Keith Hart on Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:55:47 +0200 (CEST) |
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Re: <nettime> Is the US declining too fast? |
Thanks for your reply, Felix. I am on the road in California and get to read the latest news in the small hours when I can't sleep for jet lag. My original post was sent on Monday after Lehman had been cut loose and Merill Lynch taken over, but before the nationalisation of AIG and certainly long before the SEC forced short-selling hedge funds to buy back investment bank shares, thereby producing a bounce whose consequences could mean even less credit being available than before. Any attempt to assess winners and losers, including the US, Europe and China, under these circumstances would obviously be foolish. I would never say that is just about funny money, while the real economy chugs along unaffected. But equally the financial doomsayers who say that blowing up the banks would be the end of the world economy are exaggerating. And the medium-term future of the relative strength in global terms of the US, EU and China is moot (which was the point of my original post). My reference to the US presidential election was meant to highlight the scope to rapid change there in response to this economic crisis. And while I pen this note, I learn that Mbeki has been forced to resign, showing that politics in South Africa has the capacity for brutal change comparable to Paulson's measures. The first of these contrasts starkly with say Labour in Britain or the schlerotic public instiotutions of Europe in general. The second may have had something to do with the timing of the ANC's move, even if it was triggered off by a judge's decision. It remains to be seen whether China's politburo has the flexibility and means of acting decisively when faced with real economic pressure. Certainly their actions this week have been reactive, insecure and possibly mistaken. This could be said of Paulson too. But I still believe that the US has the ability to come out of this more strongly than its competitors for reasons that include its real economy and its political institutions. Keith # 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://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org