Re: French unemployed movement

[Rosser Jr, John Barkley]

     There is more to the drive for the euro than just 
elites squashing labor in Europe, although that is 
certainly a good part of it.  Another is the rivalry with 
the US dollar and by extension US capitalists.  I was 
struck by this very forcibly while in France when I would 
raise questions about details of the plan.  A point would 
be reached where suddenly I would get told that "all you 
Americans are against the euro because you are afraid of 
what it will mean for the dollar" or something along those 
lines.  This is all the more hilarious given that the US 
economists most vocal in opposition to the euro have been 
Milton Friedman and Martin Feldstein.
Barkley Rosser
On Sun, 25 Jan 1998 12:36:17 -0500 Doug Henwood 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> john gulick wrote:
> 
> >What do pen-l'ers make of the argument propounded by pro-EMU social democrats
> >that w/o EMU global financial markets will discipline expansionary/welfare
> >initiatives, and at the very least w/EMU some weak version of EC-wide
> >expansionary/welfare initiatives can be achieved, as long as the EC central
> >bank does not resemble the Bundesbank?
> 
> But don't the Maastricht critera just about accomplish the task on their
> own? The strictures of EMU have led to fairly extreme fiscal and monetary
> tightening, and it's doubtful the Germans would accept any Euro-CB that
> wasn't Buba-like in its austerity. Who's behind EMU, after all? It's a
> project of the corporate and financial elite. Maastricht gives national
> governments the political cover for cutting their welfare states, and with
> unemployment rates as high as they are, labor market "flexiblization" is at
> least partly legitimated.
> 
> Doug
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
[EMAIL PROTECTED]