L’atmosph\u00e8re \u00e0 Washington devient de plus en plus tendue, voire proche de la panique (near-panic<\/em>), \u00e0 mesure de l’aggravation de la crise g\u00e9n\u00e9rale et syst\u00e9mique, boursi\u00e8re, financi\u00e8re, \u00e9conomique, en m\u00eame temps que la crise du dollar. Le site WSWS.org<\/em> d\u00e9crit, aujourd’hui<\/a> la d\u00e9position du pr\u00e9sident de la Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, au Congr\u00e8s le 7 novembre: \u00abNear-panic atmosphere<\/em>\u00bb Le discours au Congr\u00e8s de Sarkozy<\/a> le lendemain, la d\u00e9claration d’un des vice-pr\u00e9sidents de la banque centrale chinoise (le dollar est en train de perdre son statut de devise mondiale de r\u00e9f\u00e9rence) ont \u00e9galement contribu\u00e9 \u00e0 la d\u00e9t\u00e9rioration du climat.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abOn Thursday, one day after American stock markets plummeted in the face of mounting bank losses, soaring oil prices and record lows for the US dollar, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a gloomy economic forecast in testimony before Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbBernanke admitted that the US housing slump and the credit crisis resulting from soaring defaults of subprime mortages had worsened since credit markets froze last August, and predicted that US economic growth would fall sharply in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the beginning of 2008.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbHe said the housing crisis would worsen in the coming months, as millions of homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages faced sharply higher interest payments when new rates kicked in, and hinted that the crisis on Wall Street could spiral into a full-blown recession.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbOn Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell 360.92 points, wiping out all the gains since the Fed’s half-point interest rate cut on September 18. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped by 44.65, while the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 76.42 points. The rout on Wall Street was precipitated by a series of developments underscoring the depths of the financial crisis.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbAs the dollar hit record lows against the euro and other currencies, Chinese officials said the weakness of the US dollar could lead them to diversify their $1.43 trillion in foreign exchange reserves into stronger currencies, such as the euro. A Chinese central bank vice director told a conference that the dollar was losing its status as the world currency.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbThe US economy, saddled with massive trade and current account deficits, depends on daily inflows of billions of dollars in capital from China, Japan and other countries for the functioning of its financial system. Any significant contraction of these capital flows would lead to a collapse in the dollar, massive interest rate increases, deep recession and the possibility of a US and global depression.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbAlso on Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in an address to the US Congress, criticized Wall Street excesses and the weak dollar and warned that monetary disorder risked turning into economic war. Sarkozy was speaking for a European bourgeoisie that is increasingly angered by a US monetary policy that has cheapened the price of US exports, made European imports more expensive, and begun to seriously impact European business.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tL’important ici, nous semble-t-il, est que la crise tend \u00e0 trouver son point central d’expression \u00e0 Washington. Ce n’est que justice mais l\u00e0 n’est pas le propos essentiel; ce n’est que justice mais ce n’est aussi que justesse. Quelles que soient les cons\u00e9quences, de la globalisation de la crise, des effets en cha\u00eene, des pays frapp\u00e9s ici ou l\u00e0, des m\u00e9canismes divers, etc., il reste que le point central producteur et inspirateur de la crise, le point central politique et philosophique de la crise est Washington. Comme on le voit, on se retrouve \u00e0 Washington, par tel ou tel biais, y compris celui de la visite d’un Sarkozy grim\u00e9 pour l’occasion en repr\u00e9sentant de la bourgeoisie europ\u00e9enne par WSWS.org<\/em>. C’est l\u00e0 qu’est n\u00e9e la crise parce que Washington est cr\u00e9ateur du syst\u00e8me actuel et que la crise est celle du syst\u00e8me. On trouve par cons\u00e9quent dans ce tableau presque breugh\u00e9lien que nous offre WSWS.org<\/em> une repr\u00e9sentation de la r\u00e9alit\u00e9, voire de la v\u00e9rit\u00e9 profonde des choses.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \tMis en ligne le 9 novembre 2007 \u00e0 10H07<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" L’atmosph\u00e8re \u00e0 Washington devient de plus en plus tendue, voire proche de la panique (near-panic), \u00e0 mesure de l’aggravation de la crise g\u00e9n\u00e9rale et syst\u00e9mique, boursi\u00e8re, financi\u00e8re, \u00e9conomique, en m\u00eame temps que la crise du dollar. Le site WSWS.org d\u00e9crit, aujourd’hui la d\u00e9position du pr\u00e9sident de la Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, au Congr\u00e8s le 7… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6936,3285,3228,3248],"class_list":["post-69396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloc-notes","tag-bernanke","tag-congres","tag-crise","tag-washington"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}