[Pen-l] Scenes From the Global Class War

["Charles Brown" <charlesb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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From: "Jim Devine" <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx> 


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why is this "class war"? It seems to describe redistribution _within_
the capitalist class.

^^^
Here's some class struggle, with the transnational monopoly finance
bourgeoisie (smile) banging on the workers of the world:

Fridayâs currency turmoil and stock market plunge was a case of the
chickens coming home to roost from the class-war policies being waged by
European and Asian industry and banking squeezing their domestic
consumer markets â that is, laborâs living standards â in favor of
export production to the United States. The internal contradiction in
this industrial and financial class warfare is now clear: To the extent
that it succeeds in depressing laborâs income, it stifles the domestic
consumer-goods market. This disrupts Sayâs Law â the principle that
âproduction creates its own demand,â based on the assumption that
employees will (or must) be paid enough to buy what they produce.

This is not to say that no class warfare is being fought in the United
States. Indeed, living standards for most wage earners today are down
from the âgolden ageâ of the late 1970s. But the U.S. economy had
its own financial deus ex machina to soften the blow: Alan Greenspanâs
asset-price inflation that flooded the banks with credit, which was lent
out to homebuyers and stock market raiders. Rising home prices were
applauded as âwealth creationâ as if they were a pure asset, much
like dividends suddenly being awarded to oneâs savings account.
Homebuyers were encouraged to âcash outâ on the rising âequityâ
margin, the (temporarily) rising market price of their homes over and
above their (permanent) mortgage debt. So while most mortgage money was
used to bid up the price of home ownership, about a quarter of new
lending was reported to be spent on consumption goods. Credit card debt
also soared. In the face of a paycheck squeeze, U.S. consumers were
maintaining their living standards by running further and further into
debt

Charles Brown wrote:
> http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson10272008.html 
>
>
> Scrawny Geese; No More Golden Egg
> Scenes From the Global Class War
> By MICHAEL HUDSON
>
> On Friday, October 24, the pound sterling dropped to just $1.58
(down
> from $1.73 earlier in the week, an enormous plunge by
foreign-exchange
> standards), and the euro sunk to just $1.26, while Japan's yen
soared
> by 10 per cent. These shifts threatened to disrupt export markets
and
> hence industrial sales patterns. Global stock markets plunged from 5
to
> 9 per cent abroad, and there was talk of closing the New York market
if
> stocks fell more than 1,000 points. Pre-opening trading saw the Dow
> Jones Industrial Average down the maximum limit of 550 points
(largely
> on foreign selling) before bounding back to lose "only" 312 points
> as the dollar soared against European currencies.




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