Neoclassical Economics and Neoliberalism as Neo-Imperialism
James M. Craven/Omahkohkiaayo I’poyi
Presentation to
Institute of Marxism Research of the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
A Poem Capturing the Essence of Neoclassical
Economics, Neo-liberalism and Imperialism
Those who take the meat from the table,
teach contentment.
Those for whom the taxes are destined,
demand sacrifice.
Those who eat their fill, speak to the hungry,
of wonderful times to come.
Those who lead the country into the abyss,
call ruling too difficult,
for ordinary folk.
(Bertolt Brecht)
What is Imperialism?
 “If it were necessary to give the briefest possible definition of
imperialism we should have to say that imperialism is the
monopoly stage of capitalism. Such a definition would
include what is most important…”
 “But very brief definitions, although convenient, for they sum
up the main points, are nevertheless inadequate, since we
have to deduce from them some especially important features
of the phenomenon that has to be defined.”
(V.I. Lenin, Imperialism The Highest Stage of Capitalism”)
Defining Features of Imperialism
 “And so, without forgetting the conditional and relative value of all definitions
in general, which can never embrace all the concatenations of a phenomenon in
its full development, we must give a definition of imperialism that will include
the following five of its basic features:
 (1) the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high




stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life;
(2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the
basis of this “finance capital”, of a financial oligarchy;
(3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities
acquires exceptional importance;
(4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share
the world among themselves, and
(5) the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist
powers is completed.
(V.I. Lenin, “Imperialism The Highest Stage of Capitalism”)
Imperialism is a System and Not
Simply a Set of Policies
“In the matter of defining imperialism, however, we have to
enter into controversy… The fundamental ideas expressed in
our definition of imperialism were very resolutely attacked
by Kautsky… when he said that imperialism must not be
regarded as a “phase” or stage of economy, but as a policy, a
definite policy ‘preferred’ by finance capital; “
(V.I. Lenin, Imperialism The Highest Stage of Capitalism)
"Money to Get Power.
Power to Protect Money"
Slogan of the Medici Family
The Core Imperatives and “Logic” of
Capitalism and Imperialism
Effective
Competition
(market
power)
Production
Maximum
Surplus Value
Maximization
of
Productivity
Realization
Maximum
Surplus Value
Accumulation
of Capital*
Imperial Superstructure
“The non-economic superstructure which grows up on the
basis of finance capital, its politics and its ideology,
stimulates the striving for colonial conquest. “Finance
capital does not want liberty, it wants domination,” as
Hilferding very truly says.“
(V.I. Lenin Imperialism The Highest Stage of Capitalism)
Imperial Overreach is Accelerating
the Global Decline of America
"Our power, then, has the grave liability of rendering our theories
about the world immune from failure. But by becoming deaf to easily
discerned warning signs, we may ignore long-term costs that result
from our actions and dismiss reverses that should lead to a reexamination of our goals and means.“
(Republican Congressman Henry Hyde)
Imperial Expansion Spiral
Expanding Home
Economy
Returns of Profits,
Interest, Rents
and Global Power
Secure Investment
Outlets, Raw
Materials, Markets
Imperial Power
Projection (Hard
and Soft)
Spheres of
Influence
Imperial Overreach and Decline
Increasing Crises
Domestic and
Global
Declining Global
Market Shares,
Returns, Power
Power Vacuums
Favoring Rivals
Reckless Power
Projections
Increasing
Resistance
Globally
Pillars of Neo-liberalism












Fiscal Policy discipline;
Redirection of public spending from subsidies ("especially indiscriminate subsidies") toward broadbased provision of key pro-growth, pro-poor services like primary education, primary health care
and infrastructure investment;
Tax reform – broadening the tax base and adopting moderate marginal tax rates;
Interest rates that are market determined and positive (but moderate) in real terms;
Competitive exchange rates;
Trade liberalization – liberalization of imports, with particular emphasis on elimination of
quantitative restrictions (licensing, etc.); any trade protection to be provided by law and relatively
uniform tariffs
Liberalization of inward foreign direct investment;
Privatization of state enterprises;
Deregulation – abolition of regulations that impede market entry or restrict competition, except
for those justified on safety, environmental and consumer protection grounds, and prudent
oversight of financial institutions; and,
Legal security for property rights.
