"Democracy it's a beautiful thing, it's gonna be great, I would give myself an A+,", as Trump would say. But it's not gonna be beautiful. If you've followed the stories of rising authoritarian surveillance in the US, you'll know it's going to be ugly at home. And it's always ugly abroad when the US sets the agenda. But the Trump/Musk coup could be a great stimulus for radical change. Because the USA has been heading this way for a long time, but now it's obvious, with obvious consequences for all other nations. Now we have to change everything. Around the world we need to create effective regional alliances against this corrupt US corporate takeover.

And now the neoliberal economic policies which dominate our lives (like those of Aotearoa's coalition Government) are doubly exposed - by the US showing its endgame is corporate coups, and by NZ showing here that these economic policies fail (NZ had world-worst gross domestic product [GDP] shrinkage in 2024). Remember the accompanying cartoon? What happens when, like short-lived UK PM Liz Truss, you implement the full neoliberal wish list? You back a small group of the most corrupt corporate interests, the economy nosedives, and in the UK case the Government was out.

Sadly, Trump's mates aren't likely to lose elections in the US anytime soon. Giant US corporate thieves - or the "Magnificent Seven" as American analysts prefer - are hoovering up advertising, tech, surveillance, military and unpaid tax revenue from the whole world, bringing back enough money to keep their Internet and political the contributing dominance.

How Did We Get Here?

Factors have become clearer over the last decade:

• The long line of post-WW2 US interventions to undermine and militarise developing nations, for low-cost supply of resources and labour
• More recently, US/Israeli export of social manipulation and State surveillance tools to autocrats
• Military overspending and institutional dominance (UN, World Bank, International Monetary Fund) translating to US policy control
• The proliferation and influence of conservative think tanks funded by hidden donations from the worst corporations, with the most to gain from corrupting Government
• The end of effective unions and worker power in the US, leading to 40 years without an increase in real incomes but big increases in work insecurity
• The shift of US corporations towards ever higher monopoly profits, shareholder returns and executive excess
• Reduced US competitiveness due to falling rates of reinvestment in production, unless it reinforces monopoly
• Asset management funds channelling an increasing share of capital into "investment funds" which buy up assets - housing, infrastructure, utilities - to on-sell them at inflated prices so future user charges are higher for essential services
• US government vulnerability to influence: excessive power for Presidents, lack of limits and transparency on corporate donations, mobility between Government and private sector
• Government policies of privatisation, reduced Government services and regulation, increased imprisonment
• US Governments shifting to corporate partnerships for social media manipulation to get elected
• Government i.e. worker-paid bailouts for corporate-created crises

We need to think of the USA now as a kleptocracy, the result of weird rich people with too much money, but to also see clearly the new type of capitalism being created. With rising corporate power there is no end to these trends towards increased exploitation in sight, but systemic and climate instability is also increasing. Clarity about today's failures builds clarity about what a better world looks like, and how to get there.

Biden, Trump And The Investment Theory of US Politics

If you'd like more analysis of why Trump won the 2024 election, try this interview with Thomas Ferguson, Research Director at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Ferguson argues that American politics is best explained by an "investment theory of politics", where electoral outcomes are shaped by competition between the parties, not for the support of voters but for the support of the donors who shape their policies, candidates and campaign funding. He has plenty of data to back that up, and says bluntly:

"We know now that US Congressional elections are linear functions of money and careful tests show that that is not principally because money is following votes, but rather the reverse. You can actually watch gambling odds on the new prediction markets change as money pours in sometimes". In addition to donations, Ferguson looks deeply at how those donor-influenced policies impact on American incomes. He points out that the Democrat backers who got Biden elected in 2020 reacted in response to the low turnout which got Trump elected the previous time, with voter disaffection driven by the Democrats' failure to deliver any economic benefits to most Americans.

In 2020 during the pandemic, they went for a big stimulus package which most of the Democratic Party insiders didn't like, insisting on tapering it back in late 2022. For two years, Americans had "almost a European social welfare state briefly in the United States. You got all kinds of things that you should have - the stimulus allowed people to pay for doctor visits, cover essentials, there was meaningful childcare assistance - and then suddenly you didn't again".

At the same time Biden's Administration was in denial on rising inflation driven by profiteering after the covid disruption. Coming into the 2024 election the Democrats kept proclaiming themselves as the most labour friendly Administration, claiming that real wages were rising - but they weren't. Wages lagged behind inflation, and more critically working hours declined. The best measure to capture this is household median real income, which dropped a lot.

Suicidal

Ferguson points out: "Almost everybody knew this, intuitively, when they went into a food store to buy anything at all. For the Democrats to keep parroting their 'we're the most pro-worker Administration ever' line in 2024 was suicidal. The net change in the percentage of the workforce unionised during the entire Biden Presidency is going to be either zero or very close to that".

"It did not help that Democrat economists kept ignoring the actual record of the first Trump Administration. Trump sharply criticised the Fed for prematurely hiking interest rates. Wages barely rose during his first term - but working hours went up. Accordingly, the median household income figures rose a lot".

Watchdog - 168 April 2025