A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

so deep and so difficult to resolve that such a devaluation will risk pushing
it towards collapse.
There are some orthodox thinkers who also believe that the present crisis
will lead to the collapse of capitalism, like for example the analysts
at the Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin, whose predictions about the
worsening of the situation lead to the total geopolitical dislocation of the
system, the collapse of the dollar, the disappearances of the bases of
the globalized financial system. Then there are those of Money&Markets
in the United States, who foresee the forthcoming deepening of the crisis
in a much more traditional sequence: the hollowing out of the budgetary
deficit, the swelling public debt, insufficient defence of the dollar
by the monetary authorities, etc.
For us, therefore, it is time to reconstruct alternatives and radical proposals
– on the left. And among the most difficult questions to deal with
are those concerning money and finance. These questions relate to the
external component of monetary policy (to the exchange systems, with
a debate between us about getting out of the euro, its relevance or not,
its effectiveness or not in re-appropriating the margins of manoeuvre)
and to the internal component of this policy (should there be political
control of the central bank?). Other questions relate to the financing of
the economy (how to regulate the financial oligopolies or, better still,
how to nationalize and control them democratically?); to the control of
foreign capital, together with the balance of payments; to common
strategies on the external debt; to those about building alternative regionalizations
(with continental nationalizations, to break with the logic
of the system and respond to the social needs of peoples – which
should in fact be the main objective of the science of economics). Finally,
there are questions about new forms of planning in the socialist transitions
now under way or to come – from the theoretical viewpoint (going
as far as suppressing money?), but above all involving the democratic
participation of the people in all the processes of decision concerning
their collective future.
It is true the difficulties that lie before us are very serious, but – we have
no choice – we must not loose hope!
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