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Après Moi, le Déluge!
The Guardian reports, French strikes over Sarkozy's pension reform bill roll into second day:
French
unions extended a rail strike into a second day and blockaded oil
refineries in protest at pension reforms today, but there were signs
the stoppages could be losing steam as broad participation wavered.
With
the pensions bill due to be approved within days by the senate,
President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government stood firm on its
flagship reform, despite a national strike yesterday that brought more
than a million marchers on to the streets.
Union leaders said
local meetings throughout France had voted almost unanimously in favour
of extending the stoppage in the state railway sector, the bedrock of
the protests. But they acknowledged turnout had fallen.Strong
support for an extended strike would raise the pressure on Sarkozy,
whose government would be significantly weakened by a climb-down ahead
of elections in early 2012.
"The stoppage has been extended until
at least Thursday, which will be a decisive day for its continuation,"
said Bruno Duchemin, the secretary general of the FGAAC-CFDT
railworkers' union.
France's state-run SNCF railways said only
about a quarter of its workers had walked out today, down from 40%
yesterday, with two-thirds of high-speed trains and more than half of
regional trains running normally. Some 135 schools were affected today,
compared with 357 yesterday, the education ministry said.
In the
energy sector, workers halted the transport of fuel from eight of
France's 12 refineries and blockaded a handful of the country's 160
fuel depots, raising the spectre of petrol shortages. With unions at
five refineries starting to shut down production and France's biggest
oil port at Marseille hit by a two-week-old strike, the oil sector
lobby UFIP has said localised fuel shortages could hit petrol stations
by the middle of next week.
The
government, which says 1.23 million marchers took to the streets
yesterday compared with union estimates of 3.5 million, said it would
press ahead with a reform its says is needed to restore state finances
to health and retain France's AAA credit rating.
"I'm not denying
there were a lot of people in the streets but at the same time what
can we do? Not reform the pension system?" the labour minister, Eric
Woerth, told RTL radio, saying only minor amendments were possible
before senate approval.
Sarkozy's
government says the reform is essential to balance a pension system
which would otherwise bleed €45bn (£39.6bn) a year by 2020. The
legislation raises the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, and raises
the age at which workers become eligible for full pension from 65 to
67. Opposition and government senators said they hoped to end
discussion of the bill soon, possibly before the weekend.
Unions,
which overturned a 1995 attempt to reform the system with 24 days of
strikes, said protests would continue regardless of whether the bill
passed in the senate.
Analysts said
the main risk to Sarkozy was if protests spread to university students
and those angry at his broader agenda. In an attempt to defuse tension,
his UMP party said yesterday that it would review an unpopular tax
ceiling for the rich.
"There is an increasing probability the
government will seek deeper negotiations over the proposed reforms to
counter the increasing protests," said Barclays analyst Laurence Boone.
The
French and Greeks aren't shy about protesting against pension and
economic reforms. You got to admire their tenacity as they exercise
their democratic rights. Unlike the electronically lobotomized
population of North America, they still believe in fighting for social
justice.
Unfortunately, it's a lost cause. As I watch the Foreclosure-Gate scandal
play out, I'm starting to believe that this "epic" financial crisis was
in the making for years and will be used as an excuse to ram through
sweeping social and economic reforms. Meanwhile, Bubble Ben keeps the
printing press going, and the financial elite are reaping huge rewards:
Just
two years after the global financial crisis that threatened to destroy
the banking industry, Wall Street bonuses have hit a record high. According to The Wall Street Journal, employees at America's biggest banks are set to reward themselves with $144 billion in compensation and benefits this year — a 4 percent increase over last year's record haul. The
hefty bonuses come as many industries continue to struggle in the face
of difficult economic conditions and the jobless rate holds steady at
9.6 percent. Has Wall Street overstepped yet again? (Watch an MSNBC discussion about the record bonuses)
All this makes me wonder, is the end near? My good friend, Jonathan Nitzan, and his collaborator, Shimshon Bichler, will be presenting later this month at a conference on "Crisis of Capital, Crisis of Theory," Organized by the Forum on Capital as Power:
Is
capitalism about to collapse? Like every other mode of power,
capitalism rests on confidence in obedience: the confidence of the
rulers in the obedience of the ruled. Emperors are sure of their rule
over obedient subjects and slaves; lords are certain they can rule
their obedient vassals and serfs; and capitalists trust the obedience
of their underlying masses. The confidence of rulers is mediated
through their dominant dogma: when the dogma holds, the rulers are
hubristic, steadfast and ruthless; when the dogma disintegrates, the
rulers, gripped by systemic fear, become hesitant and lose their
ability to rule.
