The Global Capital Game

All I really want to do is Baby be friends with you.

Bob Dylan

Global capitalism has no political loyalties per se. If the world wants a better can opener or a better nuclear bomb, the market will provide it. That makes for problems for a certain class of market fundamentalist.

These market fundamentalists believe it is right and good that the United States should cut its own nuclear deal with India, but they dislike attempts by Russia and China to do the same with Iran. They defend their stance by stating that the current Iran regime is evil while India is not. Evil is often in the eye of the beholder. In the eye of global capital evil does not exist at all. Global capital only recognizes those folks who are buying and those who aren’t.

Solidarity between the United State, Europe, Russia, China, and India when it comes to carving up the economic pie will remain as elusive as ever. Those who demand political solidarity when it comes to Iran, yet at the same time extol the virtues of global capitalism are engaging in either sophistry or self delusion. Honor among market fundamentalists has never been as reliable a motive as some have trumpeted.

This is yet another case of you go first. Upsetting the nuclear balance between Pakistan and India hasn’t gone unnoticed in Pakistan, Russia, China, or the Muslim world. The United States makes its own unilateral deals without worrying too much about world opinion. Others know how the game is played, and are bound to pursue their own agendas without much care for world opinion either.

The world happens to want a better nuclear bomb rather than a better can opener. Playing the global capital game, and then crying foul when things don’t go your way doesn’t rouse much sympathy. The problem with making high risk investments has always been that you might not get your money back. Some folks think they are immune from that iron law of global capitalism. It doesn’t work that way when the strong play against the strong.

Extolling the virtues global capitalism while failing to apply its logic may not be inconsistent, but it could certainly lead to losing your wallet.