On 2010-11-10, at 8:11 PM, Shane Mage wrote:
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> On Nov 10, 2010, at 6:33 PM, Marv Gandall wrote:
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>> I haven't had time to read it, but I note Shane has said V's "modest proposal" is for an elected central bank.
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> You misunderstand me--his proposal was for international stakeholder cooperation. Mine is for a *democratic* European federation with an elected central bank charged with ensuring full employment and eliminating fictitious capital, after the eurobanksters have been forced into receivership by debt repudiation. The prospects for this *real* solution, I said, are identical to the prospects (presently nonexistent but longer-term unknowable) for revolutionary political change across Europe. A dream in technicolor, yes, with strong red tints.
Yes, and Varoufakis acknowledges that his is a dream with pink tints:
"A myriad of objections will be urged against my modest proposal above. However, the real reason for opposition is unlikely ever to be heard, at least from the mouths of officialdom or from embedded economists. All sorts of technical reasons will be laid out instead, but the true reason why the proposal here will be fought tooth and nail is terribly simple: it does not comply with the class interests of those in authority-- at least not as they perceive them."
I haven't followed the European crisis very closely, but I would be surprised if the central demand of the Greek and other unions in the peripheral eurozone countries is other than that their governments repudiate their sovereign debt. My sense is that European bankers and politicians accept that some degree of "debt restructuring", ie. default, is inevitable and that bondholders should begin making their way to the barbershop.