[Marxism-Thaxis] Capitalism, Socialism and Crisis

2009-03-03 Thread Charles Brown
Capitalism, Socialism and Crisis
By Prabhat Patnaik  
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/8201/

 Original source: People's Democracy (India) 

A common view of the current financial crisis of capitalism holds
 that it is essentially an aberration. Some attribute this aberration to 
specific mistakes committed in the past, for instance by the US Federal Reserve 
with regard to monetary
 policy. Some hold the lack of adequate regulatory mechanism as being 
responsible for this aberration. Paul Krugman, the current year’s Nobel 
laureate, blames it on
 insufficient supervision of the financial system. And even Joseph Stiglitz, 
the well-known radical economist and Nobel laureate, characterizes it as a 
“system failure,” a term which makes the crisis a phenomenon that in principle 
could have been avoided with impunity.
 This entire perception however is untenable. The crisis is a result not of the 
failure of the system but of the system itself; it is a part of the mode of 
operation of contemporary capitalism rather than being unrelated or extraneous 
to it. 

Massive speculation 

In a “free market” regime, asset markets tend to be subject to
 speculation. Speculators buy assets not because of the yield on these assets 
but because they expect its price to appreciate in the coming days. They have 
no long term
 interest in the assets and are concerned exclusively with capital
 gains. Since buying today to sell tomorrow entails carrying the asset during 
the intervening period for which a “carrying cost” has to be incurred, the 
assets most suitable for speculation are those whose carrying costs are low; 
and these are typically financial assets
 which have virtually zero carrying costs (requiring only a few taps on 
computer keys to effect all necessary transactions). Financial asset markets 
therefore are
 always subject to massive speculation. 

Speculation generates bouts of euphoria or “speculative excitement” 
which have the cumulative effect of pushing up asset prices. An initial rise in 
some asset prices, caused no matter how, gives rise to expectations of a 
further rise, and hence
 to an increase in the demand for the assets in question which actually raises 
their prices further; and so the process feeds upon itself and we have asset 
price “bubbles.” 
Such “bubbles” typically characterize financial assets, which, as already 
mentioned, are particularly prone to speculation; but they are not confined to 
financial assets
 alone (as the housing market “bubble” in the United States has just 
demonstrated). 

Such “bubbles” have an obvious impact on the real economy. The 
rise in asset prices fed by speculative euphoria improves for individuals who 
own these assets the estimation of their wealth position, and hence causes an 
increase in 
their consumption expenditure, and thereby in employment. Likewise such a rise 
in asset prices, where the assets in question are producible, causes an 
increase in
 investment expenditure on these assets, which leads to their larger 
production, and hence to larger employment. In short, speculative euphoria in 
the asset markets makes
 the boom in the real economy, stimulated by whatever had caused the initial 
rise in asset prices, more pronounced and prolonged. 

Precisely because of this however if for some reason the asset price
 increase wanes or comes to a halt, speculators attempt to get out of the 
assets in question causing a crash in the asset prices. This causes a fall in 
aggregate expenditure
 on goods and services; a collapse in the state of credit, as banks face 
insolvency; and a possible collapse even in the inclination of depositors for 
holding bank deposits (since they fear banks’ insolvency), as had happened 
during the Great Depression. In short
 there is a collapse of the state of confidence all around, and hence a 
corresponding increase in liquidity preference; i.e. there is a disinclination 
to hold any asset other than 
pure cash, or in extreme cases only currency, and of course claims upon the 
government, which is considered to be the only safe and reliable borrower. Not 
all crises display
 this severity; but to a greater or lesser extent these features mark any 
crisis. 

Speculation therefore has the effect of making the boom more pronounced
 and prolonged; but it has also the effect of precipitating a severe crisis, as 
distinct from a mere cyclical downturn. In the absence of speculation the boom 
in the real economy will 
be a much more truncated and tame affair. But precisely because it is not a 
tame affair, it is followed by a crisis. 

Two conclusions follow from the above analysis. First, since speculation
 is endemic to modern capitalism, where financial markets play a major role, 
speculation-engendered euphoria and the consequent pronounced booms, together 
with the crises
 that invariably follow, are also endemic to modern capitalism. “Bubbles” 
constitute in other words the mode of operation of the 

Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Capitalism, Socialism and Crisis

2009-03-03 Thread Waistline2
Capitalism, Socialism and Crisis By Prabhat Patnaik  
_http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/8201/_ 
(http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/8201/) 
 
is one of the worse, if not the worst economic analysis, I have read (under  
the banner of Marxism) in perhaps the past decade. 
 
WL. 
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(http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=employment_agenciesncid=emlcntusyelp0005)

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Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] symbols edited from Marxism

2009-03-03 Thread Waistline2
Reply
 
Yes, Marxism List. 
 
The initial article grew out of a discussion of GM - genetically modified  
commodities, although the issue was framed as genetically altered food in Cuba. 
 
