*** OSCAR GARCÍA AGUSTÍN, CHRISTIAN YDESEN: Post-Crisis Perspectives. The Common and its Powers. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, P. O. Box 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2013, 296 pp, €49.95. ISBN 978-3-631-64038-8.
Pensée unique is not fashionable in academia. It is especially unfashionable in this period, in which a multiform crisis which Europe is still subject to is encouraging rebels to come out of the woodwork. This book provides a clear example. The authors met at a symposium thirteen months ago at Aalborg University where experts in political philosophy, jurisprudence, sociology and economics went well beyond the 'very economics-based paradigm' preferred by the political world and its usual advisors to 'manage' the crisis, although the authors say the paradigm is part of the problem. Unlike the servants of the 'neoliberal ideology' who tell us that 'Spain will be the next Germany,' and who cynically say that high unemployment and cheap labour are a competitive advantage, the authors try to discern scenarios that could lead to a solution to the crisis from above, in other words, for the good of the greatest number rather than only for the good of the owners of capital…
It goes without saying that their approach leads them to pillory 'the mantra of austerity measures' (the book's editors are surprised in this connection that so little attention is being paid in the European Union to the mea culpa by the International Monetary Fund…) and to open up to a more radical 'post-workerist' perspectives than those expressed by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt (Declaration), Christian Marazzi (The Violence of Financial Capitalism) and other researchers look at various aspects of 'cognitive capitalism.' Basically, all the authors gathered together in this book criticise the capitalist model in a scientific manner, illustrating its contradictions. Above all, this denunciation gives them the opportunity to point out that there is room for alternative solutions and therefore for new social battles to establish a new world, including on the semantic front. The proposals they set out for getting a positive post-crisis scenario to emerge are based firstly on their conviction that the capitalism that is in the process of collapsing is a corrupted from of capitalism that had turned itself into a 'new system of domination,' by means of 'biocapitalism' and a 'process of financialization' that constitutes a fracture with the real economy. From this there arise 'new subjectivities,' with capitalism having caused changes at the anthropological and social level through 'new methods of alienation and domination.' All is not lost, however, because the authors say that what arises in this connection is the potential for a fight-back and a re-balancing of society in the form of the 'common' lot, in other worlds a new acceptance of a word signalling the existence of a new political project capable of renewing the communist project in the framework of a 'democratic society based on open sharing.'
In the first section of the anthology, the authors, most of whom are connected with the Uninomade group, provide interpretations of the crisis and the changes currently under way - along with future developments that will arise from the current changes. Among others, we could mention a contribution by Maurizzio Lazzarato (Paris I University) entitled 'Debt economy and the indebted man.' After discussing the 'cultural hegemony that the theory of freedom of the market exerts over society,' the philosopher and sociologist argues that the debt payment being demanded of European citizens is a political weapon in the hands of a neoliberal project, which is why he says the repayment should be considered impossible and therefore be opposed. Economist Andrea Fumagalli (Pavia University) says that an 'unconditional basic income' could be an option to be explored, whereas political scientist Sandro Mezzadra (Bologna University) calls on the left to re-invent itself and take a new look at themes like citizenship and the constitution, and Guiseppe Cocco (Rio de Janeiro University) concentrates on 'the constitutive power of the poor.' The second part of the book looks at various ideas developed by Hardt and Negri, and the six essays in this section are just as intellectually stimulating as the previous contributions. The book as a whole will clearly be disturbing to some readers but has the merit of providing food for thought.
Michel Theys
*** MICHEL SANTI: Capitalism without Conscience. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.). Business & Innovation series. 2013, 182 pp, €37-50. ISBN 978-2-87574-072-4.
'Public deficits must cease to be considered with fear by politicians and central banks,' argues Franco-Swiss economist Michel Santi. On the contrary, in times of crisis, he says that lending is the cornerstone of growth and jobs. In this sense, an individual's solvency is fundamentally different from a State's solvency. Yet since the start of the economic crisis, austerity measures have obstinately mushroomed in order to balance budgets. But austerity measures and other reductions in public spending are destined for immediate failure in times when the economy is desperately calling for oxygen, explains the author. So why are our leaders pursuing such policies? It is because the neo-liberals are happy to use 'budgetary fear tactics' that have a crucial impact on the State's economic policy. By causing a budgetary panic at government level and in the money markets, they get the State to rein in public spending destined for services to the citizen. In this way, it is the power of the State itself that would be cut back. The true objective would be to cause 'a complete anorexia of the state, which, like clockwork, shall translate as a bulimia of the private sector, starting with the finance sector.' In order to ensure the existence of a prosperous sovereign state, Michel Santi says our leaders must change tack. It is not deregulation and 'budget rigor' that will get the economy growing again, but regulation, borrowing and a strategic cut in taxes. The book is divided into thirty chapters, which examine in detail and in a reader-friendly manner a series of questions related to the current capitalist model. The first section aims to clarify the usefulness of public debt. The second sees the author examining the crisis, particularly within the European Union. The book ends with a criticism of the neo-liberal logic and the financial sector, along with a reframing of the role of the State as the guarantor of social justice.
(SD)
*** BRUNO COLMANT, JENNIFER NILLE: Dettes publiques. Un piège infernal. Editions Larcier (Groupe De Boeck, 39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5480711 - Fax: 5139009 - Email: commande@deboeckservices.com - Internet: http://www.larciergroup.com ). 2014, 148 pp, €29. ISBN 978-2-8044-6951-1.
