THESYNDROME.COM » Speculators http://thesyndrome.com News and Politics from a Progressive Perspective Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:58:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 en Free Market Ideology is Far from Finished http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/09/free-market-ideology-far-finished http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/09/free-market-ideology-far-finished#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0000 admin 761 at http://www.naomiklein.org
Whatever the events of this week mean, nobody should believe the overblown claims that the market crisis signals the death of "free market" ideology. Free market ideology has always been a servant to the interests of capital, and its presence ebbs and flows depending on its usefulness to those interests.

During boom times, it's profitable to preach laissez faire, because an absentee government allows speculative bubbles to inflate. When those bubbles burst, the ideology becomes a hindrance, and it goes dormant while big government rides to the rescue. But rest assured: the ideology will come roaring back when the bailouts are done. The massive debts the public is accumulating to bail out the speculators will then become part of a global budget crisis that will be the rationalization for deep cuts to social programs, and for a renewed push to privatize what is left of the public sector. We will also be told that our hopes for a green future are, sadly, too costly.

read more

]]> http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/09/free-market-ideology-far-finished/feed/ Gold rises to $980 as dollar sinks to new lows http://thesyndrome.com/2008/03/13/gold-rises-to-980-as-dollar-sinks-to-new-lows/ http://thesyndrome.com/2008/03/13/gold-rises-to-980-as-dollar-sinks-to-new-lows/#comments Thu, 13 Mar 2008 05:23:19 +0000 admin http://thesyndrome.com/2008/03/13/gold-rises-to-980-as-dollar-sinks-to-new-lows/ http://thesyndrome.com/2008/03/13/gold-rises-to-980-as-dollar-sinks-to-new-lows/feed/