videresender dagens Z-Neta Commentary.
Hilsen Knut Rognes
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Here then is today's ZNet Commentary...
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"A farewell to Oskar"
By Noam Chomsky
On March 11, Oskar Lafontaine resigned his position as German Finance
Minister and chair of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). His resignation
elicited "euphoria" in "jubilant" financial markets, editorial offices, and
news rooms.[1]
Bidding him its editorial farewell, the London Financial Times heralded the
"angry revolt" that had "unquestionably changed...the relationship between
government and business" in Europe's major economy.[2] The background is the
electoral victory of the SPD-Green coalition in the last elections.
Lafontaine led the SPD and was the link to the Greens. Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder replaces Lafontaine as chair of the SPD, though he "has never been
as warmly embraced by the party rank-and-file as Mr Lafontaine," not to
speak of the Greens. The "angry revolt" was not by the public, but by "the
European Central Bank and German businesses threatening to relocate
abroad."[3]
The Central Bank has been granted extraordinary independence and authority
in the European Union, a "sinister" threat to democracy, the lead article in
the journal of the Council of Foreign Relations warns, noting accurately
that the goal is to "reassure financial and business elites that...Europe's
economic policy will be appropriately insulated from the demands of labor
and other domestic interest groups."[4] And as is well understood, the
threat to relocate is also a powerful weapon against democracy and human
rights -- specifically, against the socioeconomic rights guaranteed by the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but derided as a "letter to Santa
Claus" and "preposterous" by the leaders of the relativist challenge to the
UD, in Washington.[5]
The world's leading business daily is right about the significance of this
dramatic change in "the relationship between government and business" --
that is, the relationship between the institutional framework that suffers
from the fatal flaw of susceptibility to public influence, at least in
principle and sometimes in fact, and unaccountable private power, much safer
hands.
Lafontaine was an "unreconstructed Keynesian," the FT observes, an
"old-style taxer and spender" -- not a "new-style" borrower and spender of
the preferred Reaganite variety. And his priorities for taxing and spending
were completely intolerable to "financial and business elites." His crime,
the editors explain, was the goal of "redistributing large sums from the
corporate to the personal sector." His tax legislation "closes many
loopholes enjoyed by industry without compensating cuts in the main rates"
for corporations, which "protested fiercely" against this outrage. The more
"business friendly" Chancellor Schroeder was planning a sharp cut in
corporate taxes, but "it was unclear whether Mr Lafontaine would agree [to]
such a move -- at least without raising funds from elsewhere." Lafontaine's
policies were "business-hostile" in other ways as well, benefiting small and
medium-sized family businesses. He also "incensed industry with his
`socially just' changes pitched largely at workers and families," leading to
the threat by "several of Germany's largest companies...to transfer
activities overseas" where they are protected from "`socially just'
changes." Lafontaine's initiatives "had caused Germany to lose its good
reputation abroad," according to the president of the German industry
association, who wasted no time identifying the circles that define "good
reputation." But with his resignation under the transfer threat, "Mr
Lafontaine's orthodox macroenomic ideas have died once and for all," the
industry association president declared.[6]
"US economic policymakers are unlikely to mourn the loss of Oskar Lafontaine
from the international monetary landscape," the FT reports further, even
though they agreed with many of his initiatives, including his efforts to
induce "the European Central Bank to cut interest rates to get the European
economy moving." But "Lafontaine's approach looked to Americans like a
throwback to the inflexible, statist, welfare-dominated European past,"
which deviates from the modern, up-to-date US approach of enriching a tiny
sector of the population while the typical family puts in 15 more weeks of
work a year than 20 years ago while their incomes have stagnated or
declined, average wage for non-supervisory workers is 14% below 1973, and
even the second decile lost net worth (assets minus debt) during the anemic
current recovery, which breaks new records in that the majority has just now
barely recovered the level of the last business cycle peak of 1989.[7]
US policymakers had hoped that the SPD might be a "useful and constructive
partner in the moderate centre-left politics of which US President Bill
Clinton has been such an enthusiastic champion," but they were disappointed
when he showed his true colors as an "unreconstructed Keynesian" advocating
"orthodox macroeconomic ideas." Clinton's "moderate center-left policies"
have not lacked praise. Clinton was "likened to Martin Luther King Jr. and
generally celebrated at a Wall Street conference" in mid-January 1999, where
the president of the New York Stock Exchange "told Mr. Clinton that Dr. King
was surely smiling down on the gathering" at the annual King memorial,
recognizing how Clinton had benefited "my little corner of southern
Manhattan."[8]
Other little corners may have fared somewhat differently, but "business and
financial elites" and their advocates have only contempt for such
"old-style" sentimentality.
The "euphoria" and "jubilation" elicited by the victory of private power was
not confined to markets, or editorials. As is often the case on matters of
real importance, the news pages of the elite press joined the "thunderous
approval" of the business and financial elites, abandoning even a pretense
of objectivity, and staking out a position well to the right of the Clinton
Administration. In the New York Times, correspondent Edmund Andrews depicted
the orthodox Keynesian as "one of Europe's most combative and ideological
leaders," who sought to move Germany "toward a sharply left-wing direction
that frequently clashed with Mr. Schroeder's more pragmatic and pro-business
instincts." He is "an outspoken and ideological passionate left-wing
traditionalist who had enraged central bankers with blustery demands for
lower interest rates" (as advocated by Washington, the news report failed to
mention in its "pragmatic pro-business moderate" exuberance).