Restraint on Unions and Unionization
Tight Money Policies (anti-Inflationary even at expense of higher unemployment)
Pillars of Neoclassical Economics
 The first meta-axiom of neoclassical economics:
methodological individualism
 The second meta-axiom of neoclassical economics:
methodological instrumentalism
 The third meta-axiom of neoclassical economics:
methodological equilibration
 Source: Arnsperger, Christian and Varoufakis,Yanis, “What is
Neoclassical Economics?”, Post-autistic Economics Review Issue
38, July 2009
Methodological Individualism
 Individual (buyer, seller, owner) is the focus of all analysis;
 Whole (Macro) = Sum of its parts; Micro  Macro;
 Strict Separation of Structure from Agency: Micro  Macro
but no concept of Macro  Micro;
 Form of “methodological reductionism” or the notion that all
large entities may be explained by reference to smaller ones;
 No place for social class, race, ethnicity, gender, history, state
of society or type of system in decision making;
 Collective action is simple aggregation of actions of
“rational” utility-maximizing individuals.
Methodological Instrumentalism
 All human behavior is preference driven with all preferences reduced to
ultimate goals of utility maximization and minimization of pain, costs,
uncertainty and risk;
 Homo Oeconomicus Model (Evolving)
a) Perfectly Rational to Bounded Rational
b) Maximizer now Satisficer of Total Utility and Profits; calculates on
the margin to maximize in Toto
c) Preferences: given Exogenous; now adaptive Endogenous
d) Egoistic or Self-interested and competitive Individual
e) Preferences independent of influence of others or contexts now, via
Game Theory, allows adaptation to past outcomes and context.
f) From perfectly informed on all information necessary for rational
choice to asymmetric information
g) from pure competition to imperfect competition
Methodological Equilibration
 Axiomatic imposition of equilibrium as focus of analysis
 Questions about how, how likely equilibrium could occur in the
real world never dealt with. Equilibrium merely and summarily
asserted as neoclassical theory cannot demonstrate how some
equilibrium could/would naturally occur out of competitive
interactions of the instrumentally rational choices of “economic
agents”.
 Economy can be analytically detached and analyzed independent of
the other dimensions of society (pure Economics instead of
Political Economy)
 Economy as a Morphostatic and not Morphogenetic system.
 Equilibrium focus has rhetorical intention. (Who goes to the
psychiatrist looking for more disequilibrium in their lives?)
(Source Henderson, Hazel, http://www.hazelhenderson.com/visual.html; reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine)
Rhetoric of Neoclassical Economics
 “However, since 1870, triumphant marginalism has set itself the
task of working out an economic science that is ‘pure’, or, more
precisely, independent of all other social sciences. This ‘pure’
economic science must necessarily be a historical, since the laws it
seeks to discover have to be true whatever the economic and social
system may be. Abandoning the universal outlook of Marxism,
breaking down the bridges that the latter had laid between the
various branches of social science it its attempt to explain history,
neoclassical economics was led to become, first and foremost, an
algebra of logical deductions from a certain number of axioms
based on a sketchy psychology of ‘eternal man’.” (Samir Amin,
Accumulation on aWorld Scale, p. 5)
How is Neoclassical Economics Used
in Service to Imperialism?
 Analysis free of history, class, race, ethnicity, gender, and power (the real






world)
Focus on human’s relations with things (Scarcity v Wants) and not on
human relations among themselves in the course of producing and
distributing means of subsistence
Focus on mythical equilibrium in a system doomed to chronic
disequilibrium, crises and eventual implosion
All exchanges assumed by Neoclassicals and Neoliberals to be voluntary
and mutually beneficial otherwise would not have occurred; whereas
imperialism is all about unequal and involuntary exchanges and outright
plunder—all assumed away a-priori
Ideology of universal harmonies based on mere tautologies with real
world forms of exploitation defined or assumed away.
