God’s newest house in the Gulf

Thousands were dubbed ‘living stones' by the Vatican's head of evangelisation as they celebrated the consecration of the church of Our Lady of the Rosary last week in Qatar, the latest Arabian Muslim state to permit the opening of a dedicated place of Catholic worship
When a mosque was built in Rome the authorities ruled that the minaret could not be taller than St Peter's. Similarly the architect designing the first ever Catholic church in the Arabian Gulf state of Qatar had to be mindful of the Islamic laws of the host country. Hence Our Lady of the Rosary in the capital, Doha, has no steeple, bell or cross or indeed anything else on the outside that advertises it as a Christian place or worship.
At the festivities last Saturday to mark the consecration there were yet more reminders that this church is not welcomed by all in this conservative Islamic state: stationed at each entrance of the building was an armed security guard supplied by the Government.
Inside, however, the mood was one of joyous celebration lasting almost four hours. The 2,000 or so seats were filled, the aisles packed and hundreds more people stood outside watching the service on TV screens. On the altar were parish priests, bishops and nuncios past and present, and Cardinal Ivan Dias, head of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and former Archbishop of Bombay. Before them were rows and rows of uniforms: children in feather-winged angel outfits, eucharistic ministers in white robes, men in dark suits, more in jeans, Indian women in saris.
The church is a vast, light, airy semi-circular chamber with vaults that fan out from a circle of golden light in the ceiling. The blue walls, which pale near the top to represent an ascent heavenwards, are stencilled with angels, the Holy Family and saints, and behind the altar are stained-glass windows brought over from an old church in France with the help of Bertrand Besancenot, formerly France's ambassador in Qatar and now representing his country in Saudi Arabia.
In his homily Cardinal Dias told the congregation they were all "living stones in the house of God", and to loud cheers held up a chalice he has brought as a gift from Pope Benedict. Many Catholics have come to work in Qatar over the last 15 years since the discovery of large reserves of petroleum and natural gas fuelled the country's rapid modernisation and a building boom. This has produced jobs for Western oil workers, jobs for Indian engineers, Indian taxi-drivers, Bangladeshi stall-holders, Filipino labourers, Filipina maids. Of Qatar's 900,000 population, more than 500,000 - some say 800,000 - are foreign.
At the consecration this demographic was celebrated by a "parade of nations" - representatives from some 60 countries who processed altarwards in national dress. There was Indian dancing and African singing and drumming. Later, prayers were said by a dozen or so people in as many different languages, among them French, Italian, Arabic (for the Lebanese), Sinhalese from Sri Lanka, Tagalog from the Philippines, Malayalam and Tamil from India, and Urdu from Pakistan.
The former parish priest, Californian Fr John Van Deerlin, told the congregation that the church had been a long time coming -eight years since permission was granted - and there had been long discussions about the risks attached to making their worship public. After the Mass, a former Apostolic Vicar of Arabia, Bishop Bernardo Gremoli, told The Tablet that the new church was "a dream come true". He said he had befriended the current Emir before he came to power in 1995 and the church is in large part the fruit of their relationship. Our Lady of the Rosary was built at a cost of more than £7 million on land donated by the Emir. On the same compound a Syrian Orthodox church has been built and will be consecrated shortly, and permissions have been granted for Anglican, Coptic and multi-denominational churches.
According to Bishop Gremoli the previous Emir was much more hardline. But today Qatar is the home of Al Jazeera and of an annual interfaith conference. Although apostasy is still illegal for its majority Muslim citizens, Qatar is receptive to people from minority faiths. In many speeches at the consecration, and at a diplomatic reception the night before, the church reiterated its gratitude to the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. At the reception, which included a non-alcoholic cocktail party, vice-Prime Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said the Emir urged "people to accept the good features of every religion for one's own betterment and for the improvement of relations between communities and people of different cultures".
The consecration and a diplomatic reception made front-page news in three main papers; an editorial in The Peninsula pointed out that while some had criticised the Government for granting the churches permission to build, there was "widespread approval" for the projects. The Gulf Times went further, including a feature acknowledging Qatar's pre-Islamic - Christian - past and adding that in the main the gradual mass-conversion to Islam in the country occurred "peacefully".
It is believed that churches existed in Qatar until 1,400 years ago, perhaps even later. The country was part of the Church of the East, the Church of the Persian Empire, which today exists as the Ancient Church of the East and the Assyrian Church of the East. Both branches are currently in talks with the Vatican. In the seventh century, Qatar was an important Christian centre. There was a bishopric and it was the birthplace of the mystic and writer Isaac of Nineveh. At the time Christians were followers of Bishop Nestorius, whose view of Christ as two persons were declared heretical at the Council of Ephesus (431). Though historical records are scant it appears that Islam and Christianity co-existed in Qatar for a few centuries before increasing social, economic and political pressure forced more and more Christians to convert to Islam and by the eleventh century the faith had disappeared.
Nine centuries on, the first Catholic priest in Doha arrived in 1976. Now there is a community of Capuchins and a team of seven priests led by Fr Tomasito Veneracion, a Filipino, to minister to expatriate workers. For the last 10 years or so Catholics coming to Qatar have worshipped in a modest parish centre on the outskirts of Doha, where up to 20 Masses have been celebrated in various languages, and even in various Oriental Rites, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. With the Muslim day of rest being Friday, Saturdays and Sundays are regular weekdays with most people attending Mass before or after work.
Aref Ali Nayed, an adviser to the Cambridge Interfaith Programme and one of the 138 Muslim scholars who signed a letter addressed to the Pope inviting more Christian-Muslim dialogue, said the opening of the church was not so much evidence of a shift in attitude towards non-Muslims as a shift in demographic due to the movement of workers in the oil and financial sector. He said delays in granting permission to build churches or restrictions on architecture should not be seen as hostility towards Christians.
"People get the wrong impression that Muslims are preventing Christians from worshipping. You try getting a permit to build anything in Arabic or Western countries." Commenting on the ban on a sign outside the church, he said: "In non-Muslim countries, most mosques are not allowed to use loudspeakers for the call to prayer. You can't come in from outside and dictate how people should do things in another community. When something good happens, like this, the press wants to criticise the Emir's father or the Government. Given the situation in the world today, it's not very fair or wise. We need to encourage positive developments where they occur."
After the service excited Indians grabbed the Mumbai-born Cardinal Dias to join them in their family photos. "I can't express how excited I am to have a church," beamed a parish-council member, an engineer from Kerala who has lived here for more than 20 years. "All this time we've been ‘roaming Catholics'," joked another council member.
Just two days after the consecration of the Qatar church, Vatican Radio reported that discussions were taking place between the Vatican and the Saudi Government to build the first Catholic church in Saudi Arabia. The country has a Catholic population estimated at 800,000 - almost all of them migrant workers. At present they are forbidden to hold public services, or possess Bibles, rosaries or crucifixes. As the spokesman for the Holy See, Fr Federico Lombardi, pointed out last Tuesday, opening a church in Saudi Arabia would indeed be "a historic achievement".

