Capitalism without Conscience

Does austerity aim to reduce the deficits or is it but a pretext to move the state backwards, demolishing in the process what remains of social programs? It would now be a good time recall Keynes who concluded his «General Theory» with a call for the «socialization» of investment - a business too serious to be left in the hands of financial markets.

In this striking new book it is argued that the outraged attitudes of neoliberals and many of those who work in financial institutions with regard to the size of public deficits are far from being genuine and merely mask a desire to dismantle social programs and reduce the size of government. The author makes a persuasive case that neoliberals actively seek the deepening of the financial crisis to support their ideological demands for the shrinking of government expenditure. Indeed, he argues that neoliberals have an interest in encouraging a psychosis about public deficits in the general population to justify the cuts to public spending that will deny services to those same citizens.

Autorentext

Michel Santi is a French-Swiss economist who advises central banks and international institutions. He was formerly head of the trading floor at several Swiss banks and managed his own investment management firm in Geneva.

Inhalt

A Sisyphus Myth for Modern Times - Money: Monopoly of the State and the Solution to the Crisis - Public Deficits: A Stick Shift to Revive Economic Activity - Cleaning up the Financial System: A Prerequisite to Reducing Deficits - Spend more to Earn more - Deficits Created by Under-exploited Resources - Public Deficits and Redistribution of Resources within Society - National Currency: The Supreme Weapon against Deficits - Currency War or Attempts at Reflation? - Public Debt: Reflection of a Sovereign Nation - Central Banks, the Ultimate Safeguards against Depression - Europe: How many Divisions? - A Mercantile Europe - An Unnecessary Crisis and Completely Avoidable in Europe - Cyprus, or the Supreme Contradictions of Neoliberalism - Is Financial Innovation a Curse? - The Moral of History or Immoral History? - God's Work? - Who do the Rating Agencies Work for? - Neoliberalism and Alienation - The Respect of Uncertainty - Economic Science or Economic Subjectivity? - Keynesian Humility or Neoliberal Arrogance? - Financial Repression and Regulation - Inflation: Servicing Growth and Employment! - Regulation: Deconstruct and Stabilize - Redefining the State: A Lever of Public Health - Profit only for the Horizon and only for Ambition - Enshrine and Reevaluate Work - We Need to Free Sisyphus.