Systemic fear often culminates
in systemic collapse. The downfall of the last Babylonian emperor,
Belshazzar, the collapse of Easter Island, the French Revolution
against the ancien régime, the fall of Soviet Union and many more such
episodes were all preceded by systemic fear: for whatever reason, the
rulers lost faith in their dogma and confidence in their subjects’
obedience. But their systemic fear remained elusive: we know of it only
anecdotally, subjectively, and always retrospectively – after their
mode of power lies in ruins.
Modern finance
has made systemic fear transparent. For the first time in history, we
have an objective, numerical measure of the rulers’ confidence in
obedience – and this measure is available not in retrospect, but here
and now. The indicator in question is forward-looking capitalization:
the financial ritual with which capitalists discount to present value
their expected future profit. This ritual stands at the heart of the
modern capitalist dogma, and it is currently broken: for the past
decade, capitalists have been looking not forward to the future, but
backward to the past. In other words, capitalists no longer trust their
own dogma: they are no longer confident in the obedience of the ruled
or in their own ability to rule.
I invite my readers to download Jonathan and Shimshon's paper, Systemic Fear, Modern Finance, and the Future of Capitalism.
Before you dismiss it as neo-Marxist rhetoric, I warn you, Jonathan was
an Associate Editor of the BCA Emerging Markets team, and he's
extremely familiar with the frivolity of modern day portfolio theory and
the deficiencies of neoclassical economic theory which dominate our
classrooms. He's one of the smartest guys I ever met, and I just love
listening to him and Tom Naylor get into it at our Men's Club meeting
every quarter (last time I wrote about this "prestigious club" was when Bilderberg was plotting to sink the global economy).
I keep things simple. The power elite have every intention to keep Casino Capitalism going for as long as they possibly can. It's in their best interest to do so. That's why all of Wall Street is playing the 'Bernanke put'
taking on as much risk as possible to reap even more bonuses than the
previous year, prompting David Weidner of MarketWatch to rightly
observe, the death of pay for performance:
Clawbacks,
deferred compensation — they sounded like good ideas at the time. But
regulators, at the urging of the industry, shunned any long-term of the
review of Wall Street pay structure.
“Trust us,” Wall Street said.
And what has it brought? A new study of 2010 compensation by The Wall
Street Journal found that the industry will pay out a record $144
billion this year. The compensation represents a 4% increase from 2009.
It also slightly outpaces a 3% revenue increase at the big brokerages —
most earned in the early part of the year. See WSJ report on Wall Street pay.
The
numbers starkly contrast the reality for most Americans. Those lucky
enough to have work are seeing little, if any, rise in wages. The pay
figures also sharply underscore how reform, bailouts and aftermath of
the financial crisis failed to influence pay.
In the most heated days of the financial crisis, some banks moved forward. Morgan Stanley adopted
reforms that put more emphasis on deferred pay. Some banks in Europe
adopted clawback provisions or built bonus pools invested in toxic
securities.
But most Wall Street banks only
accepted pay rules forced upon them through the Troubled Asset Relief
Program, and even those rules were only targeted toward those which
received exceptional aid: American International Group Inc. , Bank of America Corp. , Citigroup Inc., General Motors and Chrysler.
How onerous was pay czar Kenneth Feinberg? Well, no one’s missed a meal.
That said, pay does seem to be changing in the financial world. Up
until the crisis, those who took inordinate risks resulting in
short-term profits took heaps of money home despite the long-term
consequences of their bets.
Today, it appears pay goes up whether or not those bets create any value at all.
The
distributional effects of this financial crisis are rarely discussed.
Americans got a glimpse into the ultra secret world of
high-frequency trading on 60 Minutes this past Sunday, but that's only the tip of the iceberg.
The shadow banking business has not dried up. Pensions, in their insatiable quest for "alpha",
are still pumping billions into hedge funds and private equity funds.
And the Fed and other central bankers are pumping trillions into the
financial system.
And what's the end game?
Who knows? It's in every financial player's interest to keep this sucker
going for as long as possible. New bubbles in commodities
and other sectors are forming at this very moment. And political and
financial leaders like Sarkozy and Bernanke must be thinking, "Après moi, le déluge".
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"Like every other mode of power, capitalism rests on confidence in obedience: the confidence of the rulers in the obedience of the ruled."
Where did this definition of capitalism come from? This sounds like the 'tribal' thinking that permeiates the european 'intellectual' worldview about society.
What if the definition of capitalism is "a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights in which property is privately owned".
These guys are pin-heads.
They are not pin heads. They are intellegent propagandists. While the real capitalists are working to stay ahead of the competition, this bunch is sitting around and babbleing wonderful sounding nonsense. It is almost as if they planned a Presidential run.