Fonte: The Tablet, 22.03.08.

God's Grandeur

God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.


Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Fed Can't Do It Alone

Psychology has now overwhelmed economics. What started last summer as a serious problem in a little-known -- but not so little -- corner of the U.S. mortgage market has blossomed into a worldwide financial panic, the sort we read about in history books. Except within the Republican Party, laissez-fairy tales have been discarded, and government support is being both sought and given.
The financial markets live or die on confidence. If you sell a security, you must believe the other guy will pay. You must also believe that something worth $30 at Friday's close, such as shares of Bear Stearns, will not be worth $2 at Monday's open. Such confidence looks to be draining from the system.
Who can restore it? Once upon a time, it was J.P. Morgan -- the man, not the company. Today, it must be the world's leading central banks and treasuries, starting with our own.
Unfortunately, this past weekend was a bad one for Team USA. On Friday, President Bush gave a speech at the Economic Club of New York that left people wondering whether he was in touch. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who has been eerily silent as this crisis unfolded, made the rounds of the morning talk shows. It was not reassuring to see this former titan of Wall Street recite his talking points. Wolf Blitzer asked him five times, "Why did you bail out Bear Stearns?" He never got an answer.
Actually, the Treasury didn't bail out Bear Stearns; the Federal Reserve did. Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Fed have been working overtime; they have slashed interest rates and lent or offered money to almost everyone potentially involved in this mess. On Sunday, the Fed even put its own balance sheet at risk to smooth the way for J.P. Morgan (the company, not the man) to "buy" Bear Stearns. But the stunningly low purchase price, far below even the value of Bear Stearns's Manhattan building, did not exactly inspire confidence.
Earth to the White House and Congress: The Fed cannot do this job alone.
But isn't the central bank the fabled "lender of last resort"? Yes, and the Fed is performing that role extensively. But central banks are designed to lend money to banks that are illiquid but not insolvent. It is not supposed to spend taxpayer money or even put much of it at risk. Those political decisions are properly made by elected leaders.
So what can be done now?
First, everyone should take a deep breath. To those living far from the canyons of Manhattan, the sky is not falling. If you don't want to sell your home, forget about falling house prices. Even on paper, it's unlikely that you've "lost" anything near what you "gained" in the run-up. Yes, the economy is limping, but it's not collapsing. And the effects of the Fed's interest rate cuts and the stimulus package that Congress enacted last month are still to come.
Second, it would be nice to see some patient capital step up to the plate. With so many assets on fire sale, buying opportunities abound. Highly leveraged public companies with mark-to-market accounting and daily liquidity drains are too petrified to buy. But patient investors who don't need liquidity and don't have to worry about mark-to-market accounting have a chance to be the J.P. Morgans of our day.
Third, our nation's great financial houses need to use the breathing space the Fed is providing to put themselves in order -- post haste. They need to come clean, book the losses and, in many cases, raise new capital. If the capital must come from abroad, Americans must set aside their pride and/or xenophobia. (By the way, why are some of these companies still paying large dividends and enormous bonuses to their top executives?)
Fourth, we need leadership from political Washington. Forget the president. We need the Treasury secretary to take charge, not just to "support the Fed." While Paulson repeats his "strong dollar" mantra, confidence in the dollar ebbs. How about doing something about it -- such as a dramatic currency market intervention in concert with other nations?
Fifth, I'd like to hear the Fed, which has the credibility the administration lacks, talk more -- and in plain English. For example, I'd like to hear it answer Wolf Blitzer's question -- and others. I'm sure Bernanke can do it better than Paulson.
But our best hope for leadership from Washington may now be in Congress. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) are working on a fine bill that, by easing some of the stresses in the mortgage market, could do some real good. I urge Frank, Dodd and the Democratic leadership to expedite the process, and congressional Republicans should stop standing in the way.
In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt famously told Americans that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Unbridled fear is gripping today's financial markets. We need some soothing words right now -- followed by actions, as FDR's words were. Who will step forward?

Alan S. Blinder, a vice chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1994 to 1996, is an economics professor at Princeton .

Frei Betto

Frei Betto tem toda razão quando afirma que “é preciso que os beneficiários[ do Bolsa Família] produzam sua própria renda, sem depender do poder público nem correr o risco de retornar à miséria.” Acerta, novamente, quando observa que “ não temos ainda democracia econômica”.

É difícil, no entanto, concordar com as respostas implicítas em algumas de suas indagações: “Como é possível ter êxito no combate à fome sem reforma agrária?Como se explica as famílias pobres terem mais acesso à renda e ao consumo e, ao mesmo tempo, sofrerem a ameaça de dengue e febre amarela?” . Não é necessário fazer reforma agrária para resolver o problema da fome. Aumento na renda é um meio mais eficaz e ,politicamente, menos explosivo de se resolver o problema. As ameaças que ele menciona é a consequência obvia do descaso com medidas preventivas que por sua vez é o resultado da dificuldade em perceber que investimento em saúde também inclui saneamento básico, por ex.. E esta dificuldade não esta restrita apenas ao mundo político, mas inclui, por ex, alguns setores, de esquerda, do mundo acadêmico.

Há nas indagações do Frei Betto um certo tom remanescente das canções de protesto dos anos 60, o famoso “dia que virá “que, no caso dele, corresponderia a “democracia econômica”. Resta saber o que ele entende por democracia econômica: democracia social de mercado ou socialismo ao estilo cubano?

