by Michael Hudson from Financial Times (registration required, but free).
Of course, there are many other options, but this is probably the only other one available to the reigning capitalist system. Hudson gives the ruling classes more credit for intelligence than I would give them.
I think that FD Roosevelt was a lucky exception for the ruling class back in the 1930s. Having come from old, inherited capitalist wealth, he had a more calm regard for the 30s economic crisis. He knew that the system was under severe threats from working people who were beginning to see the flaws in the capitalist system and were looking at other arrangements. Also he needed their cooperation to fight the rival German capitalists who were competing for world hegemony with Anglo-Americans. He wisely pursued policies that offered some minor concessions to working people--enough to take the pressure off for real change.
Nevertheless, his reforms were too much for most members of his class. They did everything to undermine his programs, and some among them even planned for FDR's removal from office by assassination if necessary. After WWII was won, they were poised and ready to cutback all of his programs and progressive ideas and to stifle dissent (McCarthy period).
This time I think things are going to be very different. I see unrelenting war against working people. Capitalism has gone global and the US enjoys no special privileges in this global system. Thus, policies of "structural adjustment" are being inflicted upon Americans just like they have been used, and are being used, on many other countries. True, the US is the enforcer of this Empire, but anti-working class policies just means that working people in the US will find few opportunities other than in the armed forces of the Empire.
