The financial tsunami caused by the flapping wings of the "American butterfly" called the "subprime mortgage crisis" is spreading to the world and to the real economy. In the environment of economic globalization, the crisis will inevitably have a certain impact on China's economic development. The strong measures taken by the Chinese government have been highly praised by international public opinion. Thinking about the underlying causes of the outbreak of the financial crisis from a more macro level and finding patterns and inspirations are of great significance for us to strengthen our confidence in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and to strengthen our confidence in resisting the financial crisis.

Crisis and capitalism are innate and are a genetic and institutional disease

Regarding the reasons for the financial crisis, the newly elected President of the United States Obama has a very classic saying: " We did not get to this point because of an accident of history. It was Wall Street's greed and irresponsibility that caused today's situation." If you are familiar with economic and financial history, there is a tradition that Wall Street's "greed and irresponsibility" have caused financial turmoil in the United States and around the world.

From the financial crisis in 1929, the U.S. stock market crash in 1970, the "Enron incident", "Tyco incident", "Lucent incident" and many other large company scandals in the early 21st century, to the current disaster. The global financial crisis and the recurrence of crises have become a phenomenon unique to capitalist society.

Marx said, "The first time history repeats it is a tragedy, the second time it is a farce." It is not enough to blame the greed and irresponsibility of capitalists for the recurring farce. Some farsighted people in the West have gone a long way in reflecting on the financial crisis. In mid-to-late September, when the U.S. financial crisis spread to Europe, the leader of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury Ron Williams, wrote that “Marx’s comments about capitalism in the 19th century were correct to a certain extent. Because he We have observed how unfettered capitalism has become a myth a long time ago.” An editorial published by Agence France-Presse wrote: “If Marx has a spirit, I am afraid he will laugh to himself because his prediction has once again become a myth. Reality." This shows that Marxism is still a key to our exploration of the global financial crisis today.

Marx has long understood the greedy nature of capitalists. He believed that capitalists are only "personalized capital". Therefore, the nature displayed by capitalists is essentially the nature of capital. The nature of capital is to "get rich for the sake of getting rich." Marx once quoted the British critic Dunning as saying: "Capital is afraid of no profit or too little profit, just like nature is afraid of a vacuum. Once there is an appropriate profit, capital becomes bold. If there is a 10% profit, it guarantees It is used everywhere; with 20% profit, it becomes active; with 50% profit, it takes desperate risks; for 100% profit, it dares to cruelly trample on all human laws; with 300% profit, it dares to violate Any crime may even risk being hanged."

On this basis, Marx further explained why the greed of capital will lead to economic crisis, and this crisis will become inevitable in the development process of capitalism. nightmare. Marx's logic is this: It is capital's insatiable greed for profits that drives the scale of production to become larger and larger; and because most of the wealth is occupied by capitalists, the purchasing power of workers is relatively smaller than the ever-expanding Enterprise production capacity actually tends to decline, so what is produced cannot be sold, capital turnover is interrupted, and enterprises are forced to idle productivity, and an economic crisis occurs. But the crisis cannot eliminate some fundamental contradictions in capital society. Therefore, after a crisis passes, as the economy recovers and develops, the basic "story" will repeat itself.

According to Marx, crisis and capitalism are innate and are a systemic and genetic disease. His famous saying, "The means - the unconditional development of social productive forces - constantly conflicts with the limited purpose of the expansion of existing capital" has been repeatedly proven by the history of capitalist development for more than 100 years.

The crisis shows the transitional nature of capitalism as a social system in human history

Some people say that Marx was talking about the crisis of relative overproduction in the real economy in the 19th century, which is consistent with Does the current financial crisis matter? Marx has long said that with the development of capitalism, the huge growth of fictitious capital such as stocks and bonds and the rise of various speculative activities have created a strong demand for further expansion of the scale of credit.