Our Uncertain Economy

In recent times, most economists have pretended that the economy is essentially predictable and understandable. Economic decision- and policy-making in the private and public sectors, the thinking goes, can be reduced to a science. Today we are seeing consequences of this conceit in the financial industries and central banking. "Financial engineering" and "rule-based" monetary policy, by considering uncertain knowledge to be certain knowledge, are taking us in a hazardous direction.
Predictability was not always the economic fashion. In the 1920s, Frank Knight at the University of Chicago viewed the capitalist economy as shot through with "unmeasurable" risks, which he called "uncertainty." John Maynard Keynes wrote of the consequences of Knightian uncertainty for rational action.
Friedrich Hayek began a movement to bring key points of uncertainty theory into the macroeconomics of employment -- a modernist movement later resumed when Milton Friedman and I started the "micro foundations of macro" in the 1960s.
In the 1970s, though, a new school of neo-neoclassical economists proposed that the market economy, though noisy, was basically predictable. All the risks in the economy, it was claimed, are driven by purely random shocks -- like coin throws -- subject to known probabilities, and not by innovations whose uncertain effects cannot be predicted.
This model took hold in American economics and soon practitioners sought to apply it. Quantitative finance theory became a tool relied on by most banks and hedge funds. Policy rules based on this model were adopted at the Federal Reserve and other central banks.
The neo-neoclassicals claimed big benefits from these changes. They boasted that their statistical approach to risk made the financial sector much more effective in matching lenders with borrowers, with vast savings in labor and increases in profits. They asserted a decline in "volatility" in the U.S. economy and credited it to the monetary policy rules at the Fed.
Current experience is putting these claims to the test.
Subprime lending and the securitization of debt was an innovation that, it was believed, offered the prospect of increasing homeownership. But "risk management" was out of its depth here: It had no past data from which to estimate needed valuations on the novel assets, it did not allow for possible macroeconomic dynamics, and it took inadequate account of the system effects of unknown numbers of entrants into the new business all at nearly the same.
The claim for rule-based monetary policy is weak on its face. In deciding on the short-term interest rate it controls (the Fed funds rate) the Federal Reserve thinks about the "natural" interest rate -- the rate needed if inflation is neither to rise nor fall. Then the Fed asks whether the expected inflation rate is above or below the target. The Fed also asks whether the unemployment rate is above or below the medium-run "natural" unemployment level -- the level to which sooner or later the actual rate will return.
But the medium-run natural unemployment rate and the natural interest rate are anything but certain. About the natural unemployment rate, Friedman and I used to say at every chance that it is not like the speed of light; it is always shifting, temporarily or permanently, with new developments. We know many of its determinants by now -- but not with any precision and, for sure, not all of them. It is uncertain. More than one view about it is tenable.
The Fed's view seems to be that the medium-term natural unemployment rate is stable. Thus the rise of actual unemployment in the past year is wholly or largely temporary -- a result of passing forces such as the surge in the price of energy, the time home prices are taking to get to down to their new equilibrium path, and the financial market tangle yet to be unwound.
Accordingly, the Fed has cut the Fed funds rate with each increase of unemployment. This "cushions" the fall of employment, as Fed governor Donald Kohn put it, until the contractionary forces pass and unemployment retracts to its former level.
What if inflation -- and thus inflation expectations -- move up? Tighter money can deal with it in the future from a position of strength -- i.e., when employment is high again.
Yet there are good reasons why the medium-term natural unemployment rate may be a lot higher now than before. The permanent decrease in house prices will permanently decrease the jobs in residential investment activity. Share prices, which give some indication of how firms would value additions to their stock of business assets, have fallen markedly in the past year -- more so if we remove the rising value of overseas operations from share prices. That portends fewer jobs in domestic capital goods industries. Absent a great deal of luck, these job losses will not be offset by job gains in export industries.
Keynes, in my reading, had a radical thought here: that the natural rate of unemployment cannot be fully determined by economists. Entrepreneurs' willingness to innovate or just to invest -- and thus create new jobs -- is driven by their "animal spirits" as they decide whether to leap into the void. Central bankers, he implied, can try to guess which way entrepreneurs are going to jump, but some wide swings in employment are inevitable.
The Fed's view seems to be that the natural interest rate has decreased with the business downturn. But this too is uncertain.
We should consider Hayek's argument that the upheavals in a boom may change the natural rate of interest. If the boom left it elevated, failure by the central bank to raise its interest rate correspondingly would cause inflation to begin rising. Something like that may be happening now.
I would add another possibility. Consider the sharp decline over the past year in Americans' stock market wealth. This means, at unchanged interest rates, a decrease in their income from wealth.
For households to be willing in such straitened circumstances to save as much as before -- cutting their consumption by the whole amount of the drop in their income from wealth -- they would have to be compensated with a higher interest rate. At unchanged interest rates, people will not want to leave consumption in the present so pinched. So natural interest rates are driven up.
There may be other mechanisms at work. Uncertainty reigns. But if the above scenario comes to pass, the Fed cannot keep interest rates as low as now for very long. We may see in the near future higher interest rates and higher unemployment than have prevailed in the recent past.

Edmund S. Phelps, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in economics, directs the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University.

Fonte: WSJ, 14.03.2008

Crise financeira...

Crise de liquidez ou de crédito? Esta era a dúvida no início da crise financeira iniciada com a crise do mercado imobiliário. Algumas economistas-colunistas de jornais a trataram como sendo um problema passageiro incapaz, devido ao volume de recursos, argumentava um deles, professor em princeton, de ter grande impacto na economia. Um problema localizado, que seria solucionado com a oferta de liquidez por parte dos bancos centrais. Estavam, naturalmente, errados. A crise é de crédito, dai confiança ser a palavra chave: o problema de liquidez é apenas como ela se manifesta. Uma solução de mercado não parece ser viável, o melhor exemplo do que pode ocorrer, assim como das medidas necessárias, para resolver o problema, é a crise bancária chilena do início dos anos 80. Estatização, ou nacionalização, para usar a linguagem britânica, não deveria ser descartada. O custo de nada fazer é muito alto, e por isto soluções ideologicamente desagradáveis, para alguns, deveria ser aceita pragmaticamente. As vezes é preciso salvar o capitalismo dos capitalistas.

