Re: Liberal vs. social democracy - Gestell/Gewinnst

Michael Eldred wrote:

>The point of intersection of supply and demand remains ungovernable, for
>it is the point of interaction of social forces composed of multiple _archai_
>(starting-points). The exceptions show this -- only a perfect monopoly has
>"pricing power", as modern jargon puts it quite well. Microsoft has "pricing
>power" and an incredibly high ROC (return on capital) of around eighty per
>cent (Volkswagen has a ROC of about three per cent) only because of its
>near-monopoly status in the PC operating systems market.
>
>But, in the normal case, markets are ungovernable (although they certainly
>can be regulated by the state or some other authority). That is, they remain
>beyond the reach of cybernetic planning.

But, Michael, the 'normal' case of the last five decades has been that the
U.S. Dollar (as reserve and index currency) is the de facto monopoly
currency of the world market, i.e. the U.S. can print as much green backs
it wants, and thus can buy for free anything it wants on the global market,
as long as it is priced in U.S. Dollars., affording the U.S. an quasi-autarkic
status. (remember the petrodollar scheme)

With you i believe that if we try to understand the workings of modern
markets, we must extend/complement Aristotle's 4 term exchange scheme
with a fifth (autonomous) term: Money. But who makes the money ? How
has the power to make (the) money ? If one of the two parties in Aristolte's
4 term exchange scheme is also the "maker of the money" then we definitely
have an example of an unequal and unjust exchance relation.

It's in this sense that i see in the coming of the Euro as counter-currency a
healthy challenge and balance to the world market Dollar-monopoly. And
also in Asia the Euro is greeted with enthousiasm, not because the Asians
want to buy these Euro's, but that the Euro has created a precedent and
new room for more 'regionally bound' currencies to emerge on the world
market.

yours,
Jan

btw. i'm very much enjoying this thread Michael








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