However, the return of capital with a large amount of goods in hand is very slow and the quantity is so small, "that banks call for loans, or bills of exchange issued to purchase goods expire before the goods can be sold again, and a crisis occurs. ... …Then the collapse broke out, and it ended the false prosperity in one fell swoop.” Interestingly, this assertion is consistent with the “debt-deflation” theory proposed by modern American economics master Irving Fisher to explain the financial crisis. The core ideas are almost identical. Fisher also believes that in order to pursue more profits, companies continue to expand their scale, so they choose to "over-borrow" in the financial market; but when production capacity is relatively excess relative to the purchasing power of the whole society, companies have difficulties in capital turnover and gradually lose their ability to repay loans. , thus causing a chain reaction, leading to monetary tightening, forming a vicious circle, and the financial crisis broke out. Therefore, the financial crisis is just a special manifestation of the economic crisis after financial capital became independent from industrial capital. Its essence is still the crisis of relative overproduction that Marx talked about.

Compared with previous financial crises, the scope of this financial crisis is unprecedented, and the response to the crisis is also global. Rentier capitalism has entered its highest stage, which is global financial monopoly capitalism, also known as "casino capitalism." The main forces that manipulate the great casino of capitalist financial markets are the rich countries as well as bankers, capitalists and professional brokers. They are the big winners in this casino. Although a handful of ordinary residents occasionally make small wins in this casino, generally speaking, poor countries and the general public are the victims as usual. The dominance of the U.S. dollar in international trade, investment, and finance determines that the United States is the director and decision-maker in this casino. As long as the United States issues foreign debt, prints money, and especially artificially devalues ??the U.S. dollar, the U.S. dollars held by other countries will and U.S. bonds shrink significantly, the transfer of global wealth to the United States can be achieved. The U.S. population only accounts for 4.5% of the world's population, but consumes 30% of the world's resources; in fact, the total U.S. domestic debt and international debt has already exceeded 60 trillion U.S. dollars, four times the U.S. GDP. There is no doubt that the United States is using its dollar status to overdraft the world. In order to seize more wealth, the financial derivatives "invented" by the United States and Wall Street became more and more complex, causing the financial bubble to inflate bigger and bigger. When the development of the world's real economy could not support such a large bubble, the financial crisis broke out. Therefore, the financial crisis that originated in the United States and spread to the world has further confirmed the scientific nature of Marxism and further demonstrated the transitional nature of capitalism as a social system in human history.

Get useful inspiration from the crisis and crisis response, and strengthen your confidence in socialism with Chinese characteristics

Today we reflect on the financial crisis, of course, the main purpose is not just to criticize capital and capitalism.

Marx was a critic and destroyer of capitalism, but few people discovered, like Braudel, a historian of the French Annales School, that Marx was also capitalism and the "greatest praiser" of capital. . Marx wrote in the "Communist Manifesto": "The productive forces created by the bourgeoisie in its less than a hundred years of class rule are more numerous and greater than the total productive forces created by all previous generations. "He also said: "Although capital is narrow according to its own nature, it strives to comprehensively develop productive forces, which becomes the prerequisite for a new mode of production and the basis of this mode of production..."

< p> Of course, we affirm the progressive role of capital, not to engage in "capital worship". We recognize the shortcomings of capital, and we do not intend to eliminate capital, but to maximize its strengths and avoid weaknesses and better play its role in the market economy. As some comrades have pointed out, it is okay to play with "capital", but if you play with "ism", you will suffer.

It is precisely because of his recognition of the role of capital and capitalism in history that Marx said in the "Communist Manifesto" that "the bourgeoisie...it forces all nations to perish if they do not want to perish. In other words, it adopts the bourgeois mode of production; it forces them to implement so-called civilization in their own country, that is, to become bourgeois. In a word, it creates a world for itself according to its own appearance. "Marx once also predicted that Eastern society will. “In order to drink from the sweet wine of modern productivity, it had to make a chalice out of a human head, like the terrible pagan gods.