Hypothetico-deductivist; anti-empirical
Bad career move for economists who reject it; Dominant Paradigm
Early 20th Century Imperialism:
“Gunboat Diplomacy”
 "I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that
period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for
Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for
capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil
interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National
City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen
Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify
Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 19021912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar
interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit
companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went
on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few
hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I
operated on three continents."[28]“
 (Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC, three-times nominated,
twice awarded, the Medal of Honor. Single-handedly infiltrated and exposed a
plot by big capitalists to overthrow President Roosevelt in 1934 and set up a
fascist dictatorship in America)
Latter 20th Century Imperialism:
Social Systems Engineering
 "I don’ t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the
irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean
voters to be left to decide for themselves." (Henry Kissinger);
 "Not a nut or bolt shall reach Chile under Allende. Once Allende comes to power we
shall do all within our power to condemn Chile and all Chileans to utmost deprivation
and poverty." (Edward M. Korry, U.S. Ambassador to Chile, upon hearing of Allende"s
election)
 "Make the economy scream [in Chile to] prevent Allende from coming to power or to
unseat him" (Richard Nixon, orders to CIA director Richard Helms on September 15,
1970)
 "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup. It would be much
preferable to have this transpire prior to 24 October but efforts in this regard will
continue vigorously beyond this date. We are to continue to generate maximum pressure
toward this end, utilizing every appropriate resource. It is imperative that these actions
be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG and American hand be well
hidden..." (A communiqué to the CIA base in Chile, issued on October 16, 1970.)
Interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski
National Security Adviser in the Carter Administration
Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From
the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahedeen
in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were
the national security adviser to President Carter.You therefore played a role in
this affair. Is that correct?
Brzezinski:Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the
Mujahedeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded
Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is
completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed
the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in
Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to
him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military
intervention.
Brzezinski Continued

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired
this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?
B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the
probability that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a
secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there
was a basis of truth.You don't regret anything today?
B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the
Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially
crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the
USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable
by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the
Soviet empire.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic [intégrisme], having given arms and
advice to future terrorists?
Brzezinski Continued
 B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the
Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end
of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism
represents a world menace today.
B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid.
There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery
or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is
there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan
militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what
unites the Christian countries.
[This interview was published in French in Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21,
1998, but it is believed not included in the edition sent to the United States. Translation
from original French by Bill Blum, author of "Killing Hope: US Military and CIA
Interventions Since World War II" and "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only
Superpower".]
21st Century Imperialism?
 "When all the intelligence was sorted, weighed and analyzed,
Tenet and Pavit agreed there were three major threats to
American national security. One was Osama bin Laden and
his al Qaeda terrorist network...A second major threat was
the increasing proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction...Third was the rise of China, especially its
military, but that problem was 5 to 15 or more years
away.”(Plan of Attack by BobWoodward, p.12)
An Allegory About Neoliberalism and
How and For Whom it Really Works
 Imagine a race between two runners. Imagine that Runner A is
held back while Runner B is advanced 80% of the way around the
track toward the finish. Now imagine that Runner A is suddenly
released to run the race, with no reference to having been held
back or why, and, only when Runner B is only 20% away from the
finish of the race, is Runner A then turned loose to “compete” in
the race. Suppose Runner A is even told by Neoclassical
theoreticians that if he does not win the race, that he is now totally
“free” to run, this will be taken as “evidence” of Runner A’s own
inferiority, laziness and lack of fitness to run the race.” And
suppose further that the rules of the race only apply to Runner A
while the “referees” of the race are in the employ of and/or related
to Runner B.
Now Extend The Previous Allegory
 Suppose the winner of the previous race (any question who that will
be?) starts out in Race II at a position 90% ahead of the start line or 10%
from the finish line while the loser of the previous race, Runner A, starts
at the start line or say even 10% ahead of the previous start line, and
each is told again, that he or she has an “equal opportunity” to run the
race. Any question who will win race 2?
