At 21/05/01 08:59 -0700, you wrote:
>Chris B. wrote:
>>Why cannot the IMF's role be to manage world money?
>
>because that's not how it's presently set up (though of course that might
>change).
>Now the IMF might become a "world Fed," managing the world's money, but I
>think that the US power elite would oppose that. It likes the way the
>actual Fed manages things.
Sure. Change will not come without a battle. But from a marxist
perspective, of course gold (or silver) as world money is a mystification.
Although it is less of a mystification to treat the US dollar as world
money, it still is a mystification.
I note however, the deafening silence in response to my question, on this
list, apart from Jim. A World Fed is perhaps not revolutionary enough, too
soiled with the realities of commodity exchange.
Yet Jim's sketch of the present role of the IMF seems to be close enough to
reality. IMF critics recognise that it tends to bail out the creditors
instead of punishing them as vigorously as the failing country.
What the left, if this list is left, cannot address about the failings of
the IMF is that we confine the debate to patronising charity if we just
back debt cancellation for individual countries.
We have to make a theoretical quantum leap to grasp this. In a world in
which socialism cannot be imposed overnight, there will still be economic
and financial activity. It is impossible to find equitable rules as to why
massive credit should be extended to one country or enterprise rather than
another in times of crisis. What is needed is a truly global policy which
recognises that corporations will indeed go bankrupt at times, but
1) the overall global financial climate does not have to be sado-monetarist
2) there could be broad rules for the distribution of credit on a global
basis which maks it somewhat more available in some areas than others, as
in the European Union. But enterprises would still have to bid against the
available credit.
If we want to push the analogy with the US Fed, how about just considering
the formula by which a world fed would extend credit at a lower rate of
interest to the central banks of the African countries compared to the
central banks of the USA and Europe. (compare the recent reduction in the
Fed rate to the states banks)
To win this battle we not only have to argue against the self-interest of
US finance capitalism. We also have to argue within the left against
1) revolutionary global anarchism
2) patronising christian charity
yet both of these consitutencies are currently our allies.
And then there are all the worldly wise 'marxists' who can find so many
revolutionary reasons for arguing that a certain battle cannot be won,
without proposing a more attainable target that can more easily be won.
Chris Burford
London
