As the FT noted in an article this weekend:
If you thought American socialism was all Marxist reading groups and picket lines, think again. These days, it is just as likely to be softball leagues, crafting clubs and “cocktails with comrades”.
These are the inducements the Democratic Socialists of America are offering curious Gen Zers looking for a new political home. They seem to be working.
They headlined their article:
‘Capitalism's not working': why Democrats are turning to socialism
That message is clear. Another weekend article in the FT echoed it. This time, the headline was:
The face of America's socialist insurgency: The Democratic congressional candidate's improbable rise has spooked the party establishment
Anyone might think that the FT is feeling a little worried. So it should be. It is one of the most prominent faces of the neoliberal capital movement, which is so very obviously failing that even in the USA people are now openly rejecting it because it is so clearly failing to meet people's needs.
The deeply contented edifice that is the Financial Times, populated by teams of people who have done particularly well from maintaining the status quo of the last 45 years, does need to feel that it is under threat, because the reality is that the winds of change are blowing, and they are heading its way.
Will articles like this save the neoliberal edifice that the FT supports from collapse? I very much doubt it, at least not without a radical reawakening on its part.
That said, I am not pretending that neoliberal capitalism is going to fall over by a week next Tuesday. That would be unrealistic. But that it might sometime soon is clearly possible.
As I suggested in my discussion on Andy Burnham yesterday, the chance of a major financial recession in the next three years is very high indeed. There is an ongoing war that is going to cause energy and food shortages. This autumn's El Niño is likely to reinforce the impact on food, as will this summer's droughts. And, as even the FT notes, the likelihood that there will be an AI crash is very high indeed.
I cannot rule out entirely the chance that this time stock market fortunes in the face of what looks like an overhyped peak will be different, but there are very few reasonable commentators, from Andrew Bailey at the Bank of England onwards, who think otherwise. The troubling fact is that so big is the hype this time, and so far does it reach through the shadow banking system, which is much larger than it was in 2008 precisely because it has sought to avoid the regulation that the crash in that year brought in, that the fall could be at least as dramatic, if not worse, than what happened then.
If the FT does not change its tune soon, it will find itself singing from a hymn sheet designed for a wedding when it will be at the funeral of the failed economic system that it has so heavily promoted.
So, the question is, will the FT notice in advance, or will it, safe and secure as it feels itself to be at present, stay as it is until the tsunami of change that such a collapse might bring this time sweeps over it? To that question I have no answer except what historical precedent suggests, which is that those comfortable with their situation rarely, if ever, anticipate the change that will sweep their security away.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
The AI investment surge and subsequent crash may hasten a recession, or if the AI project does go ahead “successfully” cause massive unemployment and recession.
The FT & its writers need to be seen as a religious institution. Members of the institution are selected on the basis of their adherence to a particular doctrine (neo-liberalism and markets). Events that demonstrate that the doctrine are wrong are re-interpreted & cited as proof that e.g. doctrines are not applied sufficiently. For example, we need better regulation for water companies, or elec companies etc & light touch regulation of wealth creators in the finance sector. The actions called can be thought of as acts of faith.
The mistake it to attempt to engage with any religious fanatics in a rationale fashion, be they the neo-libtards or mormons. It is a waste of time, they are not open to reason. Which leads to the next question: what to do? A good 1st step: eject any & all politicos (via the poll booth) that are incapable of understanding the fantasies forced on the electorate. & don’t get dragged into detail (fanatics love detail).
I was doing a talk for the Western Front Association and, in the research, looked up one the jingoistic public speakers. Horatio Bottomley. It seems he spent five years in an orphanage before becoming a solicitors’ clerk and later went into publishing. He co-founded the Financial Times. He was often involved in dodgy deals but became an MP, though he went bankrupt and was discharged from Parliament.
