It’s almost impossible to manage an empire with neoliberalism as the operating system.

Matt Stoller’s latest article about how the US cannot manufacture ammunition goes into copious detail on why that is so, but the short answer is Wall Street.

Essentially the American empire has devolved into a vast opportunity for looting starting with the for-profit-privatized, so-called Defense Department that starts wars with no apparent competence, much less intention, to ever finish them. Defense is big business, and since the end of the Cold War, the government has allowed Wall Street to determine who owns, builds, and profits from defense spending. Unlike the mid-20th century defense-industrial base, today government cash goes increasingly to stock buybacks rather than actual armaments. The essential idea to comprehend is that the military/industrial/complex (MIC) was never set up for national security but instead for profit. 

The consequences, as with so much of our economy that’s been financialized, are predictable. Higher prices, worse quality, lower output. Wall Street and private equity firms prioritize cash out first, and that means a once functioning and nimble industrial base now produces more grift than anything else. 

Stoller writes–“As stockpiles dwindle, there is now widespread agreement among policymakers that America must rebuild its capacity to arm itself and its allies. But according to a new scorching government report released this week, that’s mostly just talk. The Pentagon doesn’t bother tracking the guts of defense contracting, which is who owns the mighty firms that build weaponry. No matter how bad you might think the situation is with the United States and key munitions for the US, Israel and Ukraine… it is actually worse. Much worse. Stock valuations trump national defense. It isn’t even close.”

Ka-ching, as the kids say.

Don’t worry, our chief-executive has a plan. Joe Biden, the president from Visa, gave a speech where he announced the new emergency aid proposal, referring to the U.S. arms industry as the “arsenal of democracy” and making a not-too-subtle pitch for the economic benefits of U.S. military aid: “We send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpiles. And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpiles, with new equipment. Equipment that defends America and is made in America…”

No mention of Wall Street enrichment but that’s to be expected. The president and congress can pontificate till the cows come home about American jobs but it’s the defense company CEOs who rake in tens of millions a year, and Wall Street shareholders, who are the real beneficiaries of the endless war for empire.

It should be axiomatic at this point but whenever you hear the phrase “American jobs” equate it with Wall Street profits. After all, Wall Street represents the most important political constituent. It’s not even close.

All of this is related. There’s been a giant grift in American life for decades and the MIC is just one part of a country dominated by banks and multi-national corporations, who manage the US empire for their exclusive benefit. Just ask yourself the question. Isn’t the entire point of having a Neo-colonial Empire to improve the well-being of the home populace at the expense of the nations being exploited and pillaged? Ha, ha, surely you jest. Who needs a healthy populace rich in well-being when you can have trillions in annual corporate profits?

As an anti-imperialist, who despairs of the lack of an anti-war movement, I laugh my ass off knowing that Wall Street greed is hastening the end of American hegemony.