See through the capitalist system in Europe and U.S. from financial crisis (3)
The World Economic Forum in Davos, known as a high-end forum on world economy, closed at the end of last month.
Nearly 40 heads of state or government and thousands of business leaders gathered in Switzerland to diagnose world economy and make a prescription for the future of the world.
Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), gave a speech at the opening session of the forum under the theme of the the capitalist system should reflect on a painful experience, which greatly inspired the participants.
Klaus Schwab suggested that capitalism need to be redesigned. He said that “outdated capitalist systems could lead the world to ‘dystopia’. The world needs a new model to address new challenges humanity is facing nowadays.”
His view was warmly received by participants. David Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of private equity firm The Carlyle Group, warned that “only 3 or 4 years are left for us to transform our economic models, otherwise we would inevitably see the end of our systems.”Citigroup's chief executive officer Vikram Pandit, said that banks should serve customers, not themselves. George Soros, a well-known investor, had made severe criticism of the current capitalist systems on many occasions.
In recent years, such issues as sustainable development, environmental protection, energy innovation, regulation of financial crisis, trade friction, social development and employment have been the talking points in the World Economic Forum in Davos, among which is veiled criticism of China’s political and economic policies such as exchange rate and trade surplus.
As “reflection on capitalism” is the central theme of this year’s forum, the pattern of blaming China when something goes wrong in the world economy has changed and the contribution made by China to the world economy has won more acknowledgement among the participants.
However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner alone insisted that China’s trade policies did harm to the interests of economic and trade partners and damaged the world trade system which is supposed to be sustainable. He spared no effort to appeal for the appreciation of the yuan, not only against the U.S. dollar, but also against Euro and Japanese yen, by a large margin.
Let others pay for their own troubles is the old trick of those western politicians like Timothy Geithner. Apart from this, we should take a look at Klaus Schwab’s conclusion：”any endeavor to solve practical problems with outdated systems could only drive the world into a round of new crises, which is characterized by downward global economy, social disruption, protectionism and nationalism.” Obviously, Schwab had proposed a solution to deal with the defects of the capitalist system.
Based on the reflection on the capitalist system and the discussion on its transformation aroused by financial crisis, the elites from all walks of life worldwide have thought deeply about the future of capitalism on one side, and have taken notice of the conflict and distrust between European capitalism and American capitalism on the other side.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: as the world’s biggest economy, the U.S. should undertake its due obligations to strengthen the supervision of financial institutions, avoid reckless issuing of currency and keep world economic order. She asserted that state intervention and supervision should be increased and also admitted that she didn’t appreciate the American capitalist system, regarded as modern and free.
Ever since its birth, the capitalist system has undergone many crises and improvements. However, with the greedy nature of the capital and unconstrained oligarchy, the current system of capitalism is difficult to be changed. Instead, it has bred a world hegemony constantly seeking to maximize capital interest, not only impacting the world economy, but also causing political and social contradictions in the world.
Given that, there is a long way to go for capitalism to reform itself thoroughly.
See through the capitalist system in Europe and U.S. from financial crisis (1)
See through the capitalist system in Europe and U.S. from financial crisis (2)