Bishops demand new EU priorities

If the citizens of Europe are to mobilise behind the project of unification, then the European Union must embrace policies that protect human dignity and safeguard the environment, EU bishops said last week. Finding ways to combat climate change, the bishops said, lay "at the crossroads of concern for political leaders and for Christians in Europe".
Comece, the Brussels-based commission representing Catholic bishops from the European Union, has cautiously approved the EU's controversial new Lisbon Treaty, but criticised the EU's failure to engage support and understanding from European citizens.
"Although the question of the institutional mechanisms may be solved soon, the crucial question of the aims and meaning of the European project is still open, and the answer remains unclear for many European citizens," Comece said. "The subject of the plenary assembly enabled the bishops to reflect on two fundamental values which could guide European unification, remobilise the support of citizens and be translated into concrete EU policies: respect of human dignity and safeguarding Creation."
The statement was issued on 7 March at the end of a three-day spring session in Brussels, devoted to "Incarnation of the common good in EU policies of the twenty-first century". It said the commission's 24 members had discussed the "institutional and political revival of Europe" after the Lisbon Treaty signed at the EU's December summit, which is expected to come into force in 2009 if ratified by member states.
The Treaty has caused controversy in Britain because Prime Minister Gordon Brown has ruled out a referendum on the Treaty's ratification.
The Comece statement added that its Dutch president, Bishop Adrianus Van Luyn of Rotterdam, had criticised Brussels for the confusion behind "the day-to-day business of politics", warning that the "vast majority" of Europeans could "no longer recognise or fathom why things are going in one direction or another".
"We are now all aware that, as a rule, the ‘how' questions are the easiest. It's harder to answer questions that start with ‘why'," Bishop Van Luyn said in his address. "Behind politics resides metapolitics, which forms the values upon which all political action is based, above and beyond party lines."
Launched in 1980, Comece represents more than 1,000 Catholic bishops from the EU's 27 member states, with observers from Croatia and Switzerland, and has two vice-presidents, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and Bishop Piotr Jarecki, a Polish auxiliary.
In May 2006, it appealed for ratification of the EU's stalled Constitutional Treaty as the "best hope for reforms" for the bloc, which expanded to a combined population of 488 million with the January 2007 admission of Bulgaria and Romania. Meanwhile, in a report last November, it proposed a strategy for supporting marriages and families, which would include changes in tax, labour and housing laws.
In its Brussels statement, the commission said the bishops had reflected on long-term challenges outlined by a "Horizon 2020-2030" group set up by EU heads of state and government, and had called on EU institutions to "express clearly their understanding of human development envisaged in the European unification process".
It added that they had also debated "demands of human dignity in the context of changing employment patterns" with the European Commission's social affairs director-general, Jérôme Vignon.
A Comece spokeswoman told The Tablet that the statement amounted to an "acceptance with reservations" of the Lisbon Treaty, which has been widely criticised for repeating formulations contained in the discarded EU Constitution.
Comece's Irish secretary-general, Mgr Noel Treanor, is stepping down in June after 15 years as executive head of the commission to become Bishop of Down and Connor in Northern Ireland.

Fonte:Jonathan Luxmoore , The Tablet, 15.03.2008

Chiara Lubich concluiu a sua viagem terrena

O movimento dos focolares perde sua grande lider espiritual: Chiara Lubich, uma mulher notável e exemplo de vida cristã. Minhas condolências aos amigos , amigas e familiares de Chiara.

"Em uma atmosfera serena, de oração, e de profunda comoção, Chiara Lubich concluiu a sua viagem terrena nesta noite, 14 março de 2008, às 2 horas, aos 88 anos. Estava na sua casa em Rocca di Papa (Itália), para onde havia retornado do Hospital Gemelli, na madrugada de ontem, depois de ter expresso esse desejo.
Ontem, durante todo o dia, centenas de pessoas – parentes, colaboradores diretos e muitos dos seus filhos espirituais – passaram pelo seu quarto para lhe dirigir a última saudação; depois recolhiam-se na capela adjacente e reuniam-se no jardim, em oração. Uma procissão ininterrupta e espontânea. A alguns Chiara expressou algum sinal, apesar da sua extrema fraqueza.
Do mundo inteiro continuam chegando mensagens de participação por parte de líderes religiosos, políticos, acadêmicos e civis, e do seu “povo”."

Fonte: http://www.focolare.org/articolo.php?codart=5460

Dream Song 29

There sat down, once, a thing on Henry's heart
só heavy, if he had a hundred years
& more, & weeping, sleepless, in all them time
Henry could not make good.
Starts again always in Henry's ears
the little cough somewhere, an odour, a chime.

And there is another thing he has in mind
like a grave Sienese face a thousand years
would fail to blur the still profiled reproach of. Ghastly,
with open eyes, he attends, blind.
All the bells say: too late. This is not for tears;
thinking.

But never did Henry, as he thought he did,
end anyone and hacks her body up
and hide the pieces, where they may be found.
He knows: he went over everyone, & nobody's missing.
Often he reckons, in the dawn, them up.
Nobody is ever missing.