Capitalism relies upon the fellow who once worked for you to develop his better idea and put you out of business. Is that obedience?
Ducky, your rote quacks me up. You're like a PEZ dispenser tonguing out little sugary lozenges of pre-packaged conditioning. You and yours' days are numbered, one way or another, that I can guarantee you.
Sounds like we have a "Son of Mako" on our hands here.
"The End is Nigh!"
"Abandon Hope, all Ye who Remain Here!"
Heh, bite your tongue sir! You misunderstood.
I was merely trying to point out that those who cling like dingleberries to the ass hairs of the misnomed 'capitalist' rote shoved down their necks by their plutocrats , thinking that such loyalty will grant them entry into the country club of the gang on fortune hill, are in for an unpleasant shock at the hands of their manipulators, or at least a spanking by those actually resisting.
Tyrants and regents aren't the only ones that get ear-marked for the guillotines, their fawning, obsequious lackeys often 'make the cut' too.
There's a critical component of "capitalism" (at least as understood in the modern sense) that often seems neglected in discussions here:
Capitalism requires the ability to completely separate owners from stake-holders.
That's where the wee bit of trouble starts to come in. And the mechanics which permit that separation do really depend on obedience and some minimal level of public confidence in institutional justice.
When that minimal level of confidence is lost, capitalism is soon to follow. There just aren't enough guns for the shareholders to keep the wage-slaves working.
Thank you. I was about to post a similar sentiment.
The contents of the article, no matter how hard it tries to link current events with capitalism, does not analyze the state of capitalism.
Leo, I've hardly ever had a harsh word for your articles, but this one is pure bunk.
What the French have, and what we have, are not capitalistic arrangements.
The deaths of these systems might actually allow real capitalism to flourish.
Rocky,
I agree with you, that this isn't capitalism, but corporate welfarism. But that's the innate problem with the system -- as power becomes ever more concentrated in the hands of few, they dominate the economic and political landscape, leading to serious abuses. Buffett is right about one thing: make the CEOs feel the pain of their dumb decisions. And Soros was absolutely right about alignment of interests. He knows that the invesment bankers are full of it, wanting to get compensated like hedge fund kings while they have no skin in the game.
You imply that this situation is somehow different from the hundreds of others in various locations around the world. Same shit, different day, and place.
Given the stakes of the situation we are in, getting caught up in semantics seems profoundly counter-productive to me.
Whatever words are used to describe it, it is the reality that we must focus upon and change, RR.
I didn't start it -- Leo did!
Rocky, you took the thoughts right out of my brain!
"Collapse of Capitalism", my ass! That is, if one wishes to equate "capitalism" with "free enterprise", although it can be argued that the former rapidly is diverging from the latter. In any case, our current state-directed crypto-fascism can hardly be compared to capitalism under ANY definition of the latter.
And as for you and your neo-Marxist leanings, Leo: Apres vous, la Paix (et la Verite).
"That is, if one wishes to equate capitalism with free enterprise"
With Neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus, yes.
Anyway, Leo, have you read David Harvey's recent (great) book The Enigma of Capital? (Available here: http://www.amazon.com/Enigma-Capital-Crises-Capitalism/dp/0199758719 , a review http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-enigma... )
He also analyzes capitalism through capital flows in today's economy.. Found it a very rewarding read, but even if you don't like Marxist analysis his description of what's going on in the first chapter is interesting enough to buy the whole book for.
Thanks, I will read it.
Rocky, you seem like a reasonable human bei....er procyon.
Three words:
Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Now I know it's a stretch for a dyed in the wool capitalismo to believe that such a thing can be managed publicly with any skill, but bear with me here: it can if it is subject to diligent civil scrutiny and oversight.
Have a look at how Norway does it, and try to keep that mind of yours open.
Extreme, pure, fundamentalist systems of any ideology constantly fail in the face of reality: someone always finds a loophole to abuse, and then everybody else says, "Hey, I'd like some too." Then it degenerates to the "I'm all right so fuck all the rest" religion so prevalent in the US these days.
Mixed economies with social democracies work best for the most. The Northern Europeans know it. Honestly, taking a five minute look won't hurt. You may be surprised.
There's a tiny flaw in your plan! You mean to use something like the SEC, FDIC, FSOC, GAO, CFTC (or any one of a dozen others) to provide "diligent scrutiny and oversight"?
How many times does an approach need to fail before you will try something sensible?
Norway is hardly a 'failed state'
"How many times..."
Right back atcha.