 Now imagine that this race has life and death consequences on many
innocents and even the fate of the planet hangs on it.
 Inequalities, are self-reinforcing and self-reproducing especially in
market-based systems, where access to political power, information,
specialized technologies, patents, copyrights, guanxi etc are all
commodities for sale to some and denied to others who either lack
purchasing power and/or are subject to embargos.
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism
 Fiscal Policy discipline:
a) Slashing Social Programs and Safety Nets for the Poor (increase
labor-power market surpluses puts downward pressure on real
wages while increasing productivity)
b) Government expenditures to socialize costs and risks of foreign
enterprises whose profits remain privatized, centralized,
concentrated, and transferred out.
c) Priority on export and other earnings on foreign debt
repayment and debt rescheduling;
d) demand-pull inflation mitigation seen as top priority over
reduction of unemployment;
e) deficit and debt peonage acts as fiscal straightjacket
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism
 Redirection of public spending from subsidies ("especially
indiscriminate subsidies") toward broad-based provision of key
pro-growth, pro-poor services like primary education, primary
health care and infrastructure investment
a)
Particular focus on development (uneven and unbalanced) of
infrastructure in service to foreign capital (plant to port)
b)
Draconian Cuts in Social Safety Net Expenditures
c)
Development of Economic Zones or Enclaves oriented toward
metropolitan economies and creation of derivative demand for
imports of high-tech and high value-added commodities from
metropoles and exports of low-tech and low value-added semimanufactures or raw materials to the metropoles
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism
 Tax reform – broadening the tax base and adopting moderate
marginal tax rates;
a)
Increasing uses of regressive taxes (sales and value-added) and
decreased use of progressive taxation in general and marginal tax rates
of upper brackets in particular
b)
Tax regimes are moderately progressive de jure (on paper) but
regressive overall de facto (in fact)
c)
Increased use of tax shelters, loopholes, tax code complexity and
accelerated depreciation etc for upper income brackets and
corporations. (increases demand for foreign consulting and finance
capital services and hides regressive nature of tax code)
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism

NED and the “Infrastructure of ‘Democracy’ “
The National Endowment for Democracy: Revisiting the CIA Connection
 The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was established in 1984 with bipartisan support
during President Reagan’s administration to “foster the infrastructure of democracy – the system of
a free press, unions, political parties, universities” around the world.[8] Considering Reagan’s well
documented misunderstanding of what constitutes democratic governance,[9] it is fitting that Allen
Weinstein, the NEDs first acting president, observed that in fact “A lot of what we [the NED] do
today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA”.[10] So for example, it is not surprising that
during the 1990 elections in Nicaragua it is has been estimated that “for every dollar of NED or AID
funding there were several dollars of CIA funding”.[11]


By building upon the pioneering work of liberal philanthropists (like the Ford and Rockefeller
Foundations’) – who have a long history of co-opting progressive social movements – it appears that
the NED was envisaged by US foreign policy elites to be a more suitable way to provide strategic
funding to nongovernmental organizations than via covert CIA funding.[12] Indeed, the NED’s
‘new’ emphasis on overt funding of geostrategically useful groups, as opposed to the covert
funding, appears to have leant an aura of respect to the NED’s work, and has enabled them, for the
most part, to avoid much critical commentary in the mainstream media.

