[lbo-talk] Russia tanking

Wojtek Sokolowski swsokolowski at yahoo.com
Fri Feb 20 06:55:04 PST 2009


----- Original Message ---- From: "dredmond at efn.org" <dredmond at efn.org>

This is why Geithner's dithering scares the hell out of me. I thought the Obama people would have the sense to understand you need a systemic intervention to fix a systemic banking crisis. Fix the banks, erase the bad debts, and the semi-peripheries will be happy to purchase the US Treasuries necessary to finance the cleanup.

[WS:] Obama is the POTUS, not an emperor, for dog's sake. His hands are tied. Any serious attempt to nationalize a significant part of the US economy would end in an open revolt of the business class, supported by half of the US populace - just like in Chile in 1973, when the economy "screamed" and the military "rushed to the rescue."

What we will likely see is more "triangulation" Clinton- or Bush jr.- style: pandering to ideological sentiments of their respective political bases (liberals and fundies) while bailing out businesses behind the curtain. Democracies are incapable of reforming the structural problems that they themselves created. The structural problem in question is the pipeline from public coffers to private businesses that exchanges cash for political support. As long as politicians need popular support, which the business class can control if not manufacture, there will be the pipeline and cash flow in it. Only ending the business grip on the American collective consciousness will enable political authorities to make structural reforms that limit business power. But that would be equal to a socialist revolution - a highly unlikely development in the foreseeable future.

Wojtek



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