[PEN-L:1424] Re: Passing the buck

[Rosser Jr, John Barkley]

     Speaking of Fukuyama blushing I just read that he 
thas decided that history has not ended after all, 
after contemplating recent events in Asia and Russia.  
Sounds like time for another book!
Barkley Rosser 
On Thu, 3 Sep 1998 01:45:15 +1000 Rob Schaap 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Tom writes:
> 
> >If the FRB does the right thing by the global economy and lowers U.S. rates,
> >it will also shoot down the dollar -- the domestic consequences would be a
> >sharp inflationary shock and a jump in unemployment. A more likely scenario
> >is that U.S. officials and the IMF will continue their sanctimonious
> >preaching to the Russians and Japanese (soon to be joined by Latin
> >Americans) about the virtues of monetary "discipline". The ugly American
> >redux.
> 
> All most compelling, Tom.  From this spot on the periphery of the core (?),
> I sense a generalised political-cultural recognition of the self-serving
> nature of US foreign policy - military and economic (if I may pose a moot
> distinction).  Our pollies won't hear a word said against good ol' Uncle
> Sam (our competing would-be PM's fell over themselves to express their
> sombre support for the necessary butchery of those Sudanese workers), but
> the words are there to be heard - loud'n'clear, and from all sides.
> 
> I mention this because I suspect a political price is beginning to manifest
> for all this.  The US is gonna excite a lot of articulated suspicion, if
> not downright belligerent indignation, as it desperately tries to push its
> pole-to-pole American free-trade bloc.  The MAI is probably being shuffled
> back to the bottom of some pile of papers in Washington as we tap away.
> 
> What I'm getting at is that the demonstrably immanent financial
> uncertainties in 'globalist' neo-liberal capitalist prescriptions are not
> the only problem our functionalist integrationist soothsayers are up
> against.  Political antipathy, admittedly comprised of many and varied
> 'counter-hegemonies' (including xenophobic nationalism, consolidated Islam,
> and simple Yank-baiting), is raising its head just as a generalised
> institutional legitimation crisis is swinging voters and polarising
> electorates throughout the world.
> 
> Establishment pollies can't ignore such sentiments forever, and I wonder if
> we're on the verge of some serious political 'deglobalisation' anyway,
> regardless of if and how we get out of our current economic vortex.
> 
> The Pax Americana hegemony was always short on logos (the shortcomings in
> America's contribution on the natural order may be particularly apparent
> just now - but the seeds were planted thirty years ago; what with Watts,
> Malcolm X, ML King, the Kennedies, the Chicago Demcon, Kent State and
> Watergate - mostly very American phenomena) - the ethos has been sadly
> lacking since those little Vietnam and OPEC/Palestine hiccoughs, and the
> World Bank/IMF team certainly haven't helped on that score - and I gotta
> admit, I didn't sense a wholly convincing pathos (sad really, given the
> absolute paucity of logos and ethos) in slick Willy's 'stick-with-it'
> exhoratations to the bemused Russians yesterday.  For instance, I predict
> currency controls, and to a domestic standing ovation at that, within a
> week of Chernomyrdin's third nomination, whoever gets the job.  And that'll
> get a whole heap of beleaguered premiers and presidents thinking ...
> 
> Now, according to Aristotle, logos, ethos and pathos are the only three
> constituents of rhetoric.
> 
> Pax Americana may just have shot its hegemonic bolt.
> 
> Scratch one hegemon.  Even Fukuyama must be blushing by now.
> 
> What price Orwell's war of the continental blocs now?
> 
> Cheers (?)
> Rob.
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
[EMAIL PROTECTED]