In September 1998, the Fed organized 16 giant banks and brokerages to save the fund. Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman whom some of us remember as a disciple of Ayn Rand and her crackpot novels touting rape and ruthlessness in business as two of the most noble of human attributes, defended this bailout on the grounds that the bankruptcy of such a huge U.S. concern could spread a financial panic which well might spiral into world depression. But the bailout is only a stopgap measure, and an uncertain one. Globally, industrialists, often in newly privatized industries, borrow readily offered money against assets they do not have. Unregulated, underfinanced and obsessed with making a profit, they underpay their workers, overproduce their goods, and default on their loans.
Markets vanish, currencies fail, governments fall, and unemployment and the misery of the poor grow.
Condemn the building, demolish it, and start anew. While rulingclass leaders throw up their hands, workers are doing no such thing. And the activist trend is worldwide. Workers in Brazil fought privatization with giant strikes. An international wave of protest broke out in 1995-96, with striking French public sector workers supported by a general walkout.