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it's funny reading the posts from folk who imagine that the us economy is in any way self-contained---not even small businesses have supply chains that are limited to the borders of the united states--the clothes you wear, the computer you look at to read this, the materials from which the telecommunications system is made, the television that you watch--depending on where and how you shop for food, what you eat---all flows through networks that mis stuff made in the state and stuff made elsewhere. at the level of consumption, you haven't even started to catch up with capitalism if you still think in quaint categories like nations or states---if you think about production, when you do, that system is just as spread out, just as mixed, with a different scaling effect at play--capital flows are almost all transnational.
one of the main features of "globalizing capitalism" has been the dumping of stuff like american agricultural overproduction (corn no. 2 and powdered milk and such) onto the outside world...it goes on and on, this kind of list.
that you do not consider spaces beyond the united states is a function of an imperial narcissism---colonial powers can pretend they're autonomous, not because they are, but because the organization of the system/orders they preside over enables them to act as though this was the case.
it's likely those days are ending.
welcome to the world.
it's also pretty obvious that this crisis in capital-land is transnational and that no single nation-state is in a position to manage effectively the consequences of large-scale dysfunctions, not to mention system crises. chances are that this will become more and more obvious in the coming months. enjoy it.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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