AZ-Neu

As the first decade of the 21st century comes to its term, most countries in Europe and the world still find themselves in the midst of the severest financial and economic crisis in 80 years.
Prior to its collapse in 2008, the prevailing concept of laissez-faire financial capitalism implied that profits, in particular in the financial sector, could grow at double-digit rates while overall economic growth remained in the low singledigit range. This led to a general shift in income distribution at the expense of employees and low-income groups, i.e. a shift of national income from labour to capital and/or within wage income to the wealthy. Beyond this there has been increased downward pressure on the terms of conditions of those at the bottom of the labour market.
The concentration of ever more capital in the hands of ever fewer people has resulted in a weakening of broad-based demand. Two opposite growth models emerged both based on the necessity to compensate increasing income inequality with other sources of demand: either increased household borrowing (e.g. US, UK, Spain) or export-led growth (Germany, Japan, China). Rising global economic imbalances were the result. Both growth models have proven economically unsustainable. Meanwhile the problems associated with the ecological unsustainability of the prevailing economic model remain largely unaddressed, limited to vague declarations of intent, as the failure of the Copenhagen summit at the end of last year testifies.
The revelation of the limitations of financial capitalism has opened up a window of opportunity to propose and implement progressive reforms that Europe needs to shift to an equitable and socially and ecologically sustainable growth model. The European Trade Union Institute has brought together more than 30 prominent critical and progressive academics and researchers to help launch a debate on setting an agenda for a reformed capitalism ‘after the crisis’. Each has produced a short policy-oriented proposal in areas ranging from macroeconomic policy and financial market re-regulation, across labour market and social policies, to issues raised by the need for growth to be ecologically sustainable.
This conference reader presents, in alphabetical order of the authors, those contributions to a forthcoming ETUI book that were finalised by the end of 2009. The book will be published shortly with additional contributions and a thematic structure. The opinions presented are those of the respective authors.
The debate is open.
Andreas Botsch and Andrew Watt
Brussels, January 2010