THE Governor of the Bank of England yesterday poured gallons of ice cold water over the prospects of British and world capitalism.
King cut the projected growth of the UK economy for 2012 from a puny 0.8% to near zero, preparing his listeners for a deepening slump and an actual decline in the UK economy for this year, mainly because of the crisis in the eurozone.
He also complained that output had been flat for two years, in other words that the working class had not been made to put its shoulder to the wheel in the way that is required.
King added that the economy is ‘not in full fitness’ and that ‘conditions are not in place for recovery’.
He called for the government and the masses to be inspired by the performance of the British Olympians, qualifying these remarks by adding that ‘Recovery and rebalancing was a long, slow process’, and what is required is ‘Total commitment to a goal that may lie some years ahead.’
On the latest billions for the banks scheme, ‘The Funding for Lending’ plan, he was less than optimistic, remarking that ‘it might or might not work’, meaning that there is no way under capitalism of stopping the banks from pocketing the lot!
For good measure he conceded that there was no ‘Plan B’, and that he was not in any way able to forecast what is to happen in the eurozone, and thus could not forecast what was to happen in the UK.
He was not even able to provide what he termed ‘A reasonable judgement of the balance of risk.’
To cap off a less than inspiring medal winning performance, to use the current idiom, when asked whether there was to be a ‘Lost Decade’, as in Japan, he responded that he was unable to predict events, offering as consolation the thought that ‘After the 1930s economies picked up’ and that the difficulty is that the crisis was not in one country, it is international.
The Bank of England governor made a remarkable case for the working class to come to the reasoned conclusion that only an idiot would put his or her trust in the dog-eat-dog anarchy of the capitalist system, led by its profit-driven bosses and bankers and its completely blind political and economic leaders.
He even pointed out that the capitalist crisis is not a product of one country and a national crisis, but is an international crisis of the capitalist system.
This crisis the UK bosses and bankers cannot resolve on their own, or even begin to resolve it, beyond pauperising the working class to try to keep the banks afloat.
He revealed that the British capitalists are currently standing by and watching to see whether the EU is going to be dashed into pieces or not, fearing that when it does, that they and their banks and industries will be ruined.
King’s confession of bankruptcy makes it very clear that the time has come when the working class must put an end to capitalism in Europe and beyond, or else face a series of slumps and wars that will cost the lives of hundreds of millions.
Already resistance and revolution is emerging in all of the major capitalist countries, as the crisis of the system intensifies.
The task of the hour is the building of sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International in every country to lead the developing world socialist revolution to its victory.
Bankrupt out of date capitalism must be replaced by world socialism, based on the most powerful planned development worldwide of the productive forces to satisfy the needs of humanity.
Then the vision of Marx – ‘From each according to their ability to each according to their need’ will become the norm.