Today, the financial sector has become a primary governance agent and organizer of the real economy. Productivity growth and wage growth have been de-coupled., thus the new growth model is based on debt, not wages, as the source of demand growth.
OPEC has been the only organisation outside the sphere of power and influence of the West, which was able to influence deeply the world economy and also its politics.
The post-industrial paradigma has dominated last decades: The impact has been a new international labor division that is adverse to old industrial countries. It can't be dealt with through the currency policy.
In recent months, Nicolas Sarkozy has reinvigorated the question of security in France. But this is nothing new and, given that the French president’s approval ratings reached an all-time low in July, the move is not surprising.
The hypnotic attraction of the mathematical modelling of rational expectations and efficient market theories seduced many self-assumed Keynesians into unconsciously denying him. But just ‘going back’ to reading The General Theory is not enough.
Prof. Bhagwati criticizes the “fascination with manufacturing”, asserting that services could take the place of industrial employment. The German experience shows the contrary.
For Tony Judt the writing of history is also the making of it. It is a great pity that he has been taken from us just when we could proifit the most from his unflagging intellectual and moral energies
