Re: <nettime> notes from the DIEM25 launch

[Armin Medosch <armin@easynet.co.uk>]

   hello,

   what this discussion shows sofar is the value of this list, nettime. I
   was neither there, nor have I listened in to the stream, but I have the
   impression that I have a pretty good idea of this meeting by now,
   thanks to everyone.Â

   What strikes me as particularly disappointing is that this high-powered
   self-selected elite of saviours of EU-Europe have no other policy
   proposal than increased transpareny

   It's the economy stupid and to bring about any real change the economic
   base needs to change, sorry for my vulgar Marxism.

   One very concrete proposal how this could happen would be to change the
   way how 'quantitative easing' is done. Currently, the ECB is creating
   money and uses it to buy government bonds from investment banks, that
   is, about 80% of the 60 Billion Euros created monthly by the ECB is
   used in that way. This is based on an orthodoxy in current economic
   thinking: the separation of monetary policy and fiscal policy.Â

   Now we all know that since 2008 governments have subscribed (in some
   cases not entirely voluntarily) to austerity policies that became
   necessary after they saved the banking system from collapse. Those
   austerity policies are in turn responsible for the prolonged economic
   crisis (not just in EU Europe). This economic crisis has long since
   turned into a social crisis and now also a political crisis. I would
   like to remind that the real effect of this economic crisis is not just
   that businesses suffer but even more so that the life-chances of a
   whole generation, that important cultural, scientific and social tasks
   remain undone, and that all this in turn plays into the hands of the
   far right.

   There would in principle - except for some stupid EU legislation which
   can and should be changed - no obstacle to the ECB creating the same
   amount of informational money per month and give it to governments and
   the EU commission to finance education, culture, social works, support
   for refugees, you name it. Do that for 60 months to the tune of 60
   billion Euros per month and I guarantee the economic crisis would be
   over, people would be happier and more self-confident and happier and
   more self-confident people would demand democratic changes themselves;
   a happier, more confident and more democratic Europe would engage in
   more open and constructive ways with the world and could make more
   credible demands for democratic change elsewhere.

   The ECB should start the printing machine for us all and not just
   investment banks, because the latter is a receipt for disaster because
   it creates only another asset bubble which may lead - or is in the very
   process of doing so - another, this time really big global financial
   crisis which governments may find themselves unable to cushion (and all
   that is not just m idea but said by economists off the record).Â

   all best

   Armin

   Â Â  Â Â

   On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 9:22 PM, Michael Gurstein <gurstein@gmail.com> wrote:

     Sorry to intrude in this Euro-centric (myopic) discussion but just as DIEM25
     was being presented Bernie Sanders was winning the New Hampshire primary for
     the US Democratic party nomination on the basis of rebuilding US democracy
     and being a facilitator of a "democratic revolution" and "socialism" in the US.

<...>

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