||| FROM MISHA RAUCHWERGER |||
I come from immigrant families: fleeing the pogroms where the Czar was burning Jewish villages, and the holocaust. Situations far worse that what we are experiencing today. I became fascinated with the rise of totalitarianism, fascism, and collapse and spent decades studying how this comes about.
It comes down to this:
Politics is theater for those who do not understand the monetary system and the greedy people who use it for their benefit, wealth, and power. The decline of dollar can be shown by our own currency debasement. Gold dollars became silver, became copper and nickel, became paper, and now numbers. The large cent of the late 17 hundreds became a small copper penny, became nickel clad, and now Trump has ended it because even the non-copper cent costs the government 3 cents to make. Every country and empire has collapsed, and it always was preceeded by debasing the currency to pay for ever increasing expenses and military. The Romans did it to their currency. And we see it happening today around the world.
Here is a Hungarian 100 million billion Pengo (1 with 16 zeroes). We can barely understand the misery the Germans experienced during Weimar when a loaf of bread cost a wheelbarrow of money.
Our monetary system is what allows us to fund endless wars
It’s the primary cause of poverty, homelessness, increasing immiseration, wealth stratification, how the wealth pump gushes to the elites.
We weaponize the dollar with sanctions to destroy economies and it de facto becomes the cause of the immigration crisis. It’s why housing is an asset class that has made homes inaccessible to a majority of Americans. The Real Kings are the Bankers, the Fed, and all the cronies that support the system for their benefit. And all this began long before Trump; there’s even the story in the Bible about Jesus turning the tables of the money changers. It goes back a long time:
The dictatorship of unelected officials making critical decisions that affect us all began in earnest in 1913 the Fed was formed where money was now created by loaning it at interest to the government and used the income tax to pay for the interest.
- 1944 The Bretton Woods agreement made the dollar the world’s currency, and gave us the IMF which made the US extraordinarily wealthy, at least until the debt had to be paid
- 1971 Nixon closed the gold window, and created the Petro Dollar for global oil trades. This began the massive debasing of the dollar and the real beginning of the decline of America.
While we remain divided and distracted, the elites become ever more wealthy under every administration. All this drama distracts us from the fact that no countries want our treasuries anymore and we are having to buy our own bonds, our debt at $ 37 T is now growing at $1T every 100 days (this began in earnest under Biden), and our debt to GDP ratio is now 125%. 22 countries have banded together under BRICS+ to trade without the dollar. We are experiencing an Order Change, and the beginnings of a world war. The economy is a debt spiral time bomb, and we’re all focused on pointing fingers at the wrong entities, the other side, and that keeps us divided.
George Carlin said it succinctly in 2022 before he died in a speech about the American Dream:
“It’s called the American Dream, ’cause you have to be asleep to believe it. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right.”
We have a wealth stratification problem that did not just begin with Trump.
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (April, 2025, WSJ.com, $1 Trillion of Wealth Was Created for the 19 Richest U.S. Households Last Year), 19 households own $2.6 trillion in net worth, the same as 110 million Americans. The top 1% (3.4 million people) own 31% of all net worth ($52 trillion), more than the net worth of all those in the 50% to 90% segment (136 million people).
The top 10% hold the vast majority of wealth (68%, $113 trillion, 13.5 million households). The bottom 50%–170 million people–own 2.5% of the wealth–$4 trillion, a wafer-thin 3.5% of the wealth held by the top 10%. And that wealth isn’t only in the hands of Republicans. Both Trump and Musk, for instance, previously were Democrats. They all use the system for their benefit, and now they are fighting, a classic elite overproduction situation before collapse (according to Peter Turchin, Historian “End Times”).
“No Kings” is actually being funded by billionaires, and is not a grass roots effort, against the Oligarchs:
- George Soros $72M
- Mark Zuckerberg $50M
- Hansjorg Wyss $245M
- Bill Gates $100M
- Marc Benioff $20M
- Buffet foundation $16M
- Rockeffeller $28M
Albert Einstein said “you can’t solve a problem at the level at which it was created”: Politicians will not be able to solve our problems, and it certainly won’t be solved by taking out Trump and replacing him: They are the ones who caused the problems and today’s extreme stratification of wealth and power. Donald Trump is not the problem, he is simply an indicator, or a symptom, of a deeper problem that has been unfolding for decades. It will not be solved by changing the “-ism”: from capitalism to socialism or communism. The idea of “no Kings” is far too simple of a slogan, as there have been monarchs throughout history that truly cared way more about their population than our current one; Some of the longest periods of time in history of peace and prosperity were under Kings; just look at the king of Bhutan who has implemented a “Gross National Happiness Index” (and some of the worst, most violent times).
