ALB
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That seems a reasonable analysis and interpretation. Brexit does seem to have been an issue that interested ordinary non-political people more than the sham Tory/Labour fight at elections. Pity it revealed how narrow-minded most were. But I suppose that was predictable in view of the years and years of patriotic and nationalistic propaganda that people have been subjected to.
I also noticed, despite the idiot adverts in the link, another point Steve Coleman made:
“ you have Conservatives up here in the North, who are voting because they think the Conservative Party is going to do what Labour used to do which is spend more on them,”
They’re in for a shock, not that Labour did much for them either. Isn’t this what in US is called pork barrel politics?
Three more articles from the Socialist Standard added:
The Class Struggle, March 1925
Henry Ford or Karl Marx?, August 1926
The Mirage in Spain, April 1934QE does cause inflation but limits this to “asset” prices which increases the nominal wealth of “wealthy asset holders” as the House of Lords calls them. It doesn’t seem to do much else.
MMT would cause a massive and uncontrollable rise in the general price level as in Weimar Germany and present-day Zimbabwe. Only a big player like the US (possibly only the US) could get away with it without too much of this because most of the extra money would be used by other countries.
QE is not currency crankism. MMT is.
Yes, herd immunity is back on the agenda in Britain. The policy is to achieve this by a combination of vaccinating as many as possible and letting the virus rip amongst the unvaccinated who are assumed to be mostly the young and so less likely to end up in hospital and/or die. That way enough people should have enough anti-bodies to keep the virus at bay.
I hope they know what they are doing as many informed commentators are referring to it as an “experiment”, which suggests that they are not sure whether it will work, ie achieve herd immunity.
I think we should stop calling this sort of scheme UBI and start calling them VBI — very basic income.
For a start they are not universal (ie not for everyone) and, second, they are just tweaks to the system of how to deal with people who would otherwise be destitute. In other words, a reform of the Poor Law system.
Yes, some people are taking delight in the situation that sanctions has largely brought about. “Sanctions” are an act of war, legalised by the UN charter. They have replaced gunboat diplomacy but their effect on the population of the country attacked is worse.
Here’s what the Report says in its own words:
“We conclude, on balance, that the evidence shows quantitative easing has had limited impact on growth and aggregate demand over the last decade. To stimulate economic growth and aggregate demand, quantitative easing is reliant on a series of transmission mechanisms that operate primarily in and through financial markets. There is limited evidence to suggest that these increase bank lending or investment, or boost consumer spending by wealthy asset holders. (Paragraph 50)
Quantitative easing is an imperfect policy tool. Its use in 2009, in conjunction with expansionary fiscal policy, prevented a recurrence of the Great Depression and in so doing mitigated the growth of inequalities that evidence shows are exacerbated and deepened during economic downturns. (Paragraph 67)
However, the mechanisms through which quantitative easing effectively stabilised the financial system following the global financial crisis have benefited wealthy asset holders disproportionately by artificially inflating asset prices. On balance, we conclude that the evidence shows that quantitative easing has exacerbated wealth inequalities. (Paragraph 68)”
The report in today’s Times is ever more damning. It says the report says that the only thing QE has done is to increase “asset” price (ie the price of bonds and shares on the stock exchange”) but “has done little for growth, consumer spending and investment during the past decade”
Another failed attempt to control capitalism and one that has in fact made matters worse. The original idea was to make it easier for firms to invest by supplying them with cheap money. That didn’t work (because it’s the prospect of making a profit not cheap money that moves firms to invest). They brought the horse to water but it didn’t drink.
Predictably, causing “asset” prices to rise was going to benefit those who own them and the more the more stocks and shares they owned. This has increased inequality (even though the increase in “asset” prices is only a paper increase in wealth not an increase in the real things that make up wealth).
Why is it assumed that “American workers” are only “white”? What about the others? They would seem to have turned “left”.
More detail on this latest poll, bringing out what is considered to be “socialism”. Still, it appears that quite a few people under 35 don’t like what they consider to be capitalism.
“A Forefront Market Research poll commissioned by the IEA of just under 2,000 people aged between 16 and 34 in the UK, carried out between February and March 2021, found that:
67 per cent say they would like to live in a socialist economic system.
75 per cent agree with the assertion that climate change is a specifically capitalist problem.
78 per cent blame capitalism for Britain’s housing crisis.
72 per cent support the (re)nationalisation of various industries such as energy, water and the railways.
72 per cent believe that private sector involvement would put the NHS at risk.
75 per cent agree with the statement that ‘socialism is a good idea, but it has failed in the past because it has been badly done’.”
No wonder the mad marketeers are having a fit. On the other hand, Publishing scare stories (as far as private corporations are concerned) like this — two in the sane week from two different conservative think tanks — may just be a ploy on their part to drum up more funding from business.
This poll, by the sane Niemietz, claims to show that 67% of young people in Britain would want to live “under a socialist economic system”. Unfortunately, when he explains what “socialism” means, it seems they would prefer to live under state capitalism rather than private capitalism. Anyway here he is being interviewed on GB News:
“Propertarian” would be too wide as it would include feudalism and ancient slave society which were also based on private property.
Here’s what he found (but remember that in these polls the answers are often shaped by the questions):
“Voters are almost as fed up with business as with politicians – presenting a huge challenge for supporters of capitalism and enterprise.
When asked to choose the biggest divide was in society, by far the most popular answer was rich vs poor (39%), twice as many as those who chose Brexit or North vs South.
When asked what words or phrases they thought of first when thinking about British companies, the top answers were ‘Profit over people’ (chosen by 47%), ‘They put shareholders first, not ordinary people’ (44%), ‘Excessive CEO/executive compensation’ (41%) and ‘Avoids paying taxes’ (34%). ‘Creates jobs’ was chosen as one of their top four options by 32% of voters – but was beaten by the first three even among Tory voters.”
He didn’t come up with an alternative name for capitalism. But how about ‘the profit system” as a lot of people seem to recognise?
The SWP was part of Respect (until Galloway kicked them out). It was part of their “turn” to try to attract unreformed Muslims. This involved no longer meeting in pubs.
I remember two of us distributing a leaflet at an SWP front meeting held at the TUC headquarters. The leaflet was on some other subject (racism I think) but happened to mention our attitude to religion. An officious SWPer came out and told us to stop as it was islamophobic. We didn’t of course.
Galloway’s votes are obtained on the same basis and so are quite useless for getting some reforms let alone socialism.
We were on to how the Trots had nothing to offer from the start, as this article from the Socialist Standard from 1944 shows:
