On the Brink of the Abyss: The Imminent Bankruptcy of the Financial System, by Alain de Benoist
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On the Brink of the Abyss: The Imminent Bankruptcy of the Financial System, by Alain de Benoist
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This book is a collection of essays written in response to the international financial crisis of 2008 and its aftereffects. The problem with most discussions of the crisis, Benoist notes, is that they focus on attempting to reform the present economic system in order to prevent such disasters from recurring. This is a mistake, he says, since the problem actually lies with the nature of the present-day form of international capitalism itself, a system which privileges the unbridled desires of the individual over the needs of the community; which protects the wealthy at the cost of the middle class and the poor; and which is causing so much suffering worldwide by making it easy for corporations in the richer countries to outsource their labour to other, disadvantaged ones, to the detriment of both. It is this system which must be questioned at its very foundations. Benoist holds both the Left and Right equally responsible for this situation, since the mainstream in both currents has come to unconditionally accept the idea that liberalism and globalised capitalism are not only the best, but the only desirable method of structuring economies in the world today. Meanwhile, the international financial system teeters on the brink, with American debt soaring and the euro on the verge of implosion. Benoist not only explores the roots of how this situation came about but also makes suggestions on what might be done about it. The current crisis is not simply a temporary one; it is the consequence of the logic of capital, which knows only one watchword: more! More profits, more goods, and more trade, even at the price of austerity measures which hit the poorest. Such a system cannot last forever. Here is why. 'One who criticises capitalism while approving of immigration, of which the working class is its first victim, would do better to remain silent. One who criticises immigration while remaining silent regarding capitalism should do the same.'-p. 123 Alain de Benoist is the leading philosopher behind the European 'New Right' movement (a label which Benoist himself rejects, perceiving himself as falling outside the usual Left/Right dichotomy), a metapolitical school of thought which he helped to found in France in 1968 with the establishment of GRECE (Research and Study Group for European Civilisation). He continues to write and give lectures and interviews. He lives in Paris. Arktos has previously published his books The Problem of Democracy (2011), Beyond Human Rights (2011), and Carl Schmitt Today (2013).
On the Brink of the Abyss: The Imminent Bankruptcy of the Financial System, by Alain de Benoist- Amazon Sales Rank: #1288496 in Books
- Published on: 2015-03-10
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .44" w x 5.51" l, .55 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 192 pages
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. The Global Economy's Road to Perdition By Alastair Browne The title of this book gives the warning of where we are headed. The rest of the book tells how we got into this situation, and this is something all economists must read, at least the first eight chapters. I have a different opinion of the last two, which I will discuss in the end. The author, Alain de Bernoist, is a French philosopher who has studied global economics in great detail, especially that of Europe, China, and the United States. It should be noted that de Bernoist gives a lot of references to what is happening in France, and in Europe overall, but all this equally applies to the U.S., because our problem are similar.He does give a dim view of “liberal economists” but not liberal in the sense that we know it. I think “liberal” here applies to the Neo-Cons who either helped to change the U.S. system under Reagan and George W. Bush, to what we know it today, and it is not a pretty picture.Money, originally was not an end, but a means to an end, where it represents the true wealth one has, be it in gold (the gold standard, that was abolished in 1971) or the amount of goods. If one owned a large business, the money he earned (aside from setting a certain amount for himself) would be put back into the industry, to produce more goods and pay the salaries of the workers to produced them. This was enough to elevate them to live a middle class lifestyle, spend the money they earn to support other businesses and workers, put some in the bank to support what they do, and pay taxes to support the country and its infrastructure, whatever that may be.Beginning in the 1980s, perhaps earlier, that all changed, for the worse, and because of it, we are now headed for an economic disaster of global proportions. This all led to the collapse of the 2008 economy, and, even though we are recovering, we are not out of the woods yet. In fact, because of the bailouts of the banks, and their continued practices of loans to anyone and reckless spending, all at the taxpayers expense, we may be even headed for a deeper recession, perhaps even a total economic collapse.There is enough blame to go around, but I will briefly list a few of the reasons. When banks were liberalized, they went into an investing, and spending spree, of investments that were bound to fail. They loaned to people with bad credit, putting up their homes for mortgages, and where the loans came due, the values of their homes decreased by a huge percentage and were then foreclosed, leaving the occupants homeless.That is only the tip of the iceberg. Taxes have been cut for the rich, thinking there would be a trickle down economics to the working class, but it didn’t work. When major corporations, because of free trade agreements, where able to outsource their factories, they did so, moving to other countries for cheap labor, labor for one tenth the salaries of American workers, or less. This left the workers here unemployed, collecting unemployment or welfare, or resorting to criminal activities, to the detriment of society. There was no money to spend on other consumer goods, and these other companies producing had to cut back. This resulted in a domino effect.When these companies did outsource, they paid the native workers in these countries very low wages, with poor working conditions. The money saved by the company’s owner(s) did not use it to invest, but kept it for himself.With all this happening, tax cuts for the rich, free trade, bank bailouts, the average American suffers in lost jobs, sometimes lost homes, and a greatly lowered standard of living.This is not happening in the U.S. alone. Greece, part of the European Union, is about to leave the Euro zone because of debt increases, with no way to pay it back. This is due to the fact that what they produce and export isn’t enough to keep their economy going, and the Euro is a trap to them, because it cannot be