Terminal capitalism

The October fluster on the stock exchanges was reassured by the announcement of further quantitative easing by Japan’s central bank. However, $350 billion is only the monthly (quarterly at best) rent of $35 trillion, which in turn is only 5% of all there is out there looking for a profit. So the breathing space will be short, unless British and European central banks take up the relay and the American federal bank continues feeding liquidity into the system. And even then, it seems obvious that all this pumping is merely keeping afloat a doomed ship. Capitalism is insatiable and has destroyed the world to get its “pound of flesh”. But, having accumulated all there is, it now has to be nourished by “printing” money in large and ultimately insufficient quantities, and it will end up preying on itself in a messy outcome. What might be avoided in the aftermath is the rebirth of capitalism from its ashes, phoenix-style. There are no precedents of course, but the present is always new and unusual, and that makes hope possible.