The ideological fanatic Lafontaine was adding "extra taxes on corporations
while giving a slew of new breaks to lower- and middle-income families."
With his resignation, "the leftists were clearly on the run and the
pragmatists were on the rise," a wonderful victory for "pro-business
modernizers" over "left-wing traditionalists." "A major barrier to corporate
profits has left today," an economist at Warburg Dillon Read exulted, along
with the news columns, which were as "happy" as the "co-publisher of the
liberal weekly Die Zeit" who understood that Lafontaine was "far too
ideological, far too left-wing, and too removed from the economic realities
of the country."[9]
Andrews recognized that the "more pragmatic and pro-business" Schroeder now
faced a problem: "in Germany, politics is based on political parties." "The
nature of power in Germany requires control of the major political parties,
and it was the much more left-wing Mr. Lafontaine who could muster
discipline on that level" -- Times-speak for the observation of the
Financial Times that Lafontaine is "warmly embraced by the [SPD]
rank-and-file," unlike Schroeder, and is of course far more popular among
the coalition partner of the SPD, the Greens. The Greens have "capitulated
on all of their top priorities," Andrews reports, but it is unclear today
whether they "would be willing to concede even more to industrial
interests." The problem is the usual one: too much democracy -- though
Andrews comforts the reader with the thought that Lafontaine "could never
match Mr. Schroeder's popularity with voters."[10]
Further good news for the "pro-business moderates" and "pragmatists" is that
the "blustery, bumptious political boss" Lafontaine is being replaced by
Hans Eichel, who is particularly attractive because of his "experience in
working with conservative bankers." Joining in the euphoria, the Washington
Post news columns hail Eichel as "the business-friendly governor of Hesse,
Germany's richest state." Germany can now face the "tough choices" that
Margaret Thatcher made for Britain, with the "painful free-market
restructuring" that made possible "the market-oriented pragmatism" of Tony
Blair. Germany too will be able to "prune an elaborate social welfare state"
and enact "pro-business proposals," ridding itself of the "traditional
socialist base" of the SPD, which was concerned with workers, families, and
small business, and handing power over to "more pragmatic moderates." Then
Germany may be become the kind of paradise enjoyed by the majority of the
population of England and the United States under "free-market
restructuring" -- which does resemble "free-markets" in Britain somewhat
more than here, consistent with the usual relation between markets and
power.[11]
Andrews recognizes another potential problem: Eichel has a dubious past. "He
campaigned against nuclear proliferation and for environmental causes." But
"his politics have moderated since then." He is now "generally considered a
business ally," so perhaps the immoderation of his youth will not interfere
too much with the stunning defeat of democracy and human rights.[12]
The events are significant, the interpretation of them as well. The lessons
for the general population of the richer countries are clear enough, for
those less fortunate still more so.
--- [1] Edmund Andrews, "German Finance Aide Quits: European Markets Jubilant," _NYT_, March 12; Andrews, "German Stock Market Soars As Leftist Fiscal Chief Quits," _NYT_ March 13, 1999. [2] Editorial, "A farewell to Oskar," _FT_, March 13. [3] Ralph Atkins, "Clash of Thunder Gods leads to opportunity to start afresh," _FT_, March 13/14. [4] Sheri Berman and Kathleen McNamara, "On Central Banks and Democracy," _Foreign Affairs_, March/April 1999. [5] UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick; Ambassador Morris Abram, explaining the US veto of the Right to Development, which closely paraphrased the UD. See my article "The United States and the challenge of relativity" (in Tony Evans, ed., _Human Rights Fifty Years On, U. of Manchester, 1998), reprinted as _The Umbrella of U.S. Power," _Open Media Pamphlet Series_ (Seven Stories, 1999). [6] Editorial, _FT_, _op.cit_; Ralph Atkins, _FT_, March 15; Atkins and Frederick Stuedemann, _FT_ March 13/14; Uta Harnischfeger, _FT_, March 13/14. [7] Gerald Baker, "US policymakers relieved at departure," _FT_, March 15. Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, John Schmitt, _The State of Working America 1998-99_ (Cornell, 1999); Robert Pollin and Stephanie Luce, _The Living Wage_ (New Press, 1998); Edward Wolff's research, cited by Aaron Bernstein, _Business Week_, Sept. 14, 1998. [8] Baker, _op. cit._. James Bennet, "At a Conference on Wall Street Diversity, the President Finds His Own Stock Soaring," _NYT_, Jan. 16, 1999. [9] Andrews, _NYT_, March 12, 13, 15. [10] _Ibid._ [11] Andrews, "From Wealthy Hesse, an Ally of Business," _NYT_, March 13; William Drozdiak, _WP_, March 13. [12] Andrews, "From Wealthy Hesse." _ *************************Slutt**********************