America's Suicidal Statecraft: The self-destruction of super power (Paperback)

~ James Cumes (Author)
Key Phrases: gold window, suicidal statecraft, institutional narcissism, United States, Great Depression, European Union (more...)

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Civilisations die from suicide," Toynbee warned us, "not by murder." The United States, along with Australia and several others have pursued fatally flawed economic and financial policies for almost four decades, beginning with ill-judged interest-rate hikes and stagflation in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They then punctuated the years afterwards with policy departures which, almost without exception, made things worse. In effect, they embarked on serial attempts at economic, social, political and strategic suicide through often obsessive devotion to such concepts as "free" markets, deregulation, privatisation and globalisation. They neglected mounting dangers from debt, deficits and derivatives, from rampant speculation, chronic unemployment, low wages and mounting inequality at home and abroad. Long years of unmitigated error have reduced a once magnificent American economy to one that increasingly resembles a hollowed-out shell. Though there continue to be great potential strengths in the American economy and society, these strengths have already been gravely diminished and the unremitting ebb of intrinsic power persists while other economies grow stronger, ironically by grasping the opportunities that feckless American policies continue to surrender to them. Perversely, predatory finance capitalism has nourished and become a victim of the prey that, with exquisite cleverness, it sought to capture and exploit. This erosion of economic and financial strength has grave social, political and strategic consequences. Not so long ago, the United States was, despite some inevitable imperfections, one of the world's most admired, progressive and transparent democracies. That democracy has been increasingly corrupted over the years and America's capacity to carry out its role as a superpower - certainly as the world's single superpower - has been put gravely at risk. These are some of the major issues addressed in "America's Suicidal Statecraft". Basically, they are down-to-earth economic and financial issues but they have have had and continue to have the most far-reaching social, political and strategic impacts - for the United States, for closely allied countries such as Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand and, indeed, for the whole world community. There are still ways in which the decline and prospective fall of the United States can be reversed; but that will call for an enormous exercise of political will and, above all, a comprehensive change of vision. At the moment, given the many complexities and uncertainties in the world economic, social, political and strategic situation, the most likely outcome is that American policies will be reversed and a new vision adopted only as irresistible imperatives when a devastating collapse has already occurred or is transparently under way. A crucial question is how many months or years we have left before we reach the point of collapse and just what we can do that will be effective in the meantime. "America's Suicidal Statecraft" suggests some approaches.

About the Author

JAMES CUMES: Dr James Cumes, B.A. (Q'land), Graduate of School of Diplomatic Studies (Canberra), Ph.D (London). Born Rosewood, Queensland, Edu. Wooloowin SS & Brisbane Grammar, Served with Australian Army in Papua & Dutch New Guinea 1942-4, Dept. External/Foreign Affairs Canberra from 1944, Diplomatic Postings Paris, London, Bonn, Berlin; Chargé d'Affaires Bonn 1955-6 and Brussels 1961-5; Head, Australian Military Mission, Berlin 1956-8; High Commissioner, Nigeria, Ambassador to European Union and several individual European capitals, Permanent Representative to United Nations Vienna and UNIDO, Governor on Board of IAEA, Australian Representative at United Nations and other international conferences around the world, etc. Author of a dozen books on economics, history, government and human behaviour; and four novels, including 'Haverleigh' a story of young Australians in the Second World War and afterwards. Married to Heide Schulte von Bäuminghaus, 1 daughter (Kim Alexandra Sarah). Homes in Australia, Vienna, Monaco and Cannes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 654 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (November 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141963819X
• ISBN-13: 978-1419638190
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,390,540 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Robust Case for Peaceful Change, May 9, 2007

By	Cresscourt Home "Cresscourt" (Austria) - See all my reviews

Dr Cumes' latest book "America's Suicidal Statecraft" should be read by everyone: policymakers, professional economists, bankers, businessmen and general public alike. He has been uncannily right for nearly forty years, from predicting "stagflation" in the early `seventies, to identifying shifts from domestic price inflation to deficits in the external balances in the `eighties, to foreseeing the stock-exchange crashes of 1987 and 2000, to identifying the development of a "casino-like" world economy, as he called it, especially from the 1990s onwards and, of course, to predicting the emergence of the "Asian Tigers" and the growth - unprecedented in speed and scale - of the two new potential "superpowers", China and India.
Now he warns us that nothing has been, or is being, done to devise effective means of managing the flow of funds - or the flow of "liquidity" or credit - in any way sufficient to avoid what promises to be the most monumental financial bust of all time. This bust will be global but it is most likely to hit hardest those who have been least inhibited in their embrace of modern finance capitalism and their "permissive" approach to financial and economic regulation.
Let us be clear, he says, that the advocacy of effective management of the flow of funds, domestically and globally, is not to advocate the destruction of capitalism but, on the contrary, to advocate effective means of preserving the essential nature of an economic system which has brought enormous benefits - along with enormous risks - over the past three centuries.
Even in the fundamentals of interest rate policy, he says, we have gone wrong and have delivered a triple whammy to boost inflation. "The reasons why this should be so are clear enough. Higher interest rates mean higher costs of production. Higher interest rates mean lower levels of output as some producers cut or cease production. Higher interest rates mean lower productivity by deterring fixed-capital investment which will enhance output per employee. There is thus a triple whammy giving a robust boost to inflation."
He points out that this reckless economic behaviour is in the context of a world armed to the teeth with the most terrifying weapons ever known and a struggle for limited resources that will continue to intensify deeply the risks of armed and potentially global conflict.
While Dr Cumes identifies the risks, he also shows how we can draw away from the abyss. The United States can reverse its progress towards self-destruction and maintain its role as a "superpower". But it will need to be a superpower for peaceful change. It will need to adopt economic policies that are soundly based not on speculation but on sustainable production. It will need to see that cooperative global solutions, rather than the use or threat of naked force are the pathway to human wellbeing - and indeed to human survival.
Dr Cumes outlines, in some detail, the policies and procedures whereby these solutions can be achieved. He warns that effective action along these lines may not be politically practicable before we endure a global bust; but, he says, we should then be prepared to act in ways that restore global stability and not in ways that, as in the Great Depression of the 1930s, will intensify the grave economic, social, political and strategic crises to which it now seems that, almost inevitably, we will be exposed.
For both his analysis of our problems and his proposed solutions, Dr Cumes' latest book should be on the reading list of everyone concerned about the future of life on our planet.

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