Re: A case of contardiction between industrial and financial capitals?

[dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx (Doug Henwood)]

At 11:54 AM 6/28/96, Vladimir Bilenkin wrote:

>Yesterday on CNN Business News at 7 pm, two representatives of American
>industrial capital (from Detroit, I believe) argued that it could
>instrument 3% percent growth without any inflationary effect. This
>statement on the eve of the coming Federal Reserve meeting may signify
>the growing contrdictions between industrial and financial capitals in
>this country, the latter standing to lose from inflation.  I wonder if
>Doug could comment on this topic.

Yes, there are signs of some growing strains here. The chair of GE, Jack
Welch, a man very highly regarded by his peers, has urged faster growth;
this is interesting not only because of Welch's stature among bigtime
bosses, and GE's reputation as one of the dominant US-based industrial
corporations, but also because GE has large financial operations (GE
Credit). (Downsizing pioneer Welch used to be known as Neutron Jack,
because he'd make the people disappear while the buildings remained
standing.) While I think liberals and populists tend to make too much of
the finance-industry split (both subclasses have an interest in labor
market slack), in this case there seems to be some chafing at the tightness
imposed by Greenspan and the bond market.

Doug

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Doug Henwood
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