Your weekly excerpt from one of my books. This week: "The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and How to Restore Its Greatness"
The Medicare Advantage section is the one that should be assigned reading in every policy class. They took the most popular government program in American history, handed half of it to private insurers, made it cost more, and called it an upgrade. That's not incompetence... that's a masterclass in how you loot a public institution without the public noticing. The rebranding did the work that legislation alone couldn't. The same playbook is running right now in 2026, just with different agencies and different names. I break down exactly that pattern... how policy gets disguised as reform.... If this kind of structural analysis is your thing, worth a look.
And the next chapter: After the foreclosures and with save-the-banks money from US taxpayers, those same banks and private equity companies bought up the foreclosed homes, rented them at inflated prices for a while, and then sold them at inflated prices, with the consequential (and continuing) unaffordability of real estate. The never-ending graft continues, always finding new ways to cheat some people and enrich the already rich.
"The job of finance is to provide capital to companies. "
Yes, and capital is debt,borrowed money, and who is the source of borrowed money" Financial institutions. And how can financial institutions loan out trillions, much more than they have in their own vaults?
Because all money' in the world,save for the developing or undeveloped countries, come into existence via the banking system, via something we call bank notes, a note is a liability of the issuer,
Until the FDIC was created, Banks printed their own notes. The FDIC would only insure banks which had joined the Federal Reserve Inc.. So banks in droves joined the Fed to be able to obtain FDIC deposit insurance. Thus halted the run on banks, made so popular by "It's a Wonderful World" starring Jimmie Stewart.
But ever since banks began issuing notes, in response to a demand for a loan (debt), banks have been creating money.
Capitalism is actually debt. Launch an IPO, and investors leverage their investment, by borrowing.
Your ability to be a capitalist is limited only by your credit worthiness
I just got bitten by the GOP Medicare changes. When I tried to renew my prescription, Medicare refused to cover it because Secty Wormbrain banned coverage for that class of medication.
The thirst for power like greed becomes insatiable like a malignant cancer Since the 1980's during the Reagan years of dominance the Nazi Republicans decided it was their time to flip the script of Democratic dominance but they knew because of unpopular policies eg reducing the social safety net, lowering taxes for the wealthy and corporations, reducing/elimination of federal control over the states, that the only solution was to rig the electoral system in their favor, at that time gerrymandering
But over at the DOJ a fella named Roberts had another idea Seeing what the VRA had done to the Nazi's ability to control the power dynamic he and his Federalist Society buddies decided that the judicial solution would be to declare that racism was over and the VRA had to go
Now fast forward to today and one can see the result of the rise to power by the fascist Republicans Not only was it labeled legitimate to illegally rig the 2016 and 2024 elections(abundant circumstantial evidence supporting such statements) for the betterment of American society but it was necessary with a malignant narcissist candidate like Cheeto to head a fascist takeover of the government What may have been "cute judicial manipulation" by GW gradually grew over the decades to frank obsession and thirst for power and need to retain it
And voila!! The trifecta achieved!! Now with the governmental levers of power in hand it's time to make hay The antidemocratic Roberts Court as it will go do in the history books is merely a symptom as often the case in these situations of a greater sickness in an organization like the Nazi....and I don't use that word lightly.....party aka CNPP(Christian Nationalist Pedo Party) What WE the People are witnessing is an organizational thirst/lust for power and survival like a cancer that has gone out of control and metastasized and WE the People must stop it
All of those things actually happened exactly as outlined and described. Many people were screaming at the top of their lungs at every step of the way. But few people were listening, the media was asleep at the wheel, and people in power bulldozed on with impunity. Some of those people were actually ignorant enough to believe the fantasies about free market fundamentalism and all that insane and debunked magic "invisible hand" crap, and the rest were happy to clean up like the bandits they were. The way things worked by that time was that money did all the talking and those who had it and those who had power could just change the rules and thumb their noses at the rest of us. This was because the idea of expressing grievances has become a joke. People do not believe that they can ever get a handle on what is happening or that they can or should be more actively involved. I wonder why that is. How did so many people become disconnected, disengaged, and discouraged? What happened to the sense of outrage and the fighting spirit? How do so many people become pacified, apathetic, and where do they learn helplessness? Just asking for a friend.
