Not leading the struggle against neo-liberal economics. Still from Logorama, a short film.

Neo-liberalism will sink Europe

Austerity budgets will not pull Europe out of the crisis. On the contrary, they will pull the continent and its grand project, the euro, further into the doldrums, argues a Swiss economist and philosopher.

Published on 27 September 2010 at 11:18
logorama-themovie/H5  | Not leading the struggle against neo-liberal economics. Still from Logorama, a short film.

The European sovereign debt crisis, which was caused by member states' public debt but increased because of the actions taken to rescue the banks after the 2008 crisis, demonstrates at least three things. First, that currency does not exist without a state. Second, that capitalism cannot be managed by the market alone. And third, that the austerity measures will not bring Europe out of the crisis but will in fact continue to make it worse – until the euro crashes.

However, the most important point to emerge from the crisis is that Europe's political reinvention will depend exclusively on the social struggle against neoliberal politics. Neoliberalism, the absurd idea of economic government based solely on the market and its ability to self-regulate, is at the root of the great illusion of a leaderless Europe supposedly unified by a euro that has controlled the internal economic and social differences according to the logic of the financial markets.

And yet, neoliberalism is still the only language used by European politicians to confront the crisis and to face the social conflicts that will break out over the next few months. There exists no European government; only management of austerity measures and of repression. Read full article in the Guardian...

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