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Monday, December 05, 2011

Should Greens back the Merkozy Plan for Europe?

As I see it (and I may be wrong, and certainly not telling the whole story) Merkozy are following an impeccable logic.

To preserve the Euro, while at the same time guaranteeing failing economies within the Eurozone (EZ), it is necesary to bring about fiscal union, as in common tax laws.

Failure to preserve the Euro would bring about the end of the world as we know it.

Therefore fiscal union it is.

That's the logic, like it or not.

We can confidently expect that the mighty Eurosceptic Right are not going to like it.
So in that case, they are just going to have to lump it, because the the alternative, as far as I know, is global economic malaise. Global recession. A Great Depression.

Maybe I'm being a wishy-washy bleeding heart soft headed liberal treehugger greenie here, but I think this is an outcome to be avoided.

Maybe we should welcome the downfall of Capitalism (whatever that is), and join Nigel Farage in calling for its immediate death through doing whatever we can to disrupt closer European Union as a response to the economic crisis.

Unfortunately, I see a big economic crash as causing huge pain, chiefly manifested as unemployent, but with risks of crime, conflict, social disquiet, riots, attempted revolutions, international quarrels, wars and even, God forbid, nuclear war.

This tips me personally towards trying to fix the present system, by rapid introduction of reforms, as follows:
  1. Global Financial Transaction Tax Agreement
  2. Global closure of tax havens
  3. Trans-National corporations acounts transparency
  4. Stimulus not Austerity as the way to renew broken economies
Austerity measures are toxic in a depression. It is necessary to stimulate the economy, but the block to this approach is that we are up to our necks in debt, so we need a very low cost approach to stimulus. It would ideally work equally for both public and private employers. It must be an investment in the future, since we have got to hand on something other than debt to our children.

That is a tough set of specifications. Hmm...Ah yes. The Green Wage Subsidy.


There are many other measure to be added, from controlling TNCs to living on a low income, but I can't cover everything in one posting.

So, on balance I reckon that we should back the Merkozy Plan, but insist that it is followed by radical reforms to terminate the haemorrhage of wealth from the pockets of the 99% into the accounts of the 1%.

I could be wrong, but it feels right to me.
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:38 pm

    Hello DocRichard I think we're already in that depression; some things to chuck in the mix http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/ dec3rd blog steve keen is the only one ive seen advocating wage rises as the way out here he goes further
    http://michael-hudson.com/2011/12/democracy-and-debt/ here we have a historical perspective i'd love to be able to pluck out of my memory
    http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/ one of the best commentaries on whats unfolding in europe
    http://webofdebt.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/the-e-c-b-fiddles-while-rome-burns/ my current favourite wet liberal
    best wishes johnm33

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  2. DocRichard10:36 am

    Thanks John.
    Steve Keen is definitely The Man, along with Minsky and anyone else who predicted the crash.

    Psychologically, it is fascinating to me how one relatively simple question - whether money creation is endogenous or exogenous - can (a) be such a seemingly irreconcilable matter and (b) the exogenists can sustain their side of the debate purely with huge amounts of disdain.

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  3. Anonymous3:18 pm

    "Maybe we should welcome the downfall of Capitalism (whatever that is), and join Nigel Farage in calling for its immediate death through doing whatever we can to disrupt closer European Union as a response to the economic crisis."

    - What we have in the West is NOT free market capitalism, but managed market corporatism. In free market capitalism you do not have a big government legislating the laws concocted by global corporations, especially the global money printers - the central bankers who are governed by the global banking elite.

    Free market capitalism requires real money - sound money, like gold - not fiat money that is created at the global bankers' whim.

    The government's priority should be to preserve freedom and ensure the rights of all.

    Socialism would do fine for these Mussolini-type corporatists that have taken over the EU - and Mussonlini comes from the socialist vein, as do the German national socialists of the past, lest we forget.

    The socialist/communist pyramid, where governments steal as much as they want from the people is what we're getting and it is what we'll be getting for a long time to come.

    And this is coming from an old 1970s communist/socialist.

    ReplyDelete