Are "Illuminati" Conspiracy Theorists Crazy Wrong?

Credit: Everytime Films and InfoWars

Most of us laugh at the 'crazies' that are convinced that there is some secret group, usually the Illuminati, that really controls the world and not us or even our 'democratically elected' governments have any real power to do anything about it or to change how things are. 

Now I am not one that believes in the Illuminati theory, however, I very much believe that corporations and those that run them, the CEOs and board members, do what they must and can do with whomever they need to to get what they want, usually more profit for the shareholders! I also think it is extremely naive to think that any national or international corporation cares about the consumer as a person or individual. The masses are nothing more than numbers on spreadsheets that are to be manipulated to decrease overhead and increase profits! 

The paradox is that I am also an incredibly hopeful and optimistic and overly idealistic personality, usually much to the irritation of those closest to me. I am always wanting to make things better for everyone. I am always questioning everything. I am always concerned about the world in general and humanity in particular. So I would love to wake up one day and find out that Capitalism is a great economic model.....but that will never happen. 

Capitalism is to communism as liberals are to conservatives! They are only different sides of the same coins! The difference between capitalism and communism can best be illustrated by comparing the power wielded by Wall Street, in the US and the Kremlin, in the Soviet Union. And socialism seems to most often end up being the worst of the two combined!

via Amazon.com

I was recently sent an early release copy of a new book by Jacques Peretti titled The Deals That Made The World; in which Peretti, lays out how greed and ambition carried out and negotiated in secret meetings and backroom deals has impacted our everyday lives and not for the better. At least not for the better of the regular guy just trying to get by or get ahead. 

Peretti lays out the fake data, and fake science that corporate behemoths have used to decrease overhead and or increase profit, by selling a load of crap in fancy marketing! The opening volley exposes the Phoebus cartel's two-pronged approach to increasing profits and maintaining their power and control. Not, only do they (the member corporations from the light bulb industry) agree to limit the life-span of their individual products, they also agree to work together to destroy any upstart business that would try to sell longer lasting light bulbs! 

Before you go all, "I am a savvy consumer and only do business with 'good business companies'," keep in mind this book includes deals by Apple and Elon Musk. Not much surprise to most, I hope, is that the biggest players of "screwing over the public for profit" are the food and pharmaceutical companies! In addition, the reader is exposed to such maneuvers as the leveraging of political risk to produce profit in uncertainty to the tactics of how to take advantage of the widening inequality gap by Tobias Levkovich and Citibank.

This book was an unfortunate substantiator to some of my previous suppositions concerning corporate capitalism. The information put forward by Peretti furthers my belief that "too big to fail" is fiction, and most of them should be allowed to when they mismanage themselves into failure for the sake of higher profits. Peretti's disclosures also further solidified my belief that the best economy for the masses is free markets with very limited regulations and no government rewards or benefits. 

Regardless of your economic bent or your political disposition, this book is a must read for understanding the current wielding of power in the world and insight about where the world is headed if nothing changes.