The crisis Europe at the minute is not just financial,but historical as well as it is the cycle of debt versus credit. And more so the history of money than anything else. In our world today we've seen that the removal of the political control over money has lead to politics staying national,but money control have gone global and almost lawless to some extent.
The Euro crisis should be seen really as the collapse of the money system that our world chose to live by throughout the 20th century. Ever since President Richard Nixon took the US Dollar off the gold standard in 1971, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system of international financial exchange,a new era of floating currencies emerged and money acquiring were invented in 1972.Subquently more and more international cooperation became apparent,the disengagement between the economic structures and political institutions undermined effective solutions to the problems.
The year 2012 is the political consequence of the 2008 financial crisis. Nations especially in Europe tend to still see this current disaster we are going through as an economic crisis rather than a political one. It is there when the neoliberalism detractors steps in with their free market ideologies when they say they oppose it,but really they don't. The Euro is not the only currency that's taking all the heat in this crisis,but it is seen as the final nail in the coffin of our world economy. Therefore is this the end of CAPITALISM as we know it? Its simply not that straightforward as it looks. Why?
It could all just be the end for national capitalism which is as its definition the federation of nation-states and manufactured capitalism the main objective for the national monopoly of the currency or the central bank. It is the institutional attempt to control money,the markets and the accumulation of funds through central bureaucracy within a cultural society of national citerzens.National capitalism was never alone in the world politics of the economy. You had federations,globalizations etc that have been around at least as long as they have been.
National capitalism first reared its head in the 1860's as an alliance between capitalist communities and military landlords. At that time Karl Marx published his first volume of Das Kapital explaining the historical background of capitalism,the economic system characteristic of Western-style representative democracy.
America was still gripped in a civil war at the time,Japan underwent the Meiji restoration(1868-1912),Russia abolished serfdom(a system that irrevocably tied peasants to their landlords)which the Tsar's imperial commanded,the French had their Third Republic which followed the collapse of the Empire of Napoleon III,Britain had its Second Reform Bill/Act in 1867 which widened the franchises to include the middle classes and opened up borough elections to all households,Italy and Germany's unification took place through popular uprisings against foreign powers ruling and a resurgence in post industrial revolution time period kicked on.
Karl Marx wrote that this new capitalism concentrated on ownership as the means of production and distribution in private and corporate hands. He highlighted the fact that capitalism produces a middle class and a working class,which provoke antagonism between the two and leading to the oppression of the latter. By using the works of orthodox economists to back up his views, Marx argued that capitalism is in reality undemocratic, and that socialism is the ultimate in democracy, benefiting the people by promoting human equality and freedom. These new governments started sponsoring large corporations in their drive towards mass productions.
Money became the principal means in which to bridge the gap between everyday personal experiences and a society whose wider reaches are impersonal. The beginning and end of single currencies is one very distinctive way to approach national capitalism’s historical rise. The Great Depression of the 1930's or the collapse of the Victorian free market model is reminiscent of what the Euro is heading for these days. It is these fictious commodities i.e. money,land and labour that is buying and selling society.
Money-world economist tells you more about what money does than what money truly is. Wikipedia says money is "a medium of exchange" or a lubricant of markets as some of you might call it. Money is also said to be "a means of payment" especially our taxes to our government as a purchase of power. It is also "a standard of value unit" in which governments can establish legal conditions for trading. Money is also the new form of property for allowing us to accumulate riches when trouble hits our economy where we live.
Is your currency a storage for wealth? No because it keeps getting depreciated until it finally gets taken out of the system. That is why countries and people are all turning to gold as their biggest asset. Credit defaults in places like Greece,debt obligations,money market funds,hedge funds are all out of control and beyond government regulation. Has the market economy triumph since the collapse of communism in 1989/90 benefited society at large? Not really. Its more like gangsters and mobsters that runs the political,social and law customs when radical privatization took over the Soviet Bloc of nations. The single currency was meant to glue together a political union that is devoid of first developing a fiscally effective institutions.
Should a world society utopia be best left as a fantasy and nothing more. The world we find ourselves in today are controlled by markets and the way markets reacts. Your country's economy is suppose to be set up to secure local guarantees for your communities rights,interest and privileges not those of outsiders. How you merge and manage both sets of forces is tricky. Where is the priority? Do you welcome the re-invention of money to take us beyond the confines of our nationalistic self imposed prison walls? People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
References:
1.www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock.
2.About Japan: A Teacher's Resource | The Meiji Restoration Era ...aboutjapan.japansociety.org/
3.The Emancipation of the Russian Serfs, 1861: A Charter of Freedom.../www.historytoday.com
4.www.bonjourlafrance.com/france-history/french-third-republic.
5.www.intriguing-history.com/britain's-second-reform-bill.
6.Italian and German Unification/www.slideshare.net/jmclark/italian-and-german-unification.
7.www.guardian.co.uk › Business › Eurozone crisis.
8.Economic Crisis « The End of Capitalism.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
