Early Imprint: (con't)

7. there is no way to understand the present foreign or domestic policies of Japan, the new Europe and the US (the "First World" powers) - JEUS Mammonas, the false messiah Je(s)us, Matt. 6:24 - without recognizing that these policies are primarily a response to the ongoing world economic crisis - this crisis has continued and grown through various phases over the past 15 years: the external debt and inflationary crises of the late 1970s, the world recession of the early 1980s, the supposed boom of the middle 1980s (characterized by the S&L corruption and the 1987 stock market crash) and the protracted stagnation that began in 1988 - the current crisis presents the same dangers as did those that preceded the two world wars earlier in the century.
8. the ruling elites in the First World have responded to the economic crisis by attempting to shift the burden from themselves to the majority of the population, both at home and abroad - this translates into an international program of cutting back social services, expropriating ("privatizing") public assets, lowering wages and eliminating restraints on the exploitation of the environment - this program has different names in different regions and circumstances: "economic shock treatment," "the neoliberal project," "free trade" and "the free market.

Early Imprint: (con't)