SWFs, you mean like the ones that a lot of countries have, but not the U. S. other than a few in various States?
http://www.swfinstitute.org/what-is-a-swf/
The root of the unrest in the article shows what happens when unions are pissed.
I am rather agnostic on the union situations, but they take to the streets when their interests start to suffer.
Now, what does that have to do with SWFs? Or the general question of "obedience"? The mere mention of the term riles me, as I'm sure it does anyone who believes in capitalism as a system. You're not from these parts, are you?
I ain't even going there....
Not sure what bone you are picking but at its root I think we are not dissimilar.
Agreed!!!
You're a disgrace to the moniker 'sophist', Economucus you can keep.
Have a dose of context, so-called 'sophist':
All property must be privately owned? In your dreamland can there be any public property?
I sure hope not! Which "public" will own it? How will they pay for it? How will they pay to develop it? What will they do with it (majority vote whether it should be a casino or a children's playground)? Who pays to maintain it? Who decides which private property to assert eminent domain over "for the public good"?
There would be plenty of parks, wilderness areas and public beaches in a free society, else nobody would buy into -- and pay for the upkeep of -- a private development or rural area.
I junked that because it has holes you could drive public transit through.
You seem to have lost your connection before you got around to answering the questions I asked ... so, go ahead, explain all those holes to us! I'm willing to learn.
Come on guys and gals!
Don't we all know that the US has the best in everything?
Don't we?
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/10/11/empire
Since we all like to set new records, contrary to those lazy socialists in Europe, her's another one that'll make the personal really proud!
http://xrl.in/6i5l
We sure rule...bitchez!
Leo, thanks for the news from France. Here in Amerika, one must either Google for news, or read it here on ZH (I prefer ZH).
There is much to be said on the lack of media coverage for such an important event in France and the ramifications undoubtedly soon to be cast upon the rest of the remaining free world.
Domination comes at a cost to the free man.
I'm a french woman and yes we are protesting against this oligarchic gouvernment. Fighting for our rights is a duty for the next generations, for our forfathers who fought before us...We do not protest against a necessary reform, new demographic stats among other things (like paying for the banks orgies) imply that reforms must be made. We protest against unjust measures that aim to make the richest percentile richer and workers poorer than they already are. Working until 62 means clearly that people will get full pension entitlements at 65 and working until 65 means that those will get full pension at around 70 (??), yeah right... People studying until the age of 27 - 30 will get their retirement at 68 ! some of the problems are ...what about hard physical jobs like in construction, mining, chemicals, etc...they often develop health problems early and Government knows that. People often can't work in their initial line of expertise, you just can't be as dyamic at 65 as you were at 25. So reform ok, yet again : where are the jobs ? where is productivity ? how can a person at 50 reconvert in another activity...all these questions are left unanswered. That also means that for thousands of people the average retirement of 800 to 1000 euros will not be complete when carrier are themselves uncompleted due to lack of adequate jobs. The french business environnement is moreover reluctant in hiring folks over 50 !!! so do the math....and government - again - knows all about that.
So,.....Aux ames citoyens ! 70 % officially disclosed stats supporting the strikes means that the percentage is far much higher folks.
People should stop just sitting and watching their bank accounts get stripped down...
Problem with the unions IMHO is the fact that the average employee covered under the agreements of the union makes around 1/3 of what the average union official makes. In the profession I am involved in, our average guys in the union make ~40-50k a year. The union business agent makes ~150k a year.
I don't know how much officials guys in French unions earn but a great deal of people are reluctant in getting syndicated in the private sector for fear to remain unemployed. Another point is that Unions budgets are somehow closely linked to fiscal (Urssaf) bodies budget, so it is hard to understand the relationship between Unions and Govt..(take a guess).
70% support for strikes . . . thanks for this most important information, destiny. May your struggle continue as long as necessary to make clear to the bankster elite that the line is now drawn and you will not retreat.
France now stands as an example to the world. You will inspire others to follow if you remain firm.
Hi Bob, Thanks for the kind words. I sure hope that we'll stay firm on this one, next strike on saturday. If people abandon we'll have to live the consequences of this unpopular, unjust reform. Actually the strikes are higly political now as most of those agains the reform are protesting against the actual bling bling resident of the Elysee !
Has nothing to do about capitalism, socialism, it's about justness and justice...
Has nothing to do about capitalism, socialism, it's about justness and justice...
That's exactly right, destiny. Here in America we're conditioned through the indoctrination of our school systems to define ourselves in terms of teams and words, reality be damned! Naive pledges of allegience as children, "school spirit", rooting for sports teams and political parties . . . it's the packages that we worship and fight about, rather than the contents.