Both Fascism and Totalitarianism have been gaining traction under both parties over the last few decades, each administration creeping towards the Authoritarianism we are seeing today. Populist leaders, like Trump, come about because the people want a strong man during difficult times; Hitler became the leader in Germany because the people wanted someone like him to “Make Germany Great Again” and pull them out of the desperate conditions they were in following hyperinflation under Weimar rule and being punished economically by the West after WW I. He was a symptom of the ideology of the people, and the monetary system. You take the leader out, and another like him, or usually worse, will take his place. I’m not saying I condone Trump’s behavior, but he is only acting out the ideology of the people that actually elected him; it’s not a dictatorship because you don’t like his policies.
To a large degree, it has to do with what part of the cycle our empire is in: there have been times when our leaders, and our agencies, were there for the benefit of the people, but no longer: they have been captured and used for the benefit of the elite. We are in a late stage of a declining part of a cycle of our empire; we are going through an order change. At a certain stage of rot, nothing can save the organism. No policy will bring life back to a dying organism. Neither the democrats nor the republicans, nor any president, can save it. Both parties have been captured, and they both serve to divide the people, and gush the wealth pump to the elite. This is why all politicians get incredibly wealthy during their tenure in office. Yes, even Bernie, AOC, and Elizabeth Warren. Nobody’s net worth goes up by tens of millions in a few years on a $200K/year salary unless they have been bought. The real issue is not monarchy or democracy, but the creep towards totalitarianism and the division of the people.
It’s not about “Saving Democracy”: Technically we never have had “democracy” in our country, but as a representative republic, there have been times when leadership represented the will of the people. This time is long gone. A Princeton study looking at voting and policy determined that there is zero correlation anymore (regardless of which party is in power). Let that sink in… If you really think we have a democracy, you are fooling yourself. We are in a full-fledged Plutocracy. It is only the Oligarchs and Elite benefiting from the system.
Noam Chomsky explains how in a two party system, both sides emulate the successes of the other, and effectively become a uni-party. Both Republicans and Democrats continue to vote for the same military industrial complex budget. Obama implemented some of the most extreme surveillance on Americans and passed the Monsanto Protection Act. Not only republicans pass laws like the Patriot Act, as Biden was involved in some of the most aggregeous censorship and use of corporations to implement the creep towards totalitarianism.
Both parties have participated in regime change, using economic hitmen and weaponizing the dollar with sanctions to accomplish our hegemony. To point fingers at the other party is to become part of the problem. We are divided, and have been conquered because of the system and how it is used by elites to distract us from the real issues. A two party system inherently divides a population. Humans typically fall under a gaussian (bell curve) distribution, and two parties split us down the middle. The Romans would be proud, as they knew all too well how to divide and conquer a people.
It is always easy to point fingers, and it feels so good to simplify a complex tightly bound system and its problems to a particular person, but I hate to tell ya, it ain’t one person that’s the problem, and it ain’t one party either. If you think so, you have become part of the problem too.
Our only hope is to find new ways to come together. We have to stop doing the same thingsover and over and expecting different results (Einstein’s definition of insanity). Let’s learn how to protest from the French! Instead of standing on the corner with signs, let’s collectively take our money out of the banks, and not participate; instead of defund the Police, let’s defund the Government and stop paying taxes. Instead of Occupying Wall Street, let’s Occupy the FED.
There are valid ideas and strategies on both “Sides”. Hating the other side makes it impossible to come together and for the people to unite against the real problem. We must welcome a diversity of beliefs, even if different from our own, and find the common ground.
Buckminster Fuller stated “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”. The time has come to create parallel systems that unite us, that give space for differences and that honor the truths held by all sides, and acknowledge that the people all want the same thing (and it’s different than what those in power want). Either that, or we go down with the sinking ship.
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Thank you Misha. Your well-presented synopsis of the state we find ourselves in, the reasons leading up to this moment, and the dire precipice that we are on are all factually correct. I appreciate your observations as well as your ability to put what’s happening in front of our eyes into context with a chronology that most can grasp. I could not agree more with your overall view.
“Our monetary system is what allows us to fund endless wars. It’s the primary cause of poverty, homelessness, increasing immiseration, wealth stratification, how the wealth pump gushes to the elites.”
Yes, like many things that we tend to engage on a micro level, we often fail to see the long-term view, and don’t recognize the consequences of not doing so until to late. For example, when it comes to the case of the Military Industrial Complex we cannot say that we have not been forewarned.
On a related note, and lest we forget, is a not-to-long-ago attempted coup on the U.S. government by corporate elitists–
From Wikipedia– Gen. Smedley Butler, after retiring from the Marine Corps, Butler became an outspoken critic of American foreign policy and military interventions, which he saw being driven primarily by U.S. business interests. In 1935, Butler wrote the book War Is a Racket, where he argued that imperialist motivations had been the cause behind several American interventions, many of which he personally participated in. Butler became an anti-war advocate, speaking at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists, and church groups until his death in 1940.
The Guardian (Sally Denton) 1/11/22– Why is so little known about the 1930s coup attempt against FDR?
“If the plotters had been held accountable in the 1930s, the forces behind the 6 January coup attempt might never have flourished into the next century.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/11/trump-fdr-roosevelt-coup-attempt-1930s
“Instead of standing on the corner with signs, let’s collectively take our money out of the banks, and not participate; instead of defund the Police, let’s defund the Government and stop paying taxes. Instead of Occupying Wall Street, let’s Occupy the FED.”
