In a desperate move to boost US growth, the Federal Reserve has launched QE2, a second round of quantitative easing. Its main effect will be to devalue the dollar, an attempt to boost its exports at the expense of its rivals, particularly China. This unilateral action by US imperialism can only intensify the currency wars and trade conflicts. socialistparty.net reports.
In 1984, George Orwell gave us a perfect description of the rhetoric of the Irish government, the European Commission and their hangers-on when promoting Ireland’s bailout exit. He defined doublethink: “To tell deliberate lies, while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient…”.
The crisis faced by working people, the unemployed, students and pensioners in Ireland is a crisis of capitalism. While the crash in Ireland has had its own special features related to the property bubble and an historic over reliance on Foreign Direct Investment, this should not obscure the fact that capitalism, a system based on private ownership of key sections of the economy as well as economic activity being geared towards profit and not need and the absence of rational planning of resources, is a crisis prone system that has to be replaced.
The Government and opposition parties have signed up to reducing the budget deficit to 3% by 2014. The government has now settled on the figure of €15 billion in cuts over the course of four years in order to achieve this stated goal.
