Capital Controls
I consider the following problem to be much more critical than issues like lobbying in Washington...
Without measures to reduce the risk of "capital flight" from this country, like once existed under Bretton Woods after WW2, I fear that many liberal economic proposals will never materialize. The tyrants of capital can punish the masses if government programs sufficiently anger them! Their largely unrestrained money power gives them virtual "veto power" in Washington -- e.g., do what they want or they'll crush the economy by moving capital to other places or by simply restricting it. Thanks a lot, neoliberals and Republicans of the early 70's, for holding the vast majority of our population hostage to them!
Since Bretton Woods was killed in the early 70's, we've had:
1. Economic stagnation, with declines in real wages for the majority of the population. This should be expected since the wealthy are averse to strong economic growth which might spur inflation... thus reducing the value of their money.
2. Various economic crises, like the housing bubble, caused by tyrants of capital making risky investments since they're "too big to fail" anyway. Countries with stronger capital control largely avoided those crises, by the way.
3. Increased economic inequality as the rich get richer.
4. More flow of wealth to the controllers of financial transactions rather than real production.
5. More and more government concessions to big money against the wishes of the majority of the population.
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