Central planners are key players in the war against the middle class and thus against independent local voices. The single biggest force supporting a thriving middle class are local banks - as China realised and created 5,000 of them, resulting in 40 years of double-digit growth and the creation of a prosperous middle class. Meanwhile, US and European bank regulators have been killing more banks than that, in their ongoing war against small firms and the middle class. While China moved towards decentralised capitalism, central planners in Europe and the US love the Communist Manifesto and its demand that the banking system be completely concentrated and centralised.