The role of Exxon in delaying climate action over the past three decades since its executives were made aware of the consequences of global warming by its own engineers was huge. But it was made possible by the great power that the largest fossil-fuel corporation has had on the society because of its integration with finance capital. Also, the corporate state is totally dependent on fossil-fuel energy for its ability to pursue its projects of social control. The consolidation of power in the central elites of finance, corporate, and political institutions has continued as long as the resources it requires have been exploitable. But we have reached a tipping point. It is more and more difficult for it to continue as resource depletion draws near.[1] The result is also growing economic, social and ecological chaos.
The confluence of societal control by finance capital, multinational manufacturing and trade, and corporate propaganda has given these giant institutions the ability to continue to extract huge financial profits. But it cannot last much longer. With no serious counter-force, these institutions will drive the world into a state of unprecedented economic, social, and ecological chaos.[2] Finance capital will not be exempt from the turmoil, but more-profit-now is a stronger motive for the executives who deploy it today; their incentives are all short-term. With a few minor exceptions, they will pursue the business of finance as usual – for them it is all about the next quarterly report.
Many signs of impending economic chaos are already apparent. The Great Recession of 2008 has yet to be resolved. Massive government bailouts of the Too Big financial institutions suspended their otherwise inevitable Failure. The risks of failure were thereby handed off to government in the form of massive new public debt. Result: the institutions of Finance Capital grow ever bigger and more dangerous. But the next collapse will not be salvaged by government bailouts. These same institutions have pressured Congress to structure the latest faint efforts to manage national finance capital in such a way that again the people will be left holding the bag. But any efforts by the Fed to stem the chaos next time will not be enough. The real economy and the people are still reeling from the last hit. The financial markets will not accept the next level of extreme debt. The monetary system will likely collapse and economic chaos will follow.
At the same time world financial stability falters, diverse climate disruptions are accelerating in frequency and intensity. The economic consequences of the next few super storms, droughts and floods will be that much more chaotic and of magnitudes beyond societal ability to manage or adapt to the destruction. The confluence of these destabilizing trends will lead to economic, social, and ecological chaos. To be effective, the societal response to this prospect must come from humanity itself; it will not come from the institutions that have caused and continue to cause the catastrophic convergence of destabilizing trends. And, it will not come from the political elites they control. Only we can resist these destructive institutional trends, replace the financial mega-institutions with local and regional public banking, and achieve a level of resilience capable of countering the level of chaos that is already inevitable.
Part III of this 3-part series will deal with the necessity of creating a massive social transformation to counter the destructive force of finance capital on people and planet, inevitably involving a new form of “creative destruction.”
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[1] Michael T. Klare, The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources (New York: Picador, 2013) enumerates the key resources, from oil and gas to rare earths and other critical minerals, to agricultural lands, that are fast depleting and subject to shortages, leading to armed conflicts around the world.
[2] As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Christian Parenti gives us a detailed glimpse into the emerging chaos in various ‘at-risk’ nations around the world as extreme weather events, aggravated armed conflicts, and crises of poverty and political-military instability converge, leading to catastrophic conditions for human populations, in his book, Tropic of chaos: climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. (New York: Nation Books, 2011).
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 