John Berryman

A teoria do tapa na cara

O relatório de emprego de sexta-feira -que foi tão fraco a ponto de levar muitos economistas a declararem que já estamos em recessão- foi uma má notícia. Mas na verdade foi muito menos perturbadora do que o que está acontecendo nos mercados financeiros.A coisa mais assustadora que li recentemente foi o discurso dado na semana passada por Tim Geithner, o presidente do Federal Reserve de Nova York. Geithner chegou o mais próximo que pode um diretor do Fed de dizer que estamos em meio a um colapso financeiro.Para entender a gravidade da situação, é preciso saber o que o Federal Reserve (Fed, o banco central americano) fez em agosto e novamente em dezembro.Em agosto, a palavra favorita entre as autoridades financeiras era "contido": os problemas das hipotecas subprime, éramos tranqüilizados, não se espalhariam para outros mercados financeiros nem para a economia como um todo.Logo depois, entretanto, o pânico financeiro pleno teve início. Os investidores retiraram centenas de bilhões de dólares de papéis comerciais apoiados em ativos, um mercado pouco conhecido mas importante que assumiu grande parte do trabalho que os bancos costumavam fazer. Esta corrida aos bancos de fato provocou ondas de choque por todo o sistema financeiro.O Fed respondeu oferecendo dinheiro aos bancos, e os mercados em parte se acalmaram, por um momento. Mas em dezembro o pânico estava de volta.De novo, o Fed respondeu oferecendo dinheiro aos bancos, desta vez por meio de um novo arranjo chamado Term Auction Facility (TAF, leilões de recursos). Novamente os mercados se acalmaram, por algum tempo.Mas novamente, o respiro foi apenas temporário. No mês passado, outro mercado do qual você nunca ouviu falar, o mercado de US$ 300 bilhões de títulos de taxas variáveis (não pergunte), sofreu o equivalente a uma corrida aos bancos. Na semana passada, duas grandes empresas financeiras anunciaram que eram incapazes de levantar o dinheiro exigido por seus credores. Mesmo a Fannie Mae e Freddie Mac, as gigantes de hipotecas financiadas pelo governo e há muito consideradas como locais seguros onde colocar seu dinheiro, agora estão tendo dificuldades para atrair fundos.Uma conseqüência da crise é que apesar do Fed ter reduzido a taxa de juros que controla -a chamada taxa de fundos do Fed- as taxas que importam mais diretamente à economia, como as taxas das hipotecas e títulos corporativos, estão aumentando. E isto certamente agravará a retração econômica.O que está acontecendo? Geithner descreveu como um círculo vicioso nos quais bancos e outros integrantes do mercado que correram risco demais estão todos tentando escapar dos investimentos inseguros ao mesmo tempo, causando "danos colaterais significativos para o funcionamento do mercado".Um relatório divulgado na última sexta-feira pelo JPMorgan Chase foi ainda mais direto. Ele descreveu o que está acontecendo como um "pedido de cobertura sistêmico", no qual todo o sistema financeiro está enfrentando exigências para produzir dinheiro que não tem.O mais recente plano do Fed para romper este círculo vicioso é -como descreveu de forma cruel mas precisa o site financeiro interfluidity.com- se tornar o penhorista de Wall Street. Os bancos capazes de levantar dinheiro vendendo ativos serão encorajados, em vez disso, a tomar empréstimos junto ao Fed, usando seus ativos como garantia. No pior caso, o Federal Reserve se veria de posse de cerca de US$ 200 bilhões em títulos hipotecários.Alguns observadores temem que o Fed esteja assumindo o risco financeiro dos bancos. Mas o que mais me preocupa é que a medida me parece trivial em comparação ao tamanho do problema: US$ 200 bilhões podem soar como muito dinheiro, mas quando comparados ao tamanho dos mercados que estão sofrendo colapso -há US$ 11 trilhões em hipotecas nos EUA- são uma gota no balde.A única forma da ação do Fed poder funcionar é por meio do efeito tapa na cara: criando uma pausa no frenesi de venda, o Fed poderia dar aos mercados histéricos uma chance de recuperar seu senso de perspectiva. E para ser honesto, isto já funcionou no passado.Mas o tapa na cara só funciona se os problemas do mercado forem basicamente de ordem psicológica. E dado que o Fed já deu dois tapas na cara do mercado, apenas para ver a crise financeira retornar, isto é difícil de acreditar.A terceira vez poderá ser a que vale. Mas eu duvido. Em breve, nós provavelmente teremos que fazer algo real a respeito da redução dos riscos enfrentados pelos investidores.Um plano para restaurar a credibilidade do seguro de títulos municipais seria um começo. (Que loucura é o fato do Estado de Nova York, em vez do governo federal, estar liderando esta idéia?) Eu também suspeito que os Feds terão que garantir explicitamente as dívidas de Fannie e Freddie, que realmente são grandes demais para quebrar.Ninguém deseja fazer com que os contribuintes arquem com a estupidez do setor financeiro; mas nós todos podemos esperar que, no final, o socorro não seja necessário. Mas a esperança não é um plano.

Paul Krugman

Tradução: George El Khouri Andolfato

Fonte: FSP, 11.03.2008

Fed leads fresh $200bn money market intervention

A group of the world’s largest central banks launched a co-ordinated effort to inject liquidity into money markets in North America and Europe, with the US Federal Reserve offering to double the sums it is prepared to lend, raising the total facilities available by a further $200bn from what it announced only last Friday.

The Fed also said it would increase the currency swap arrangements it already put in place with the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank by $10bn and $2bn respecitvely. In addition, the terms of the swap agreements have been extended through to the end of September 2008.Although the funds will be loaned to banks and primary dealers, or brokers that trade directly with the Fed, the US central bank is hoping that the fresh liquidity will be extended to market participants such as hedge funds which are struggling to raise it.

The move by the Fed, which follows a $200bn emergency intervention by the US central bank on Friday to ease strains in the credit markets, sent equities in Europe and the US sharply higher and helped the dollar rebound against the world’s leading currencies. Gold and oil retrenched from their recent highs.

The S&P 500 opened 2.4 per cent higher at 1,303.26, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.4 per cent to 2,221.27 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average put on 2.3 per cent to 12,014.42.
In London, the FTSE 100 soared 149.5 points or 2.6 per cent to 5,777.4 in afternoon trade. Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax climbed 2.1 per cent to 6,584.67 and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 2.4 per cent to 4,676.46.

The dollar, which earlier in the session sunk to a fresh record low of $1.5495 against the euro after a survey of German economic confidence came in much stronger than expected, rebounded to stand at $1.5385, down just 0.3 per cent on the session.

In the fixed-income market Treasuries sold off sharply with the yield on the 2-year note jumping 22bp to 1.70 per cent while the 10-year note yield climbed 11bp to 3.57 per cent, flattening the yield curve.

Markets have been in turmoil in recent days as margin calls on hedge funds and other investors have forced a mad scramble for cash. The rush to raise cash has forced sales of securities, which in turn is knocking down the price of other collateral pledged for loans. Fears are that that, in turn, will set off yet more margin calls in a frightening downward spiral that leaves banks in a frantic dash to raise still more cash.

Rising short term interest rates suggest banks are already struggling. In the UK, the key 3-month Libor rate was fixed on Tuesday at 5.79 per cent, the highest level in two months and well above the Bank rate of 5.25 per cent.

The Bank of England has joined the operation, and left open the possibility that it could even increase sums available. It announced it would extend its 3-month open market operation, rolling over an existing collateralised loan that expires next week. It will offer £10bn to the market for three months on March 18 against the same expanded list of collateral it accepted in December and January and said that it will conduct a similar operation in April.
But it declined to specify the April amount, saying the sum to be loaned will be decided “in the light of March’s operation.”

The European Central Bank also said it will join the co-ordinated effort to add US dollar liquidity to the system. It will offer auctions on 25 March, replacing loans made to the market three months earlier and make available up to $15bn. The Swiss National Bank said it will add US dollar liquidity at the end of this month via collateralised, 28-day loans totalling $6bn.

Bank of Canada, which cut its key rate by a half point last week, is also participating in the liquidity injection. It will loan C$2bn to the banking system for one month beginning next week and a further C$2bn for a month beginning in April.

The Swiss National Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank and the Bank of Japan also part of the co-ordinated intervention.

