by Jerry Harris . Transnational capitalists own half the world The richest two percent of the world’s adults own 50 percent of the world’s assets. If the world’s wealth was evenly distributed each person would have $20,500 of assets. Instead the poorest half of the population holds only one percent of wealth. This year the 170,000 employees of the big five US investment banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns) pocketed $36 billion in bonuses. Their overall compensation of about $60 billion was equivalent to Vietnam’s gross domestic product. Marc Faber, author of “Gloom Doom & Boom” notes; “Something is a bit bizarre in the world. The liquidity of the global middle class is not there but the liquidity of Goldman Sachs partners is soaring.” One reflection of this wealth is a big boom in the sales of high end art, not only in London and New York, but Hong Kong and Asia. In November Chinese tycoon Joseph Lau bought Andy Warhol’s portrait of Mao Zedong for $17 million. Indeed something is a bit bizarre in the world. . Does Goldman Sachs run America? Speaking of investment banks Goldman Sachs has six former executives now serving in the Bush administration. Former chief executive Hank Paulson serves a Treasury secretary; former chief economist William Dudley heads the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; former vice chairman Robert Steel is Undersecretary of Treasury; former managing partner of the Paris office Reuben Jeffrey is now Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Randal Fort, former director of global security serves Condoleezza Rice as assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research; and former executive director Joshua Bolten is White House chief of staff. Found among other ex-chief executives from Goldman Sachs are: Jon Corzine, Democratic governor of New Jersey; John Thain, chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange; Mario Draghi now chairman of the Bank of Italy and Paul Deighton who heads the London Olympics. And not to be forgotten are Goldman Sachs executives who served previous administrations. Robert Ruben, Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. Stephen Friedman, Director, National Economic Council under George W. Bush until 2005. John Whitehead, Ronald Reagan’s deputy secretary of state and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Sidney Weinberg adviser to presidents Roosevelt and Truman; and lastly one more chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, E. Gerald Corrigan. (FT, 12/4/06, “Goldman Sachs top alumni wield clout in White House.” Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Ben White) . Meanwhile workers fight neoliberal globalization It turns out that French and Americans do have something in common, both oppose further liberalization of trade blaming stagnant wages on the competitive pressures of globalization. In the US 59% believe transnational trade may take their job while in France the number is 58%. Germans workers also have reacted to soaring transnational profits by demanding raises. German corporations have seen their profits jump 28 percent over the last six years while wages have stagnated. IG Metal, the large trade union, is calling for a raise of five to eight percent. Franz Munterfering, the Social Democratic vice-chancellor says; “The recovery is here. We must now have the courage to drive the wage spiral upwards.” And even the finance minister, Peer Steinbruck admitted; “its true that many wages have fallen in real terms over the past few years. Many people have less money in their pockets today than they did four or five years ago.” In fact, German workers actually make less in real terms than they did 15 years ago. Trade unions in Sweden are also gearing up for a battle. With the new center-right government promising to cut unemployment benefits. Wanja Lundby-Wedin, chairwomen of the trade union federation, warned “The government knows the strength of the trade unions comes from the fact we have 80 percent or more of workers organized.” The unions administer the government’s unemployment benefit program which currently provides 80 percent pay of one year. The government wants to cut this to 65% which Lundby-Wedin argues would force people back to work for low wages under union standards. Of course the business sector is backing the government.

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