I’m almost done reading The Bilderberg Conspiracy by H. Paul Jeffers, and the only problem I could say I have with it is the labeling of the people involved as capitalist or “super capitalist” or maybe some other formation that I’m forgetting. The book doesn’t get into the economics of the views or plans of the “elites”. Through the book it will mention socialist politics people involved put forth and then supposedly capitalist plans of the same level. It focuses on the European Union and NAFTA when it comes to globalization and centralization of the economy. It will refer to the people involved (bankers, leaders of industry, etc) as “super capitalist”, but obviously this is all a fallacy. How could the people who want to end national sovereignty and replace people’s national currency’s with a single currency be “super capitalist” in any sense? (or carry out an interventionist plans in an economy be seen as a capitalist act?)
Also, could someone present an Austrian perspective on NAFTA? If there really was “free trade” why would there be the need of a State (or a collaboration of States) certification of this?
Cus the bankers make lots and lost of money doing this.
I’m not sure if I buy that the BB group is conspiring to take down the world… wikileak.org has some transcripts from some old bilderberg meetings, and yes they are talking about the future of the world but it is sooooo boring. SO BORING. Its like reading a history textbook without pictures. So that kinda convinced me that Alex Jones was wrong. They’re not in there trying to figure out how to reduce the world’s population to 500 million.
Hanlons Razor makes me think this group isn’t anything of the Deus Ex variety. It’s possibly a red herring planted by a real conspiracy, a social club for the chattering classes, a consortium for kleptocrats or a group of people who rooted for the bad guys in 1984. Who knows. Frankly, if I were to list international organizations that threaten human liberty, I’d rank the EU a lot higher than this bunch.
The “super capitalist” thing probably comes from the fact that leftists, especially leftist conspiracy nuts, think corporatoplutomercantofascism is the purest form of capitalism, and that this group is the control agency of The Man.
Ron Paul summed NAFTA perfectly: “Why free trade needs a 400+ page treaty?”. It’s exactly the same thing a few people wondered about the Maastricht Treaty back at the times: why not simply abolish customs and let the economy adjust itself? I think many would agree that these large “free trade” agreements are in reality nothing more than centrally planning. Every treaty bears with it a long list of standards goods should comply to to be eligible for “free trade”. As a friend of mine remarked “governments may not directly own car factories and bakeries anymore but they dictate every single detail to be followed in production” (this was of course before the US government took over GM). In short free trade is being used as an excuse to further the cause of central planning.
I bet somebody in Washington has been keeping a very close eye on the EU these past thirty years as it evolved from a simple custom union (originally only coal and steel) into a full blown central planning agency.
I notice this general trend in conspiracy theories: a small bunch of people rule everything (a), with powers that once used to reside in elected assemblies (b), and hence every wrong we see today is not to be ascribed to the state but to the degeneration of democracy by such an elite (c).
As for (a) it is true, and the iron law of oligarchy will always make it true. What really pisses me off are (b) and (c). I believe all such theories are a clear attempt to shift the blame away form the State as such, into individuals, keeping people chasing a way to better the state, chasing rainbows, that is.
Likewise, all such conspiracy theorist display an adamantly poor knowledge of economics, and even when they discuss real problems (Zeigeist) they do so in a very misleading way. Thus, I’m afraid that the average layman, uneducated in economics, will never r be able to grasp things, and shall always blame individuals.
That being said, I still believe that for pure entertainment, some conspiracy theories are quite useful, as long as one has the mental means to discern what could be true from BS. In this respect, I always recommend The Ring of Power to everyone.
It’s a pro-socialist anti capitalist conspiracy theory. In fact, it’s one of the oldest, stemming from the times of the reformation and counter-reformation. NAFTA, GATT, WTO, are all anti free-trade agreements. If you want free trade, you don’t need to make special agreements with certain stipulations, you merely need remove tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade and open your borders. Such agreements threaten nations with protectionism if they don’t play ball; this is especially true for the EU. European nations not in the EU face extreme protectionism and isolationism. Only when you join the EU are you granted free trade with member nations. Basically, it’s blackmail.
I’ve actually been quite successful in educating these folks on what the Fed. really is. I explain that it’s a hybrid organization, because the President of the U.S. appoints the Fed. chairman and congress approves him. If the chairman doesn’t please the president, he won’t be reappointed at the end of his term. The conspiracy theorists seem to accept this when I explain it to them.