Evolution is real and God is no wizard, says Pope Francis

Evolution is real and God is no wizard, says Pope Francis. But this evolution is theistic rather than atheistic.

The type of evolutionary theory the Catholic Church espouses is teleological with Homo Sapiens as the end-product of a pre-determined process. But this is really nonsense given the catastrophes that life on Earth had to survive: asteroids, climate change, ice ages, super-volcanoes, Oxygen. Humans were reduced to about 2,000 to 10,000 individuals during the Stone Age. It was probably luck just we got through this at all.

What is more interesting is the tail-end of the article:

Pope Francis also delivered an off-the-cuff, mini-encyclical on the rights of the poor, the injustices of unemployment, and the need for environmental protection on Tuesday, saying he's not preaching communism but the Gospel.

He said the poor need land, a roof over their head and work, and said he knew well that "if I talk about this, some will think that the pope is communist".

"They don't understand that love for the poor is at the centre of the Gospel," he said. "Demanding this isn't unusual, it's the social doctrine of the church."

Francis' remarks to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, delivered in his native Spanish, ran for more than six pages, single-spaced.

Francis has already been branded a Marxist by conservative US commentators for his unbridled criticism of capitalist excesses, for his demand that governments redistribute social benefits to the needy, and his call for the church to be a "poor church, for the poor".

This sharpening of the divide between the interests of the Capitalists and the workers has forced the Catholic Church to side with the interests of the workers. But this does not mean that the Church espouses Socialism or Communism. These are still anathema.

The decay of the Capitalist superstructure means that the interests of the workers can be accomodated through reformist politics. Harsh choices have to be made about what people support: Capitalists or workers. There is no longer a middle ground—only the extremes.

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Artificial Billionaires: Regimes' Crony Capitalism Stifling Middle East

The World Bank sees there is a problem with the wrong type of state involvement in the economy—Artificial Billionaires: Regimes’ Crony Capitalism Stifling Middle East.

Contributors at Informed Comment write that:

The “privileges” referred to in the report are the many old policies that continue to protect the business interests of entrenched elites. The report shows the extent to which these policies—designed to prevent or deter competitors while allowing elites to make easy money or “to earn rents”—distort the natural workings of economies in which businesses either grow and become more productive, or exit the market. In this environment, political connections are more important for success than innovative spirit.

Emphasis Mine

In the view of the Capitalists, the state is supposed to defend their class interests against the workers, not favour one faction of Capitalists over another.

Despite what is happening elsewhere as Europe blunders towards new recession, the contributors maintain that Capitalism needs only be set free in order for it to work properly:

Only by removing the type of privileges described in this report can the region move toward the level of job creation it needs. The report shows that promoting open markets and competition, and leveling the playing field, will provide an environment conducive to entrepreneurship and the emergence of dynamic firms. Reforms initiated transparently would make sure citizens are aware of what their governments are doing and can provide input into policymaking.

This proves that Capitalism has exhausted its intellectual vigour. Capitalists have become zombies shuffling mindlessly around while muttering “Reforms! Reforms!”.

Workers should realise that only a worker-lead and controlled government can overcome the malaise in investment and create an economy that benefits the workers over the Capitalists.

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Europe blunders towards new recession

Dick Nichols writes that Europe blunders towards new recession.

The main cause of the possible new recession in Europe is due to the fundamental problem of Capitalism:

The root cause is the lack of profitable investment opportunities in production, even as big capital is nearly drowning in retained earnings.

The Europe-wide shortfall in demand arising from the investment slump is also confirmed by the continuing decline in the annual EU inflation rate. It fell to a new low of 0.4% in September and was zero or negative in four of the crisis-hit countries of the “periphery” — Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

The IMF has proposed a Keynesian response of using the very low interest rates to fund public works:

The evidence of the costs of stagnant investment has now become so strong that IMF chief economist Oliver Blanchard has called on Germany to take advantage of its very low borrowing costs to raise its deficit and fund public investment in infrastructure.

Since Germany is so intransigently pro-business in pushing for lower public debt, lower wages, and lower taxes, the only real hope for Greece is for strong left-wing government action:

By the same token, however, if a Syriza government can force through its program of radical debt renegotiation, higher working-class incomes and greater public investment funded by higher taxes on the rich, then the start of the only possible road out of austerity will become visible.

The lessons of the last two hundred years of Capitalism are still being ignored. The Capitalists are only interested in protecting their capital. And the state protects the Capitalists. The sooner the workers wake up to this, the sooner they can start exploring alternatives to Capitalism.

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Now the economists complain we're not shopping enough

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Peter Boyle writes that Now the economists complain we're not shopping enough.

Boyle quotes Nick Hanauer from his essay “The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats”:

The thing about us businesspeople is that we love our customers rich and our employees poor. So for as long as there has been capitalism, capitalists have said the same thing about any effort to raise wages.

This highlights the fundamental cause of crises in Capitalism: underconsumption. The workers can only buy commodities with money they earn through labour. It is possible in the short-term for credit to be used to fill the gap, but as was seen in the GFC, this only delays the inevitable.

Hanauer concludes that:

If we don't do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn't eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It's not if, it's when

Although this is welcome, the revolt could more likely end as a Fascist state because of the low political consciousness of the workers.

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