By Bill Van Auken
15 November 2008
US President George W. Bush came to Wall Street Thursday to deliver a speech extolling the virtues of the "free enterprise" system even as multiple economic indicators made it clear that the so-called "magic of the market" is spelling misery for millions more working people in the US and around the globe.
Bush delivered his paean to American capitalism at Federal Hall, just a stone's throw from the New York Stock Exchange. The historic building was the site of the inauguration of George Washington and the first sessions of the US Congress. The august setting stood in stark contrast to the character of the select audience, which, in the gap between its ideological proclivities and socioeconomic reality, resembled a meeting of the flat earth society.
A total of 175 people turned out for the session, organized by the Manhattan Institute, a right-wing think tank that specializes in demonizing the poor while promoting tax cuts, financial deregulation, the dismantling of social programs and the decimation of public education.
The lame-duck president timed his speech for the eve of this weekend's G20 summit in Washington, which will bring together heads of state from the world's major economies for the ostensible purpose of working out a common agenda for confronting the global financial meltdown.
Behind the banalities and boosterism, Bush's message to those assembling in Washington was clear: Nothing will be accepted that interferes with the unfettered accumulation of wealth by America's financial elite and the defense of their interests, regardless the cost to the world's population.
Bush effectively acknowledged at the outset that the gathering of presidents and prime ministers this weekend will accomplish nothing—and that his administration will block any attempt to reach binding agreements. "The undertaking is too large to be accomplished in a single session," he said. "The issues are too complex, the problem is too significant to try to solve, or to come up with reasonable recommendations in just one meeting."
Rather, he insisted, the summit should be dedicated to "developing principles," above all, the reaffirmation that "free market principles offer the surest path to lasting prosperity."
Given the state of the economy, confronting its most profound crisis since the 1930s, Bush's remarks appeared delusional. He spoke in the wake of official figures showing that more than half a million American workers filed for unemployment benefits the week before, and over 85,000 homes had been foreclosed in October. The Treasury Department announced a record budget deficit of $237.2 billion for the month of October, and just a day before, its secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson, was forced to make an emergency announcement that the $700 billion approved by Congress to buy up "toxic" mortgage-backed assets must now be redirected to prop up not only the major banks, but also the failing consumer credit industry.
Bush felt compelled to acknowledge that "in the wake of the financial crisis, voices from the left and the right are equating the free enterprise system with greed and exploitation and failure."
While admitting some isolated failings, Bush rejected any indictment of the capitalist system. "The crisis was not a failure of the free market system," he proclaimed. "And the answer is not to try to reinvent that system. It is to fix the problems we face, make the reforms we need, and move forward with the free-market principles that have delivered prosperity and hope to people all across the globe."
The "fixes" that Bush proposed were so vague as to be meaningless: "improving accounting rules," ensuring that "financial products are properly regulated" and taking a "fresh look at the rules governing market manipulation and fraud."
His faith in the "free market," however, remained rock solid: "Like any other system designed by man, capitalism is not perfect
. It can be subject to excesses and abuse. But it is by far the most efficient and just way of structuring an economy. At its most basic level, it offers people the freedom to choose where they work and what they do."
He continued: "Free market capitalism is more than an economic theory. It is the engine of social mobility—the highway to the American Dream."
"Freedom to choose where they work?" Whom does he think he's kidding?
According to official figures, 10 million American workers are now out of work and cannot find jobs. Their ranks have been swollen by 1 million in the last year alone. If one counts those who are underemployed—involuntarily relegated to part-time jobs—and so-called "discouraged" workers, who have been dropped from the jobless rolls, fully one of eight not only can't choose where he or she works, but cannot get full-time work at all. And this is only the beginning, with mass layoffs being announced daily, threatening to create an army of unemployed larger than any seen since the Great Depression.
As for free-market capitalism serving as an "engine of social mobility," this movement has increasingly been in opposite directions, with those at the top of the social ladder increasing their share of total wealth to unprecedented levels, while the vast majority, the working people, have seen their incomes stagnate and decline. The gap between wealth and poverty in the US is now greater than at any time since the 1920s.
It is this amassing of wealth by those at the top that Bush is determined to defend. As the Washington Post pointed out Friday, among the proposals being put forward by other heads of state attending the Washington summit that "Bush and his aides do not favor" is the call for "restrictions on executive pay."
Cotinued>>>
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/bush-n15.shtml
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