Shane Mage wrote: > >> Flassbeck, Heiner; Lapavitsas, Costas (2013): The Systemic Crisis > >> of the Euro > > Whatever the political merits two years ago of advocating withdrawal > from the euro they were not wrong about inflation, neither in general > nor in regard to the euro.
You missed my political point here, and it's you and not me who is speaking of "merits". F&L are still advocating a certain kind of Grexit or even an Euro-exit (dissolution of the monetary union). " [...] If a left-wing government would try to bluff, they would fail quickly. A SYRIZA government is likely to lose their illusions quickly. If they tried to implement their program, they will give rise to a serious confrontation with the EU, which opens up the prospect of an exit from the monetary union. The result of such a conflict can not be predicted with certainty, and therein lies the hope for both Greece and for Europe. The hostility of the EU establishment and the existence of a dysfunctional and failing monetary union should not be considered as insurmountable restrictions by a government of the left, which serves the interests of the working people. SYRIZA should be prepared for a conflict by mobilizing their strength in the country and also relying on international solidarity. The prospect of an exit from the monetary union is neither scary nor uncontrollable (...). In general there is a deep and urgent need for change across Europe, to free it from the shackles of the euro. Those who take the critical first steps in this direction could save their own societies from doom while helping to lead Europe to another path of economic and social development." From: Huffington Post (German edition), Jan 26, 2015 http://www.huffingtonpost.de/costas-lapavitsas/griechenland-syrizaradikales-revolutionares_b_6545476.html I leave it to you to demonstrate the impact and pressure on both the European societies, mainly on their working classses, and the global economy caused by a Grexit or even an Euro-exit. For Thunderbolt's sake, beware the blizzard. > In general, the money supply (in Marx and > in reality) accommodates itself to the quantity of transactions to be > financed (price x quantity) rather than the opposite. Inflation is a > condition in which wage-earners have recently experienced increases > in their earnings and expect further increases, while sellers of > commodities have experienced recent increases in their prices and > production-costs and expect further increases. Since the main cost is > wages and the main demand-factor is working-class income, the process > is self-generated (which is why indexation drives inflation). > Political repression of the money supply (as Volker 1979-1982), by > drastic increases in the cost of credit, can break an upward > inflationary cycle. But there is no symmetry at all--in a declining > cycle no amount of central-bank money creation can by iytslef persuade > commodity-producers to hire at unprofitable wages or invest at a > negative return (ECB-FRB since 2008), which is what is meant by the > old cliché "pushing on a string." That is why overcoming a > deflationary situation requires direct demand-creating public > spending, which of course may either be for useful (proletarian) or > destructive (capitalist) purposes. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
