info

Max B. Sawicky maxsaw at cpcug.org
Fri May 8 14:48:22 PDT 1998



> Re:
> >
> >Your symmetry is way overdone. . . .
> . . .
> But the position that we need a kinder, gentler IMF that will loan more at
> lower interest rates for longer periods of time with less conditionality
> when capital in the industrial core panics does not seem to be a very
> popular one at the moment. I hear "why are we bailing out Bob
> Rubin's Wall
> Street friends?" much more than I hear "why aren't we taking bigger steps
> to pump up demand to stop a possible Great Depression in East Asia?"

The relative prominence of the Rubin dimension is due to the noise being generated by the Right, the tendency of mainstream media and political forces to bury your emphasis in affirmations of the status quo, the inherent difficulty of proposing non- mainstream, positive alternatives in a setting dominated by sound-bites, and the political potency of anti-rich rhetoric. Regarding the last, it is fair to say the left is trying to exploit populist feeling, and it is possible to err in this vein in the direction of opportunism, at the expense of substantive proposals. But there's nothing new to such a dilemma, and such appeals have always been an important ingredient in progressive reforms. How would FDR have motivated and defended the New Deal without reference to "economic royalists"? Even liberal, non-radical politics of the successful variety is a contact sport.

MBS



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