Fonte: FT(Norma Cohen, Economics Correspondent) , 11.03.2008

Mal holandes

O Brasil esta sofrendo do mal holandes. Esta é a última tese dos desenvolvimentistas. Há indícios que parecem confirmar a validade desta tese, mas por enquanto apenas indícios. Ainda resta o trabalho difícil de demonstrar a relação de causalidade entre as variáveis do tal mal. Se provada a sua existência, ele esta longe de ser um problema assustador. No país que, injustamente, deu nome ao mal, ele teve vida curta. Tem tudo para ser mais uma tempestade em copo d’agua da já longa lista de bicho papão dos desenvolvimentistas.

The Theological Genius of Joseph Ratzinger | An Interview with Fr. D. Vincent Twomey, S.V.D.

A entrevista é muito interessante e reveladora...e pode ser acessada em The Theological Genius of Joseph Ratzinger An Interview with Fr ... abaixo a parte inicial da entrevista :

IgnatiusInsight.com: How and when did you first meet Joseph Ratzinger? What was your impression of him?
Rev. Twomey: I first met Joseph Ratzinger early in the new year of 1971, when he interviewed me in Regensburg after I had asked him to be my doctoral supervisor. My first impression was of an unassuming man with piercing eyes, a gentle smile, and not the slightest touch of the arrogance of a Herr Professor.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What were some of the essential formative theological influences on Joseph Ratzinger?
Rev. Twomey: The immediate post-war situation of the Church in Germany exercised a huge influence on the fledgling theologian. The Church had emerged triumphant after the persecution under Hitler. There was a feeling of a new beginning, not least in theology, where the neo-scholasticism of the previous half-century was more or less abandoned in the search for a fresh approach. Young theologians such as Henri de Lubac, who had a great influence on Ratzinger, turned to the Fathers of the Church for inspiration and found it. The Munich theologian Gottlieb Soehngen directed Ratzinger's doctoral dissertation on Augustine's ecclesiology and his postdoctoral dissertation on Bonaventure's theology of history. Augustine and Bonaventure are two major thinkers whose profound influence on Ratzinger cannot be underestimated. He came under the spell of Cardinal Newman thanks to his Prefect of Studies, Alfred Laepple, who at the time was writing his thesis on Newman's understanding of conscience and introduced his students to the writings of perhaps the greatest theologian of the 19th century, who was also steeped in the Fathers of the Church. But, ultimately, it was Scripture that formed the basic thrust of all his theology. He once said something to the effect that, in the final analysis, his theology is a form of exegesis. And here his friendship with the great German exegete Heinrich Schlier must be mentioned; Schlier's attention to the precise terms of the original text of Scripture is echoed in Ratzinger's careful exegesis. Josef Pieper, the most important German Catholic philosopher, also exercised a great influence, as did Endre von Ivanka on the philosophy of the early Church.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What attracted him to Augustine and how has his early studies of the great Doctor of the Church informed how he addresses contemporary controversies?
Rev. Twomey: Ratzinger found the scholastics too cerebral. Augustine appealed to him as a man of passion, whose whole life was dedicated to the search to know the truth and articulate it. For neo-scholasticism, everything found its place in the "system", but Ratzinger was instinctively aware that truth is more than any system of thought could encompass, that it has to be discovered anew in all its freshness from one generation to the next. Augustine was more than a controversialist, but he was still a remarkable controversialist, who was not frightened by any attack on the faith, be it within the Church or without. Confident in the truth revealed in Christ, he found the courage to take on all those who questioned that truth or denied it. Ratzinger shows a similar courage. He is not afraid to face up to the most difficult challenges to the faith, knowing that in trying to answer them we discover the truth in all its grandeur and compelling nature. More concretely, Ratzinger's studies of the ecclesiology of Augustine shaped his own understanding of Church--including the role of the Eucharist at the core of the Church--and her mission. They also prepared him for his later theology of political life, since Augustine's ecclesiology also involved clarifying the relationship between Church and State, between civil religion and faith.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What is unique or perhaps even surprising about Ratzinger's theological methodology? How does it differ from some of the celebrated Catholic theologians of the 1960s such as Küng and Rahner?
Rev. Twomey: What is unique to Ratzinger's theological methodology is, in the first place, its originality and creativity. Despite all the influences I mentioned, Ratzinger retained his distance and so retained his independence as a thinker, even with regard to the great theologians he studied. His methodology is to take as his starting point contemporary developments in society and culture, then he listens to the solutions offered my his fellow theologians before returning to a critical examination of Scripture and Tradition for pointers to a solution. He is not satisfied to analyze a topic, but, having dissected the issue, he then attempts a systematic answer by seeing the topic in the context of theology as a whole. Unlike Küng, who is always in tune with the latest fashion, Ratzinger is not afraid to be unfashionable. Unlike Rahner, who produced a full systematic theology, Ratzinger's theology is fragmentary--filled with brilliant insights into almost every subject of theology and yet not a fixed "system". Using the best findings of academic theology, Ratzinger goes beyond them to create something new and original. He is more than an academic. He is an original thinker, whose scattered writings on a host of subjects are "seminal", awaiting development by others. Finally, unlike either Küng or (especially) Rahner, Ratzinger writes with a clarity and, at times, literary beauty, that never fails to impress.

Os novos mercantilistas

O Presidente Lula que, sabiamente, sempre ignorou as tolices dos desenvolvimentistas, parece ter mudado de opinião. É uma pena. Esta turma, que no iniciou do governo previa uma crise no setor externo, volta a usar os mesmos argumentos de sempre: uma variação pobre da velha pratica mercantilista criticada por Hume e Adam Smith. O real esta valorizado, argumenta a tróica desenvolvimentista... para alegria dos exportadores. Como esta turma não é nada original não ficaria nenhum pouco surpreso com o retorno de algo parecido com o velho subsídio às exportações. A conta, naturalmente, seria paga pelos consumidores brasileiros e seria um incentivo negativo e punição aos exportadores que fizeram a lição de casa...

Distribuição de renda

2007 parece ter sido um ano muito melhor que o esperado pelos desenvolvimentistas . chama-los de economistas seria um exagero. O PIB cresceu entre 5,2% a 5,3%, o volume de reservas esta em nível que protege a economia dos espirros das maluquices americanas. É verdade que o custo fiscal das reservas é elevado e que o governo deve estar atento, contudo, o panorama é bom o suficiente para colocar, novamente, na agenda um tópico importante, no passado, mas que devido a luta pela estabilização macroeconômica foi esquecido: a distribuição da renda. Este é um problema que o mercado não resolve e requer, portanto, uma participação ativa do Estado. O Brasil é sempre bom lembrar não é mais um país subdesenvolvido e as condições macroeconômicas permitem o enfrentamento das nossas mazelas sociais...

