A recently leaked memo, allegedly coming from Citibank, shows the detail in which banking institutions have been analyzing the rise of the super wealthy, embracing the term “plutonomy” to describe the political system which is directed or outright controlled by the immensely rich, while the rest of the world, especially in economically deregulated countries like the US, UK, Canada and Australia, are left with a smaller share of the wealth than decades.
With charts displaying the increasing wealth of the super rich, and the expectation that this trend will only continue in the coming years, Citibank analyzes in arduous detail just how rich the super rich have become, controlling the majority of the economy in a way reminiscent of the late 1800s, when wealthy industrialists reaped the economic rewards of the exploited cheap labor that populated their factories.
Citibank explains how to benefit from these trends, suggesting investments in stocks and other opportunities that cater to such a market, such as luxury products, larger houses, and exclusive services that only those with enormous amounts of money to throw away would even consider.
Though Citibank does not outright support or denounce such a system, they embrace it with complete indifference""their only real concern is making as much money as possible, and an economy populated by the super rich will create opportunities in sectors that cater to them. The memo states repeatedly that it gives no judgment regarding the system being good or bad, merely that it is the nature of the current political and economic climate, and recommends how those who have the means to do so can continue to exploit it.
On the other hand, they also point out the enormous social unrest that such systems can create, pointing out that organized labor and enormous numbers of poverty-stricken citizens will, as has invariably been the historical case, revolt en masse. The memos warn that this will be the most significant threat to the continued dominance of the wealthy, if that dominance comes at the price of the livelihood of the poor.
And with the Occupy Wall Street protests in full swing, that may just be exactly what is happening. Large numbers of average citizens, buoyed by the support of organized labor and other unions, have been protesting against the excesses of the wealthy and their continued acquisition of larger and larger shares of national wealth. At center stage are Wall Street in particular, Bank of America, Citibank, and JP Morgan Chase, which allegedly donated $4.6 million to the NYPD, after which the police began a brutal crackdown resulting in baton-related injuries, pepper-sprayed bystanders, and a concerted media campaign to discredit the protesters and ascribe the violence to them, rather than discussing the fact that all evidence thus far portrays them as the victims of violence, rather than the perpetrators.
This may be the crucible of hubris of which the plutonomy memos forewarned, and may be the next step toward a major shift in public attitudes toward those institutions, as well as the participation by many citizens in resisting the continued dominance by the super wealthy.
Unfortunately, it might take another Kent State to make that happen.
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Citibank's much maligned current services include CitiDirect, a direct (and soon to be overpriced) competitor to the also not-very-good Chase Online Banking Logon.
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