Financial Dimensions of a Re-Emergent Anglosphere with added Militaristic Cover in that Dynamic Pragmatism of Mainstream Politics

The AIM Network

1 year ago

By Denis Bright

Our political and corporate leaders within the Anglosphere group of countries have recovered a global outreach beyond the wildest dreams of King George III (1738-1820).

United by the Five Eyes Intelligence Network in Australia, Canada, USA, Britain and New Zealand with a steadfast commitment to neoliberal political and economic values, the Anglosphere has reached out to consolidate a network of influence globally that brings together a diverse range of countries like Japan, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia as the prime movers and shakers of contemporary modernism.

The global militarism fostered by the Five Eyes Intelligence network is closely embedded in a commitment to neoliberal politics and economics through the influence of the major multinational corporates in the Anglosphere world of commerce and finance.

The most significant one hundred corporate giants can be critically ranked on factors such as revenue and brand reputation. Most are located in the USA. Others include BP, HSBC and Berkshire Hathaway within the Anglosphere.

Readers can try out Google Bard to identify the key corporations. In the USA, the highflying corporates include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, State Street Corporation, Fidelity Investments, Vanguard Group, Charles Schwab Corporation. In Australia, some of the key corporates were once in the public sector. The Australian list includes Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corporation, ANZ Banking Group, National Australia Bank, Macquarie Group, AMP Limited, Suncorp Group, Australian Super, Challenger Limited, IFM Investors

The military arms of the neoliberal states is supported by corporations which research and deliver weapons of mass destruction. In the US, this military industrial complex includes a list of corporates which are readily identified by a search on Google Bard. Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. of California seems to wish to contain its media coverage:

The interim dividends tabled on 15 February showed that annual sales of defence products for 2022 amounted to a cool $US2.22 billion. Keen students could search the other major defence suppliers which have their hands out for more taxpayer dollars at a time of great financial austerity for infrastructure and essential services within the USA. Debate over government spending in the USA of course excludes refence to this list of so-called patriotic companies.

Bechtel
Boeing
BWX Technologies
General Dynamics
Honeywell International
Huntington Ingalls Industries
Jacobs Engineering
Lockheed Martin
Moog
Northrop Grumman
Orbital ATK
Raytheon
Textron

These companies play a variety of roles in the nuclear weapons programmes, including:

Designing and manufacturing nuclear warheads and components
Developing and testing nuclear weapons delivery systems
Maintaining and modernizing the nuclear weapons stockpile
Providing logistical support for the nuclear weapons program

Making use of Google Bard, of course brings readers into the corporate network of Alphabet USA. It is in the top echelons of global economic power and influence globally (Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year Results for 2022):

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – February 2, 2023 – Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2022.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, said: “Our long-term investments in deep computer science make us extremely well-positioned as AI reaches an inflection point, and I’m excited by the AI-driven leaps we’re about to unveil in Search and beyond. There’s also great momentum in Cloud, YouTube subscriptions, and our Pixel devices. We’re on an important journey to re-engineer our cost structure in a durable way and to build financially sustainable, vibrant, growing businesses across Alphabet.”

Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google said: “Our Q4 consolidated revenues were $76 billion, up 1% year over year, or up 7% in constant currency, and $283 billion for the full year 2022, up 10%, or up 14% in constant currency. We have significant work underway to improve all aspects of our cost structure, in support of our investments in our highest growth priorities to deliver long-term, profitable growth.”

Alphabet USA is the parent company of Google, the world’s most popular search engine. Alphabet is also a holding company for a number of other businesses, including Calico (longevity research), Waymo (self-driving cars), Verily (life sciences), and Capital G (venture capital)

Google Search is the most popular search engine in the US, and it is used by millions of Americans every day to find information, shop online, and stay connected with friends and family.

Google Maps is the most popular navigation app in the US, and it is used by millions of Americans to get around town and plan their trips.

YouTube is the most popular video streaming platform in the US, and it is used by millions of Americans to watch videos, learn new things, and be entertained.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading cloud computing platform, and it is used by businesses of all sizes in the US to store and process data, develop and deploy applications, and more.

There are real and quite non-radical alternatives to neoliberalism with its strategic outreach to military industrial networks. Some and probably most of the US corporates actually want a less troubled world and are ideologically at loggerheads with their more aggressive cousins from the military industrial complexes.

Ironically, the corporate world of the global Anglosphere network strongly engages with lower cost developing countries and transitional economies to maintain the supply of lower cost manufactured goods and even services. All of us have interacted with the competent credit card support services of credit card networks which are often in locations like Manila in the Philippines.

Such co-operation extends to the supply of vital products from China. Even some public hospitals in Australia draw products like health shoes from China through financial intermediaries after appropriate measurements are made by health specialists. In the US itself, leading brand names of health shoes are derived from Chinese suppliers.

However, the far-right of politics across the political aisle has a fortress the developed world mentality which is stocked by opinions generated by populist voices in the soft digital media and sections of the mainstream press which are eroding the long-standing commitment of working-class people for a more humane world at home and abroad.

As work re-commences on Joe Biden’s New Wall to seal off Mexico from thousands of refugees from Central and South America, there are striking similarities to other barriers imposed on refugees in Europe and the Middle East. The dilemma of refugees is being exploited by the nasty rhetoric from leaders on the Conservative Party at their annual conference in Manchester as covered in Irish Times (3 October 2023):

A senior member of the Conservative Party was ejected for loudly criticising the conference speech of Suella Braverman, Britain’s home secretary, as she warned a hall full of Tory delegates that a “hurricane” of immigrants is coming.

Ms Braverman took a characteristically hard line on migration issues in her address on Tuesday from the main stage at the Manchester Central Convention Complex, as she claimed that a Labour victory in next year’s general election would result in an open borders policy.