The Unknown Citizen

(To JS/07 M 378This Marble MonumentIs Erected by the State)


He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a
saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in a hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his
generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their
education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.


W. H. Auden

Tamanho das reservas 2

A visão do famoso membro do grupo "eram os deuses astronautas"( ele não é o único membro do grupo a ter participação importante no governo lula. curiosamente, todos psdbistas e anti-lulistas de carteirinha) sobre o tema é o tópico da última coluna do Celso Ming:

"Esta coluna ficou devendo ontem o ponto de vista que defende a continuação da atual operação de formação de reservas.

Essa posição tem uma importância especial porque é sustentada pelo economista Alexandre Schwartsman, hoje no ABN Amro Bank, que era o diretor de Assuntos Internacionais do Banco Central entre os anos de 2003 e 2006, período em que começou e se intensificou a formação de reservas no Brasil.

Para ele, não basta que as reservas brasileiras tenham zerado a dívida externa. É preciso que cubram o principal risco externo, que é a atual dependência das receitas provenientes da exportação de commodities.

Schwartsman parte do fato de que há pelo menos 30 anos se observa a correlação estreita (hoje de 93%) entre preços mundiais de commodities e preços médios das exportações brasileiras.

Como o Brasil é uma economia fechada (exportações de apenas 14% a 15% do PIB), só há crescimento econômico de alguma importância quando ocorre expansão do consumo interno. Ora, a expansão do consumo interno exige aumento das importações e essa é outra relevante correlação. E, para garantir aumento das importações sem jogar as contas externas no vermelho, é preciso garantir fortes receitas com exportação.

O problema - aponta ele - acontecerá no momento em que uma crise global derrubar os preços das matérias-primas e as receitas com exportações já não conseguirem dar cobertura para o aumento das despesas com importação: “O maior risco é o de que uma forte queda dos preços das commodities force o País a reduzir subitamente as importações e, portanto, o crescimento.”

O problema não ficaria só nisso. Sem reservas suficientes para dar conta da necessidade extra de importar, o dólar voltaria a subir, essa alta provocaria inflação e o Banco Central seria obrigado a puxar os juros que, por sua vez, ajudariam a abortar o crescimento econômico.

Para Schwartsman, mais do que superar a dívida externa líquida brasileira, as reservas deveriam cobrir o aumento de custo de toda a dívida pública que adviesse da alta dos juros e da desvalorização do real.

E conclui que é preciso acumular mais alguma coisa entre US$ 35 bilhões e US$ 40 bilhões em reservas. Ou seja, o processo de ampliação das reservas só deve parar quando elas atingirem entre US$ 230 bilhões e US$ 235 bilhões.

Schwartsman não chega a questionar a probabilidade de que aconteça a hipótese pessimista que fundamenta seu ponto de vista: a de que um cataclismo econômico derrube inexoravelmente os preços das matérias-primas.

É claro que uma recessão global poderia, em princípio, provocar certa queda de preços. Mas parece improvável que tenha longa duração. O desenvolvimento dos emergentes da Ásia parece assentado em forte importação de commodities porque eles não dispõem nem de energia, nem de alimentos, nem de matérias-primas suficientes para sustentar seu crescimento. Isso sugere que essa forte dependência (deles e não nossa) sustente por muitos anos o aumento da demanda por commodities e, por isso, mantenha elevados seus preços."

O tamanho das reservas

O tema é importante e controverso e Celso Ming , em seu coluna, apresenta duas visões da questão. É um ponto de partida para uma análise mais minuciosa do tema.

"A coluna de domingo (Espetinho de lagartixa) ajudou a puxar uma boa polêmica em torno de duas perguntas conjugadas: (1) As reservas externas, que terminaram fevereiro nos US$ 192,9 bilhões, já não foram longe demais? (2) Por que continuar amealhando ativos em moeda estrangeira se essa operação, cujo custo é alto e tende a crescer, já não atende a nenhum objetivo importante da economia?

Ontem, dois especialistas sustentaram posições opostas. O economista Marcelo Carvalho, do Morgan Stanley, enviou documento (Reserves - Noah’s Ark for a Rainy Day) em que expõe o ponto de vista de que não há mais razão para expandir reservas. O ex-diretor de Assuntos Internacionais do Banco Central Alexandre Schwartsman pensa o contrário. Hoje, a coluna expõe o pensamento de Carvalho.

Ele mostra que o nível das reservas já ultrapassa todos os critérios conhecidos pelos quais um país deva juntar reservas.

O primeiro desses critérios é garantir o equivalente a três meses de importação. Para isso, bastariam US$ 30 bilhões. Pelo critério seguinte, o da chamada regra Guidotti-Greenspan, as reservas devem dar cobertura à dívida externa com vencimento em até um ano. Isso exigiria reservas de US$ 60 bilhões.

Outra forma de medir o tamanho adequado das reservas foi estabelecido por um estudo dos economistas Jeanne Olivier e Romain Ranciere, do Fundo Monetário Internacional (The optimal level of international reserves for emerging market economies). Corresponde a 10% do PIB, ou US$ 130 bilhões.

O estudo de Carvalho menciona ainda o texto dos economistas Marco Antonio Cavalcanti e Christian Vonbun, do Ipea (Reservas Internacionais ótimas para o Brasil: uma análise de custo-benefício para o período 1999-2007), que prevê reservas de US$ 40 bilhões a US$ 90 bilhões.

Faltou nessa análise do Morgan apenas a incorporação da posição de Schwartsman, para quem as reservas ainda deveriam crescer até alguma coisa entre US$ 227 bilhões e US$ 232 bilhões. O argumento fica para ser aqui desenvolvido amanhã.

Carvalho adverte que o Banco Central pode estar amontoando reservas também para cumprir novo objetivo: o de apressar o reconhecimento do grau de investimento para a dívida brasileira.

Ele argumenta que o custo fiscal do carregamento das reservas está subindo. Essa operação implica trocar dívida externa a um custo mais baixo por dívida interna por um custo maior. Hoje, a diferença entre os juros internos e externos está aumentando (veja gráfico). Do ano passado para este, o custo aumentou de 0,7% do PIB (US$ 9 bilhões) para 1,2% do PIB (US$ 15 bilhões). E tende a crescer porque o banco central americano está derrubando agressivamente os juros.

