2 thoughts on “John Hope Bryant and the Big Myth of Market Fundamentalism”
I am so glad to see BLM attacking this subject! You all have the chops and the bandwidth to do it justice.
I first came across John Hope Bryant in 2021 while researching the connections of the World Economic Forum to U.S. city government in Chicago. JHB’s Operation Hope is one of those organizations that is intended to force a breach into city governments through the WEF public-private ideology that goes unquestioned. The former mayor Rahm Emmanuel was a WEF acolyte as well. I’m sure there are many others in government who push the WEF ideology, like Chicago’s then (and current) city treasurer Melissa Conyers-Ervin, who has invited JHB since 2021 into her office to spread the gospel of financial literacy to poor Chicagoans, ostensibly. However, the real point is to firmly reestablish the original neo-liberal ideology in Chicago at the economic “bottom,” as the only acceptable answer; as Margaret Thatcher inculcated the Brits in the 1980s: “There is no alternative” (TINA). At a time when popular rebellion appears to be imminent?
JHB runs a “Financial Empowerment Summit” through Chicago’s city treasurer office and JHB poses as a savior who “gives the poor and working class a private banker” (his words). The pretense is channeled in the acronym they use: BWTT (Building Wealth Today for Tomorrow). He has not changed his spiel. He is the most inveterate name-dropper I have ever encountered! (He likes to talk about his elite — and aristocratic — connections because he has no ideas, just connections. That is all he knows how to do, perhaps: schmooze for connections to bolster his schemes.)
I objected to the charlatan using public university facilities when the “summit” started in 2021 using the University of Illinois as its site. It still takes place at the UIC Forum, most recently last month. This is how the WEF and its acolytes wiggle into city government and grab ideological hold of public utilities. They have activated the private banks and also other local public institutions over the past three years. I suspect that something similar is happening in other cities. Chicago has been undergoing “globalization” for a few years and there will be a fight to change the direction if and when people wake up and decide they don’t want WEF ideology directing Chicago or anything else.
For those doing further research on JHB and his Operation, I suggest looking at the Chicago City Treasurer’s cozy relationship with Operation Hope as ann example of what is likely happening in other cities, and expanding the research to other cities. I also suspect JHB has lucrative deals in place with other businesses. In 2021 he touted Shopify as a “partner” of Operation Hope, when Shopify offered $20k grants “in kind” (?) to each small business that signed up with Shopify at the summit.
Note: in 2021 JHB touted his single-family home rental company Paradise Homes as the largest minority-owned business in its class. He made assertions of what the magic of compounding interest could perform with only $10 from the pocket of any person with no regular discretionary disposable income (or hope thereof). Much like his garbled assertion on BLM Broke-ish that he could turn anyone into a millionaire within 5 years. But as despicable as he is, he is just a symptom of a much larger problem.
I am so glad to see BLM attacking this subject! You all have the chops and the bandwidth to do it justice.
I first came across John Hope Bryant in 2021 while researching the connections of the World Economic Forum to U.S. city government in Chicago. JHB’s Operation Hope is one of those organizations that is intended to force a breach into city governments through the WEF public-private ideology that goes unquestioned. The former mayor Rahm Emmanuel was a WEF acolyte as well. I’m sure there are many others in government who push the WEF ideology, like Chicago’s then (and current) city treasurer Melissa Conyers-Ervin, who has invited JHB since 2021 into her office to spread the gospel of financial literacy to poor Chicagoans, ostensibly. However, the real point is to firmly reestablish the original neo-liberal ideology in Chicago at the economic “bottom,” as the only acceptable answer; as Margaret Thatcher inculcated the Brits in the 1980s: “There is no alternative” (TINA). At a time when popular rebellion appears to be imminent?
JHB runs a “Financial Empowerment Summit” through Chicago’s city treasurer office and JHB poses as a savior who “gives the poor and working class a private banker” (his words). The pretense is channeled in the acronym they use: BWTT (Building Wealth Today for Tomorrow). He has not changed his spiel. He is the most inveterate name-dropper I have ever encountered! (He likes to talk about his elite — and aristocratic — connections because he has no ideas, just connections. That is all he knows how to do, perhaps: schmooze for connections to bolster his schemes.)
I objected to the charlatan using public university facilities when the “summit” started in 2021 using the University of Illinois as its site. It still takes place at the UIC Forum, most recently last month. This is how the WEF and its acolytes wiggle into city government and grab ideological hold of public utilities. They have activated the private banks and also other local public institutions over the past three years. I suspect that something similar is happening in other cities. Chicago has been undergoing “globalization” for a few years and there will be a fight to change the direction if and when people wake up and decide they don’t want WEF ideology directing Chicago or anything else.
For those doing further research on JHB and his Operation, I suggest looking at the Chicago City Treasurer’s cozy relationship with Operation Hope as ann example of what is likely happening in other cities, and expanding the research to other cities. I also suspect JHB has lucrative deals in place with other businesses. In 2021 he touted Shopify as a “partner” of Operation Hope, when Shopify offered $20k grants “in kind” (?) to each small business that signed up with Shopify at the summit.
Note: in 2021 JHB touted his single-family home rental company Paradise Homes as the largest minority-owned business in its class. He made assertions of what the magic of compounding interest could perform with only $10 from the pocket of any person with no regular discretionary disposable income (or hope thereof). Much like his garbled assertion on BLM Broke-ish that he could turn anyone into a millionaire within 5 years. But as despicable as he is, he is just a symptom of a much larger problem.
Thank you for this!