The complacent optimism of capitalist consensus is fast disappearing. At the beginning of
this year, the general view about the world economy was that US growth would slow
gradually to about 3% from 5%, Japan would pick up a little to about 2% and Europe would
trundle along at about 2.5%. The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, would cut interest
rates to ensure that any slowdown would not mean a loss of investor confidence or consumer
demand. Well, January seems like eons ago in global economics. After a non-stop spate of
warnings about lower profits from the main US corporations and the release of economic
data each day that showed a weakening economy, US stock prices have plummeted. Michale
Roberts analyses how all this is affected by the growing problem of deflation in Japan.
The coup in Pakistan on November 1996 underlines the
nature of the Pakistan regime as a
regime of crisis. It is a graphic expression of the impasse of
all the regimes of the ex
colonial countries. Economic crisis, mass unemployment
and underemployment, inflation,
financial bankruptcy, and complete subjugation to world
imperialism--these are the
hallmarks of the situation.
This is a translation of a column by Munno Bhai published in the daily Pakistani paper Jang on May 25th, 1999, with a circulation of 750,000. Munno Bhai writes regularly for the Marxist fortnightly paper Jeddo Judh (Class Struggle)