mbs: I've read it and recommend it.
> I'm sympathetic to Lawrence Goodwyn's desire to combat mass resignation &
> to project the glories of people's self-activity, his enemy (foreign
> creditors) & plan (to democratize the financial system in America without
> putting an end to capitalism) demonstrate the limits & problems of
> populism. And it is his anti-Marxism that limits his thoughts. Goodwyn
> says:
mbs: well, it's up to you to demonstrate "the limits and problems of populism." I don't think you do. Goodwyn's polish stuff is a distraction in this context. You could find hopeful statements about the Sandinista's, way back when.
> What if we were to suggest to the American people that we can't do
anything
> about the homeless, we can't attack the crisis in the cities, we can't do
> anything about the inability of the children of unionized workers to own a
> home of their own because America has been sold to foreign creditors,
> because it's being de-industrialized -- we can't do anything about any of
> these matters if we don't democratize the financial system in this
country?
> In other words, we can't do anything until we get back to being as
advanced
> as we were in 1889 in this city when the subtreasury system was first
> introduced. *****
I would take exception to the all-or-nothing character of this statement, also to the 'foreign' designation for creditors. But LG is not an economist, so there's no need to be too picky.
Democratic money boils down to two things: a monetary policy dedicated to tight, near-inflationary labor markets; and the regulation of credit allocation to prevent discrimination, and to promote investment in under-served areas and to under- financed populations. That's the populist 'money' thing in a nutshell. The schemes advanced in the 19th century on its behalf were no nuttier than half the stuff coming out of the White House after 1980, or after 1992. Talk about nutty. Looked at that Social Security rescue plan lately?
The elite attack on democratic money is fundamental to neo-liberalism, or what I would call amoral global capitalism. The captivation of some elements of the left by this critique points up how conservative it is from the standpoint of practice. In other words, short of that big revolution in the sky, you don't think there is much that can be done.
mbs