surd. Its title could be “Perversion ofrnDemocracy.”rn”Perversion of the Individual” couldrnbe the title of the next act. Fortune 500rnexecutives often become corrupted withrnWall Street’s money and start to engagernin self-dealing, to the tune of tens or hundredsrnof millions of dollars (each). Enterrninsider trading . . . the ultimate WallrnStreet/Big Business Nirvana.rnIt goes like this. A “blue chip” companyrnbuys back its stock while its toprnexecutives (who made the stock buybackrndecision) exercise their stock optionsrn(read “sell” as they order the companyrnto “buy”). That’s like buying fromrnyourself—and at inflated prices andrnhuge profits (since executive stock optionsrncome at deep discounts relative tornmarket prices). Incest? Maybe on America’srnMain Street. But not on WallrnStreet.rnNo, I am not talking only aboutrnthe IBM chairman’s $91.5 millionrnwhich he took home in 1997 as directrncompensation, according to the April 5rnNew York Times. Nor about Walt Disney’srnMichael Eisner, who got aboutrn$576 million last year, according to thernWashington-based Multinational Monitorrn($226 million of it in stock optionsrnvalue, even though his company’s returnrnwas 29 percent lower than that of its peerrngroup—per the New York Times). I amrnalso thinking of the “little guys,” thernmere corporate vice presidents, whornprofited to the tune of millions of dollarsrneach fi-om insider trading in 1997.rnIt didn’t take long for the once pristinernBig Blue insiders to take a clue fromrntheir new chairman’s behavior that therntime of greed had arrived in Armonk, asrnit had elsewhere in corporate America.rnIn the last 18 months, the period of unprecedentedrnIBM hype and nearly $11rnbillion in stock buybacks, the insidersrnsold some $78 million worth of Big Bluernstock, mostly by exercising their stockrnoptions, for a $34 million pre-tax gain.rnSo as IBM was buying big time, insidersrnwere selling big time.rnMeanwhile, not a single IBM executivernbought shares of the company in thernthree quarters between July 1, 1997, andrnMarch 31, 1998. What about “puttingrnyour money where your mouth is”?rnAWOL in Armonk?rnHow is such self-dealing possible?rnGuess who appointed all three IBM directorsrnof the Board’s Executive CompensationrnCommittee? The Board itselfrnSo “Perversion of Corporate Governance”rncould be the title of the final act.rn”In an almost inevitable irony,” wroternJohn Gray in False Dawn, the “‘KarlrnMarx’ theory of historical inevitabilityrnhas been taken up by a new breed of socialrnengineers, ensconced in the InternationalrnMonetary Fund, the U.S. StaternDepartment, Western European governments,rnand the editorial offices of mostrnwestern newspapers.” In other words,rnthe New World Order’s “free marketrnglobalism” is merely another mutation ofrnMarxism. It’s a “red” sheep in a “bluernchip” wolf’s clothing. Communism wasrna dictatorship of the proletariat. Globalismrnis a dictatorship of capital. But bothrnare dictatorships! And both ideologiesrnhave been hatched and crafted in thernsame mints —the boardrooms of thernworld’s top bankers and industrialists.rnBoth depended on the corruption ofrnMoral Man by material means as arnmeans of enslaving and destroying him.rnAt the start of the century, it was LeninrnLIBERAL ARTSrnTHERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A BLACK HELICOPTERrn”A special unit of U.S. Marines will arrive in Birmingham, Alabama, August 3rd to preparernfor war. The 243 soldiers will have assault rifles in hand to execute secret missionsrnand perform maneuvers in the city. The training is part of a certification programrnin urban combat called TRUE (Training in the Urban Environment). Sgt.rnChris Cox . . . noted that while civilian control is an important element of urban combat,rnhe did not know if the Marines would rub elbows with Birmingham civilians.rn’We’re going to put as small a footprint on the city as possible. There will be a lot of helicopterrnnoise,’ said Cox.”rn—from the Birmingham News (]uly 26, 1998)rnand his Bolsheviks who tried to destroyrnan ancient Christian culture (Russian)rnand who snuffed out tens of millions ofrnlives in the name of materialistic communism.rnToday, it is the multinationalrncorporations that are the ruthless soldiersrnof the globalist Wall Street elite. For therntime being anyway, they only fire theirrnworkers by the millions, instead of firingrnat them as the Marxists did.rnBut do you really believe that a leopardrncan change its spots? If not, is therernany wonder that a Wall Street boom mayrnalso spell a Main Street doom?rnBob Djurdjevic heads up Annex Researchrn(www.djurdjevic.comj andTruth in Mediarn(www.beograd.com/truth).rnFAMILYrnWhy AsianrnPopulation GrowthrnIs Grinding Downrnby Virginia AbemethyrnAsia’s currencies will not be the onlyrnthings plummeting. Look next forrna decline in fertility rates (the number ofrnbirths per woman) in the countries affectedrnby Asia’s financial meltdown.rnMost people want children, but notrnmore than can be raised well given familyrnstandards. Caution about childbearingrnis widespread when resources andrnopportunity contract or seem severelyrnlimited. A 4G-percent decline in assetsrnprobably makes lots of people feel poorrnenough to postpone marriage or parenthood.rnA ferfility rate of 2.1 just replaces parentsrn(with an allowance for child mortality),rnso this number leads, in the longrnrun, to a stable population. Some Asianrncountries already have fertility rates belowrnthe replacement level. States such asrnHong Kong (1.2 births per woman),rnJapan (1.5), South Korea (1.7), Singaporern(1.8), China (1.8), and Taiwanrn(1.8) expect to see the end to populationrngrowth in 20 to 60 years, depending onrnwhen replacement-level fertility, or lower,rntook root. If fertility rates fall very low.rn46/CHRONICLESrnrnrn