terima kasih pak sunny atas informasinya salam
--- In [email protected], "Sunny" <ambon@...> wrote: > > Bagi yang mau baca ada juga artikel di The New Yorker, beberapa tahun lalu > yang berjudul : âThe Return of Karl Marx â, > website : > http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1997/10/20/1997_10_20_248_TNY_CARDS_000379653 > > > http://www.smh.com.au/world/can-karl-marx-save-capitalism-20110829-1ji2i.html > Can Karl Marx save capitalism? > George Magnus > August 29, 2011 - 6:59PM > > > The spirit of Karl Marx has risen from the grave amid the financial crisis > and subsequent economic slump. > > Policy makers struggling to understand the barrage of financial panics, > protests and other ills afflicting the world would do well to study the works > of a long-dead economist: Karl Marx. > > The sooner they recognise we're facing a once-in-a-lifetime crisis of > capitalism, the better equipped they will be to manage a way out of it. > > The spirit of Marx, who is buried in a cemetery close to where I live in > north London, has risen from the grave amid the financial crisis and > subsequent economic slump. The wily philosopher's analysis of capitalism had > a lot of flaws, but today's global economy bears some uncanny resemblances to > the conditions he foresaw. > > Advertisement: Story continues below > Consider, for example, Marx's prediction of how the inherent conflict between > capital and labour would manifest itself. > > As he wrote in Das Kapital, companies' pursuit of profits and productivity > would naturally lead them to need fewer and fewer workers, creating an > "industrial reserve army" of the poor and unemployed: "Accumulation of wealth > at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery." > > The process he describes is visible throughout the developed world, > particularly in the US companies' efforts to cut costs and avoid hiring have > boosted US corporate profits as a share of total economic output to the > highest level in more than six decades, while the unemployment rate stands at > 9.1 per cent and real wages are stagnant. > > US income inequality, meanwhile, is by some measures close to its highest > level since the 1920s. Before 2008, the income disparity was obscured by > factors such as easy credit, which allowed poor households to enjoy a more > affluent lifestyle. Now the problem is coming home to roost. > > Over-production paradox > > Marx also pointed out the paradox of over-production and under-consumption: > The more people are relegated to poverty, the less they will be able to > consume all the goods and services companies produce. When one company cuts > costs to boost earnings, it's smart, but when they all do, they undermine the > income formation and effective demand on which they rely for revenues and > profits. > > This problem, too, is evident in today's developed world. We have a > substantial capacity to produce, but in the middle- and lower-income cohorts, > we find widespread financial insecurity and low consumption rates. > > The result is visible in the US, where new housing construction and > automobile sales remain about 75 per cent and 30 per cent below their 2006 > peaks, respectively. > > As Marx put it in Kapital: "The ultimate reason for all real crises always > remains the poverty and restricted consumption of the masses." > > Addressing the crisis > > So how do we address this crisis? To put Marx's spirit back in the box, > policy makers have to place jobs at the top of the economic agenda, and > consider other unorthodox measures. The crisis isn't temporary, and it > certainly won't be cured by the ideological passion for government austerity. > > Here are five major planks of a strategy whose time, sadly, has not yet come. > > 1. We have to sustain aggregate demand and income growth, or else we could > fall into a debt trap along with serious social consequences. Governments > that don't face an imminent debt crisis - including the US, Germany and the > U.K. - must make employment creation the litmus test of policy. In the US, > the employment-to-population ratio is now as low as in the 1980s. Measures of > underemployment almost everywhere are at record highs. Cutting employer > payroll taxes and creating fiscal incentives to encourage companies to hire > people and invest would do for a start. > > 2. To lighten the household debt burden, new steps should allow eligible > households to restructure mortgage debt, or swap some debt forgiveness for > future payments to lenders out of any home price appreciation. > > 3. To improve the functionality of the credit system, well-capitalised and > well-structured banks should be allowed some temporary capital adequacy > relief to try to get new credit flowing to small companies, especially. > Governments and central banks could engage in direct spending on or indirect > financing of national investment or infrastructure programs. > > 4. To ease the sovereign debt burden in the euro zone, European creditors > have to extend the lower interest rates and longer payment terms recently > proposed for Greece. If jointly guaranteed euro bonds are a bridge too far, > Germany has to champion an urgent recapitalisation of banks to help absorb > inevitable losses through a vastly enlarged European Financial Stability > Facility - a sine qua non to solve the bond market crisis at least. > > 5. To build defences against the risk of falling into deflation and > stagnation, central banks should look beyond bond- buying programs, and > instead target a growth rate of nominal economic output. This would allow a > temporary period of moderately higher inflation that could push > inflation-adjusted interest rates well below zero and facilitate a lowering > of debt burdens. > > We can't know how these proposals might work out, or what their unintended > consequences might be. But the policy status quo isn't acceptable, either. It > could turn the US into a more unstable version of Japan, and fracture the > euro zone with unknowable political consequences. By 2013, the crisis of > Western capitalism could easily spill over to China, but that's another > subject. > > George Magnus is senior economic adviser at UBS and author of Uprising: Will > Emerging Markets Shape or Shake the World Economy? The opinions expressed are > his own. > > Bloomberg > > > Read more: > http://www.smh.com.au/world/can-karl-marx-save-capitalism-20110829-1ji2i.html#ixzz1WVxzoE9w > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