“Everybody’s efforts all the time” is a quote that I’m fond of. Though continuing to write letters and make phone calls (to those with deaf ears), and stand on corners with signs (preaching to the choir)… can certainly be considered a stepping stone, it’s also what “they” want you to do, it’s how “they” have manipulated the laws and what “they” expect us to do. Anybody else notice… it’s not working?
It’s time for a systemic change… tax revolts and work stoppages are the only way to hit the oligarch’s where it hurts.
Nancy Pelosi has been in office for 38 years now. Due to her inside track in government, she has amassed a fortune of $250,000,000, out-trading the most successful Wall Street hedge funds.
And she was front and center leading a “No Kings” protest.
We aren’t really this stupid, are we?
Outstandingly articulate article objectively covering a number of very important points regarding the divide between “us” and “them”. Recent concerns reflected by the “no Kings” demonstrations are uncannily similar to concerns over actions undertaken by president Otto Penn’s regime during the previous administration. It might be well for us to reflect on how we, as individuals, view ourselves before labeling others. For consideration;
LIBERALISM: a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property, and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various and sometimes conflicting views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support private property, market economies, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion.
But to return to your initial point, I too have a keepsake from the past, a 10 million mark banknote printed on one side to save ink, from the Weimar Republic, dated 1923. I couldn’t agree more with your narrative – Thank You!
The only thing omitted from this detailed statement is that we’re also living in a gerontocracy.
As someone under 50 who feels morally incapable of engaging in the common systems of collective retirement investment.
for the reasons clearly outlined by the above opinion.
I think it needs to be said that the money funding this entire experiment in a capitalist democratic republic is held by the largest voting group that has acquired the most capital of any society recorded in the modern time.
There is a capability in how your money is being used retirement plans, pensions, and the demographic tax interest that is implemented in your interest.
i’m not saying this to be inflammatory but to point out my own current experience of feeling helpless as nothing I or my peer group could do can convince you to shift how your allocating your own interest for the common good in the waning years of your life.
so I am left to watch and prepare for the inevitable, difficult future ahead.
Thank-you, Misha.
My response:
Greed is not good.
Support your community.
Learn from history.
There are some obviously stupid policies being carried out by the current administration in Washington, D.C., such as the whiplash of tariffs. Tariffs brought on the Great Depression which was global.
My mother used to say that when voting, we pick the lesser of two evils.
Power corrupts.
I agree that choosing when and when not to spend our income can be powerful.
I appreciate this critical piece and agree with nearly all of the main theme regarding capitalism and our resulting monetary systems. However it is understandable that realistic solutions are not explored to any extent because there are none of scale short of the chaos of massive socio-economic rebellion in the streets and overthrow of our government. Long ago the control and oversight of our representative govt over the capitalist economic system began to fail and is now completely co-opted by a massive and leaky monetary system based upon selling out the future of people and the natural environment.
It is very true that this poisonous era of Trump did not happen by chance and that it will not be anywhere near over when he is no longer plaguing us.
For those of us having a realistic expectation of the disastrous, compounding stresses of accelerating climate change that will alter all natural and human systems to the point of domino collapse of nations, there are no solutions now that any hope of slowing or reducing cascading impacts are all but dead with this president and congress. So in the long term, well past my fortunate lifetime, hopeful analysis will run out of significant options , so our sold- out future generations may as well mumble darkly the same mantra as when did when the yellow alert sirens blared and we hid under our particleboard desks during the Cold War terror; “bend over and kiss your butt goodbye”. To think that the current chaos can be remedied by small marches and ironic slogans is extremely foolish. Yep it is a major bummer.
To reiterate Mr. Rauchwerger’s point about the devolution of our (U.S. and world’s) economic systems from commodity money (e.g. gold, silver, etc.) to representative (paper money backed by a gold standard) to “fiat money” (no backing but the government’s “full faith and credit”), and, now, virtual money (BitCoin, TrumpCoin, etc.): “It’s the Economy, stupid,” and we’re all walking ever more on an economic razor’s edge. While there are those who are trying to normalize and regulate digital currency via the Central Bank, Trump, Vought and their oligarch allies are opposed to any such regulation (why Fed. Chairman Powell is in hot water). It may even be to their advantage to crash the economy (think, Buy Low). Further, with ever-increasing digital control of our identities and personal information (viz. facial identity scans, everything DOGE stole), linked with digital financial transactions, we are individually and collectively increasingly vulnerable–think of the chilling opening of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” where she goes to her ATM and finds her money…gone.
What to do? Yes, we do need to find “parallel systems that unite us,” but we need more: technical expertise and collective strategy. Can we, individually, protect ourselves, and, collectively, regain control of an economy (and media) owned and operated by the oligarchs? Boycotts? General strikes? I don’t have the answers, but that’s the conversation we need to be having.