Ramming through the bailout
http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleprint/987/
Bush, Paulson make Dellinger look like a Boy Scout
As the Bush administration attempts to ram a bailout package of nearly one
trillion dollars through Congress, it begins to feel like Colonel Sanders
asking the public to trust him to take care of the chickens.
If it weren’t so damn serious, there would be something almost comical about
it. Here we have the White House, which has squandered trillions of dollars
over eight years, and its point man, Hank Paulson, fresh from 38 years of
gaming the financial system while working at Goldman Sachs, insisting that
Congressional leaders hand over a trillion dollars to them with no debate and
no strings attached.
In this real life drama, Bush and Paulson make John Dillinger, the legendary
bank robber of the Depression years, look like a Boy Scout.
Nothing to do with socialism
This is not “socialism for the rich,” as some have suggested. Socialist
measures would thoroughly clean up and stabilize the financial system to be
sure, but a socialist-led government would also place the good as well as the
bad assets of the responsible parties (commercial and investment banks, private
equity firms, and hedge funds) into the hands of a public democratically run
authority. It would turn the Federal Reserve Bank, which during the Greenspan
era was one of the main architects and cheerleaders of bubble economics
(hi-tech, stock market and, its latest version, housing) into a publicly
controlled institution. And it would bring those responsible to trial and
penalize them appropriately, if convicted.
At the same time, a socialist-led government and its congressional allies would
funnel money to homeowners and working people and enact special measures to
assist communities of the racially oppressed, not to mention our rural towns.
It would rebuild our nation’s deteriorating infrastructure, invest in renewable
energy and green jobs, and bring the Iraq war to a quick end. It would also
propose the people’s takeover of the energy complex, which has also turned into
a cash cow of the wealthiest corporations.
Use common sense
Does it make any sense to give control of our financial and economic system for
the indefinite future to the same individuals, who while gaming the system, got
us into this mess in the first place? I can’t think of anything that is less
democratic or goes against the grain of common sense.
In the money and banking textbooks that I read years ago, our financial
institutions and system supposedly channeled idle money to productive uses - to
new technologies and business startups, to build homes and create jobs, to
invest in new plant and equipment, and to construct and renew our nation’s
infrastructure, while extracting handsome profits all the while.
Looking back, it is fair to say that banks and investment houses did perform
this function for a period in capitalism’s development, but that period has
largely passed.
Finance capital’s rise and ultra-right rule
Indeed, with the rise to dominance of the extreme right and the reassertion of
power by finance capital three decades ago, our financial system has operated
more or less independently of other sectors of the economy, functioned largely
free of any regulatory body, and grown exponentially.
Finance capital - in its quest to maximize its rate of profit - has drained
dollars from the private economy (especially the manufacturing sector) and the
public treasury into incredibly risky and speculative financial schemes; it has
spawned a series of complex financial instruments and paper transactions which
few understand, but fabulously enrich the buyers and borrowers of these exotic
instruments, most of which have nothing to do with the real economy.
Finance capital has facilitated megamergers, takeovers and corporate flight to
off shore locations; it has wreaked havoc on sovereign states and their
economies, particularly in the developing world; it has without as much as a
thought introduced enormous instability into the arteries of the U.S. and world
economy, evidenced by the frequent financial contagions at home and globally.
And, it has been one of the main class agents to successfully engineer the
biggest transfer of wealth in our nation’s history from wealth creators -- the
world’s working people -- to wealth appropriators, the upper crust of U.S.
finance capital, while leaving at the same time our nation with an astronomical
pile up of household, government and corporate debt that cannot be unwound
overnight.
In short, the reassertion of finance capital to a dominant position in the
political economy of our country, which was only possible because of the right
wing dominance of our nation’s political levers of power, has come at a heavy
price for the American people and people worldwide.
Clinging onto power
And yet, despite this incredible wreckage, this almost incomprehensible
corruption, this reckless speculation, these merchants of plunder, debt and
hardship are still attempting to resolve this financial crisis in a way that
continues to leave them in charge of the main levers of power and their wealth
intact.
As I said earlier, this is not socialism. A more apt description is parasitic
state monopoly-finance capitalism. According to marxism, the main mission of
the state is to reproduce the conditions for the reproduction of the class
structure and economic relations of capitalism. If I am not mistaken, isn’t
this precisely what Bush, Paulson and team are doing now?
Arena of struggle
Of course, marxism also says that state is an arena of struggle. While the
ruling class employs the state apparatus, including violence when necessary, to
impose its interests on society, a united working class and people can
successfully resist these measures from within as well as outside state
structures. This was done in the 1930s and in so doing, secured important
victories for the nation’s working class and its allies. It was also done in
the 1960s and in doing so brought down the system of legal segregation. And we
see it again today in the incredible efforts of millions of working people of
all races and nationalities and their allies to elect Barack Obama and larger
Democratic Party Congressional majorities in November. Indeed, it is a task
that takes on even greater significance given the financial storm that is
shaking our country.
For the moment however, the American people and their friends in Congress are
faced with a first class challenge - to impose their own imprint on the way in
which this financial crisis is resolved. Let’s have no doubt that our financial
system can be stabilized and restored to its orderly functioning in a way that
meets the needs of the American people and our country. But will take a fight!
Sam Webb is chairperson of the Communist Party.
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