[Guardian
Unlimited, U.K.]
Le Figaro, France
Behold: A Watershed
in American Civilization
"Now, even with the
heaven-sent intervention of Chinese savings, the strategy of allowing a
systematic decline in the dollar to boost exports has been abandoned. … America
is concluding the military phase of the war against terrorism, but
contradictorily, within Pakistani confines, there is perhaps the outline of a
real war against a genuine army in Pakistan, in an alliance with India and
Israel."
The Chronicle of Alexandre Adler
Translated By Sandrine Ageorges
September 27, 2008
France
- Le Figaro - Original Article (French)
Once again a few months
ago, I annoyed readers with my taste for paradox by saluting the advent of a
sort of "American socialism 
"
primarily based on a hard-to-measure influence from the past - that of public
power. I won't go into detail here, since the idea is about to become a truism:
For example, Time Magazine published a cartoon of the American flag
which after a moment transforms into a French flag, meaning that under the
impact of the current crisis, America has abandoned all of its prior principles
to a pragmatic state centralism based on tax increases. Because no one believes
the claims that the credit being offered to collapsing
financial institutions will be repaid, nor in their financing through
further debt, which despite impressive Chinese goodwill in this area, has also
reached its physical limits.
What remains
controversial in this case is the form that that this great turning point for
American civilization will take - a civilization which has already hit the
floor in terms of its fundamental infrastructure: Wall Street. There is little
likelihood that the market economy and the strong and obvious inequality in
wages are at stake, nor even the wider presence of the United States in the
world.
Rather than a
possible comparison with the Soviet Union during the years 1988-1989, one would
more likely invoke the United States during the years 1979-1980, which marked
the end of Rooseveltism and the seizure of power by
the new monetarist and populist coalition that Ronald Reagan managed to forge
during the 1970's in California [Reagan was California governor]. In short, if
one admits that the crisis of 1929 gave birth to an original model which was
extended despite its increasing difficulties until 1979 - a duration of 47
years with one major incident, World War II - one might retrospectively assign
Ronald Reagan with paternity for an era substantially shorter than the previous
one, straddling the collapse of communism and the advent of globalization.
Because no lesser
figures than Nixon during the 1970s and Eisenhower before him in the 1950s,
were unable to seriously influence a shift in the model inherited from the Rooseveltian Democrats. Neither did the Clinton episode,
despite some initial protectionist temptations, manage to create the foundation
for a strong welfare state to contain the liberal opening of markets,
especially after the "cohabitation" imposed by a Congress dominated
by Republican Newt Gingrich. [In other words, Nixon and Eisenhower couldn’t
turn back Roosevelt's general model, and Clinton couldn’t reverse Reagan's].
[The
Telegraph, U.K.]
Here in haste and
trembling, a new model has been introduced within just a few weeks. Now,
despite the populist outcries of elected officials on the left or the right,
the principle of tax increases has been adopted. Now, even with the heaven-sent
intervention of Chinese savings, the strategy of allowing a systematic decline
in the dollar to boost exports has also been abandoned. This will be all the
more true, because the new American austerity will bring an immediate influx of
capital from the rest of the world in search of a low-risk way to recover
losses, and with a cost of entry singularly reduced by the depreciation of
American assets over a long period of time. Here at last, America is thinking
seriously about reducing its energy consumption. Now that the dollar may not
fall much lower, all the U.S. needs to do is buy less
oil from OPEC. Similarly, trade barriers and protections in all areas are
unlikely to disappear. Under the contrary.
OBAMA ON EFFORT
TO BUY PLUMMETING FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS
We have seen that
the transition from the Roosevelt model to the Reagan model didn't guarantee
the same transition in foreign policy, except for the suppression of the
military draft. This time, the [foreign policy] disruption can only be more
significant: America is concluding the military phase of the war against
terrorism, and is choosing a voluntarist economic
model that could lead to a formidable strategic revolution: fewer "police
operations," a radical redefinition of priorities brought on by a new
financial austerity, but contradictorily, within Pakistani confines, perhaps
the outline of a real war against a genuine army in Pakistan, in an alliance
with India and Israel, and who knows what the result would be of a new Iran
which is closer to Washington.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
We may be
attempting to leave behind an elitist, very permissive and quite complacent
system, in which personal enrichment was king and that had another major
consequence - the U.S. Army was transformed into an international super-police
force.
Now one can very
well envisage the end of this reluctant neocolonialism, but perhaps also a
willingness to take up a much broader conflict with powers that no longer hide
behind the little finger of the inquisitor, Osama bin Laden.
CLICK HERE FOR FRENCH
VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
September 29, 5:25pm]
