[Peace-discuss] Debt Crisis in West is Just a 'Prelude to War'

[C. G. ESTABROOK]

One might say that the 1929 crash led to the triumph of already-existing Fascism 
in Germany, the largest and most politically significant country in Europe.

After the failure of the Second New Deal in 1937 - the USG had put its hand to 
the plow and looked back - the US elite opted for war, in the sense that they 
saw that it would be the US could be the only undamaged country to emerge from a 
world war, and that war spending would defeat the depression.

For example the WPA (even more needed today), hated by business, was set aside 
by war production.

"In December of 1943, FDR told the press that 'Dr. New Deal' had given way to 
'Dr. Win the War.'  Congress kept cutting back on New Deal programs. During 
1942-43, the Civilian Conservation Corps, Works Progress Administration, 
National Youth Administration, and National Resources Planning Board were axed. 
The Farm Security and Rural Electrification boards were cut back." [J. Wilson]

This was possible becasue of war prosperity & jobs. WWII was a much larger 
stimulus program than the New Deal had ever been.

"From 1939 to 1945, extensive studies were conducted by the Council on Foreign 
Relations and the State Department. One group was called the War-Peace Studies 
Group, which met for six years and produced extensive geopolitical analyses and 
plans. The Council on Foreign Relations is essentially the business input to 
foreign policy plainning. These groups also involved every top planner in the 
State Department, with the exception of the Secretary of State.

"The conception that they developed is what they called 'Grand Area' planning. 
The Grand Area was a region that was to be subordinated to the needs of the 
American economy. As one planner put it, it was to be the region that is 
'strategically necessary for world control.' The geopolitical analysis held that 
the Grand Area had to include at least the Western Hemisphere, the Far East, and 
the former British Empire, which we were then in the process of dismantling and 
taking over ourselves. This is what is called 'anti-imperialism' in American 
scholarship. The Grand Area was also to include western and southern Europe and 
the oil-producing regions of the Middle East; in fact, it was to include 
everything, if that were possible. Detailed plans were laid for particular 
regions of the Grand Area and also for international institutions that were to 
organize and police it, essentially in the interests of this subordination to 
U.S. domestic needs." [Chomsky]

The poets often get there first: the point of the article seems to be 
Shakespeare's Henry IV's advice to his son--

"Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
With foreign quarrels, that action, hence borne out,
May waste the memory of the former days."

--CGE


On 8/19/11 1:19 AM, "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森" wrote:
> It doesnt seem to be correct that the 1929 crash led to fascism, at least not in
> Italy.
>
> Fascism was rising in Italy as an ideology even before WWI.
>
>
> On 08/19/11 6:58, C. G. ESTABROOK wrote:
>> Debt Crisis in West is Just a 'Prelude to War'
>> By K. Selim
>>
>> August 18, 2011 "World Meets" - Western governments appear powerless to
>> confront the current crisis and the looming threat of a depression, with all
>> of the serious consequences that implies. The colossal debt of nations and
>> bleak prospects for growth are creating a panic situation on financial markets
>> around the world. A crash is not a figment of the imagination. The one in 1929
>> paved the way for the rise of fascism and the Second World War.
>>
>> It is futile to expect a paradigm shift from the established order. Since the
>> sub-prime crisis in 2008, there has been much talk of market regulation. The
>> noble ideas that accompanied the latest international joint financial
>> agreement have been quickly abandoned. The leaders of Western states, starting
>> with the president of the United States, have failed to develop a clear and
>> convincing way to discuss economic policy options, let alone take strong
>> measures. Markets are stronger than states. It is they that are ultimately the
>> masters - and they impose their own logic.
>>
>> With the sub-prime crisis in 2008, the markets forced taxpayers to foot the
>> bill. The "banksters"- an-oh-so-eloquent neologism combining banker with
>> gangster - reminds us once again of where the real power lies. Today they
>> continue to demonstrate this by attacking public debt incurred in part to save
>> the day. The big banks were never going to go bankrupt; the states were!
>>
>> Contrary to what one would like to admit, isn't economics more than just a set
>> of mathematical formulas and theories? It is politics. And policy now sits in
>> the hands of people that have no real accountability. The state of the
>> political elite is such that it seems inconceivable that governments could
>> engage in the kind of reorientation of economic policy characterized by the
>> New Deal.
>>
>> What we should fear is that war may become - as history attests - the last
>> recourse of capitalism in crisis. "Common sense" might call for a significant
>> reduction in the U.S. military budget as a path toward effective treatment of
>> America's gigantic debt. But the cynicism of short-term interests is little
>> concerned with common sense. How can an empire in decline impose its views?
>> The U.S. not only shows obvious signs of economic collapse, but also of
>> genuine regression: the American dream no longer exists. The U.S.
>> establishment, Democratic or Republican, is not prepared to cash in its last
>> major comparative advantage - military supremacy.
>>
>> Translated By Mary Kenney - Algeria - Le Quotidien d’Oran - Original Article
>> (French)
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