A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

However, the financial bubble created over recent decades – thanks,
among other things, to new information and communication technology
– has increased the problems beyond measure. As we know, the crisis
exploded with the phenomenon of the sub-prime mortgages in the
United States: i.e. the insolvency of millions of people, which had been
camouflaged for a time by a whole series of derivative financial products
(Reinaldo A. Carcanholo and Mauricio de S. Sabadini, 2009, 57). In the
industrialized countries, consumption has increased more rapidly than
incomes (Joseph Stiglitz, 2010, 12). However, the phenomenon is much
older, dating from the time when the virtual economy became more important
than the real economy: in other words, when financial capital
began to be more profitable than productive capital (Jorge Beinstein,
2009, 29). One of the main origins of this process, according to Joseph
Stiglitz (2010,22), was the decision of President Nixon, in 1972, to suspend
the conversion of the dollar into gold, which initiated new monetary
policies within the framework of increased international economic
interdependence (globalization).
Capitalism has experienced financial crises from very early on. The first
was at the end of the 18 th century, and they were to reoccur over subsequent
years, the most recent one, at world level, being that of the
years 1929/1930. This was followed, after the Second World War, by regional
crises (Mexico, Argentina, Asia, Russia). In the countries at the
centre of the system, the new world financial crisis of 2008 triggered a
series of specific policies: indebtedness of the State, restriction of credit,
austerity measures, etc. But the countries of the South were also affected,
through decreases in exports (China) and in remittances (Central
America and the Andean countries, the Philippines), and through rising
oil prices, etc. They were less affected by insolvencies, which were characteristic
of the North, and in fact many benefited from the rise in the
prices of natural resources and accumulated important monetary resources.
This created, however, as far as energy was concerned, an imbalance
between the countries that produced oil and those that did not.
As for food products, the rise in prices mostly affected the poorest consumers,
particularly the women.
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