Surviving Capitalism (Not) : What is behind the S & P downgrades? [re Europe]

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, January 20, 2012

What is behind the S & P downgrades? [re Europe]

Click here to access an approximately 20 minute interview with Michael Hudson on KPFA, Los Angeles.

For background on his remarks, he uses his article (translated into English) entitled, "Europe's Transition From Social Democracy to Oligarchy", published in December in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the newspaper in Germany with the largest circulation.

He essentially argues that the governing classes in Europe are using the parties that historically have been associated with the left and labor to ram through the neo-liberal policies of the right. This, of course, is the situation here in the US where the Obama administration has been used likewise. One has to marvel at the ingenuity of capitalist political operatives.