How unfortunate, that those who ought to know better still believe in the "Global Economic Growth Fairy"!

Wake up and grow up, folks - economic growth is at the core of so many of our modern problems, not the solution!

One wonders how much intelligence the author really has when he (right from the start) uses the term the "far left" to describe and denigrate those he disagrees with.

Much the same tactic is used by those on the "right" in the USA, who are now using the word SOCIALISM to describe and criticize the policies of Barack Obama.

Meanwhile as ever my favourite "philosopher" sums up the world-wide situation created by those on the "right" of the culture wars, via these references

http://www.coteda.com/fundamentals/index.html

http://www.da-peace.org

chris, The real question is not what the US should have done 30 to 40 years ago but what should it do now. We are facing an absolute disaster in the world economy, collapsing trade and the fundamental implosion of the finance sector. We must move away from a paper fiat monetary system to a value based monetary system. It should at least be bimetallic or as I have written previously tri-metallic. The burden of full convertability should be shared by the four major currencies $US, Euro, Yen and Yuan. Fixed exchange rates with each member nation to ensure their currency trades in a 5% range against all reserve currencies. Establish a Economic security council to set the value of gold against the reserve currency and have the mandate of currency devaluation/revaluation upon an agreed definition of disequilibrium. This definition to be based on maintaing relative PPP and long term neutral current account position.
This system would restore financial stability, reduce currency movement risks and encourage more trade. Certainty and predictability is crucial to growth in the real economy, which is vital to restoring full employment. Fundamental change is necessary to avert the greatest depression in our history. The removal of capital controls has allowed mega foreign loans to Eastern European nations which has driven their recent growth. The floating exchange rate will destroy that growth. As these currencies undershoot, sovereign default, deflation or hyperinflation is the risk associated with massive social upheaval. The sovereign default risk of Eastern Europe could destroy the Euro with cataclysmic consequences.

Slasher,

Again I have no problem with much of what you say, although such ideas to resolve international finance have been around for years.

My point is that any solution will have consequences in a world of competing nations. Hence, so-called social democrats need to offer sensible ideas that address both national and international needs, a most difficult task indeed.

When you realise such a difficulty, then greater sympathy should be given to the efforts of liberal democratic governemtns in recent decades, notwithstanding our curent predicament.

I think this article is setting the Left up as a straw man to some extent.
Liberal democracy works fine so long as the transparency is there so to the "democracy" part works. What typified the Howard/Bush years was secrecy, media misdirection, nepotism and special interest groups. Any growth during this period was due to generational theft, running down of infrastructure and an unsustainable credit bubble. What was lacking was any consistent approach to economics, or even the Law...it was all mates rates, dog whistling and deniability. (Where are the WMD's that the government saw "solid" evidence for?)

Slasher: What about a currency based on a unit of energy? By linking wealth to energy (a fundamental, measurable unit), we remove the artificial "shiny metal" link with wealth which worked OK in a iron-age, pseudo-technological society but is pretty irrelevant to a modern information economy. The amount of wealth really has nothing to do with the quantity of refined metals in the world anymore.
We would still need a central banking system that is *not* in private hands for any currency system to work. Privatising banking is really, really silly!

Chris, liberal democracy failed in 1929, it failed in 2008. The failure in 1929 led to 12 000 000 deaths, social democracy does not have any failure with such drastic consequences.

Ozandy to suggest currency against units of energy is absurd. To create wealth more energy produced. Therefore dire consequences for global environment.

There are times when fiat monetary system is appropriate and there are times when a commodity based system is appropriate. We are now entering one of the times when a commodity based system is necessary, essentially to restore faith in financial system after unregulated derivative markets were allowed to run wild. Lets hope we do not have to see 12 000 000 deaths before we change the financial system.