Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The British ruling class are not stupid. Just complete bastards. posted by Richard Seymour
This week's Guardian piece, on why the ruling class sticks with austerity despite its seeming dysfunctionality:A slight drop in GDP growth compared with last year is a cause for celebration. The "fastest rate of quarterly growth in five years", enthuses the Telegraph. This is a sign of how our standards have been recalibrated by the recession. The lavish 0.9% bounty of GDP growth was reportedly made possible by the unusually high household spending prompted by the Olympics.But if that doesn't get your juices flowing, you are not alone. Business investment remains sluggish, as companies are hoarding cash rather than investing. After all, if this growth was facilitated by an extravagant Olympics boondoggle, how can it possibly be sustained?Even supposedly encouraging employment statistics harbour trouble, as underlying signals show businesses are pulling back from creating jobs and focusing on cost-cutting. Forget the "double-dip recession" – the "triple-dip" is on its way. Simply put, businesses aren't investing, because they have no confidence that any investment will return with a profit. And if capitalists aren't investing, then capitalism isn't working...