Privatizing Profits/Socializing Losses-Economic Spring

Holidaying in one of Thailand's tiny beach island in La Laanta resort that offers both beaches with pristine water and modern day creature comforts like air-conditioning and internet to attend my brother's twin city wedding has awaken some deeply recessed thoughts on capitalism,socialism,communalism and communism. These topics have disturbed my intellect endlessly with no absolute truism or compromised resolution.

Deeply stalked by the apparent lesser of two evils between capitalism and communism as well as the humanity of socialism and communalism. I have long threw communism out as an essentially non-viable state of being. I believe the empirical evidence on the break down of communism in USSR and eastern european countries have fortified my beliefs. Thinking I could rest my case and out comes the rise of China's economy makes me want to be more guarded in wanting to throw the bath water of communism together with the baby. Communism is not only entirely non-viable but has powered strong economic growth in China. Confusion confronted me and shifted my grey matter into higher gear.

On the other end of the spectrum lies capitalism and I have always assumed that since much of the world and USA success at being the largest economic and military power must show the relevancy of capitalism. This was until the capitalists wanted to have the whole nine yards of privatizing the profits of capitalism into their own self interest but when matters head southward, the capitalists wanted to socialize their losses on the premise of too big to fail trump card. This has not happened not only on wall street like the banks and insurance companies and main street represented by the big three auto companies of GM, Chrysler and Ford but also the sovereigns like Greece. Cerebrally, I pause to fathom that this is liken to heads I win and tails you loose. This is tantamount to cheating in my humble sense of justice. 

The banks and insurance threatened the sovereigns that their failure might lead to ca-strophic and almost non-recovery of the world economy. When the economy seems to have recovered with a rally in wall street, the executives and rain makers started paying themselves what some might term as obscenely large pay packets. The 'occupy wall street' fever has spread to many countries and I believe rightly so on the basis of justice which should sometimes rise above arcade written laws. 

Some of the main street executives travelled in their private corporate jets to Washington to beg for money. I do reverb some of the congressmen for chewing these executives about new theorem of begging. When the Euro became a common currency more than a decade ago, I was elated that finally, there is a disciplined currency with good foundations and principles against the fiat issue of USD that in a single announcement made the convertibility of USD into gold vaporize into thin matter. Next came slowly but surely a USD currency printing press based economy. The joke or reality is that their sovereign bonds promise to pay the bearer at a future date in USD full stop. I do not think that China which is currently the largest holder of USA sovereign bonds is likely to be bullied into seating pretty without any counter-measures. 

Greece government came next as a nation that has not exercised fiscal discipline and spiraling their national debt into an un-manageable state and threatening to either default or exercise some form of reset including resurrecting their old Drachma or a substantial hair cut of about 50% which could possibly start a nuclear like fission in destroying the economy of the world. To make matter worse, their citizenry has already taken to widespread protest as a preemptive move to warn their government, ECB, ESFS, IMF and possibly the world that they will not swallow the likely prescriptive bitter medicine of fiscal discipline as pre-conditions for bailing them out. My question is why these bodies are taking Greece more seriously as they have forced such bitter measures into some governments especially those in the 3rd world in the past without as much as betting an eye-lid. Perhaps IMF has failed like the league of nations and ought to re-constitute and have a clean re-birth like the United Nations.

Do you think there ought to be an 'Economic Spring' along the same lines as 'Arab Spring' to inject a good dose of justice into the world economy?

Peter Lye aka lkypeter
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