The electoral victory of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the rise of Germany's pro-business Free Democratic Party with 14.5% of the vote, is being hailed by some as perhaps a bellwether shift to the right in the global geo-political ideological balance. This just might signal the beginning of the end of the end of capitalism. Don't bet on it. While it is good to see the tax-cutting and regulation-reducing Free Democrats making gains, the fact remains that Ms. Merkel and her Christian Democrats remain in power in Germany. More importantly, Ms. Merkel remains a charter member of the blustering troika of anti-capitalist euroleaders (along with Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Britain's Gordon Brown) who last week at the Pittsburgh G20 Summit helped deliver onto the world another profoundly anti-capitalist manifesto.Through more than 9,000 words, the G20 statement aims to entrench deeper and more pervasive bureaucratic and political intervention in the global economy. Among scores of objectives endorsed by the G20 to enhance the power of the International Monetary Fund and dozens of other agencies, Ms. Merkel is the only politician who is named and whose pet project, The Charter for Sustainable Economic Activity, gets a green light. "Building on Chancellor Merkel's proposed Charter, on which we will continue to work, we adopted today Core Values for Sustainable Economic Activity, which will include those of propriety, integrity, and transparency, and which will underpin the Framework."�The "Framework"� is another fine piece of bureaucratic empire building. Officially titled a Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth, it is the official cover for central bankers and various agencies and regulators to dip their oars into the global economy and meddle in banking and financial markets.As power grabs go, the G20 statement is in a class by itself. While the language may be impenetrable and the proposed actions seem vague and even inconsequential, the G20 nations have laid the groundwork for decades of expanding government intervention. Occasional support is given to the need for "private sources of demand"� and the like, but the overriding theme of the mandate the G20 politicians have given themselves is firmly based on government power, action and intervention.They lay claim to the success of government intervention right in the in the opening words. Just last April, when the world economy started to contract "at a pace not seen since the 1930s,"� when trade was "plummeting"� and jobs were disappearing "rapidly,"� and "our people"� worried about a looming depression, we the G20 politicians rode to the rescue. "At that time, our countries agreed to do everything necessary to ensure recovery, to repair our financial systems and to maintain the global flow of capital. The result, say the G20 leaders: "It worked."� Oh how easy it is for politicians to take credit for every dollar of GDP growth when economies are expanding, but loathe are they to accept any blame for economic decline. The old G8 nations, individually and collectively, failed to see the financial crisis coming and now plan to expand the club to include 12 other nations who also failed, individually and collectively, to anticipate the economic crunch. Firm in the official belief that they collectively rescued the world economy from the brink of collapse, the G20 are now set to oversee a new global world order based on their new sense of authority and achievement. Bank capital will be controlled, compensation overseen, macroprudential policies imposed, moral codes prescribed, energy use disciplined, climates controlled. And it will all be done so as to achieve "balanced"� growth. The word "balanced"� appearing some 45 times through the text, the objective being to use the IMF and other agencies to intervene whenever the IMF and other agencies see imbalances developing "” whatever that means.The G20 is not the end of capitalism, which is far still from dead. Economic actors still roam local and global economic markets in hot pursuit of their own self interest, from China to Canada, making profits and angling their way around whatever barriers are put in their place. Politicians may rail against greed and free market excess, but then they instantly take credit when that greed boosts growth and revives economic activity. While not the end of capitalsim, the G20, a bureaucratic megaproject from start to finish, does mark the beginning of another long effort that promises to grind down capitalism and the markets that produce the growth the politicians want to claim to have created.
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Hello all;
Government by decree doesn't work.
Economics by decree doesn't work.
Morals by decree doesn't work.
Capiatalism by decree doesn't work.
But a lot of politicians and bureaucrats get paid big salaries to convince both themselves - especially themselves - and us otherwise.
Yup, here we go again . . . the more things change, the more they stay the same.
-Brian Leslie Engler
Mr Corcoran seems to live in libertarian fantasy land. Capitalism has been regulated by government for years because capitalists seem unable or unwilling to regulate themselves.
I want protection from corporate capitalism: I want to be free of the vile pollution that capitalism causes; I want my savings to be protected from capitalist greed because when I reluctantly invest money in capitalist enterprises, I want to keep my shirt; and I want protection from the tendency of capitalists to view their workers as a mere means to make a profit.
In short, I want no part of Mr Corcoran's la la capitalist cloud cuckoo land.
They put a stimulus bandaid on by stealing from the future and massaged the statistics.
Underneath, the same fatal wound of greed (addiction of those who consume more than they produce) festers and grows, soon to be universally recognized as cancerous and fatal.
Mathematics of Rule is in control, determining final outcome. The prognosis is not good so long as the greedy and economically ignorant are allowed to retain control:
www.cli.gs/MathematicsOfRule
And, these idiots congratulate themselves? For what, a successful heist that we have not yet collectively fully noticed (nor suffered)?
There is only one way to kill capitalism. It is to steal from and disincent the productive so they conclude it is pointless to be so. At that point, nobody, glib, smug, self-deluding parasites included survives.
For the moment, I'm quite content to let Corcoran dictate what is and what was. However, the proof has soon got to be in the pudding. Are these assholes in Pittsburgh going to wake up to to the fact that life, Obladi, Oblada ,,, goes on as we know it. Perks, stock options, life and death of a lifetime of dedication. This is only a suggestion but, why not get rid of government ... I was going to say intervention, ... but what I really meant was government insurrection.
This column sidetracked me from my original intent ... that was to ... well, if you're a Liberal, don't watch.
For the moment, I'm quite content to let Corcoran dictate what is and what was. However, the proof has soon got to be in the pudding. Are these assholes in Pittsburgh going to wake up to to the fact that life, Obladi, Oblada ,,, goes on as we know it. Perks, stock options, life and death of a lifetime of dedication. This is only a suggestion but, why not get rid of government ... I was going to say intervention, ... but what I really meant was government insurrection.
This column sidetracked me from my original intent ... that was to ... well, if you're a Liberal, don't watch.
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24/09/09: This week, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association came into possession of internal memos indicating the province is considering a law allowing police officers to force the homeless into shelters on extremely cold days. To no one's surprise, it's become instantly controversial. The BCCLA likened it to turning homeless shelters into jails. But especially after two gruesome incidents over the past two winters, others have argued that if and when people refuse to help themselves, the government must insist on removing them from danger. David Eby, Executive Director of the BCCLA, and National Post columnist Brian Hutchinson join host Chris Selley to discuss the issue.
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