Shoshona Zuboff’s “
The age of Surveillance Capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of Power
” gives an impressive and comprehensive account of how the big tech companies gained their economic dominance, and why this is a problem.[1] We hear much about how these companies fail to pay their fair share of taxes, how they have become monopolies, and how they enable online abuse.[2] Zuboff’s concerns, however, are with a less obvious problem but one that is perhaps more insidious.
The main companies she has in mind are Google and Facebook, although the methods they have discovered are, she claims, spreading throughout the capitalist economy and giving rise to a new form of capitalism altogether, which she identifies as
“Everything Bubble” come up more often lately.
This isn’t a new phrase, Graham Summers was among the first to coin it in his 2017 book
“The Everything Bubble: The Endgame for Central Bank Policy”:
“The Everything Bubble chronicles the creation and evolution of the US financial system, starting with the founding of the US Federal Reserve in 1913 and leading up to the present era of serial bubbles: the Tech Bubble of the ‘90s, the Housing Bubble of the early ‘00s and the current bubble in US sovereign bonds, which are also called Treasuries.
Because these bonds serve as the foundation of our current financial system, when they are in a bubble, it means that all risk assets (truly EVERYTHING), are in a bubble, hence our title, The Everything Bubble. In this sense, the Everything Bubble represents the proverbial end game for central bank policy: the final speculative frenzy induced by Federal Reserve overreach.”
often lose sight of this longer term picture in talking about these moment by moment decisions. but real wage dynamics in the u.s., we haven t seen any growth in 20 years, right. the average american has not seen in real terms more money in their pocket in 20 years. wage growth despite all the efforts post-financial crisis has still been really, really anemic. that s because we have real hard work to do. we need to reform our educational system. we need an infrastructure investment. you know, we need to raise productivity. these are tough things. they re not sound bites. they re not easy to do. they re not easy for politicians to talk about. but it s what needed. all right, rana faroohar. tomorrow on cnn, jake tapper sits down exclusively with republican senator tim scott on why he voted yes on this massive tax overhaul. that s tomorrow, 9 a.m. eastern on state of the union. we ll be right back. watch me. i ve tried lots of things for my joint pain.
fighter jets and warships, more than $100 billion in conjunction with the administration s america first platform the deal is expected to boost u.s. manufacturing jobs despite possible economic benefits it s receiving criticism widespread from both sides of the political aisle. all of this happening while the president s business eyes in the middle east continue to complicate his diplomatic outreach. here to discuss this is rana faroohar. good morning, how are you? good. the administration would like to head it off right away, a win, not on the ground and already pushing $100 billion deal here. that s probably the max. i heard some say it goes up to maybe $300 billion but my point is, should we really be so overwhelmed with a wonderful
difference in the message? well it s interesting, because the obama was trying to say look, we support the arab spring, we support reform in the middle east. we re not going to get more involved in middle eastern affairs but we re supporting this reform. president trump is saying look we re supporting the status quo. the saudi relationship is problematic because saudi, the wahabi strain of islam in saudi arabia has been associated with the rise of terrorist groups, with the sort of ideology behind a number of terrorist groups so this is not a clean and easy relationship, and it certainly brings into question, you know, how committed the president is to business, versus fighting radical islamic terrorism. right, they re intertwined but in an awkward kind of way. rana, thank you very much. thank you. up next, late night taking aim