Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2001 11:14:48 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: protectionism From: "Mr. Rakesh Narpat Bhandari" <rakeshb at stanford.edu>
It bothers me that the discussion about Farrakhan seems focused on whether he poses a threat to jews and whites, not on the real danger he has always posed to black women (remember a black woman's guide to black men--see Angela Davis), the black poor (his blaming of the victim is indistinguishable from Gingrich's, plus he staged the only protest in history where black people were asked to protest themselves--see Adolph Reed), and black militants (for example the NOI assasinated Malcolm X--see Michael Friedly). Here is a form of black consciousness which is reactionary from the perspective of the emancipation of African-Americans, though Art seems to think it is impossible for black consciousness to work against black liberation. And since Carrol thinks it wrong for me to say so from outside the black community, then by what right does he ignore the anti Farrakhan voices from within--Robin D.G. Kelley, Angela Davis, Adolph Reed, etc.? Who is Carrol to define what the black community thinks? He suffers from the imperial arrogance of which he accuses me. By the way, an excellent new book by Robert Graves, The Emperor's New Clothes: Race Theories at the Millenium.
As for the dollar devaluation.
1. a dollar devaluation will probably not much stimulate economy in the anticipated ways.
a. there will be less inflow of capital and thus higher interest rates. this will counter-act increased exports.
b. US exports more dependent on strength of world investment demand than value of dollar per se. without pick up in rate of accumulation abroad, dollar devaluation probably cannot do much on its own.
2. Keynesian fiscal timulus is done. Even threat of deficit financed expenditures is now leading to upward pressure on long term rates, as Krugman pointed out.
3. Dollar devaluation is the only form of stimulus left. Monetary policy is not working. It is hoped that dollar devaluation will devalue the debt owed by US capital and thus free up profits for accumulation. This is possible since US debt denominated in dollars. That is, dollar devaluation will work as stimulus not so much on exports as on the devaluation of the debt.
4. Dollar devaluation will lead to inflationary pressure, and probably deterioration of the real wage. It is actually the biggest capitalists who will benefit from inflation as their debt is inflated away. Dollar devaluation may thus prove to be a form of class war conducted against the US working class in the name of improving the nation's trade balance. Keynesianism will prove again to be a deceitful form of class war (see John Eaton Marx against Keynes, Paul Mattick Economic Crisis and Crisis Theory).
5. The whole process could spin out of control. Japan and the EU will be forced to weaken their currencies in response. Threat of competitive devaluation. We could easily slip into world wide stagflation, coupled with neo-mercantilist policies of competitive devaluations and protectionism.
Does this sound plausible?
Rakesh