America Loses Its Dominant Economic Role

[BraneMatter]

The banking crisis is upending American dominance of the financial markets and world politics. The industrialized countries are sliding into recession, the era of turbo-capitalism is coming to an end and US military might is ebbing. Still, this is no time to gloat.

There are days when all it takes is a single speech to illustrate the decline of a world power. A face can speak volumes, as can the speaker's tone of voice, the speech itself or the audience's reaction. Kings and queens have clung to the past before and humiliated themselves in public, but this time it was merely a United States president.

Or what is left of him.

...This is no longer the muscular and arrogant United States the world knows, the superpower that sets the rules for everyone else and that considers its way of thinking and doing business to be the only road to success. - MORE (Der Spiegel (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,581502,00.html), 09-30-08)



Is this really the end of America as a "superpower," and is global capitalism really done for?

Is this socialism's BIG CHANCE to step onto the world stage and lead the world out of the current economic crisis?

Is socialism even PREPARED to meet this challenge in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union? Is Marxism now discredited in the eyes of the world?

Is there a socialist leader somewhere who can emerge and take charge?

[Psy]

Is this really the end of America as a "superpower," and is global capitalism really done for?

Capitalism as we know is done for but capitalists will reform their system, and capitalism might get alot nastier and brutal to solve its crises through even greater exploitation of the working class.

As for the end of the USA as superpower, that already happened, the US is still a world power but there are no superpowers anymore as Russia proved the USA can only make empty threats when it comes to Russia's backyard, worse the European powers showed they had no intent in picking a fight with Russia.



Is this socialism's BIG CHANCE to step onto the world stage and lead the world out of the current economic crisis?

Is socialism even PREPARED to meet this challenge in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union? Is Marxism now discredited in the eyes of the world?

Is there a socialist leader somewhere who can emerge and take charge?
I don't think we are prepared, as for this being our big chance don't worry when a revolutionary situation occurs it would be bloody obvious.

[piet11111]

Is this really the end of America as a "superpower," and is global capitalism really done for?

the end of america as the sole superpower certainly seems likely but its not yet certain it all depend on the willingness of other country's to help the united states out financially or to save up that money to counter the crisis effects on their own country.


Is this socialism's BIG CHANCE to step onto the world stage and lead the world out of the current economic crisis?leading it out of the crisis is highly unlikely but this certainly discredits capitalist economics more then anything since decades and the demand for market regulations might turn into a demand for socialism when it becomes more and more obvious to everyone just how rotten the capitalist system really is.


Is socialism even PREPARED to meet this challenge in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union? Is Marxism now discredited in the eyes of the world?most current political party's that pass for the "radical left" these days certainly are not.
but i never was big on the all mighty party leading the ignorant masses into the glorious future socialism and instead think it more likely that a spontaneous revolution erupts sort of like what happened in russia before lenin got his ass of the train.


Is there a socialist leader somewhere who can emerge and take charge?i certainly hope not all "great leaders" in the past where all lacking in the "great" department why not give actual workers control a chance this time around ?

[cyu]

Is there a socialist leader somewhere who can emerge and take charge?

Screw leaders. Instead of waiting for the Messiah, be the Messiah you've been waiting for - and encourage others to do the same. If you don't feel like you know enough theory, then learn some. It doesn't have to be from books - you can do it right here on revleft =]

[Reclaimed Dasein]

I highly recommend Negri and Hardt's book Empire. In it, it argues that we are moving beyond the time of nation states into a period of deterritorialized capitalism. Traditional functions and institutions will be replaced by transnational equivalients. I obviously don't agree with everything they say, but it provides an interesting and useful perspective on the current crisises.

[Djehuti]

Is this really the end of America as a "superpower,"

I believe so. The US. won't be the big superpower any more.



and is global capitalism really done for?

No. But free-market liberalism has lost a lot of credibility.




Is this socialism's BIG CHANCE to step onto the world stage and lead the world out of the current economic crisis?

No, but this might be a start.



Is socialism even PREPARED to meet this challenge in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union? Is Marxism now discredited in the eyes of the world?

Is there a socialist leader somewhere who can emerge and take charge?

No, no and no.

Still, we got some wind in our backs now. We should use it as much as we can. Work harder comrades.

