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the problem that will outlines is the basic one, i think, and it's interesting that it is such a problem to work out what the core issues that explain the present economic debacle really are. i've been putting up threads over the past couple months about the economic situation mostly as a way to track the versions that are coming up in the daily-to-monthly press that i know about (which is obviously particular, like what anyone knows about) as a way of tracking the various debates that are happening about what to do.
the oecd report is kinda interesting, but the narrative is less long-term than the data is. everyone's busy in 3-d and i am too--but it's worth the trouble to look at the graphics and try to figure out what you think of them.
what distinguishes most mainstream american accounts from what i've been putting up is time-frame: the american press typically act all surprised that this could possibly have happened and this is in a circular relation with it's short-term timeframe--longer term views show that this is function of quite deep features of contemporary capitalism. the difference between these general views is reflected in the nature of the remedies being talked about or implemented and how they're being implemented. on this, the mainstream us press does no-one any service by simplifying things and presenting them along with simple-minded solutions.
it's also interesting to look at the convergences and divergences in responses--the oecd report shows this is a few neat little charts. the disagreements amongst the political class within the global capitalist order are evident from this.
one of the strongest claims from the oecd report is that this is a synchronized global economic crisis, characterized by more than just the collapse of derivatives and behind that of real estate values, but also by inventory overloads, demand collapse, massive and rising unemployment, deflation...and it is unlike anything that's happened since world war 2.
i sometimes think that putting this stuff up is just a way of coping with frustration. if i can figure out sitting in a chair with the material at my disposal that most of the debates in the united states about what's happening and what should be done are bullshit, it seems reasonable to expect that people with serious information and staffs to work with it would figure it out as well. not that this resolves the problem--rather it opens onto another one: what the hell *is* happening?
it's a conversation worth having, even multiple times as the premises keep changing as data changes and different connections get made.
but i think we're driving at speed toward a wall.
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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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