Kevin Phillips was on
CSPAN at Syracuse
University discussing
the great disparity
in wealth today and
the poor state of
organization of
countervailing thought
and power that might
better protect the
economic security of
ordinary people and
public
institutions.
Phillips noted the
dangers of deflation
and debt that can
bring on financial crises
to topple political empires built on
money
and
arrogance.
How to prevent democratic capitalism
from
self-destructing --
how to bring economic
security to people and
nations -- how to
turn technology away
from war, profiteering
and adverse
environmental impacts toward
social problem solving
by free people in a
free world, was NOT highlighted by any
of
the speakers or
audience questions on
the CSPAN show I
heard.
Of course, how to is not easy to put in few
words. People who try
to offer solutions are
labeled cranks . Although there is no
real
shortage of cranks,
the lack of success of
people like Ted Turner
and George Soros,
who have millions of
dollars to promote
their best solutions,
illustrates just how
difficult it is
to think straight and get your
thoughts accepted.
It seems to me that
the concepts of
(1)
the non-zero-sum game, that suggests
wealth at the bottom, in the form of economic
output (and
the means
to maintain comfort at
the bottom),
can be
produced without threat-
ening the
security of
the well to do,
and its
parallel concept of
(2) well managed indexed fiat money
are a natural pair on which to build
solutions
to global poverty and
pollution.
It is true that
hyperinflation is the bogeyman
that kills the above
idea. To prevent hyper-
inflation requires
national and global industrial
policies and such
policies are also bogeymen.
The actual market,
coupled with the universal
love of money,
recently defeated socialism's
version of industrial
policy.
Obviously, we need
a
democratic version of
industrial policy that
will
outperform the
Washington consensus
promoting neo-liberal
Thatcherism.
This
would seem
to be something easy to do.
Why do fail to do
it ?
One reason
is glut on CSPAN and the
internet.
Millions of separate
voices are drawn together
only when money is to be made in the
process.
So money talks. And
fiat money loses its voice
-- if it is not
coupled with industrial policy and
thereafter extremely well managed.
John
Gelles