Re: [Marxism] Analysis of the G20 Summit

[peripatetic <barmy_basket@xxxxxxxx>]

I respectfully disagree (US$ is doomed beyond any hope, and then all the 
fireworks in the bag will get off; mass action will be just a 
consequence), and I paste below two clips from the latest commentaries 
by Bill Bonner on The Daily Reckoning (an e-zine between the FT and the 
Onion, which I find quite brilliant - 
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/author/bbonner/  ):

" ...It's all very well for the capitalists to make money, he will 
discover, but when they begin to lose it, well government has to step in 
and bail them out. The "creative" part of capitalism is fine...but spare 
us the destruction, okay.

....Yesterday, the heads of state of the world's 20 leading countries 
decided to put more muscle into their efforts to stop capitalism's 
downswing. Notably, they decided to treble the budget of the IMF. In 
all, today's International Herald Tribune tells us it's a "One Trillion 
Dollar Deal."

Gordon Brown pronounced it a "New World Order," which sounds a lot like 
what George Bush I was aiming for 15 years ago. One world government. 
One multi-national police force. Harmonized tax collection. (No more tax 
havens...nowhere to run...nowhere to hide...) Keep the masses happy with 
bread and circuses...and "wars" against imaginary and unnecessary 
enemies. (The War on Terror and now - the War on Depression.)

Hey, maybe we'll all have to speak Esperanto, too...

But at least now the IMF will be about to bailout more bankrupt 
governments before it goes broke itself.

Most of the money is coming from a country that doesn't have any: the U.S.A.

Look up. What do you see? Why, it's our Dollar Crash Flag. The dollar's 
days are numbered. What's the number? We don't know. But whatever it was 
a week ago, it is a smaller number now.

Yesterday, the dollar gave up a little ground. The euro rose to $1.24. 
Oil went up to $52. Gold, however, fell hard - down to $904. Gold 
stocks, on the other hand, did rather well.

Hugo Chavez was in the Mideast this week at a meeting of oil producers. 
He called for a new petro-currency...which, we suppose, is a currency 
backed by oil. The Associated Press:

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought Arab support Tuesday for a 
proposed oil-backed currency to challenge the U.S. dollar in his latest 
swipe at Washington's dominance in global financial affairs."

He probably won't get very far with that. But he's not the only one 
looking for a solution to a crisis that hasn't happened yet.

The dollar's been king of the monetary mountain for a long time. But it 
had better be careful...watch it's back ...give a little of the food to 
a dog before eating it itself. Rivals are plotting against it. Much of 
the world wants to dethrone "King Dollar," says the French financial 
journal, La Tribune. China has already called for a new reserve currency 
based on IMF Special Drawing Rights. What's more, it's worked out 
bilateral agreements with many of its neighbors to swap goods, rather 
than use the dollar as a common unit of exchange. This week, it went 
further afield, making a deal with Argentina. This is the first deal of 
its kind in the Latin American world. But it's probably not the last. 
People see trouble coming with the greenback. They don't want it to hurt 
their sales of raw materials to China.

The Russians, too, have called for a new reserve currency. They, like 
the Arabs and Chavez, are sellers of raw materials. They don't want to 
get stuck with dollars that are losing their value.

That's the real New World Order...the United States will find it harder 
to stay in the driver's seat of this bus...and the U.S. currency will no 
longer give Americans an automatic ticket to the first class section..."


"...Who can save capitalism? The communists!

"Market forces, if left unchecked, will lead to asset bubbles and 
ultimately a disastrous market clearing in the form of a financial 
crisis like the current one," says a report from the Chinese central bank.

Everyone wants to be Chinese. Because the Chinese have money. And 
because they don't have free markets. It is widely believed that the 
Middle Kingdom can more effectively fight a downturn without democratic, 
consensus-driven institutions staying its hand.

But here is where we gasp for air. What theory holds that central 
planning - whether by Chinese communists or American Democrats - can do 
a better job of allocating capital than the people who own it?

There is none. That is why the world's leaders - and most of its 
economists too - permit themselves a luscious fib; they say they don't 
need theory at all. "Pragmatism" was the word on every pair of lips in 
London this week. Free from chains to dead economists, they say they 
will try "whatever works." Oh, the loveable lunkheads! Naïve enough to 
believe anything; receptive as a trashcan. "Pragmatism" in economics is 
as phony as the men who preach it. Every one of them has a dog-eared 
copy of Keynes' General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in his 
briefcase and an ace up his sleeve. And every supposedly new, pragmatic 
idea they come up with is merely a version of the same quack cures that 
kept the economy in the hospital last time.

Perhaps you can paint a bridge pragmatically. If you don't like the 
color, you can change it quickly. But if you're building a bridge, an 
airplane or an economic system, you can't make it up as you go along. 
You have to have an idea of how it works before you start. Besides, 
results from fiscal, monetary and regulatory policies don't happen 
overnight. The feedback loop takes years. It took the Bolsheviks seven 
decades before they realized they'd been had. Friedman's critique of 
America's Great Depression policies didn't appear until 30 years after 
the event. In Japan, they still don't know what they did wrong. And by 
the time the feds catch on this time, they will have turned an ordinary 
depression into a great one.

Enjoy your weekend,..."

webabuser.blogspot.com

brad bauerly wrote:
>>>> This is much better IMHO (from a newsletter for investors):
>>>>         
>
> G20: US$ Funeral, US Failed Debtor
> from the latest Hat Trick Letter by Jim Willie
> <http://www.goldenjackass.com/>. Extract:
> "... Why is the G20 Meeting a turning point? First of all because the
> US$-based global financial structure is broken. In plain words, the
> USDollar is totally broken as the global reserve currency, fully
> discredited, and the anchor dragging down the national banking systems
> in scores of countries.">>>
>
> The only thing that has changed is that China is now in the club and the US
> will reconstitute its hegemony (I hate that word) by bringing this group
> together to rebuild global capitalism.  There is no challenge to the US
> dollar and there will not be for sometime.  Why must the left read
> everything as the end of capitalism, or US empire, or neoliberalism...
> Without a working class to force the change, we will get more of the same,
> if not a heightened neoliberalism.
>
> Read the report from the G-20 summit I sighted and tell me what exactly has
> changed?  Anyone? Anything?
>
> Brad
>
>
>   


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