("Democratic Imperialism": Tibet, China, and the National Endowment for Democracy by Michael Barker)
Dispersion of “Freedoms” De jure 
Concentrated Imperial Power De facto
 Siemens, one of the biggest industrialists and “financial kings”
in Germany, told the Reichstag on June 7, 1900, that “the
one-pound share is the basis of British imperialism”.[5] This
merchant has a much deeper and more “Marxist”
understanding of imperialism than a certain disreputable
writer who is held to be one of the founders of Russian
Marxism[21] and believes that imperialism is a bad habit of a
certain nation....” (V.I. Lenin Imperialism The Highest Stage
of Capitalism)
Dispersion of “Ownership” De jure
Concentration of Control De facto

It is characteristic of capitalism in general that the ownership of capital is separated from the
application of capital to production…

“The head of the concern controls the principal company (literally: the “mother company”); the
latter reigns over the subsidiary companies (“daughter companies”) which in their turn control still
other subsidiaries (“grandchild companies”), etc. In this way, it is possible with a comparatively
small capital to dominate immense spheres of production. Indeed, if holding 50 per cent of the
capital is always sufficient to control a company, the head of the concern needs only one million to
control eight million in the second subsidiaries. And if this ‘interlocking’ is extended, it is possible
with one million to control sixteen million, thirty-two million, etc.”[3]

As a matter of fact, experience shows that it is sufficient to own 40 per cent of the shares of a
company in order to direct its affairs,[4] since in practice a certain number of small, scattered
shareholders find it impossible to attend general meetings, etc. The “democratization” of the
ownership of shares, from which the bourgeois sophists and opportunist so-called “SocialDemocrats” expect (or say that they expect) the “democratization of capital”, the strengthening of
the role and significance of small scale production, etc., is, in fact, one of the ways of increasing the
power of the financial oligarchy. (V.I. Lenin Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism)
Stock DispersionSmaller %s of Total
Stocks Needed for Control of Assets
Holding
Company 10%
voting stock
Subsidiary A
10% voting
stock
Subsidiary C
10% of voting
stock
Subsidiary D
10% of voting
stock
Subsidiary B
10% of voting
stock
Subsidiary E
10% of voting
stock
Political Pluralism (De jure) + “Vote”
Dispersion Oligarchy and Plutocracy
 As a matter of fact, experience shows that it is sufficient to
own 40 per cent of the shares of a company in order to direct
its affairs,[4] since in practice a certain number of small,
scattered shareholders find it impossible to attend general
meetings, etc. The “democratization” of the ownership of
shares, [“votes”] from which the bourgeois sophists and
opportunist so-called “Social-Democrats” expect (or say that
they expect) the “democratization of capital”, the
strengthening of the role and significance of small scale
production, etc., is, in fact, one of the ways of increasing the
power of the financial oligarchy. (V.I. Lenin op cit)
Multiple Political Parties and Voter
CynicismLess not More “Democracy”
 Take the U.S. 2000 Presidential Election decided by one vote
(buy the U.S. Supreme Court 5-4) with three of the U.S.
Justices (Scalia, Thomas and O’Connor) who voted for Bush,
in violation of 28 USC 455 which demanded their recusal
from the case for clear conflicts of interest which they
refused to obey) With 50% of age-eligible potential voters
voting, for two parties that have only nominal differences,
and with the winning candidate getting 50% of the votes,
that candidate wins with only .50 x .50 or 25% of ageeligible population voting for him or her. With three parties,
as with Clinton in 1992, his “mandate” was even less.
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism
 Competitive exchange rates;
a) Translation, we believe in “free markets” when it suits us and
administered exchange rates or other prices when that suits us.
b) The exchange rate of the U.S. Dollar has always been about the
political-hegemonic as well as economic role of the dollar. The
U.S. dollar has in many ways been “overvalued” since Bretton
Woods 1944.
c) falling dollar is supposed to stimulate exports unless loss of
general confidence in the dollar causes decreased willingness to
demand and hold dollars thus not only dollar meltdown, but
lacking dollar reserves, countries decrease demand for U.S.
exports and trade deficits rise instead of falling with a falling
dollar.
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism
Questions: Trade liberalization – liberalization of imports,
with particular emphasis on elimination of quantitative
restrictions (licensing, etc.); any trade protection to be
provided by law and relatively uniform tariffs
a) How about trade restrictions based on Cold War mentalities
and machinations such as dual-use technology embargos,
state-sponsored consumer boycotts etc?
b) Who writes and [selectively] enforces the laws?
c) How many hidden methods of protectionism are routinely
applied?
