In any case, the elite went out of their way to make Americans see the OPEC oil merchants as THE TYRANTS responsible for America's inflation, higher prices, and consequently for her dropping standard of living. For all intents and purposes, the monetary devaluation heist was pulled off flawlessly. Most Americans still don't have the foggiest clue as to what really went on. It would be of benefit to elaborate on the issue.
For many of the American economic elite, the OPEC policies were a source of unforeseen wealth. So much so, that strong lobby groups formed to maintain both OPEC and its policies.
The owners of American oil companies couldn't have been more pleased. The anti-trust legislation that had been previously introduced to prevent the American oil companies from hosing the motoring public at the pumps, was no longer effective. OPEC could now be officially blamed for the exorbitantly high prices. In addition, the value of the oil reserves in America both in storage above and below ground went through the roof. Overnight all the lobbying power of the oil industry was secretly refocused to maintain the high prices and develop friendly relations with the Arabs.
The banking elite became OPEC lobbyists for several reasons. Firstly the OPEC members who were still developing their oil industries borrowed heavily from the major U.S. banks. Countries like Saudi Arabia who were already quite developed, now had excess capital which found its way into American banks as deposits. These deposits as early as 1977 totaled about 50 billion dollars. The Trilateral banking members quickly grew fat at the OPEC trough. They were able to borrow at reduced rates from the Arabs, and loan the money to Americans among others for substantial profits. The banks of course had a vested interest in maintaining the OPEC deposits. In fact many U.S. banks bought equity in banks already established in the Middle East.
Because corporations also borrowed from this cheap source of money, the number of pro-OPEC lobbyists continued to balloon.
Arab oil money quite literally poured into the States through Houston based Aramco Services Co., which was the American purchasing arm for the Arabs. In addition to billions of dollars of oil industry equipment, Aramco Services supplied billions of dollars of goods and services that were needed to upgrade overnight the standard of living in the oil rich Arab nations. Even though the products ranged from foodstuffs to hospital equipment, the major beneficiaries were again the largest corporations who were the only ones capable of supplying goods and services on such a grand scale.
The feeding frenzy at the OPEC trough also included a whole legion of consultants and lawyers who became beneficiaries and consequently lobbyists for OPEC. Those conscripted for service included such notables as Richard Helms the former Head of the CIA and former Ambassador to Iran; William Rogers, Nixon's former Secretary of State; William Fulbright, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relation Committee; and Clark Clifford, former Secretary of Defence, to name but a few.
In short, the 750 % increase in gasoline and home heating oil costs came directly out of the working man's pockets, travelled to the Middle East, and then got redistributed back into a minority of economic elite pockets, many of whom were members in good standing of the Trilateral Commission.
It is certainly no surprise that there was no end of lobbyists willing to support OPEC policies, and even the idea of an OIL SHORTAGE to help justify the continuing high price of oil!
Subsidies to the oil industry have cost the taxpayer plenty. In
fact one of their former tax avoidance deceits also cost the government
untold amounts of tax revenues. It's worth knowing about, and
it went something like this.
Because taxes paid to foreign countries could be deducted against
any taxes owed in America, oil companies arranged with the Arab
oil vendors to falsely designate as "tax", a totally
erroneous proportion of the price paid to the Arab producers.
Consequently, profits made by some American oil resellers were
offset by the amount of the purchase price falsely labelled as
taxes. The net result was a tax evasion of the highest order. Needless to say, the oil racket has increasingly concentrated
the nation's wealth in the hands of even fewer people.
It is probably worth mentioning as well that in the period before OPEC and the International Energy Agency, anti-trust laws were in place to avoid collusion between oil companies. Anti-trust laws relaxed the public's fears, but what the public didn't know was that even though the companies were prohibited from meeting together to discuss pricing strategies, etc., almost 2 dozen oil companies retained the same lawyer. One wonders how many palms got greased to keep that scam quiet.
Despite the horrendous windfall profits enjoyed by oil producers
when the price of oil went up, they still lobby for and
receive government (taxpayer) subsidies for oil exploration.
The disposal of three trillion dollars for the Strategic Defense Initiative (a euphemism meaning accelerated nuclear escalation), is in the hands of a legion of extremely powerful part time Pentagon consultants recruited straight from the private sector. Many previously worked within the Pentagon as government employees, whose loyalties were first and foremost to the nation and its best interests, but who were later lured one way or another to serve private industry. Their knowledge of the Pentagon's procurement methods, combined with having friendships with existing Pentagon procurement employees, makes them an invaluable private sector commodity, and herein lies the conflict.
A consultant doesn't bill himself as a conflict of interest balancing act, but he purports to be operating in the nation's interest while successfully balancing with one foot in private industry, one hand reaching ominously into the Pentagon purse, the other hand under the table clutching kickback payoffs, and his eyes riveted to his own bank statement. Armed also with a knowledge of the procurement system's vulnerabilities, the situation is ripe for procuring $10 washers and $620 toilet seats.
Corruption and conflict of interest are far from the real issue however. The degree to which private sector self-interests and their lobbying created the three trillion dollar Strategic Defense Initiative, is the issue that deserves the limelight.
The production and sale of war machinery in peace time has traditionally been one of the chief sources of wealth for many of the Chess Society elite. It is, therefore, not surprising that the present budget allowance for Star Wars is in the neighborhood of 3 trillion dollars.
Let's consider some of the advantages:
In addition, threats to job security are an ever present form of subtle economic intimidation keeping employees from exposing corrupt or illegal practices.
The elite have repeated over and over that the technological discoveries made through defense industry research end up benefiting the average citizen. However, despite the fact that 65% of our scientists are involved in war effort technology, the main improvements in living conditions for the bottom 90 percent consist of relatively old technology; motor vehicles, electricity, telephones, TVs, stereos, and dishwashers. Although pocket calculators and computers have ended up in many homes, the public derive little value from the enormous waste of physical, mental and natural resources involved in the shameful production of instruments for destruction, carnage and social devolution.
Discussions in the press concerning the benefits and synergetic effects of spending three trillion dollars on programs beneficial to mankind are conspicuous by their absence. They could be telling about unimaginable social improvements if the money were channeled into health care research; or on educating everyone to his or her capacity; or set to the task of eliminating needless human starvation; or funding the myriad of other worthy causes that would prove beneficial to mankind in general.
Another Golden Age waits quietly inside a Feudal cocoon for a
people with a sense of international brotherhood to set it free.