Re: <nettime> Nightmare or Opening

[allan siegel <allan@allansiegel.info>]

Dear Brian et al,

Indeed the Soros perspective has gotten major play in the media and
while it is strong on financial analysis (from a major capitalist
- he is isn't he?) it is weak on political analysis (which is not
surprising given that Soros' guru was Karl Popper) which Brian himself
points out. And this is a major omission which most commentators
conveniently ignore thinking - wishfully - that somehow the solution
to the EU financial crisis can come about without solving the
political crisis.

>From Brian, "And the weakness is glaring when statements like the
following are made: Obviously the US and, to a lesser degree, China,
are pushing very hard for this solution, along with the IMF and the
OECD and other proto-institutions of world government."

This solution is: "a fiscal union of Europe with a central bank much
more like the American Fed and very tight economic rules that force
the so-called "peripheral" countries to bring spending in line with
production."

But what are the political implications of this solution not
just internally within the EU but in relationship to the US and
China AND the critical emerging economies? Why should one assume
that the interests of a financially integrated AND stable EU are
the same as the US? or China? We are in that stage of intense
global competitiveness in which rationality takes second place
to profitability and market dominance (nothing new really). An
environment which Fernand Braudel understood quite well because he
understood (or tried to fathom) the inter-relationships between
politics and market forces something that Soros - with all his
financial insights - has failed to come to terms with.

allan siegel



#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org