On Mon, 1 Feb 2010 10:16:17 +0900 CeJ <jann...@gmail.com> writes: > JF: >>I don't think that it is any great mystery what > happened in the 1970s. In the mid-1970s, > we had the greatest economic crisis since > the Great Depression. It became clear that > the institutional framework which modern > capitalism had been working under since > the 1930s and 1940s was no longer > politically viable. It, therefore, came > under challenge both from the left > and the right. << > > > Yes, but RD said that the secret to all our mysteries now lies in > understanding the 1970s. We can't even currently explain unintended > acceleration in Toyotas now. Or how Abba would get a major musical > based on their songs! Perhaps we don't understand the 1970s as well > as > we think we do. > > > I think the sense of crisis was over the future of American > domination > of the rest of the world. Consider, Japan and W. Germany were > surpassing the US in terms of industrial production, most visible > with > the automobiles and electronics.
That was certainly one part of it. The Second World War had devastated industry in western Europe and Japan, leaving the US without significant competition. But by the 1970s, both western Europe (especially Germany) and Japan had completed their recoveries from the war and were now able to compete with the US. > The threat of certain countries > using > OPEC to control the price of oil and even the supply of it, although > a > crisis for global capitalism (think of Japan with its total > dependency > on imported oil), in the US it was seen as a threat to American > power. > And then there was the humiliation of the Vietnam War, where global > perceptions were that the US had lost or at least had met the > limits > of its own power. Also, the US by the mid-1970s was being perceived as starting to lose the cold war. Soviet-backed national liberation movements were making progress in Africa, Latin America and elsewhere. The Vietnam War itself, had left the US exhausted with the American public less than eager to see US military intervention in other countries (what the US ruling class called "Vietnam syndrome"). Also, we shouldn't leave out the impact of the great social movements of the 1960, including especially the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, the student movement, and the women's movement. All of which weakened the legitimacy of the state, forced through significant social reforms. Labor insurgencies of various sorts became increasingly frequent at the time, and we have the case of France, where the student movement, at least for a while, was able to join forces with labor insurgents to shake the political foundations of that country. That sort of thing put the fear of God into the hearts of the US ruling class who was fearful of a similar occurence on this side of the Atlantic. By the early 1970s, the ruling classes of the US and UK were eager to find ways of rolling back the social gains of the 1960s which were seen as directly threatening the profits, social status, and political power of the ruling classes. Bourgeois economists were already openly talking about the need to tolerate higher rates of unemployment in order to dampen down wage demands. And within a few years this sort of talk began to be translated into policy, involving a tightening of monetary policy to force up interest rates, deregulation of industries (starting with transportation under the Carter Administration), the shift by the Federal government to an openly anti-labor stance, starting with Reagan's response to the PATCO strike (by a conservative union that had actually endorsed Reagan in 1980. > And then there were the 'big bang' financial > reforms > of Thatcher, which threatened to make London the top center of > financial activity, over NYC. > > What is ironic is that militarist Demoncrats and Repugnicans (who > had > been around a long time and hadn't just emerged in the 1970s) used > rationales like 'deficits' to justify agendas against 'liberalism' > (in > terms of the government being involved in social agendas and > spending) > and then, from late Carter onwards, proceeded to drive up government > deficits and trade deficits to unprecedented levels, much of which > can > be attributed to the military spending and their willingness to use > Japan's and W. Germany's industrial capacity to meet American > consumer > needs as they did so. > > About the same time, American elites, under a supposedly 'free > trade' > and 'liberalization' regime (rhetorical regime), moved strongly, > nationalistically and unilaterally to hem in Japan in terms of (1) > the > value of the yen (which has pretty much been appreciating since the > 1970s and is the real cause of 'deflation' in Japan) and (2) in > locking Japan out of processor chip-OS development for desktop and > server computing (giving us American cartels in control of most of > our > computing). They also imposed import quotas on Japanese cars and > automobile parts under Reagan and Bush I (GHWB). Clinton largely > continued the unilateral 'trade and currency agenda' against Japan. > > You can see the result. Wintel duopoly. Or, for example, Toyota > became > a dominant player but auto makers like Mitsubishi found themselves > pretty much eliminated from the North American market because they > didn't have a dealership network in place before the 1980s. And > even > Toyota was forced to move production to the US while buying > American-made automobile parts. They seem to be blaming their > current > recall issue on an American maker of the accelerator assembly, but > elsewhere others have said that the 'sticky accelerator' is a > separate > issue from 'unintended acceleration' or at best only one partial > explanation of the phenomenon (which is so statistically > insignificant > and small one would be forced to explain the actual cause of each > separate incident before one could come to any conclusions). > > CJ > > _______________________________________________ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > > ____________________________________________________________ Love Spell Click here to light up your life with a love spell! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=GKlet5hUjq23SErpft19nAAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARwAAAAA= _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
