3. Creative destruction / disaster capitalism
It has long between a tenet of left-wing revolutionaries that to create a new society you first have to tear down the old one. In recent years, a similar approach has been adopted by
right-wing movements.
Some are those free-market fundamentalists pushing for a completely unregulated economy, while others are all about authoritarian, xenophobic nationalism. The two aren’t necessarily related, but in Brexit they find common ground for ‘creative destruction’.
THE FAR RIGHT
The EU has brought decades of unprecedented multi-national cooperation, peace and social progress. For some, this is intolerable.
For example, Steve Bannon, former campaign advisor to Donald Trump, would like to see the EU torn down and be replaced by Trump-style nationalism and xenophobia. Despite being an American citizen, Bannon has been actively promoting far-right parties across Europe — including the UK’s BNP, the EDL, Ukip, and anything to do with Nigel Farage.
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Bannon is also the former Vice President of Cambridge Analytica.
DISASTER CAPITALISM
Equally destructive, William Rees-Mogg (Jacob’s father) actually wrote a book describing the financial benefits of social collapse and economic crisis for a few astute investors. The book makes it pretty clear why Jacob — recently promoted to Leader of the House of Commons by Boris Johnson — not only craves Brexit, but also the economic pain that is likely to come with it.
In the Information Age, according to William Rees-Mogg (or ‘Mystic Mogg’ as
Private Eye called him), all nations, governments, social services and even democracy itself will collapse. Finally, no more taxes! No more propping up the poor and the sick! And then, out of the inevitable violence and carnage to come when the masses turn on each other, only the most capable and self-interested investors will inherit the Earth.
“There is a reason why the hard Brexiteers cannot coherently explain their vision of Brexit: their chief aim is to break as many things as possible, in the belief that from the rubble might arise a kind of flag-waving, small-state, free-market utopia that even the blessed Margaret might have found unpalatable.”
This is why proponents of a free-market revolution don’t care about the harm caused by austerity and won’t care about the damage caused by Brexit. Shortages simply mean high demand and higher prices. Deregulation simply means giving the greedy greater freedom to exploit the needy.
Naomi Klein, in her 20
07 book
The Shock Doctrine, refers to this deeply cynical and toxic ideology as ‘
disaster capitalism’.
But why sit around waiting for a natural disaster or economic shock to come along when you can covertly engineer one yourself?
4. Hedge funds — Betting against Britain
Hedge fund managers are investors who gamble on the economy. They place bets on any economic value that might rise or (ideally) fall, such as the value of sterling. The world is just one big casino to them, and any humanitarian disaster or economic crisis is simply a good bet — an opportunity to make a killing.
Some of the leading Brexiteers who have long claimed that leaving the EU will lead to enormous dividends for the UK are, in fact, hedge fund investors seeking enormous dividends for themselves.
They are poised to profit from the inevitable uncertainty and chaos, especially from a no-deal Brexit.
“What to do if you are a hedge fund manager down to your last billion? Answer: rig global politics in your favour. If that sounds improbable, remember we are talking about folk capable of shorting* the entire Japanese economy in response to a natural disaster. Hedge fund managers are megalomaniacs. It goes with the territory.”
One of the new EU directives designed to regulate the financial sector, t
he Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (2011), focused on the worst excesses of unscrupulous hedge funds. It addressed everything from their secrecy to how much managers could pay themselves in bonuses.
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The adoption of the directive means that hedge funds and private equity will no longer operate in a regulatory void outside the scope of supervisors. The new regime brings transparency and security to the way these funds are managed and operate, which adds to the overall stability of our financial system."
Hedge fund managers in London, who had been used to operating as freewheeling rogues outside the system, took exception to this and began clamouring for Britain to leave the EU. The clamouring increased in 2015 after they were fined by the Greek government for interfering with the struggling Greek economy. Since then they have been actively sponsoring Leave campaigns as well as sponsoring Boris Johnson to push for ‘no deal’.
One of these hedge fund managers is
Crispin Odey.
Odey routinely bets against the British economy — if UK stocks and share values go down, or if a British business goes bankrupt as he predicted, he wins.
He made £220
million after successfully betting that a Leave result would cause the pound to crash. But then, he had also donated almost £900,000 to the Vote Leave campaign to help get the desired result.
After Theresa May’s downfall, Odey donated £10,000 to Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign. He then began publicly calling for people to support Boris Johnson’s
no-deal Brexit strategy as the best possible way ahead for Britain.
‘Theresa May wasted three years,’ he said. ‘The only optimism about anything lies in supporting Boris.’
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Yet Odey has placed a £300 million bet on a no-deal Brexit leading to
disaster for British companies — but another staggering windfall for himself.
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“Odey’s apparent lack of confidence in flagship British firms stands in marked contrast to his fund’s investments in other countries, including France, Germany and the US, where he is mainly backing shares to rise.”
It’s as if Brexit is just a means for predators to isolate the UK from the safety of the herd.
And with so many wealthy businessmen sponsoring government ministers to produce the hardest Brexit possible purely for their own financial gain, it really begs the question — who is the current government actually working for?
“Brexit is not a cry for help from the English underclass. It is a carefully stage-managed campaign by global finance capital in the form of the hedge funds. It is being orchestrated out of hedge fund self-interest and the greed of billionaires. Boris Johnson is their front man.”