[RadioRaheem84]

Socialism will step in, but its going to be that faux-Socialism that Europeans practice. Third Way economics, more governent, more international organizations eliminating national sovereignty. Policy wonks at liberal think tanks and government schools around the world will try to take the helm and fix this. They'll probably come up with another Bretton Woods system. But since Business is still so very powerful, they might adopt a neo/post-Keynesism style system, where business is still on top and trade is given top priority.

So what we'll see is an end to free market libertarianism (if it ever really existed in its pure form) and a rise of capitalism-lite. The politician will soon try to promote a partnership with big business instead of trying to undermine big business.

The UN, IMF, WTO will become stronger but under a different mission.

[GPDP]

Socialism will step in, but its going to be that faux-Socialism that Europeans practice. Third Way economics, more governent, more international organizations eliminating national sovereignty. Policy wonks at liberal think tanks and government schools around the world will try to take the helm and fix this. They'll probably come up with another Bretton Woods system. But since Business is still so very powerful, they might adopt a neo/post-Keynesism style system, where business is still on top and trade is given top priority.

So what we'll see is an end to free market libertarianism (if it ever really existed in its pure form) and a rise of capitalism-lite. The politician will soon try to promote a partnership with big business instead of trying to undermine big business.

The UN, IMF, WTO will become stronger but under a different mission.

Sounds like fascist economics to me.

[RadioRaheem84]

Fascist-like but not Fascist as in the movement of the early twentieth century.

[BraneMatter]

Socialism will step in, but its going to be that faux-Socialism that Europeans practice. Third Way economics, more governent, more international organizations eliminating national sovereignty. Policy wonks at liberal think tanks and government schools around the world will try to take the helm and fix this. They'll probably come up with another Bretton Woods system. But since Business is still so very powerful, they might adopt a neo/post-Keynesism style system, where business is still on top and trade is given top priority.

So what we'll see is an end to free market libertarianism (if it ever really existed in its pure form) and a rise of capitalism-lite. The politician will soon try to promote a partnership with big business instead of trying to undermine big business.

The UN, IMF, WTO will become stronger but under a different mission.


Unfortunately, this seems a plausible scenario.

There's a fair number of references in the media recently to "the end of capitalism," and "capitalism's failure," etc., and yet the response to this opening seems to me to be somewhat muted from our side. In other words, socialism and communism are still dirty words in the U.S., and aren't even being looked at as viable alternatives to capitalism. A lot of this goes back to the "Red scare" of the Fifties and McCarthyism.

[spartan]

Is this socialism's BIG CHANCE to step onto the world stage and lead the world out of the current economic crisis?
Though I would love it if it was Socialism's big chance, I just don't see it happening right now as it's only 2 decades after the collapse of the USSR and the Socialism which most people associate with those states (the one we largely don't subscribe to) is widely discredited and unfortunately gives us all a bad name (as people can't really tell, or cant be bothered to tell, the difference betweeen the various sub-ideologies of Socialism which sets us so much apart from the USSR's State Capitalism).

All that will happen is that America will probably have a few more wars to (unsuccessfully) defend their intrests which will be under constant attack from rising powers or client states of the rising powers (most probably the latter as powerful states don't really go into a direct conflict with each other anymore due to the bad consequences for both, hence the cold war).

Then you will see country's like Brazil, China, India and Russia exerting much more influence on the world then they had say a decade ago.

America will have a slow decline probably lasting 2 decades at most where those at the top of America will be trying to grab as much of the riches left on the sinking ship as possible before abandoning it completely, even though some may go down with the ship (which could, though I won't hold my breath this being America, lead the American masses to embrace Socialism as an alternative).

[cenv]

Is this really the end of America as a "superpower," and is global capitalism really done for?

Is this socialism's BIG CHANCE to step onto the world stage and lead the world out of the current economic crisis?

Is socialism even PREPARED to meet this challenge in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union? Is Marxism now discredited in the eyes of the world?

Is there a socialist leader somewhere who can emerge and take charge?
Socialism is prepared to meet this challenge -- the question is, are socialists?

The opportunity is here. The question is ready socialists are prepared to reach out to the masses and present our vision in a coherent, original, and convincing manner.