On two or three postings, Doug Henwood said (I lost the dates):
"It's now the consensus on Wall Street that the Fed won't ease at its
mid-November meeting, despite imminent fiscal sadism, flagging growth, and
the absence of any inflationary signs....Wall Street and the Fed are
committed to a severe crackdown."
...............
"I think capital smells an imminent total victory over labor, and
will not let up until the task is accomplished."
...............
"For the last 3 months, average real direct hourly wages, year-to-year, are
up 0.4-0.5%, the best sustained performance in 8 years. Measures of total
compensation, which include fringe benefits, tell a very different story -
down 2.7%, the worst performance since the series began in 1980, and
probably for at least 40 years - because employers are cutting back
enormously on benefits. But Wall Street hawks look at the direct pay
numbers and see in their tiny fevered minds, the specter of WAGE INFLATION."
The middle paragraph is puzzling. Puzzling, because as if capital hasn't
won the victory yet. Capital won the victory long time ago and solidified
their position in the 1980s. Capital, with the help of Fed beginning with
Volcker, kept inflation under control. The real earnings of average
worker, weekly or hourly, reached the lowest since the late 1960s. There
is no sign of real wage increase (especially real take-home pay) under
weak and conciliatory labor leadership. US labor, unlike the European
labor organizations, is unable to effectively demand the class interest
of its members. Its leadership is corrupt (undemocratic) and
unrepresentative of its constituencies. It does not have a political
agenda and does not organize its members accordingly. With such
leadership, US labor can never wage an effective struggle against the
capital, who is always well-organized economically and politically.
Observation of the table below shows the long term trend, a
gloomy
trend for labor.
Variable: 1950-59 1960-69 1970-79 1980-89 1990-94
X1 2.06 2.36 7.08 5.55 3.64
X2 0.55 4.78 6.21 7.27 6.50
X3 234 285 302 270 256
X1 = Inflation rate, average annual
X2 = Unemployment rate, average annual
X3 = Weekly earnings in 1982 dollars, average annual
Fikret Ceyhun
Dept. of Economics e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Univ. of North Dakota voice: (701)777-3348 office
University Station, Box 8369 (701)772-5135 home
Grand Forks, ND 58202 fax: (701)777-5099