A member of the Académie Royale de Belgique, Bruno Colmant, is something a guru in the world of economics and finance. A lecturer in a number of universities, he has joined forces with a young journalist at L'Echo to raise a cry for help in this pamphlet that should make people shudder throughout the European Union, especially in the countries in the eurozone. While happily recognising that economics has more in common with anthropology than with maths, and it's diffcult to turn the 'intuitions' found in this book into 'forecasts,' the authors nevertheless state that the next financial shock will inevitably be brought about by debt in developed countries. They make a statement that sends a shiver down one's spine: We are going to have to pay for forty years of budget blindness and lack of discipline! Worse still, the worst of the crisis hasn't yet to materialise - and it will be huge. The authors say the crisis will make the sheer scale of its cycle and the violence of its social impact felt over the next three years, when the level of excess debt has been internalised in the perception of future well-being. They explain that the events that have rocked Greece, Ireland and Cyprus may be no more than early signs of what is awaiting the European countries that have done the least belt-tightening. We are told it is better to be safe than sorry, so perhaps the leaders of… all European countries could do worse than drop everything and go and get themselves a copy of this little book, in order, for example, to stop celebrating the cult of implacable austerity and belt-tightening which, in the recession-ridden situation that we are living through, is accompanied by serious disturbances of the social order and even of political discontinuity. Does that make this a political pamphlet? Not at all. It is written by authors wearing technicians' hats. Bruno Colmant and Jennifer Nille make the case against public debt, asking first of all what it means and then assessing the frontal shock suffered by the European Union and the area in which a single currency prevails, which is 'no longer common.' After measuring the scale of the 'austerity gulf,' they then look at how 'excess public debt ends up,' taking as their starting point the 'hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic,' before reviewing the case of Argentina, Russia, Ireland, Iceland, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary and Poland and then looking at the option of 'massive debt write-offs. One of the conclusions (along with others of a similar strain) that they are led to is that 'everything could be different if some people were to understand that the worst choice would be to try to absorb public deficits as we are plunging into the deepest economic hole in nearly a century' …
(MT)
*** CONSTANTIN COLMER: La Seisachtheia des prêts et des dépôts. Editions Livanis (98 Solonos, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3661200 - Fax: 3617791 - Email: webmaster@livanis.gr - Internet: http://www.livanis.gr ). 2014, 192 pp, €11-90. ISBN 978-960-14-2787-4.
The Seisachtheia was a law of Solon in Ancient Athens, which gave the State, in the event of a crisis, the right to write off private and public debt. Despite the three 'bailout plans' for Greece implemented by the European Union and the IMF to date, Greek public debt remains high, even totalling €340 billion at the end of 2014. This huge sum means that the Greek public debt is is too high to be lived with because it cannot be serviced by the Greek economy in decline. A serious debt reduction is therefore a pressing need. This solution is in the hands of the IMF and the eighteen governments in the eurozone. Reputed economist and commentator Constantin Colmer explains in the book that in order to reduce the country's public debt, Europe will require the Greek private sector to make another 'sacrifice,' i.e. a cut in private deposits of some 20% to 30%. At the same times, due to the reorganisation of Greece's four 'too-big-to-fail' banks, an equivalent write-off will be required of non-performing loans from investment companies to the banks. The author says that a broad coalition government, or even a government of national unity, cannot prevent the economic collapse of the country and only a non-partisan technocrat government has any chance of success by, for example, deciding to return to the drachma at the end of 2014.
(AKa)
*** GIANNIS SIATRAS: Nos pertes, leurs bénéfices: le pillage de la Grèce. Les résultats d'une politique irresponsable. Editions Eurocapital (2Mnisikleous Str., GR-10556 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3242032 - Fax: 3242802 - Email: eurocapital.gr@gmail.com - Internet: http://www.eurocapital.gr ). 2013, 398 pp, €16.50. ISBN 978-960-7787-05-7.
Everyone thought that the idea behind the 'bailout mechanism' was to save Greece, but the events have proved otherwise. The aim was to save European banks by relieving them of the 'toxic' Greek bonds that they owned. Greece was conned and at the end of the process, has would up bankrupt with enormous debts! How was the 'saving' of European banks dreamed up? Why has the Greek debt remained the same and why is the country at the mercy of its lenders? What did Germany and other countries in Northern Europe gain from all this? In what way are Greek political leaders responsible for this mess? What is the role and responsibilities of the European institutions in this connection? Economist Giannis Siatras answers these questions by looking at events since the outbreak of the crisis, focussing on 'black points' that explain how things have turned out the way they have. He demonstrates that Greece is the victim of the behaviour of its European partners and also of the bad policies implemented by Greek governments in the past. He says that some Greek politicians could even be described as criminals. He says that Europe and the IMF only had the aim of saving European banks and preventing upheaval in the economies of big European nations, irrespective of the damage and devastation this might cause in Greece.
(AKa)
*** GEORGE ARGEITIS: Failliteet crise financière.L'échecet l'effondrement dumodèle grecde capitalisme. Editions Alexandria (133 Solonos, GR-10677 Athens. Tel: (30-210)3806305 - Fax: 3838173 - Email: alexpubl@alexandria-publ.gr). 2012, 189 pp, €15-98. ISBN 978-960-221-572-2.
This book attempts a deconstruction of the strategy that was laid down in order, it was claimed, to give Greece a viable exit from the 'trap of bankruptcy.' Implementing the strategy, however, is pushing the country into a process of structural de-transformation that imposes a laisser-faire, unstable financial capitalism model along with very high unemployment, lower pay and a far lower standard of living for most employees, pensioners and the self-employed. The analysis by Prof. Argeitis of Athens University reveals that an immediate reduction in monetary risk is necessary in order to construct a stable and sustainable financial structure. Greece will clearly only be able to get out of the debt crisis with a realistic economic policy and will not find salvation in abstract and historically inexact models of traditional economic thought.
(AKa)