July 12, 2002
Capitalist Crisis
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| Grace a Economist. Juillet. |
They're taking it reasonably well.
For one thing, they are not claiming that this proves the ultimate instability of capitalism itself (a moribund doctrine to be replaced by revolutunionary Fabianism).
But there was a full section insert on ECONOMIE in Le Monde, and the didactic line included these assorted elements:
* there is a deep similarity between the crisis in the US Catholic Church and the crisis in corporate confidence;
* Adam Smith better wake the hell up and sort things out;
* Bush and Cheney look to be implicated in the practices of the cronies, as had been the worry pre-2000;
* capitalist markets cannot autoregulate, as was the lesson of the 20s;
* the cause of this latest problem is the repeal of Glass-Steagall and stock options;
* this is a problem led by Americans that effects everyone, it must be American policymakers that address it;
* mainly American analysts and commentators cited in the discussions (Greenspan, Gary Becker, Harvey Pitt, whoever);
* indeed it is the American system that is being tested, since there are other (European) models for capitalism;
* capitalism is strong and has vanquished its competitors, but this is a serious problem.