I know your people. I am awed that they honor what they learned from the tragedy of WWII and now fully recognize that incremental surrender does not end well.
Would that we Americans come to such an awareness before it is too late for us.
I have lived abroad about 15 yrs most of which in the States. I truly cherish your country considering that my children are franco americans...we are just as conditionned in France and manipulated than in any other country, that's what "national identity" and national culture is all about, history is largelly manipulated (we even make laws or secrecy acts to keep us far away from the truth at times). The French revolution for the people was in fact fomented and conducted by the "bourgeoisie" for the bourgeoisie, but that's another story. Nevertheless we are still FREE to think and find out for ourselves.
The world discovered that all we've ALL been working for is vanishing or has been spoiled, stolen, corrupted for the profit of a tiny group of people, and yes, we're getting pretty upset to say the least, we're not prepared to pay for those errors. What is happening now in France is not just a French issue, it's a concern for each and everyone of us, it's OUR future, that of our kids and other generations.
The increasing concentration of wealth into fewer hands spells Epic system Fail ahead.And in light of the ridiculously illegal and fraudulent means to accomplish this, I think is is safe to conclude that serious dislocations will result.
And by dislocation I mean currency failure, armed insurrection, mayhem and looting, and justice meted out by mobs.
I can only conclude that TPTB want this to occur....perhaps as Malthusians they will enjoy seeing the population reduced by warfare, starvation, and disease.
Or they are as clueless as Marie Antoinette.
Either way, "dislocation" looms large.
Or they are as clueless as Marie Antoinette.
I think we're gonna see that this is indeed the case. Masters of the Universe will find that they are not the Untouchables that they imagined. They put their endgame into motion too soon . . . they should have waited until they had another planet to go to.
The French have been through this before. I don't believe they will yield.
au revoir Shoshanna
Let me get this straight - countries like France with huge public sectors that promise gold-plated benefits for life are now collapsing beneath the weight of unsustainable demographics and delusions of rainbows and unicorns forever...this you think is the beginning of the collapse of capitalism?
You have evaluated it very well. Anyone with a modest ability to calculate, and who took the effort to do the multiplications, has known the the promises of the politicians were never going to be funded as promised. It is not the capitalists fault that they are not able to deliver enough profit for the politicians to confiscate to cover the promises.
Describing the long known and forecast inevitavle crash in government programs as a fault of "Casino Capitalism" is simply propaganda with the effort to shift the blame.
My my that read slicker than whale shit on an ice floe, too bad it was composed of pretty much the same substance.
Just so you know: I am taking all junks on this one as compliments, regardless.
'Mercury'
le junk extraordinaire.
I can see the letters on the page, but all you're typing is "quack quack quack quack quackquack".
People like you give Tyranny a priapism.
Not to worry, even Priapism has a ending too. It will all rot and fall off.
All they need to do is wait until the students and workers get hungry and go home and back to work again.
Right, it is the collapse of "social democracy". What they did over there is exactly what not to do over here. Large central governments with their hands in everything brought on the slow motion civilisational collapse that is Europe today. They're doomed. Something like 70% of the French apparently support the strikers. 70%. Over an increase from 60 to 62 in the government dictated retirement age.
What's that old saying? Something, something, something, is like fucking for virginity.
" Large central governments with their hands in everything brought on the slow motion civilisational collapse that is Europe today."
You mean that the US govt is trying to cause the slow motion civilisational collapse of the European states?
You do realise that pretty much all of the problems we have today have been caused by processes set in motion by American and British Neoliberals, right? It may well be that Sarko is also a corporatist idiot, and that there are neoliberals in other countries as well nowadays, but that hardly means that they're the root cause.
What do you consider gold-plated? Whatever it is,I bet that Blankfein makes it in a day or less.
Whatever it is it's clearly more than the private sector can support and that's all the math that matters.
Your reply was too subtle!
I appreciated it.
according to whom, Blankfein?
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Keep on Quackin' dupe!
As the social welfare system currently exists in many European countries, there are more people in the cart than than pulling the cart. I can't make it any simpler than that without resorting to sock puppets. But please don't take my word for it - by all means, do your own research and get back to us. If you find something in the numbers that everyone else is missing I'm sure Nobel prize glory awiats. You will certainly make many people very, very happy.
Keep up the good fight, GoinFawr! The fundamental assumptions must be fully questioned and this is exactly what the French citizenry is pushing.
While Americans stood by as private pension plans were dissolved altogether over the past 20 years and we are now being trained to accept that none of us will be seeing the Social Security benefits we payed for over our entire lives, perhaps the French will provide an example to us that we must now draw the line on the gutting of our retirement funds by the elite.