the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
October 14, 2013
Over the last three years, trading on world currency exchanges has increased by a third, now reaching 5.3 trillion dollars—a DAY. This is about the same as 90% of Japan’s total economic output—a YEAR.
Meanwhile, world trade in goods has stagnated and in some years shrunk. In 2012, the world export of goods was worth 18.3 trillion dollars. This is only 1% of world currency trading. In other words, 99% of daily trading doesn’t correspond to anything other than speculation, with no usefulness for the economy.
The various nations’ central banks have fed this frenzied growth in monetary speculation with trillions of dollars in credit. When Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve Board, announced the Fed would soon lower the amount of money made available, banks, financiers and corporations pulled out the capital they had placed in countries like India, Brazil and Indonesia. This provoked a sharp drop in the value of these countries’ currencies. India’s currency, the rupee, has fallen 25% since May. This has resulted in a sharp contraction in the real economy of these countries.
In this economic system, the fact that 99% of the money serves for financial speculation is not just totally absurd, but also really harmful. At any moment, this financial speculation can lead to a financial collapse that would plunge all of society into a still more terrible economic crisis.
This economic system must be 100% replaced!