Customer Reviews

The Stakeholding Society: Writings on Politics and Economics

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Even Will Hutton now admits that capitalism doesn't work, but he has persuaded himself that the euro will magically make it work! He writes, "We must urge debt-financed public works programmes, scorning the paranoia about budget deficits." But the European Central Bank, which he supports, has a built-in paranoia about budget deficits and adamantly opposes debt-financed public works programmes! He has double standards - it's bad if a British government cuts our spending on health and education, but good if the ECB cuts our spending on health and education!

He predicts, "Europe will enjoy a boom as the output gap is clawed back." Some boom - four million unemployed in Germany, and rising. He sagely warns, "Calling for a different EMU [Economic and Monetary Union] - one where growth and employment have a higher priority - is a perfectly reasonable game of political charades, but it is not the choice the country faces." And then he himself calls for `a different EMU' by calling for rewriting the Maastricht Treaty which spawned EMU!

He concludes, "It is true that in a single-currency area the members lose the right to adjust their exchange rate and interest rate. In truth they have little autonomy now. What they gain is exchange rate stability, more control of fiscal policy, and the chance to develop national policies that reflect national choices within the overall umbrella of monetary union." So under EMU we lose rights and gain chances - just like what the capitalist market `offers'!