Once upon a time there was an independent contractor working for the State of California. The contractor had a secret garage meeting with some Major Oil companies who suggested that the contractor should broadly overestimate the amount of oil in the Monterey Shale by ninety six percent.
The contractor smiled and carried out the suggestion. Suddenly there was a surge of upstart oil speculators buying up land at premium prices and drilling exploratory holes in search for the black gold. They spent and drilled themselves into bankruptcy while the Major Oil company execs sat back in their heavy leather chairs surrounded by cigar smoke, the sounds of rustling newspapers and ice cubes in glasses of Bourbon. They were counting on the hungry young oil upstarts not noticing that Major Oil was doing nothing and it worked.
The banks that loaned money to the upstarts also failed. The following year a more accurate report was filed with the State of California and Major Oil was comfortable having swatted away competitors by fabricating the existence of a large supply of oil ripe for the taking.
Trolling Startups
Once upon a time there was a nephew of an oil baron who was getting a hundred thousand dollars a month in allowance from his uncle. One day he was bored and decided to open a bar downtown just to make himself popular among the local business community.
His business model was terrible. He didn't have an ounce of creativity, but that didn't matter. He didn't have any customers until he started to undercut his neighborhood competitors by seventy five percent. He was able to pump his trust money into the overhead to make up the difference. One day something wonderful happened.
The bars in the neighborhood went out of business and everyone came to his bar. The building owners were hemorrhaging money and finally had to put their properties up for sale that were once occupied by the competitors. The nephew made a phone call to his uncle who immediately bought the other properties.
His business model was terrible. He didn't have an ounce of creativity, but that didn't matter. He didn't have any customers until he started to undercut his neighborhood competitors by seventy five percent. He was able to pump his trust money into the overhead to make up the difference. One day something wonderful happened.
The bars in the neighborhood went out of business and everyone came to his bar. The building owners were hemorrhaging money and finally had to put their properties up for sale that were once occupied by the competitors. The nephew made a phone call to his uncle who immediately bought the other properties.
The second nation under the rug indivisible
Once upon a time there was a large nation that had 5 levels of government: Federal, State, County, Municipal, and Districts. There were 50 states and territories each with hundreds of counties, each with several municipalities and each municipality with several districts. It was understood by everyone that they were comfortably independent of each-other, under the watchful eye of the authority from the above tier who ultimately obeyed the human rights for every individual set forth in the national constitution.
One day someone noticed there were too many news reports on the Internet showing brutal police tactics from all over the country. There was also an increase in reports of police officers breaking laws. Something was odd. There was an emerging pattern of behavior in public officials all over the country, especially in the lower tiers of county and city government.
The strange pattern of behavior led to research that showed in many counties, a few of the same people who were members of the local Chamber of Commerce were also trustees and board members of hospitals, universities and appointees to high government positions by the governors or mayors they helped elect.
In the cities, the public outcry was fierce to have the chiefs of police resign after their officers used unnecessary force that resulted in too many deaths. Many of the chiefs did resign, but that didn't help because they were not the ones who vetted the new recruits to the police academies. A special brutal psychological profile was desired for the ranks of police recruits all across the country. This pattern of behavior implied that somewhere there was written explicit instructions to recruit officers with violent anti-social tendencies.
While the public was distracted by their political representatives, senators, governors and presidents, the nation in the shadows was being organized by the National Chamber of Commerce, creating a network of local chambers of commerce made up of the moneyed interest groups that paid for the campaigns of their preferred, distracting political candidates.
I wouldn't have believed this either until I heard that the local chamber of commerce in a small town welcomed with open arms, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and other superstores that ran all the local businesses into foreclosure and bankruptcy.
One day someone noticed there were too many news reports on the Internet showing brutal police tactics from all over the country. There was also an increase in reports of police officers breaking laws. Something was odd. There was an emerging pattern of behavior in public officials all over the country, especially in the lower tiers of county and city government.
The strange pattern of behavior led to research that showed in many counties, a few of the same people who were members of the local Chamber of Commerce were also trustees and board members of hospitals, universities and appointees to high government positions by the governors or mayors they helped elect.
In the cities, the public outcry was fierce to have the chiefs of police resign after their officers used unnecessary force that resulted in too many deaths. Many of the chiefs did resign, but that didn't help because they were not the ones who vetted the new recruits to the police academies. A special brutal psychological profile was desired for the ranks of police recruits all across the country. This pattern of behavior implied that somewhere there was written explicit instructions to recruit officers with violent anti-social tendencies.
While the public was distracted by their political representatives, senators, governors and presidents, the nation in the shadows was being organized by the National Chamber of Commerce, creating a network of local chambers of commerce made up of the moneyed interest groups that paid for the campaigns of their preferred, distracting political candidates.
I wouldn't have believed this either until I heard that the local chamber of commerce in a small town welcomed with open arms, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and other superstores that ran all the local businesses into foreclosure and bankruptcy.
Huge Bank - Small Country
Once upon a time there was a huge bank that financed a revolution in a small country, then put a puppet oligarch in charge. The huge bank then gave a couple of billion dollars to the small country in what was called a "bailout loan."
The Oligarch took the money on the condition that a large portion of that money was spent on multinational conglomerates that were favored by the huge bank. The oligarch pocketed the difference and funneled the money into the pockets of the friends of the huge bank who coincidentally had accounts at the huge bank.
The Interest due on the loan came out of the pockets of the citizens and they were foreclosed on by the huge bank because they couldn't afford the interest. The huge bank now owned most of the land.
The End
The Oligarch took the money on the condition that a large portion of that money was spent on multinational conglomerates that were favored by the huge bank. The oligarch pocketed the difference and funneled the money into the pockets of the friends of the huge bank who coincidentally had accounts at the huge bank.
The Interest due on the loan came out of the pockets of the citizens and they were foreclosed on by the huge bank because they couldn't afford the interest. The huge bank now owned most of the land.
The End
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