Corporate socialism can help production, but not enough to avoid recession despite widespread corporate access to a preposterously deep money well, the withdrawals from which are measured against inflated collateral, the real corporate borrow-cost of which is zero, and in an environment where hype buys public funds. It reveals that corporate access to unlimited cash still can’t turn a real profit while the game of musical chairs is no longer facilitated by hustling countries previously satisfied by the warmth of America’s heavy wing, back before Russia’s oil began fueling much warmer fires.
So, we need new agreements, pathways of productivity, and capable leadership willing to mentor millennials through the long uphill race of making it to the future while carrying $31 trillion worth of debt. In light of our probably impossible goal, can we fix some obvious systemic unfairness?
Corporate vampires and economy hackers modify democratically determined pathways to social rewards by lobbying for the proliferation of deconstruction-spawned and technicality-laden, regulation-buried patois, i.e.:
- Carried Interest. American workers pay income tax on profits earned for the rendering of services, except for when the services are rendered to the richest among us: wealth curators’ personal purchasing power currently grows at the same nominal rate as the pie. Carried interest allows people to substitute income for interest in property purchased to compound wealth, which insulates property pickers from the regressive effect of “sweating” for their sedentary masters for a lesser return than they. Hedge fund managers’ top dollar tax rate should cap out at 37% as it does for much worthier hustlers, even if a 20% max tax rate would inspire more talent.
- Executive Compensation Agreements. CEOs and other executives enjoy capital tax treatment on income by gambling away a sure paycheck for the chance to secure a piece of the pie, except that the “gamble” has long been Fed-insured and its success is measured by nominal productivity. An era of unproductive gambling might produce sober minds enough to erase this, so long as price controlling remains a cost of civilization.
- Insider Trading. Just as with carried interest and executive compensation agreements, inside traders buy stock (or “gamble” their income via options contracts) in exchange for wealth, relying on privileged knowledge instead of earned insight or the completion of successful performance to secure the dub. The tricky part with insider trading is that intent can be hidden or misunderstood. How about politicians put all their property in a trust upon entering office, all ROIs exceeding the rate of real GDP growth to go to public schools in neighborhoods netting the lowest property tax? Rewarding austerity feels weird in a nominal world, doesn’t it? Instead we foster races to the bottom justified by SALTy narratives. If you’re stealing the future, you shouldn't be able to make profit off the spread between now and then.
- Algo-trading. AI rapidly and repeatedly scalps pennies off the inefficiencies of human-speed market activity. It produces nothing and functions only to concentrate wealth. Solution: legislation that taxes like-kind security transactions at a progressive tax rate after the taxpayer crosses some daily maximum frequency threshold.
Unlimited QE kills the dream of properly navigating the social stratosphere. Why the fuck would anyone not already bought into the system want to buy in now? Yet our future depends on people buying in. If the game completely shuts down, everyone loses.
This means millennials must work harder than the boomers before us for a fraction of their purchasing power, while our geriatric overlords hopefully install enough infrastructure and secure good enough trade deals to soften the blow. Meanwhile, our economy is confirmed definitely completely fake because max liquidity and real negative interest rates still yielded recession.
You can fill a car with the premium gas and wash it up real nice, but it won’t take you anywhere if the engine is filled with holes. Patch the holes.
First published September 19, 2026.