Some people may be cross-eyed about the present finance crisis. Their political selves may rejoice at signs that the system may be crumbling. Their economic selves (i.e., their portfolios) may be aching for the same reason. If one thinks of Keynes-style possibilities at all, like Strauss-Kahn of the IMF or Stiglitz, would global keynesianism of some sort be a viable response to the present financial crisis? What would it look like? Who would be interested in pursuing it?
The last time that global keynesianism of a muted kind worked was when the US had about 50 percent of global GDP, had exportable excess capital and tried to make the world safe from Communism (Marshall Plan). None of those factors apply at present. According to Stiglitz (2006) the world economy would benefit from a financial system that has a global currency, replacing the US dollar as lead currency by a Keynes-style bancor currency. A political motive for massive global real investment could be arising from environmental concerns. One could think of a “green” global keynesianism, a “green re-indutrialization” of the world economy, even though that sounds like an oxymoron. The European Union might be open to that. Bernanke has been talking (in 2007) of a global saving glut originating outside OECD. That saving glut and bancor-based global deficit spending could finance the mentioned project. Details need to be worked out, but there could be some possibilities for replacing global neoliberalism by green global keynesianism, no? (The project could be further improved by hiring all available green socialists.) GK _________________________________________________________________ Send a smile, make someone laugh, have some fun! Start now! http://g.msn.ca/ca55/208_______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