She pledged that the UK government will do “whatever it takes” to stop “bogus asylum seekers” reaching Britain. This appeared to be a reference to the possibility of the UK leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, if it prevents a toughening of British laws.

This type of rhetoric is far from being a long-term solution and is being repeated in the domestic politics across the Anglosphere to mimic the stand taken by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

As British infrastructure plans and support for National Health are being curtailed, British defence industries are having a field day with support from gullible leaders worldwide as noted by Dan Sabbagh from The Guardian (22 May 2023):

British arms exports doubled during 2022 to a record £8.5bn according to the only publicly available official figures, reflecting escalating geopolitical uncertainties and fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The largest destination for UK-made weaponry was Qatar, which bought £2.7bn-worth, and 54% went to countries designated as “not free” by the human rights group Freedom House. These include Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as Qatar.

The £8.5bn recorded in 2022 is comfortably a record since the UK began publishing export data in 2008 and is more than double the £4.1bn recorded in 2021. The previous high was £6.9bn in 2015, a time when Syria had collapsed into civil war.

“The latest export licence figures for 2022 show that the UK arms industry is working overtime to arm some of the world’s most authoritarian regimes,” said Sam Perlo-Freeman, a researcher at Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), “as well as countries engaged in armed conflict, with the UK government’s full approval.”

The following British companies are involved in the production of nuclear weapons:

Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) – A joint venture between the UK government and Lockheed Martin, AWE is responsible for the design, manufacture, and maintenance of the UK’s nuclear warheads.

BAE Systems – BAE Systems provides a variety of support services to AWE, including engineering, manufacturing, and maintenance.

Serco Group – Serco owns a one-third share in AWE-ML, which manages the AWE site and facilities.

Rolls-Royce – Rolls-Royce is developing a new class of nuclear-powered submarines for the UK Royal Navy.

Redhall Group – Redhall Group provides engineering services to AWE.

These companies play a vital role in the UK’s nuclear weapons program. They design, manufacture, and maintain the UK’s nuclear warheads, as well as providing support for the nuclear weapons delivery systems.

Even slightly dissident leaders of the Anglosphere countries like Labour’s Chris Hipkins of New Zealand will face overwhelming electoral pressures at the forthcoming national elections on 14 October 2023 under that country’s proportional voting system. The far-right minority ACT Party was well funded at the 2020 national elections to gain ten of the 61 seats in NZ’s unicameral parliament.

A re-emergent National Party under the leadership of Chris Luxon is likely to form a coalition with the ACT Party to bring NZ back to the fold of the other Anglosphere leaders to cool its trading an investment ties with China and to deepen its tentative associations with AUKUS. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined the conditions for closer involvement of NZ on his visit to Wellington in July 2023:

Image: Reuters- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) poses with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Chris Hipkins at Parliament in Wellington on July 27, 2023

The new Albanese Government faced similar pressures in its early days and decided to fall into line with the due processes established during the Morrison years on the AUKUS deal as engineered by disgraced former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The arrival of Caroline Kennedy as the new US Ambassador to Canberra in July 2022 provided an opportunity to restate any drift towards New Zealand’s dissident policies as noted by Andrew Tillett in the AFR (25 July 2022):

Ms Kennedy demonstrated the embrace of an Australian colloquialism, playing a straight bat on key issues in the bilateral relationship and regionally.

Asked whether she would raise a Chinese company’s ownership of the Port of Darwin during talks on Wednesday with Anthony Albanese, as well as climate policy, Ms Kennedy said she was looking forward to meeting the prime minister and advancing shared goals.

A question about timelines for the AUKUS nuclear submarine project also sunk without trace.

“I think AUKUS is a really significant partnership between three of the closest allies. There are many announcements to come in coming weeks, so I think it’s best to let that unfold and then maybe we’ll talk about them as they do,” she said.

In the far-off UK, British Labour is well ahead in recent polling, A future British Labour Prime Minister in Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC is likely to fall into line with due process if these polling trends continue (Politico Poll of the Polls).

A slowing global economy might be expected to tilt many EU countries back towards the political centre. However, economic slow-downs also sharpen support for the far-right of European politics as in the last national elections in Germany, France, Italy and Greece. Secondly, the corporate giants of the Anglosphere are largely exempt from the direct effects of higher interest rates through their command of tax minimization strategies which can be re-invested in company expansion and perks for senior executives. Thirdly, the foreshadowed recession may not be as severe as originally expected because the corporate giants of the Anglosphere have a command over the application of new technology and especially developments in AI initiatives. Untimately, the Amazonization of employment in developed countries will make big inroads into future employment prospects.

Mohamed El-Erian (5 October 2023) has the latest economic trendlines as reported in the Financial Times (paywalled).

For responsible activists, it will be a long haul back to social democratic goals and more interventionist government policies to address gowing levels of homelessness, poverty and inequality.

The youthful values of JFK once saved humanity from a nuclear war over the Cuban missile crisis when he was seduced by military intelligence to support the CIA’s Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961 and to allow US nuclear weapons to be installed in Turkey in close proximity to the boundaries of the Soviet Union. This disaster was used by Cuba to justify the acquisition of nuclear weapons sites which were spotted by US Surveillance in 1962.

With the assistance of Alphabet, as owner of the You Tube network, readers might be inspired by Barry McGuire’s Age of Destruction lyrics. Barry lives on in California with more seniority than Joe Biden or Donald Trump as potential leaders of the Anglosphere beyond 2024. Barry still generates a share of celebrity gossip at 87 years of age.

[textblock style=”6″]

Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building in these difficult times. Your feedback from readers advances the cause of citizens’ journalism. Full names are not required when making comments. However, a valid email must be submitted if you decide to hit the Replies Button.