Or, The Mysterious Case of the Missing Memos
Not since lightning struck a courier carrying The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has there been such potentially damaging memos leaked as the Citigroup ‘Plutonomy memos’ as they’ve come to be known. If you’ve never heard of the Protocols, it’s an antisemitic work of fiction portrayed to be real by the authors, (who are presumed to be Russian secret police, among others). What makes it notable among centuries of various antisemitic artwork, aside from the fact that Hitler used it to justify starting the Jewish holocaust, is that it detailed, as early as 1897, how to subvert the individual and create a one-world government.
What the hell does this have anything to do with Citigroup? Grab the tinfoil and come with me, I have hat designs.
In 2005, Citigroup, a publicly-traded American multinational corporation, allegedly compiled a report for their shareholders that eerily mirrors the spirit, if not the exact content, of the Protocols, titled “Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances”. It outlines the current state of wealth distribution in the world and how the 1% needs to strategize to keep things ‘working’ the way they currently are.
When I first saw them, I chalked it up to a forgery, it was so bizarre. I thought it had to be a well-done hoax, possibly at the hands of the Yes Men or some similarly skilled group. Even Wikipedia, bastion of truth, had a mention of the memos, properly sourced. Then the source disappeared. DMCA’d into oblivion, first by Citigroup themselves, then by their law firm. Initially posted to scribd.com (moar liek scrubd.com, amirite?), the original link returns a removal message. Any other attempts to upload the document are met with automatic deletion.
These blogs have documented more of Citigroup’s attempt to stuff the damning evidence down the memory hole. Instead of just denying it was their horrible creation and letting speculation fall to the AM Coast to Coast/Above Top Secret crowd, they took credit, lawyered up, and proceeded to harass anyone on the internet who would dare post even part of their confidential report. Now we can be sure it was their handiwork, and that it is indeed a real assessment of the status quo and how to best preserve it. It’s no wonder they wanted to hide these, considering the $45 Billion bailout provided by the American worker that they were seeking at the time. You can currently find it here, due to the Streisand Effect. Grab some popcorn, dim the lights, and give it a read. It’s slightly dull in parts, but I guarantee you chills. There’s even a sequel, titled “Revisiting Plutonomy: The Rich Getting Richer”, but they’ve done a better job at scrubbing that one . Not a great job, thankfully.
The first memo spells out a good chunk of the battle plan to keep the rich getting richer and to keep you from caring about it. It also, however, gives the blueprints to the Death Star;
THE DEATH OF PLUTONOMY – Corporate tax rates could rise, choking off returns to the private sector, and personal taxation rates could rise – dividend, capital-gains, and inheritance tax rises would hurt the plutonomy.
This is all old news, btw, as it was revealed in Michael Moore’s ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’, which, when I saw it, had the reaction of, ”Oh, shit, that’s real?” and then promptly forgot about it. I don’t plan to do that again.
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