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism
 Liberalization of inward foreign direct investment;
Translation:
The U.S and others following neoliberal prescriptions will
only reinvest their profits if given a free hand to determine
where, when, how much and in what sectors regardless of
the implications on overall growth and development
imperatives of the nation in which the reinvestment is
directed. Not only does this undermine national sovereignty,
but it leaves room for all sorts of social systems engineering
schemes. This is demanded but not practiced by the U.S. and
some of its allies
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism
 Privatization of state enterprises;
Fact:
The history of capitalism everywhere involves the socialization of
costs and risks of accumulation of capital (which is not merely
adding to capital “stock” but expanded reproduction of the basic
power relations and structures and institutions of capitalism) while
the returns of accumulation remain privatized and increasingly
concentrated and centralized.
Privatization used to acquire and control social assets cheaply as
well as to hollow out the industrial and manufacturing bases of
potential competitors. Also enhances roles of foreign finance
capital in recapitalization of newly privatized entities
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism
 Deregulation – abolition of regulations that impede
market entry or restrict competition, except for those
justified on safety, environmental and consumer
protection grounds, and prudent oversight of financial
institutions; and,
 Fact:
 No system, socialist or capitalist is sustainable without
regulation. The question is the de facto and not de jure nature
of regulation and regulation by whom and for whom.
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism
 Legal security for property rights.
a) In the U.S. according to a recent U.S. Supreme Court
decision, the state can exercise “Eminent Domain” against the
private property rights of one corporate entity on behalf of
another private entity under the banner of social benefits.
b) Property rights are also routinely used as weapons: patents
and copyrights granted or assigned for imperial power
projection purposes and denied for the same purposes.
c) All sorts of schemes de jure (on paper or in law) have no
correspondence to what exists de facto (in fact)
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism
 Restraint on Unions and Unionization
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
Increases in both relative and absolute surplus value
Increased fear-based productivity
Decreased working class resistance to policies
Increased roles of labor aristocracy
Rollbacks in real wages, benefits, workplace safety
Decreased worker resistance to imperial adventures
Reductions in tenure and workplace job security and due
process rights
Pillars of Neoliberalism & Imperialism
 Tight Money Policies (anti-Inflationary even at expense of
higher unemployment)
 While low inflation rates can favor consumers, they favor
recipients of property real incomes (rents, interest, profits and
dividends more).When inflation rates are relatively low,
lowers interest rates for borrowing for investment, reduces
interest rates which drives up bond prices and stock prices…
 Under the trade-off between unemployment and inflation,
supposedly reducing inflation via tight money means higher
unemployment. At present the U.S. is pursuing unprecedented
easy money policies yet with rising stagflation (BOTH higher
inflation and higher unemployment).
“Soft”, “Hard” and “Smart” Power

PD User at 2009-04-18 11:22:37 Comment on Obama shows his smart power

IP： 97.120.92.★
 The only kind of "power" that is truly "smart", in the long-run, is that which is
non-hegemonic and does not subjectively seek the power it objectively has. This
is the "power" that comes from good example, from non-hypocrisy, from
modesty, from honesty, from being in the real service of the people and from
solid performance. When the U.S. establishment, in both political parties, talk
about "smart power", what they really mean is not simply "smart"--and thus
effective--combinations of soft and hard power; what they really mean is more
effective forms of hegemonic power but that do not appear as nakedly
hegemonic and previously. But their focus is on power with reference to
"smart" only in terms of that which enhances their long-term ability to apply
either soft or hard power depending upon their tactical imperatives which are
about strategic hegemony. This imperial concept of "smart" power, China has
wisely denounced and rejected. The U.S. and other nations that seek hegemonic
forms of power, still have not learned how illusory and self-negating such forms
of power are.
