On: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 14:05:31 -0500, Doug Henwood
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Except that these international bailouts, unlike the S&L resuce,
don't cost U.S. taxpayers anything. The Treasury made a profit on
the Mexico bailout, and the Bretton Woods institutions are also
profit-makers.>
I know Doug is wary of talk about U.S. capitalism being in
economic crisis when profits are up, but don't forget the
political end. Here's part of a recent column by the beloved Pat
Buchanan (NY Post, 11/29):
"How is Mexico to repay the IMF? The devaluation of the peso by
50 percent doubled the price of U.S. goods and cut by 50 percent
the price of Mexican exports. Devaluation thus wiped out the tiny
U.S. trade surplus. And when U.S. companies saw the price of
Mexican labor had been cut in half in dollars, they laid off
their workers, shut down their U.S. plants and headed south for
the Rio Grande.
"This, then, is the great trade-off of the Global Economy. Wall
Street gets reimbursed, while Main Street loses its export
market, its factories and its jobs, and is put on the hook by the
IMF so "investors" on Wall Street do not have to swallow really
bug losses. We do it all -- to make the world safe for Goldman
Sachs!"
I suspect this sort of argument will get a strong response in the
wroking class. People do have a sense there's a crisis out there
that can hit them, and that they will pay for the financiers'
fun and games.
If the workers' movement, and left theorists, don't sharply point
the finger at capitalism as responsible for enormous economic
uncertainty as well as growing working-class misery, then right-
wing populists will win with their line and aim U.S. workers' anger at
their brothers and sisters abroad.
Walter Daum