"The reason why the Chinese Communists and the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics led by them are great is that, on the one hand, the Chinese Communists are determined to lead the Chinese people across the "Kavdin Canyon" and prevent China from returning to the Entering into the logic of capital rule of "using human heads as wine glasses"; on the other hand, the Chinese Communists intend to develop China's productive forces through reform and opening up without breaking through the framework of the basic value orientation of "socialism", " Drink the sweet wine of modern productivity.

In order to achieve this goal, socialism with Chinese characteristics must also make full use of capital in the development process, and at the same time must integrate into "world history" through opening up. And this financial The crisis has given us many inspirations and opportunities.

- Persist in following your own path and doing your own things well. The financial crisis sweeping the world has further exposed the limitations of free capitalism; At the same time, China has once again become the "anchor" of the world economy as it did in the 1997 Asian financial crisis, demonstrating that socialism with Chinese characteristics explored by the Chinese Communists has the ability to avoid and respond to crises. In the context of globalization, China, as a responsible major country, should work with the international community to maintain international financial stability and economic stability. But at the same time, as President Hu stressed, we must first deal with domestic matters. Good.

- Further explore the mechanisms and systems for scientific development. We can summarize the experiences and lessons provided by the global financial crisis and further improve the mechanisms and systems that are conducive to scientific development. Better handle the relationship between economic development and social equity, so that the results of reform and development can be enjoyed by the broad masses of the people; better handle the relationship between opening up and maintaining economic security, and achieve orderly and controllable opening; better Properly handle the relationship between the virtual economy and the real economy, so that the development of the virtual capital market matches the development of the real economy; better handle the relationship between financial innovation and financial supervision, so that profit-seeking capital is always within the scope of government regulation etc.

——Further promote the establishment of a fair and reasonable international economic and political order. The profound impact of the financial crisis on the world and its wide scope have fully exposed the flaws of globalization dominated by capitalism. Limitations. On the one hand, the emergence of the U.S. financial crisis has shaken the U.S.-led, dollar-centered international economic and financial system. On the other hand, when the world economy is in recession due to the financial crisis, the Chinese economy is in decline. It is still a highlight. This has created conditions for increasing our country's influence in international economic and political affairs. Our country can use this condition to actively carry out international economic exchanges and cooperation and promote the establishment of a fair and reasonable international economic and political order in the world. Play a greater role in economics and politics.

The financial crisis requires a comprehensive reflection, including reflection on social trends since the 1990s. As far as ethical trends are concerned, the prominent issue is the "theory of selfishness of human nature." The prevalence of "private evil is public welfare" and "greed is good" is prevalent. Western neoliberal scholars have exaggerated the "self-interested economic man" who was originally just a theoretical "hypothesis" for studying the market economy, that is, as Mill said at the time, "an abstraction" in theory. Because in fact everyone is pursuing "maximizing interests". Some neoliberals also advertise "economic imperialism" and advocate that the "economic man" hypothesis can be used to explain all social problems. and traces this idea back to Smith. Such concepts have also spread to China and have a wide influence, pervading academic circles and public opinion. Even a historical novel about the Ming Dynasty said: "Comrade Smith pointed out the truth that man is born and will always be a selfish animal." Is this really true of Adam Smith? Zhao Xiuyi's interpretation of "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" shows us a comprehensive and true Smith, especially Smith as a moralist. Provides a perspective for moral reflection on the financial crisis.

The emotional "appropriateness" associated with economic motivations as well as the virtues of prudence, kindness, justice, self-control, etc. explained in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" are actually related to traditional Chinese ethics. There are similarities. Chinese tradition advocates "harmony and desire" - the "middle section" (appropriateness) of emotions is called "harmony". According to this, when dealing with the relationship between justice and benefit, we can achieve "righteousness to control benefit" and "justify justice to seek benefits." profit". These concepts still have lasting vitality in the market economy.

A recent "New York Times" article recommended the strict professionalism and noble ethics of the Jinshang Bank in Shanxi, China, as a reference for crisis management, which is evidence of this. How to explore the advantages of traditional moral resources and correct bad habits must be seriously considered by all sectors of society when responding to the economic crisis