The Medicare Advantage section is the one that should be assigned reading in every policy class. They took the most popular government program in American history, handed half of it to private insurers, made it cost more, and called it an upgrade. That's not incompetence... that's a masterclass in how you loot a public institution without the public noticing. The rebranding did the work that legislation alone couldn't. The same playbook is running right now in 2026, just with different agencies and different names. I break down exactly that pattern... how policy gets disguised as reform.... If this kind of structural analysis is your thing, worth a look.
https://uncomfortable.rxansmithmedia.com/p/healthcare-crisis-fix-tree-part-2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=5xf1q5
And the next chapter: After the foreclosures and with save-the-banks money from US taxpayers, those same banks and private equity companies bought up the foreclosed homes, rented them at inflated prices for a while, and then sold them at inflated prices, with the consequential (and continuing) unaffordability of real estate. The never-ending graft continues, always finding new ways to cheat some people and enrich the already rich.
"The job of finance is to provide capital to companies. "
Yes, and capital is debt,borrowed money, and who is the source of borrowed money" Financial institutions. And how can financial institutions loan out trillions, much more than they have in their own vaults?
Because all money' in the world,save for the developing or undeveloped countries, come into existence via the banking system, via something we call bank notes, a note is a liability of the issuer,
Until the FDIC was created, Banks printed their own notes. The FDIC would only insure banks which had joined the Federal Reserve Inc.. So banks in droves joined the Fed to be able to obtain FDIC deposit insurance. Thus halted the run on banks, made so popular by "It's a Wonderful World" starring Jimmie Stewart.
But ever since banks began issuing notes, in response to a demand for a loan (debt), banks have been creating money.
Capitalism is actually debt. Launch an IPO, and investors leverage their investment, by borrowing.
Your ability to be a capitalist is limited only by your credit worthiness
I just got bitten by the GOP Medicare changes. When I tried to renew my prescription, Medicare refused to cover it because Secty Wormbrain banned coverage for that class of medication.
Power And SCOTUS
The thirst for power like greed becomes insatiable like a malignant cancer Since the 1980's during the Reagan years of dominance the Nazi Republicans decided it was their time to flip the script of Democratic dominance but they knew because of unpopular policies eg reducing the social safety net, lowering taxes for the wealthy and corporations, reducing/elimination of federal control over the states, that the only solution was to rig the electoral system in their favor, at that time gerrymandering
But over at the DOJ a fella named Roberts had another idea Seeing what the VRA had done to the Nazi's ability to control the power dynamic he and his Federalist Society buddies decided that the judicial solution would be to declare that racism was over and the VRA had to go
Now fast forward to today and one can see the result of the rise to power by the fascist Republicans Not only was it labeled legitimate to illegally rig the 2016 and 2024 elections(abundant circumstantial evidence supporting such statements) for the betterment of American society but it was necessary with a malignant narcissist candidate like Cheeto to head a fascist takeover of the government What may have been "cute judicial manipulation" by GW gradually grew over the decades to frank obsession and thirst for power and need to retain it
And voila!! The trifecta achieved!! Now with the governmental levers of power in hand it's time to make hay The antidemocratic Roberts Court as it will go do in the history books is merely a symptom as often the case in these situations of a greater sickness in an organization like the Nazi....and I don't use that word lightly.....party aka CNPP(Christian Nationalist Pedo Party) What WE the People are witnessing is an organizational thirst/lust for power and survival like a cancer that has gone out of control and metastasized and WE the People must stop it
Repeal the filibuster and expand SCOTUS
It's on my bookshelf among the rest of the Hidden History Series.
All of those things actually happened exactly as outlined and described. Many people were screaming at the top of their lungs at every step of the way. But few people were listening, the media was asleep at the wheel, and people in power bulldozed on with impunity. Some of those people were actually ignorant enough to believe the fantasies about free market fundamentalism and all that insane and debunked magic "invisible hand" crap, and the rest were happy to clean up like the bandits they were. The way things worked by that time was that money did all the talking and those who had it and those who had power could just change the rules and thumb their noses at the rest of us. This was because the idea of expressing grievances has become a joke. People do not believe that they can ever get a handle on what is happening or that they can or should be more actively involved. I wonder why that is. How did so many people become disconnected, disengaged, and discouraged? What happened to the sense of outrage and the fighting spirit? How do so many people become pacified, apathetic, and where do they learn helplessness? Just asking for a friend.
Thom, and the rich keep getting richer. Happy Sunday!