Latest on Fri, 09:25 am
US Elections: intellectualism beats populism.
In this respect the US of A is still the one and only superpower: all the world is watching todays elections closely.
Barack Obama is likely to be the winner. And if this happens to be tomorrow’s result, not only the majority of the Americans but the majority of the world will be happy.
Some time ago an intermittent but excellent blogger – Dennis Matanda – wrote that Obama might stumble about one of the two worst allegations someone running for an public office may be confronted with: that of being elitist ( the other one is being racist).
Promote Promiscuity
Whatever you may think, I don’t hate economists. Read this like “I did not have sex with that woman”.
No, actually even some of my best friends are economists. Though I candidly confess that sometimes I have a hard time to keep on loving them. But hey, tensions do inevitably occur in every sound relationship. And on other occasions some of them just thrill me. Especially those who are involved with economy light. Taking their science for what is it: disastrous but not too serious. Maybe they themselves don’t agree with me ( about being economists light). But I think people like S. Levitt who (with help of co-author Dubner) wrote ‘Freakonomics‘, are great. Or Steven E. Landsburg.
Last weekend I treated myself on his book “More sex is safer sex” as an antidote against those intolerable assholes who, in papers and on TV, even now still stick to their gospel of Friedmanian free market economy.  I can forgive and forget however in case it’s someone like Landsburg, who at least not only writes in an easy and digestible way about economy, but first and foremost is sharp, witty and funny. The book consists of a number of original essays on a wide variety of topics which you hardly find in economical textbooks.
To make clear why I enjoyed it, here is the case he makes for eventually making sex safer by promoting more extra and premarital sex by decent people.
VP Jusuf Kalla
The Vice President of the Republik Indonesia in a speech diagnosed the current financial crisis:
“One of the causes of the current crisis is the capitalist system,” he said. “Therefore we should develop a sharia economic system.”
Ah, he may be right about capitalism. So, is Indonesia going to abolish it? Does this speech mean the beginning of the end of free market economy in the country? No more privatization, no more ever growing distance between the have and the haves not. Does it mean abolishment of interest? Perhaps his ‘sharia’ solution stands for an economic and financial system based on fairness and solidarity. Not unlike the theory and practice of Rhineland economies, such as the former German “Sozial Wirtschaft”. Close to the ideals of old fashioned social democrats.
But he did not elaborate further. Well, that’s a pity. So he keeps us in the dark about what he really had in mind. Actually a viable alternative system is a long shot. I’m afraid the best way now is muddling through. And hoping the economists and politicians will do what they should have done long ago – improving the system step by step.
On second thought maybe Vice President’s words didn’t mean a lot. Perhaps he only wanted to please his (pious?) Padang audience by using the word sharia.
Wallstreet or Rhineland?
The text added to this picture reads:“Federal Hall, 26 Wall Street, New York: It was on this site that the US Congress first met and where George Washington took the oath of office as the first president. Today, the “free enterprise” business titans of the Street are reeling from the mess of their own making”. There is no mistake about it. Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz called it the fruit of hypocrisy. Who am I to disagree with him. Indeed dishonesty, Ideological superstition in laissez-faire, irresponsibility, incompetence, greed and sheer criminality (Enron!), that’s what the crisis is made of. In a broader sense it’s the so called “Anglo Saxon” model which should stand trial: the unrestricted free market economy, cut throat competition and the shareholders in charge – hedge funds and private equity funds going for the quick buck included. “The creative destruction” of neo liberalism proves to be ruinous indeed.
This is a summary of the most recent catastrophes::
“Over the weekend, Wall Street’s Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and Merrill Lynch agreed to be sold to a competitor. Yesterday, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 4.4%, its worst day since September 17 2001, when the New York stock exchange reopened following the September 11 terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has risen and home values continue to sink.” Today I already can add the € 65.- billion rescue money for AIG. And what will be next tomorrow?
Maybe we should try something new. Which actually is something old: the Rhineland model. First and most important goal is the continuity of a company ( which is in the interest of all people who are stake holders so that not exclusively shareholders and shameless board members will benefit), consultation of all parties involved in order to reach some sort of consensus (which takes time, but will at least not leave clients and employees in the cold and have them and the tax payers pay the price) and government involvement whenever national interests or public services are threatened (which is a better guarantee for a future public infrastructure than leaving it to the forces of greed).
Indonesia – which way to prosperity?
They are unrepenting. Always trying to find new accomplices. Never stopping to impose their economic morals.
Last Friday The Jakarta Post reported the OECD had said: “RI needs more liberalization”. That looks like a warning. But according to the Amsterdam based NRC this club of thirty rich, developed countries had offered a “Special relationship for Indonesia”. Which can be considered to be an incentive for staying on the right track.
It was the first time an economic assessment dedicated to Indonesia has been presented by the organization. According to its secretary-general, Angel Gurria, it’s the first step on the country’s way to full membership. Despite quite a number of shortcomings, the survey strikes an optimistic note: Indonesia may well achieve the growth rates of China in the long run.