The tumultuous events of today augur in the complete meltdown of the world economy, markets will continue to spiral out of control as they open across the world following another Wall St collapse.
The 2008 US presidential election has already been rendered meaningless before it has even been held, because any prospect of social programs is now to be shelved. Rather, an amount equivalent to $2,300 for every man, woman and child in the US is to be transferred to the wealthy. One of the first questions asked by the moderator in the first presidential debate was: which government programs are you advocating be cut back in view of the bailout plan? All were agreed there would have to be cuts—that was accepted, a given. The American ruling class cannot carry out its program democratically, and therefore we see, in the measures proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson, the sinews of a dictatorship. The initial text sent to the Congress, supposedly the legislative body with oversight over expenditures, was barely three pages long—less paperwork, one commentator noted in the New York Times, than was required for a subprime mortgage! According to the initial text, among the powers available to the Treasury secretary, “without limitation,” will be “designating financial institutions as financial agents of the government” able to perform “all such reasonable duties related to this Act.” This means that the same financial institutions that engaged in the speculative and, in some cases, outright criminal activities that led to the crisis, are to be called on to help the Treasury organise the bailout. As a recent article on the WSWS noted, the term “conflict of interest” does not even begin to cover what is taking place. Moreover, the plan provides for legal immunity for the Treasury. “Decisions by the secretary pursuant to the authority are non- reviewable ... and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” As an article in the New York Times of September 23 pointed out, with these words “the Treasury secretary—whoever that may be in a few months —would be vested with the most incredible powers ever bestowed on one person over the economic and financial life of the United States. It is the financial equivalent of the Patriot Act, after 9/11.” The Times described Paulson’s proposed legislation as “the most amazing power grab in the history of the American economy.” A long established axiom of economics and politics holds that in a crisis, real relations are laid bare, as the accidental and the inessential are stripped away. And this is the case in this crisis. Not government of the people, by the people and for the people; not the “free market” in which the decisions of millions of people determine economic outcomes; but government of, by, and for the wealthy. Not democracy and a land of laws, but a dictatorship of finance capital. The wars of plunder launched by American imperialism in Afghanistan and Iraq, the aim of which is to control oil and other resources in the interests of US finance capital, are now being openly fought on the home front. They will be accompanied by a deepening of the assault on democratic rights, initiated in the so-called “war on terror.” This is where the American working class and the working class throughout the world will come forward and perform their historical destiny and clear away the old order auguring in a new and wondrous future for all mankind --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
