Re: Hegemony and Control

The BBC today provides G.Soros' "contribution" to this discussion.
Petros Haritatos

QUOTE
The international financier George Soros has said that the euro will
continue to fall unless the European Central Bank intervenes to support it.
Speaking to BBC News Online, Mr Soros said that markets would continue to
view the single currency as a "one-way bet," which could easily tumble to
below $0.80 and even risked "disintegration" as a currency. Mr Soros said
that the European Central Bank had enough reserves to stabilise the euro,
but lacked the political will to intervene. He said that the euro's collapse
was a perfect example of "over-shooting" where markets move irrationally in
the absence of direction by governments.

Mr Soros, who runs the $12bn Quantum Fund, is believed to have lost money
betting that the euro would be a strong currency. In 1992 he made £1bn
($1.6bn) by betting that the pound sterling would be forced out of the
Exchange Rate Mechanism. But the financial speculator has now taken to
warning about the dangers of unregulated capitalism in world markets.

Next crisis "in the centre"

Mr Soros warned that the world's next financial crisis was likely to
originate in the relationships among the world's biggest countries, not in
the "periphery" as during the Asian crisis of 1997. In particular, he was
worried about the growing imbalances in the US economy. He warned that the
US was running an unsustainable current account deficit, and that the dollar
could come under pressure in the event of a stock market crash. And he said
that the consequences of a "hard landing" where the US was forced to raise
interest rates to defend the dollar, would be severe for the rest of the
world.

Free markets don't work

Mr Soros was scathing in his criticism of those who believed that markets
can solve all problems without intervention by governments. "The new market
fundamentalism is more dangerous to the world now than Communism," he told
the BBC. "Communism at least has been discredited, while it is not
understood that market fundamentalism is an equally false ideology," he
said.

Mr Soros argues that markets are inherently unstable, and cannot be expected
to meet social needs. He said that unless the world gave power to the
authorities to deal with global instabilities, it was understandable that
countries would want to insulate themselves from a sometimes irrational
global currency market. "Much as I disagree with Dr Mahathir, (the Malaysian
Prime Minister) he did quite well by imposing temporary controls (on capital
flows into Malaysia) during the crisis," Mr Soros said. "You can't blame
countries for protecting themselves," he said.

But he was worried that without a real attempt at reforming the
international financial system, more countries would turn to protectionism,
leading to a slowdown in economic growth.
UNQUOTE

The full newsitem is on
http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/business/newsid_740000/740410.stm

-----Original Message-----
From: Gunder Frank <agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca>
To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Cc: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Date: Ôñßôç, 9 ÌáÀïõ 2000 1:24 ðì
Subject: Re: Hegemony and Control, was "question folks"


>Imagine if they would call in teir bets. The Euro has b een falling vs
>the dollar, b ut the Europeans still keep oodles ofeservces in $$ in the
>US. if they would transfer some back hok - as wea expected tehy would do
>whebn the Euro came in - the US $ would plummet and the US econ son
>after. So why dont they? Good Question.
>agfrank
>On Mon, 8 May 2000, Dennis R
>Redmond wrote:
>
>> Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 15:08:01 -0700 (PDT)
>> From: Dennis R Redmond <dredmond@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU>
>> To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
>> Subject: Re: Hegemony and Control, was "question folks"
>>
>> On Mon, 8 May 2000 ilagardien@worldbank.org wrote:
>>
>> > In short, the global ideological and cultural hegemony that the United
>> > States established after the Second World War and which we have been
told
>> > triumphed after the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union,
represents
>> > sufficient evidence that ONE COUNTRY may well, "control" the global
economy
>> > - purely by dint of the global economic order it has established.
>>
>> What about the EU banking system, which is the biggest creditor to the
>> planet? And what about the fact that the US owes Japan and Europe $2
>> trillion and is dependent on $350 billion of foreign money per annum?
>> In the good old days, the US could print the money, but the point
>> of the euro is to take away this option, right?
>>
>> -- Dennis
>>
>>
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>                     ANDRE GUNDER FRANK
>          Visiting Professor  of  International Relations
>University of Miami           &         Florida International University
>
>380 Giralda Ave. Apt 704                Tel: 1-305-648 1906
>Miami - Coral Gables FL                 Fax: 1-305-648 0149
>USA  33134                              e-mail:agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca
>
>Personal/Professional Home Page> http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/agfrank/
>
>My NATO/Kosovo Page> http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/agfrank/nato_kosovo/
>
>My professional/personal conclusion is the same as Pogo's -
>            We have met the enemy, and it is US
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>