A practical response to bailouts requires attention to something the left
generally hasn't been too interested in: accounting standards. The New York
Times article on the IMF's New Look contains two paragraphs that sum up the
contrast between the arcane practices that actually determine the political
and social consequences of the bailouts and the dramatic performance of the
bailout.
The Times article refers to accounting standards as "arcane" and to
negotiations as "drama". Taking a hint from the Times, we might say that
every bailout has its arcane, occult, private side and its dramatic,
theatrical, public side. It's probably poetic license, rather than actual
duration, that gives us the "10 hours" of holding up the deal and the "10
days" away from financial catastrophe.
The Question that the left typically poses itself is how to confront the
public face of the crisis/bailout. It's as if the spectators in the back row
seats are day-dreaming about how they might walk on stage and change the
course of the performance. But it's not on stage where the line is drawn,
it's behind the scenes.
Please laugh while I speculate about the ideological implications of the
professionalization of accounting and the need to set up study groups on
Class Struggle Accountancy. No, on second thought, don't laugh. What I'm
trying to say is that the left remains mired in a largely theatrical and
increasingly abstract discourse of rights, while the real action occurs
within a discourse of accounts. The struggle over "standards" is about as
much proof as you'll ever need that accounting is a conventional, or
socially constructed practice -- the "bottom line" is: the bottom line is
where you agree it is.
>From the New York Times:
> So adamant was Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin that the South Korea
>plan have teeth, people involved in the talks said, that the deal was held
>up for 10 hours in its final stages before South Korea agreed to such
>relatively arcane points as implementing accounting standards that would
>force Korean companies to provide a clearer view of their financial condition.
-- snip --
> "The drama of this negotiation resulted from the realization when the
>mission arrived in Seoul on Wednesday, Nov. 26, of the alarming state of the
>foreign reserves," Mr. Fischer said. "When we were invited in, Korea was
>possibly 10 days away from a financial catastrophe, and the urgency to
>compress negotiations into one week required a ruthless concentration on
>priorities."
Regards,
Tom Walker
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Know Ware Communications
Vancouver, B.C., CANADA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(604) 688-8296
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
