The TPP: Toward Absolutist Capitalism

[marmar]

The TPP: Toward Absolutist Capitalism

Posted on April 20, 2015
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.


There are many excellent arguments against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), two of which — local zoning over-rides, and loss of national sovereignty — I’ll briefly review as stepping stones to the main topic of the post: Absolutist Capitalism, for which I make two claims:

1) The TPP implies a form of absolute rule, a tyranny as James Madison would have understood the term, and

2) The TPP enshrines capitalization as a principle of jurisprudence.

Zoning over-rides and lost of national sovereignty may seem controversial to the political class, but these two last points may seem controversial even to NC readers. However, I hope to show both points follow easily from the arguments with which we are already familiar. Both flow from the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, of which I will now give two examples.

TPP’s ISDS and Local Zoning

I’m starting with local zoning because I think it’s an issue where “strange bedfellows” on left and right can work together (and so letter writing campaigns and visits to Congressional offices can be organized accordingly). I think it will be very hard to find find a constituency for a foreign corporation determining local land use, and easy to find constituencies against it.

.....(snip).....

In other words, TPP elevates capitalization — the expectation of profit — as a principle to the principles of, say, the Bill of Rights, or the Declaration of the Rights of Man. And then, government, when it provides concrete material benefits to its citizens, must “compensate” capitalists whenever their calculated, immaterial expectations — capitalization — have been “expropriated.” What a racket! TPP is the biggest enclosure in the history of the world! .................(more)

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/04/tpp-toward-absolutist-capitalism.html

[uknotes]

1. Just sent this to my Senators ... on Kabuki Democracy

A recent article called the TPP debate "Kabuki Democracy" ... it's that at least, and probably institutionalized crony capitalism that entrenches massive corporate economic distortions ...

Consider:

I CANNOT READ IT, others cannot report on it, BUT corporate lobbyists CAN and do and have been part of the negotiating process for years. Who is my representative in the process? Surely "We the people" are supposed to be in charge ?!?

Take an example like PATENTS, which were originated to allow the small inventor to compete with big guys. Now they are owned by massive corporations who use their ROYAL WARRANTS to MONOPOLIZE, TROLL and colonize the new worlds. (Think 16th Century Europe).

Further, inventors are required to turn these PATENTS over to corporations through employment and subcontractor contracts. So education, invention turn into work for hire, labor arbitrage and restricted future employment opportunities. There is NO RETURN to the SMALL INVENTOR who really drives INNOVATION ...

I suspect the TPP will enshrine this crony distorted Patent system permanently into International Property Law ...

BUT who really knows in this Kabuki democracy? Fast track is simply pretending we have any influence on a barrel going over Niagara Falls once it's in the maelstrom !!!

Clean up this process and let's know what is going on

Your constituent, ...