“Soft”, “Hard” and Smart Power
 Obama shows his smart power
 As an addendum to my previous comments above, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton in recent U.S. Senate testimony, was asked about "smart" power and
was given a quote from some source that said "smart power may use soft as well
as hard power, but it is anything but soft or weak." to which Hillary Clinton
noted that she had just taken or written down that quote to use later. These
folks still do not get it: all attempts in human history at building hegemonic
empires have failed; simply, because of the rising and prohibitive costs and crises
of imperial overreach on the one hand, and the fact that contradictions
generated by and within imperial power projections abroad, and by and within
contradictions in the home metropoles, are also dialectically tied together and
feed each other. The Government of China, and the Chinese People, victims of
imperial hegemony over many centuries, have understood this and have wisely
rejected any hegemonic intentions or desires.
Advice from my Father
 Do not ever show up to a gunfight with a knife.
 Do not ever wind up the only honest person in a dirty card
game.
Neoimperialism is a New Face or Mask
of Imperialism Not a New Essence
 PD User replied at 2009-05-01 12:59:57
 Any war founded on lies, engineered pretexts, cherry picked intelligence and violations
of the same international demanded for law protection of that nation going to an illegal
war of aggression, must be stopped immediately with those who caused that war brought
to justice and the victims helped. There is no "winning" or "leaving with honor" an
illegal war, only staying and doing more crimes or leaving and stopping the crimes; there
is no middle ground. During the election campaign he said he understood all of that and
would begin immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces. But the war in Afghanistan, and the
cross-border attacks in Pakistan are also illegal and founded on lies. The Taliban were
partly a U.S. creation as was Al Qaeda. And as for 9-11, the broad masses of Afghanistan
had nothing to do with it but are suffering horribly, while those really responsible for 911 and other forms of terrorism, remain relatively safe from military actions. It must
also be said, to be really honest, and that is terrorism is a set of tactics and not a
particular enemy; and if terrorism is defined as calculated and/or highly likely forms of
violence against non-combatants, then what are the imperial embargos against Cuba or
the imperial encirclements and critical-resource-diverting (from development) threats of
nuclear annihilation against China?
Hearts and Minds
 Cults (e.g. Falun Gong, Mormonism, Scientology Moonies)
 Research in neurobiology, cognitive psychology, evolutionary
biology etc on “perception management”, “manufacturing
consent”, “thought identification” mind control and
manipulation;
 Culture Wars (journals, cultural exchanges, films, news,
Voice of America, mainstream religion missionaries, NGOs,
music, fashion styles, libertine lifestyles, children’s books,
teaching English in China etc)
 Education (textbooks, university articulation agreements,
professor and student exchanges, shared degree programs)
Talk at Tsinghua University
印第安美国教授的理想：
社会主义与资本主义
Socialism versus Capitalism: Who Will Win?
他从另一个世界走来
他像文革时期一样怀揣毛选
他要揭开美帝国主义的多重面罩
他从经济学分析资本主义的逻辑
James M. Craven
美国克拉克大学商学部主任，终身教授
Member of Blackfoot Indian Nation（印第安黑脚国）
时间：5月26日（周四）晚8：20
地点：六教6B-301
What is your answer to the question
Socialism vs. Capitalism Who Will Win?
 My answer was I do not know but I do know which must win if
this planet and humanity are to survive—Socialism.
Imperialism, Neo or Classical, will never tolerate, because they
could never handle, truly free, fair, open and peaceful competition
between systems—Socialism vs. Capitalism.
Social Systems Engineering is about identifying and then
exploiting the key vulnerabilities of a targeted nation for purposes
of destabilization and overthrow of regimes and systems; and to
engineer the supposed “proof ” of the supposed “superiority” of
Capitalism over Socialism and the supposed “proof ” of the
supposed backward and repressive nature of Socialism and
Communism.
Di guo zhu yi de mian zhao
he tang yi pao dan
"Evil is no faceless stranger
living in a distant neighborhood
Evil has a wholesome, hometown face,
with merry eyes and an open smile.
Evil walks among us, wearing a mask
which looks like all our faces.
(The Book of Counted Sorrows)