1) "The last few years have been marked by an inverted millenarianism in which the premonitions of the future, catastrophic or redemptive, have been replaced by senses of the end of this or that." -F. Jameson2) Doug Henwood's latest radio broadcast features two political economists from York University - Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin discussing the possibility that this last financial crisis may, in fact, be, the "one" that precipitates a new style of capitalism: a restructuring in the relations of production, you know? So what comes after neoliberalism? There is no reason to be dumbly optimistic about it, whatever it is, as Henwood concludes in a powerful editorial in the new Nation:
Although we're hearing a lot now about how the Reagan era is over and the era of big government is back, an expanded government isn't likely to do much more than rescue a failing financial system (in addition to the more familiar pursuits of waging war and jailing people). Nothing more humane will be pursued without a far more energized populace than we have.Henwood's is the most timely commentary on the bailout and its long/short-term stakes that I have heard/read. Apparently this is one area where I fall out with Pete De Fazio and Dean Baker, and fall in with Paul Krugman and Barney Frank. Weird. 'Makes me uncomfortable, but so does the ongoing financial collapse, and so do the prospects of the restructuring of the US fiscal/labor/monetary policies that are about to go down under either BHO or the Maverick. I think the consequences of moves made around this bailout and the subsequent restructuring of global finance will be decisive for the long-term prospects of the "working class" at home and "globalization's discontents" abroad, moreso even than election outcomes this year. But obviously the two variables are fatefuly related to one another.
3) Libertarian stalwart and initiative also-ran Howard "Howie" Rich returns to the scene in South Carolina?!?!?
what I love about Jameson and all that postmodern jazz is that all the things they say are quite meaningful but also, on the face of it, quite trite as well. like, milleniarism was always about the end of something, though usually just the one thing of Western Christendom.
ReplyDeleteI shall read that editorial, looks interesting. someone asked me, as a politics student, what did I think was going to happen? I could maybe tell you what I'd like to happen, but darned if I know what actually will (historians make the worst prophets, and all that).
I wasn't expecting this post, after what you said in the last... I'm planning on taking you up on this academic emo game, albeit in a far more jejune form, in a new post soon.
here we go: http://hardcorefornerds.blogspot.com/2008/10/frankfurt-school-vs-culture-industry.html
ReplyDeletewell, it seems as though I have to add Chris Dodd, Hank Paulson and (that revolutionary) Gordon Brown to my list of revered economic minds:
ReplyDeletehttp://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/doing-the-right-thing/
Nationalizing them banks - just like them Britons!