devalued. My thought would be to have Europe literally erase all borders within the Euro zone, become one country, and with the absorption of both the prosperous and stagnant “zones,” they would prosper. “All for one and one for all.”This is the same problem that is happening in the U.S. We do not produce enough goods to keep our economy going, to keep Americans employed and have salaries to spend on other goods to keep those producers of those goods going, producing a domino effect in a positive manner.Because of this, the U.S., and other countries, have deficits in the hundreds of billions, or trillions of dollars, and now have to resort to borrowing from either other countries, or their banks, resulting in an every accumulating national debt. Individuals are acquiring huge debts just so they could survive and keep their homes.China is financing the deficits of us and other countries, and they are rightfully demanding a change in the international currency from the dollar to a currency with no country, but would represent the value of the world’s goods.Although China is a creditor nation, they too have to be careful for if the U.S. defects, their own system would be in danger of collapsing. Out of our debt of $17 trillion, we owe $3 trillion of it to China. What is going to happen when they call it in? What will we have to give them? Are we going to forfeit our protection of Taiwan? What will the world think of us then?One fact that is not mentioned in the book that I should point out is that China now has immense wealth producing cheap goods with cheap labor, and they are buying gold, properties, increasing their military, and are on a big construction boom both in their own country and abroad. However, they are making the same mistakes we’ve, as Americans made, especially in real estate. They build thousands of square kilometers of empty cities, and because of all this, they are headed for a financial meltdown. What will happen then?Here in the U.S., we have C.E.O.s having a salary 531 times the amount of a regular worker in that same company. Wages are decreasing, jobs are decreasing, and temporary jobs are replacing them, even at the professional level. The middle class is disappearing, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. Pensions after retirement are decreasing. Some companies do the unethical practice of firing a worker shortly before he is qualified to collect his pension (also not mention in this book, but very true).Public services are also disappearing, along with jobs in public service.Greed has come to dominate the economy today. Greed, with no regard to other workers.The last two chapters of the books suggests some solutions, and this is where the author and myself parts company. In the ninth chapter, he suggests a citizenship income, where everyone would get an annual payment whether he has a job or not, regardless of other income. The money would come from profits of rich companies, and the rich themselves. This is similar to welfare and unemployment insurance that we have in the U.S. today, and that in itself has posed a problem.Also note that the author does not like remedial jobs, the real dirty jobs. Somebody has to do them, and they do build character, my opinion.The final chapter shows that the author is a Socialist, downgrading capitalism, which he does throughout the book, and suggesting that we do away with it and put a socialist system in its place. The author is French, and European Socialism is common there, mostly popular in countries like Sweden. What the author doesn't see is that after the great depression, laws were put in place protecting workers with safer working conditions and a minimum wage, along with banking regulations to protect us from economic mishaps. All this worked fine until the 1980s, when regulations were relaxed. The wages could not keep up with inflation, and so living wages have been proposed, which I favor, but I am not a Socialist.One way to deal with many of these problems with the banks is to reinstate the regulations that they had pre-1980. A living wage would also be acceptable.We have seen the negative effects of socialism. Capitalism needs to be re-regulated, by greatly reduce the salaries of CEOs, install living wages, have better and safer working conditions, and crack down on corruption. Taking after Winston Churchill on democracy, “Capitalism is the worst economic system there is, except for all the others” It needs to be great regulated, but not abolished.I am giving this book four stars rather then five, because the economic problems that we are having, and their causes, Alain de Benoist hits right on the nose, and they do have to be confronted. I do believe that if we do nothing, there will be a global economic catastrophe. It is the solution of Socialism in the last two chapters of which I am in disagreement.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. A detailed critique of capitalism as it is By C. D. Varn De Benoist is a rightist, and I am not. However, he seems to understand and even appreciate many strands of left-wing economic theory: he expounds on post-Keynesianism and Marxism with knowledge of the underlying theories and a view of limitations. He sees capitalism as a corrosive force, which other rightists saw from traditionalist to Daniel Bell. More than many "Marxist" academics, he realizes that neoliberalism is a political rebranding of capitalism moving away from its fordist model. De Benoist laments the fordist model but is clear that it was limited by rates of profits and was not maintainable. De Benoist does discuss post-Keynesian solutions but is also clear that these would also be temporary. His primary fault of Marx is that Marx generally accepted Enlightenment values while critiquing capitalism (I am not sure this is true in Marx's later works but it is definitely true in the case of Engels and of many Marxists) and Marx's under-estimation of capitalism's ability to integrate the working class temporarily (which does seem to have been true). I must admit that many rightists will probably have issues with this books tone on capitalism, the fact it didn't see a few new developments in oil production that has temporarily slowed the devaluing of the dollar, and it's embrace of many left wing economic solutions. That is to be expected: what worries me is that rightist like De Benoist understand socialist political economy more consistently than most people in my brand of politics do. Warning: while Americans know French philosophers, this book mentions a lot of French political and economic thinkers generally not known by Americans and will require use of the footnotes.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Difficult for me to read because of the financial jargon but worth the effort. By S. Clayton Half way through this book I almost quit because the financial jargon was foreign to me, but worth the effort. Now I understand more about the liberal mind, which baffled me in the past. I also found out how damaging globalization is to freedom.
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