 
I remember basically having the same discussion on Marxism the better part  
of 10 years ago and wanted to avoid the pitfalls and this determined the  
extremely obscure form, which basically could only be unlocked - decoded, by  
someone familiar with the concepts and symbolism. The first imprint is really  
raw 
and written upside down with sentences deliberately put in the wrong order.  
Plus, you know that much of Marxism can be fairly hostile to my particular  
history and political orientation. I am extremely careful about what I write  
there, and try to leave no room for disagreement over political orientation and 
 
political ideology; and generally discuss nothing historical including 
American  history. 
 
I do not mind being baited on this list since I can more than adequately  
explain my reasoning of issues of tension. :-) 
 
Actually, the piece is not obscure at all if you are really rooted in  
America's evolving culture or know how to locate the key - Rosetta stone. 
 
I suspected you would get having studied anthropology and the nature of  
symbols. Plus I wanted to preserve two copies in archives. 
 
I might do the three level which answers the question about what happens  
when someone loses their mind: where does the mind go when it is lost? 
 
 
WL. 

In a message dated 3/3/2009 4:20:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
cdb1...@prodigy.net writes:

Waistline2 
Marxism/T list 3/02/09 index. Decoded. 2nd level.   

^

Wow !!! That's what I call real proletarian poetry.
A  definite chapter in the new Ballad for Americans.
You go bro , the workers'  T.S. Eliot

John Henry

Did you send it to the other lists ?
 
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[Marxism-Thaxis] Obama’s Politics of Change and US Policy on China

2009-03-03 Thread Waistline2
http://henryckliu.com/page182.html

Obama’s Politics of Change and  US Policy on China 

By Henry C.K. Liu 


Foreign policy is  fundamentally based on national interests that change only 
slowly and  infrequently except under crisis situations. Still, even in 
normal times,  electoral changes of administration inevitably bring changes in 
style and nuance  in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy 
within a 
context of  continuity. 

Yet the Obama administration has come into power at a time  of unprecedented 
and severe global financial and economic crises that have  profound 
implications in US national interests and US position in a changing  
geo-economic-political world order. Crisis conditions that are crying out for  
change are 
enhancing the new president’s ability to live up to his campaign  slogan of 
“Obama 
for Change” not just domestically, but also in foreign policy.  The question is 
whether Obama’s campaign for change can survive his politics of  change. 

It is necessary to point out that Obama did not merely call for  change for 
change’s sake, but for change that “we can believe in”. The campaign  slogan 
of “yes we can” is soaked with ideological energy. It presumably means  change 
that will reorder the systemic dysfunctionality that has built up in  recent 
decades that has landed the world in its currency sorrowful state. It  
declares a commitment to more effective government to bring about a more  
equitable 
society at home and a more just world order internationally.  

The popular desire for change was the prime reason for Obama’s election  
victory. Yet, unfortunately, a more equitable society at home and aboard within 
 a 
more just world order has not always aligned perfectly with US national  
interests historically. Clearly, a redefinition of US national interests is  
critical to the success of President Obama’s agenda of change. 

US  National Interests 

The definition of US national interests was sharply  distorted by the 2001 
terrorist attacks of 9:11 in the first year of the George  W. Bush 
administration. Foreign policy under Bush had been framed by an  over-the-top 
militancy 
with two distinct characteristics: US unilateralism based  on superpower 
exceptionalism and a transformational diplomacy agenda promoted by  US 
neo-conservatism. This dubious militancy, as delineated in National Security  
Council 
document The National Security Strategy of the United States, released  on 
September 
20, 2002, a year after the September 11 terrorist attacks, has led  to 
disastrous failures in US foreign policy on many fronts. These failures in  
turn have 
created not only an erosion of US observation of human rights overseas  but 
also a decline of civil liberty domestically.

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[Marxism-Thaxis] Obama , getting money to the working class pronto

2009-03-03 Thread Charles Brown
Obama , getting money to the working class, pronto

3/3/09 Notice of Certain Benefits Unemployed Workers May Be Eligiole For Under 
the Economic Stimulus Package.

1)Extra $25 per week in unemployment benefits
2)Period for Collecting Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extended
3)Partial  (first $2,400)Suspension of Federal Income Tax On Unemployment 
Benefits for Tax Year 2009



Obama , Obama , Obama !


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[Marxism-Thaxis] Capitalism, Socialism and Crisis

2009-03-03 Thread Charles Brown
 Waistline2 at aol.com 



Capitalism, Socialism and Crisis By Prabhat Patnaik  
_http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/8201/_ 
(http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/8201/) 

is one of the worse, if not the worst economic analysis, I have read (under  
the banner of Marxism) in perhaps the past decade. 

WL. 

^^
CB: This is one of the worst unsupported, conclusory
assertions I've seen since
Ralph's embarrassing posts a couple of days 
ago. An empty outburst, with no thought in it
whatsoever. Who cares what you think
without any argumentation ?

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