-Caveat Lector- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Jobs Threatened by Downturn Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 22:59:12 -0600 (CST) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Organization: ? To: undisclosed-recipients:; ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 14, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- JOBS THREATENED BY DOWNTURN: "NEW ECONOMY" SAME OLD CAPITALISM By Gary Wilson The U.S. economy has entered a rapid decline. Workers have been feeling it for months. Now the capitalist economists are admitting that it is happening. Liberal economist Paul Krugman, an adviser to the Clinton administration and ardent supporter of Al Gore, said in his column in the New York Times Dec. 5 that the economy has not only gone into a slowdown, but that a recession is "certainly possible." George W. Bush, the heir apparent to the presidential throne, acknowledges that the economy appears to be headed into a recession. Alan Greenspan, the unelected banking boss, would never call a recession a recession, at least not until after it's over. Instead, on Dec. 6, he cautiously said that this is "an economy that already has lost some momentum." The National Association of Manufacturers says that the manufacturing sector of the economy is in a full recession. For the fourth straight month, manufacturing has contracted. The president of the NAM said at a Washington news conference Dec. 1, "This economy is not as healthy as people think." SAME OLD CAPITALIST ECONOMY What has hit is a capitalist crisis of overproduction. The "new economy," it turns out, is the same old capitalist economy. The phenomenon of capitalist overproduction happens periodically. Although a crisis of overproduction can't be stopped, the usual answer to it is to make credit more easily available. This can sometimes lessen the impact of the crisis, but it drives the problems deeper into the economy. The only "solution" that will protect the profit- system is to shut down plants and lay off workers, sending the economy into a depression. As the bankers and big capitalists already know, any loosening of credit right now probably won't "soften" the downturn. That's because consumer debt is already high and corporate debt is even higher. Add onto this the record level of the U.S. trade deficit. Japan is still in a recession and the European capitalist economies are sluggish. So U.S. businesses won't be able to increase exports. This is a combination that could send the economy into an even deeper tailspin, of the kind that causes great social dislocation and political crisis. THE DOT-COM BUST The high-tech stock market, NASDAQ, has practically crashed. The NASDAQ has dropped 40 percent from its all-time high earlier this year. Layoffs and shutdowns are rampant in the high-tech industries. Every Internet company is cutting back and laying off. Almost every Internet stock is down by at least 75 percent from its 52-week high, according to a CNNfn.com report on Nov. 9. Only five of the top 280 Internet stocks are down less than 5 percent. None are up for the year. The stock market value of the top 280 Internet stocks has lost $1.755 trillion over the last year, with most of the loss taking place between March and September of this year, CNNfn.com reports. WORKERS HIT HARDEST A recession hits the working class the hardest. It can also devastate small businesses. The rich, the big businesses and big bankers can wait out a recession and will even find a way to make profits from it. That's what often happens in a recession. That's why Paul Krugman, the liberal economist, can glibly say, "Even if we do have a recession, so what." With every severe downturn comes the capitalist propaganda meant to convince the people of this country that it is necessary for them to make sacrifices. The facts are falsified to support this propaganda and new enemies are created to divert attention from the rich capitalists in the U.S. who are responsible. Take the case of DaimlerChrysler. Already the Germans who bought Chrysler are being blamed while plant closings and layoffs are being proposed. Never mind that exactly the same plant closings and layoffs are being considered at Ford, another auto manufacturer that is owned by "Americans." The problem is not the Germans or any other foreign entity. The problem is right here in the United States. The problem is capitalism. - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. 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