G20 summit masks the elite’s fears

[kpete]

G20 summit masks the elite’s fears
Written by Walden Bello

April 2, 2009
....But here’s the problem with today’s summit in London: It is all show.

What the show masks is a very deep worry and fear among the global elite that it really does not know the direction in which the world economy is heading and the measures needed to stabilise it.

The latest statistics are exceeding even the gloomiest projections made earlier. Establishment analysts are beginning to mention the dreaded “D” word and there is a spreading sense that a tidal wave just now gathering momentum will simply overwhelm the trillions of dollars allocated for stimulus spending. In this environment, the G20 conveys the impression that they’re more commanded by than in command of developments.

Indeed, perhaps no image is more evocative of the current state of the global economy than that of a World War II German U-Boat depth-charged in the North Atlantic by British destroyers. It is going down fast, and the crew doesn’t know when it will hit rock bottom. The current capitalist crew manning the global economy does not know whether Keynesian methods can re-inflate the global economy.

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The implicit recommendation of their inaction was that the best way to regulate the market was to leave it to market players. In short, institutions that were part of the problem are now being asked to become the central part of the solution. Unwittingly, the G20 are following Marx’s maxim that history first repeats itself as tragedy, then as farce.

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