“THE ZOMBIE SYSTEM: HOW CAPITALISM HAS GONE OFF THE RAILS” (October 24, 2014)
Thus Der Spiegel today. “Six years after the Lehman disaster, the industrialized world is suffering from Japan Syndrome,” explains the newspaper. “Growth is minimal, another crash may be brewing and the gulf between rich and poor continues to widen. Can the global economy reinvent itself?” A good question, this. The article opens by introducing a new buzzword that can be heard around the world: inclusion. The so-called west seems to be losing the ability of allow as many layers of society as possible to benefit from economic advancement and to participate in political life. By the way, this term has been used for the last few decades in connection with invalids. In other words, the number of invalids has exploded lately. The trouble is that both governments and central banks are running out of resources. By and by, the crisis of capitalism is turning into the crisis of democracy. “The rich are extremely powerful,” an economist close to the financial sector is quoted, “and that is a concern.” Financial shenanigans among the rich have little or nothing to do with the world beneath them. The article ends on a sour note, for there is no end to the zombie system in sight. Climate change is not mentioned in it even once, it goes without saying. Capitalism is beyond the bulk of humans, to be sure, but it is squarely on the path of inclement weather. For its imminent end, just read the weather forecasts. As for the future, China and Russia lead the way. Welcome to new feudalism!