrast to his children, who voted for Merkel and the CDU, so they were basically the black sheep of the family. Grupp is already loudly speaking out against the sanctions and sees the USA as the actual cause of the war.
“The Americans control everything in the background” – statement by Trigema boss shocked experts https://www.merkur.de/wirtschaft/wolfgang-grupp-trigema-ukraine-krieg-thorsten-benner-zr-91813975.html
Grupp’s company and person have a strong symbolic character, are considered to be the company that has been decoupled except for the cotton supply, that produces in Germany, regionalizes it, has withstood the outsourcing madness of the old globalization, the German model entrepreneur. It is therefore important in the Ministry of Economic Affairs that he, as a possible pro-Putin symbolic figure, does not go bankrupt and is turned into an enemy, but rather that he is brought into the transatlantic democracy camp before he becomes an advocate of Putin and the AfD. And be it with the preferred delivery of his company with Democracy LNG. Ex-NATO General Naumann commented: “I had already seen the interview with Grupp and felt the same as you. Not surprising for his generation in my experience. I have repeatedly experienced the dull fear of Soviet power from 1945 and the frequent anti-Americanism of the same generation. This mixture creates a mystical connection with the Russia that may have existed in Tauroggen in 1812. Nevertheless, I hope that ways will be found to prevent Mr. Grupp from becoming the torchbearer of the AfD. His mascot Charly wouldn’t understand that.“ Yes, maybe the Alliance of Democracies and the NATO groups should give advertising chimpanzees Charly a few bananas so that he can persuade his master to choose the right side and not mimic and IQ-wise fall behind the chimpanzee like the Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan once did in “ Bedtime for Gonzo“. Best with Democracy Bananas – but we would have some image problems with Chiquitta.
Decoupling and the Politicization of Supply Chains: Democracy Chips and Dictator Gas – „Made in Democracy“