While the richest man on earth master of the universe imagine, a Greek rock star professor in Amsterdam declares capitalism dead, and the two have everything to do with each other. In early October, Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Ukraine and Russia could make peace: Crimea had to become Russian and a new referendum was needed in the territories annexed by Russia. A few days later, the Tesla CEO in the Financial Times that if Taipei just hands over part of its power to Beijing, the misery between China and Taiwan will also be solved.
Putin and Xi Jinping were very satisfied with the tailored advice. Zelensky, on the other hand, was furious, but also found himself dependent on the super-entrepreneur who provided him with free satellite internet for $80 million – thus ruling the fate of Ukraine, because without the internet try once more to coordinate a war. Just a little while and Musk owns Twitter, after which he can give Donald Trump free rein again.
Capital and power increasingly converge. The price for this is paid by the citizen and by the individual. What the billionaire gains in power, democracy loses – and therefore the citizen. The individual pays with his freedom. Not only to super-entrepreneur Elon Musk, who gave internet as a god and partly took it back when Ukraine recaptured territory. The tech billionaires of Facebook, Amazon and Google master ever more meticulous about what we do, say, want and buy.
What we see today in concentration of market power would no longer pass for capitalism for Adam Smith, Yanis Varoufakis said on Friday. The G10 of the Economy in the Amsterdam Zuiderkerk. There is no longer any competition on the markets where these giants operate. Every new competitor is eaten by Bigtech and added to the business empire. What remains is the appearance of competition and extensive control. The fact that our data is the means of payment for free services from Facebook or Google is already part of the stone age online. While driving, robot vacuuming, searching & buying online, and especially talking to smart assistants like Siri or Alexa, we teach algorithms how they can guide us even better. We are servants, humble servants of the money machine.
The economist and politician who was Greece’s illustrious finance minister in 2015 therefore declared capitalism as we know it dead. Instead, there is Cloud Capitalism. Varoufakis evaded the question of whether these monstrous monopolies are simply screaming for regulation. “I don’t believe in regulation.”
While the much-praised Franklin Delano Roosevelt, America’s longest-serving president, who guided the country through the Great Depression and World War II, saved the country in 1933 with regulation. He parried a bank run by closing the banks. That same year, the major banking law, the so-called Glass-Steagall Act, was passed. He built a firewall between investment banks and savings banks. A bank that managed private money was not allowed to trade in stocks. It was only after Bill Clinton gave capital free rein in 1999 by repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, and nine years later Lehman Brothers plunged the world into a financial crisis, did people realize how crucial the legislation was under Roosevelt. The monstrous monopolies and delusions of Elon Musk can only be countered by a power that is stronger; a European Commission bringing capitalism back to Adam Smith on behalf of all of us and in the public interest.