Recession in the US, Japan and Germany: Crisis in the centers of capitalism
For the first time since the 1970s, the three centers of capitalism are simultaneously in recession. One after another, the governments and officials of the US, Germany and Japan announced at the end of November and start of December that economic production has been at a standstill or went down in the past six months. At the same time, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported that the 30 biggest economies in the world shrunk in the past six months - for the first time in the past 20 years. Prior to this, many Third World countries were already in recession.
This recession, which has reached the US, the very center of international capitalism, is a result of the crisis of overproduction, especially in electronics and telecommunications. This recession worsens the crisis in the semicolonies, including the Philippines, which are largely dependent on the US and Japan as markets of its export-oriented industries.
The US economy comprises one-fourth of the entire international production. Here, unemployment has reached 5.7%, the highest in the past six years. More than 7.7 million American workers are out of work including 732,000 workers laid off in the past few months. There is still a large inventory of unsold commodities. Interest rates have been pulled down to 1.75% (the lowest in the past 40 years) from 6.5% since the start of 2001, in the hope of jumpstarting production and consumption.
The Japanese economy has been stagnant for more than a decade now. It has reentered into a recession after its economy registered a 2.2% decline in September 2001. This is Japan's second recession since 1998 and is expected to last until March 2003. Unemployment has reached 5%. This means 3.3 million workers are jobless, the highest number since the end of World War II. Unemployment is expected to reach 5.7% by the end of 2002. Japan's annual trade surplus dropped 57.9% in July, reflecting the crisis of overproduction. The main stock market of Japan (Nikkei) is at its lowest level since 1984.
At the same time, unemployment was reported to have reached 9.2% in Germany. All in all, 3.289 million are out of work, including the 45,000 workers who lost jobs in November. The number of unemployed has steadily risen for the ninth straight month. Production in Germany declined by 0.1% from July-September 2001 and is expected to further drop by the fourth quarter of the year.
|
