Michael Roberts looks back at the year 2000, the year when the US hi-tech stock market
bubble burst, and views the economic prospects for the coming year.
The euro's launch has been greeted with a well-orchestrated campaign of official
enthusiasm, designed to silence all doubts on the question. The Euro has finally been
introduced as a common currency in 12 of the EU states. This is an important development.
A common currency is the first condition towards European integration. It ought to boost
internal trade and thus act as a powerful stimulus to the development of the productive
forces. But is this going to happen?
For the past few years we have been carefully following the development of the US and
world economies. Yet almost overnight, instead of "the boom will last forever",
the press now has stories about "how to survive the recession", and openly
discusses the economic slowdown. They don't even blush at the fact that mere months ago
they were encouraging everyone to get into the stock market or miss out on fabulous wealth
and early retirement! We explained long ago that the so-called "New Economic
Paradigm" was nothing new at all - that it was an investment boom propelled by the
super-exploitation of the working class and ex-colonial world.