At 02:32 PM 11/24/2002 -0800, you wrote:
No I don't think the siphoning is done. They've got a ways to go ripping off the middle/professional class: end tenure, break remaining unions, further privatize schools, Social Security, etc. As for the military-industrial complex, I bet there will be a lot of speculative activity centering around a potential Middle East golden goose. Of course, if there's enough destruction due to war and the crumbling environment, production might pick up too.The reason why I think the Republican coup of 2000 may be a historical turning point for the capital accumulation process (from speculation back to production) is that finance capital siphoned much of what could have been siphoned from the rest of the world through speculation. There is not much left to siphon that way anymore, at least, as I percieve. If you look at the composition of the Bush camp, most of them come from the military-industrial complex and there is little representation of finance capital, as in, O'Neill, not Rubin, at the reigns of the US Treasury.
Pessimistically yours,
Joanna
