On 2013-10-03, at 7:36 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
> Marv: "The politicization of debt repayment has really put this concern
> front and centre fpr global bankers, investors, politicians, and
> sophisticated commentators like Martin Wolf. the FT's economics columnist:"
>
> [WS:] And he makes a valid point. I can only hope that this crisis will
> be the proverbial straw breaking the camel's back and the financial elite
> will move to dispose off the dysfunctional political system. This is not
> such a farfetched idea - revolutions from above were quite successful.
It will more likely end, as the pressure from the markets intensifies on the two parties, in an overarching budget deal between the leaders to trim entitlements and revamp the tax system in line with the Bowles-Simpson report. The Republican tops will have to deal with the tea party enragés on their right in the same manner, for example, as the Labour party dealt with the Militant group to their left or they will see a wholesale switch by the corporate sector to the Democrats as the more reliable administrators of the two-party system. I'm not expecting any revolutionary changes from above - the political system, despite its inevitable partisan divisions, has served Wall Street quite well throughout the financial crisis - but then one never expects revolutions from above or below because they are so rare. Perhaps the government will be forced to default on its debts triggering a massive run on the dollar and a spiral into a catastrophic global despression, but I wouldn't bet on it.
> I also think we should put the old anarchist-leftist canard equating
> capitalism, the state and the business elite to a well deserved rest.
The canard, as you put it, is as valid as ever. The state is the executive committee of the ruling class. The purpose of the executive branch, Congress, the courts, and the regulatory agencies is to ensure the smooth functioning of capitalist markets and to protect the power and property of those whose income derives primarily from profits and dividends.
> Likewise, there is no such a thing as unified
> capitalist class.
No one has ever claimed otherwise. The capitalist class is divided politically between left-centre and right-centre parties and, in the economic arena, between and within industries. You are expending a lot of energy in the following paragraph arguing with a strawman:
> To think that the primary concern of a business
> executive, say, the CEO of failing Research in Motion, is class interest of
> his fellow executives of Google, Apple, Microsoft etc. is simply laughable.
> In reality, their main concern is their business competitors not some
> fairly tales about "class struggle." Did not one of them say that he could
> hire half of the working class to kill the other half? This is even more
> true today. They can hire the entire working class and keep it on the
> leash of consumerism, circuses, and debt. Their relationship to the
> working class is not class war but rather pest control - to borrow a line
> from the sci-fi serial "Doctor Who."
The bourgeoisie may not be conducting a politically repressive class war because they are facing no significant challenge from below, but it has been conducting what many justifiably describe as an economic class war for the better part of three decades, squeezing the incomes and taking aim at the benefits won by previous generations of workers.
> If there is any "revolutionary" change today it will come from a
> contradiction between economic interests and the integument of political
> system that constrains them - just as the Old Man said.
You'll find that Marx and his contemporary followers also have a more sophisticated appreciation of the relationship between the state and capitalism and competing interests within the capitalist class than you give them credit for above.
> This is precisely
> where the situation seems to be heading now - the interests of the finance
> capital seem to be threatened by a bunch of Southern yahoos backed by
> segments of the fossil fuel industry.
The Southern petty-bourgeoisie and unorganized racist workers don't pose much of a threat to Wall Street. They'll be sent to the corner for misbehaving in due course. There is no contradiction between the banks and energy industry that I can see.