He also founded John Bull ( which I vaguely recall from my youth -but I was 80 on Sunday ) a jingoistic magazine, lots of pictures and concise text. He was able to return to parliament but set up a fraudulent Victory Bonds scheme for which he was sent to prison. He died in poverty.
The uncharitable might see some historical continuity there.
It sounds like history is repeating itself.
I understand that in the inter war period there were Labour cycling clubs, walking groups, book clubs etc all pushing the message that led to the 1945 election result.
Lets hope it can be done again both in the US & the UK
Kathleen Tyson yesterday:
“Bank of Japan’s Yuto: “How convenient it would be if they could delay the collapse of the current economic order until it coincides with a global crisis. AI. Quantum. Energy shock. Pick one. Our ‘allies’ are already hunting for the perfect scapegoat.” ALLIES. The G7 debt pyramid is collapsing but they have yet to agree the ‘none cudda knowed’ narrative.”
🙂
I see some truth in all that
But the debt pyramid is not collapsing
They just do not understand it.
The rhetoric that will be used to try to defend neoliberalism is now being used by Trump and rehearsed elsewhere by the right-wing who benefit from the present system. You hear it every day. Moderates described as liberals and radicals, liberals described as socialists, socialists branded as communists or Marxists. None of these ‘accusations’ are accurate. Nobody, as far as I know wishes to see capitalism vanquished. We just want a much, much fairer redistribution of wealth, delivered by a mixed economy that existed before Thatcher changed it.
Incidentally, the last three posts I’ve attempted by phone have all failed. I’m doing this on my laptop.
When I’ve pressed the submit comment button, it just takes me back to the topic heading. I receive an email acknowledgement, but my comment doesn’t appear.
I might have been blocked (accidently I hope).
The issue has now been cleared. Some erroneous code was added to the system.
I was to blame, albeit entirely innocently. Sorry!
Agreed that the US population is starting to wake up to the reality of neoliberalism economics and politics.
But note it’s Democratic Socialists of America that are offering hope not the main Democratic Party.
The main Democratic Party is the same as the Republicans, supports neoliberalism and is in bed with the tech bros. They are taking lessons from the Labour right wing and Labour Together to smear left wing Democrats as anti semitic because of their criticism of Israel.
There is a hard core of the main Democratic party politicians that are strongly in favour of the war against Iran.
Agreed the Democratic Socialists offer a glimmer of change but just as with Corbyn in the UK, the US mainstream media can be expected to depict the socialists as commie enemies of ordinary Americans.
All noted.
As my news feeds make very clear.
As does the New York Times, which is also very frightened.
You appear to have forgotten the Green Party which is a much more credible force in US politics than the Democratic Socialists, having actually had considerable success in getting its candidates onto ballot papers. This is actually an extraordinarily difficult thing to do! And a necessary precondition to meaningful participation in US politics.
The answer to the question is yes. Though the DSA doesn’t have a clear party platform. It doesn’t have a party leader. It has a board of directors who are called the NPC. And if you go their website they provide a diagram that shows the role of this leadership without ever explaining how any decision is made or who has made it. It is not exactly clear to me how it is at all different to the UK labour party NEC and their politicians who call themselves socialist only for optics, such as Tony Blair.
did anyone catch Yanis’s debate with Gillian Tett over capitalism’s ability to reform itself. nice bit where Yanis calls Gillian utopian to which Gillian is knocked off her feet at being called the very thing that the mainstream most like to call those who don’t pray at their alter. so, when the neoliberal model is no longer capable of being revived, no matter how many steroids are pumped into it, it will be interesting how the egos of the never had it so good’s try to defernd themselves.
I was very pleased to see a piece in their rag recently that attempted to discredit the degrowth movement. They see the threat is real and it scares them. Hilarious.
Of course their piece was complete nonsense. Timothée Parrique did a fine job deconstructing their feeble arguments:
https://timotheeparrique.com/a-response-to-the-financial-times-the-shrinking-arguments-against-degrowth/