Time: Friday, November 18, 2011, 7:00 pm Location: Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609-1113 Speaker: Frank D. Winter, co-editor of GegenStandpunkt (Germany)
In the fifth year of the global financial crisis, the average person is still looking for a job or worried about losing one, and fears for what little savings he or she might have. The big investors flee into real assets, gold or Swiss francs, and increasingly shun government bonds – only a few years ago the safe harbor in the financial crisis, now rated as increasingly risky and falling in value. Entire states in Europe are bankrupt or almost so. And for one reason: finance capital is less and less willing to lend money to the states because it finds their already accumulated debts too high in relation to their economic growth to make further extensions of credit worth it, and above all, they aren't rated safe enough. This is not decided by these countries having unexpected new budget deficits, but only the weekly or even daily revised evaluations of risk by financial investors. That's why countries like Italy, whose debt ratio has not changed at all,
have suddenly come to the attention of the financial markets because of a new risk assessment. And when a state budget nears credit unworthiness, it loses its ability to pay.
This reveals a lot about the capitalist economy and its political managers:
- All the lives and jobs that the state organizes on its competitive teritory with the help of credit for business growth must meet the profit calculation of financially powerful credit lenders or else they are useless. All of society is subordinated to the calculations of the financial sector because the government wants it this way. It is not only the political rule that thrives on the credit power of finance capital, it is the main driving force that finances all business growth.
- Trillions in bailouts prevented the ultimate bankruptcy of the finance industry. Now the financial crisis has become a national debt crisis because the financial industry has become sceptical. The current mistrust that the financial industry shows in its own state rescuers is not considered as tacky ingratitude. “The states have lived beyond their means!” is the political self-criticism which agrees in every point with the guilty verdict of the financial markets. Anything that does not meet the requirements of credit-granting investors is amiss and must be corrected.
- The states do not challenge the financial industry, but clean up their own budgets. They economize harshly, primarily on the citizens, their pensions and wages. This drastic impoverishment program should do nothing less than win back the confidence of finance capital, which consists of a remunerative use of its loaned money.
- At the same time, new credit packages for the rescue of credit-unworthy state budgets in Europe are issued to save the euro. In doing so, the politicians want the financial institutions to get “on board” with a debt write off by all means, but by all means voluntarily. Their respect matters, for it is their confidence that is fought for. Force, which would be completely out of place against the banks, is therefore urgently needed against the demonstrations and strikes by which the people oppose their impoverishment.
Instead of making accusations of policy inaction or incompetent crisis management, or hoping for its success, one should know whose success one is wishing for. This talk and discussion will provide further clarifications.