Daí, conclui ele, no balanço dos custos e benefícios, já não compensa mais a ampliação em reservas. Se o Banco Central parar suas compras de dólares, haverá dois efeitos colaterais interligados: o real se valorizará ainda mais ante o dólar (queda da cotação do dólar no câmbio interno) porque cairá a demanda por moeda estrangeira; e será mais fácil combater a inflação porque o produto importado ficará mais barato em reais."

Celso Ming

Economia Social de Mercado

O modelo alemão de economia social de mercado apresentou bons resultados econômicos e sociais e , estranhamente, é pouco conhecido no Brasil. Este parece ser o destino dos modelos que aceitam a economia de mercado e procuram torna-la mais humana, sem ,contudo, perder a eficiência econômica. Manow apresenta leitura interessante da genese deste modelo.Philip Manow, Modell Deutschland as an Interdenominational Compromise Abstract Paper in pdf format

Professor o senhor é um neo-liberal?

Professor o senhor é um neo-liberal? Neo o que.... porque ? O senhor é favorável ao livre comércio. Sim eu sou, mas tambem sou favorável ao “fair trade”. E voce? O que considera mais recomendável e eficiente: continuar com a política de ajuda humanitária ou a ela adicionar a abertura dos mercados dos países ricos? A ajuda é uma ótima moeda de troca, em votações disputadas nas Nações Unidas, alem, é claro de suprir o mercado paralelo comandado por ditadores e familiares em alguns países. Quer ajuda-los? Quem? Os deserdados da terra é claro!!! Então é melhor abrir os mercados para seus produtos.... Ah! mas isto é neo-liberalismo...

Communio

Finalmente uma revista católica que parece fugir da mesmice e apresenta ao público brasileiro alguns intelectuais católicos bem conhecidos no mundo anglo-americano. Trata-se da Communio, importante revista católica , com edições em varias línguas e países que, finalmente, lança sua edição brasileira. O tema é “a tríplice relação existente entre Fé, Razão e Universidade, feita por Bento XVI, no polêmico Discurso de Regensburg, na Alemanha”. Entre os destaques o texto de Regensburg com as devidas e importantes notas de rodapé. Leitura obrigatória para aqueles que insistem em divulgar uma visão superficial e equivocada do pensamento deste que é um dos mais importantes intelectuais da atualidade.

Logos

Enquanto no Brasil a tradição intelectual católica , aparentemente, ainda esta perdida no nevoeiro pós teologia da libertação, no mundo anglo-americano o cenário é bem diferente com publicações de diferentes linhas do pensamento católico. No último número de uma destas revistas, Logos, foi publicado um interessante artigo sobre o pensamento social católico e a moderna democracia liberal. A reflexão é feita a partir da experiência americana, mas nem por isto deixa de ser interessante aos leitores brasileiros:Thomas W. Smith, Catholic Social Thought and Modern Liberal Democracy

The Savior must have been a docile Gentleman

The Savior must have been
A docile Gentleman—
To come so far so cold a Day
For little Fellowmen—

The Road to Bethlehem
Since He and I were Boys
Was leveled, but for that 'twould be
A rugged Billion Miles—


Emily Dickinson

Fed Chief Signals He’s Open to More Rate Cuts

WASHINGTON — Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, signaled his readiness on Wednesday to further reduce interest rates even though inflation has picked up speed, and he called again for more effective rules to deter questionable lending practices.

In testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, the Fed chairman acknowledged that the central bank faces increasingly contradictory pressures of slowing growth and rising consumer prices.
The “economic situation has become distinctly less favorable” since last summer and “the risks to this outlook remain on the downside,” Mr. Bernanke told the panel, whose leaders focused on the deep slump in the housing industry.
Mr. Bernanke signaled that at least for now, policy makers are more worried about averting or at least softening a possible recession.
Though the Fed is still predicting that the economy will narrowly escape a recession, policy makers have slashed their forecasts for growth in 2008 to less than 2 percent and expect almost no expansion during the first six months of this year.
But Mr. Bernanke warned that even that forecast may prove optimistic. He predicted that the housing downturn will continue to slow the economy “in the coming quarters,” noting that financial markets are still in turmoil and that it has become more difficult to obtain credit. Consumer spending has “slowed significantly,” he said, partly because of rising gasoline prices, slowing job growth and the decline in household wealth as a result of falling home prices.
In exchanges with the lawmakers, Mr. Bernanke agreed that regulation needed to be tighter, or at least more efficient, to avoid another epidemic of mortgage defaults, and for that matter to deter abuses in the credit-card industry.
“We don’t want to create a chilling effect,” Mr. Bernanke said. “We don’t want to shut down these markets. We just want them to work better and, in particular, we think it’s important for consumers to have a better understanding of what it is that they’re buying when they purchase products in these markets.”
The Federal Reserve has proposed rules intended to curb shady lending practices and impose more clarity on lending terms.
The committee chairman, Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, said it was clear that the housing collapse was due in large measure to “the ideology of deregulation.”
“We are in the most significant economic troubles since at least 1998,” Mr. Frank said. “And the single biggest cause was a failure for regulation to keep up with innovation. And it’s, of course, had international consequences as well.”
Mr. Frank said he had often agreed with Mr. Bernanke’s predecessor, Alan Greenspan, whom he credited with patient and prudent leadership on monetary policy. “But in another area I think he erred,” Mr. Frank said. “His view that regulation was almost never required.”
The committee’s ranking Republican, Representative Spencer Bachus of Alabama, was less pessimistic than Mr. Frank. He said he was confident that the Fed’s careful monitoring “combined with responses from the private sector and the natural operation of the business cycle” would steady the economy sooner rather than later.
But he went on, “One lesson we’ve learned from the subprime contagion is just how highly interconnected our financial markets are.” Mr. Bacchus cautioned against “overregulation” caused by different agencies monitoring different sectors of the economy.
“But there may be gaps in the regulation, and I wonder if that is in fact the case,” he said. “There may be areas where the regulation needs to be strengthened or regulation needs to be coordinated better between different regulators, both state and federal.”
Mr. Bernanke tried to make it clear that the Fed is watching inflation closely. He acknowledged that inflation may climb slightly more rapidly than the policy makers projected in January. Fed officials then estimated that consumer prices would climb to a range of 2.1 percent to 2.4 percent in 2008.
“Any tendency of inflation expectations to become unmoored or for the Federal Reserve’s inflation-fighting credibility to be eroded would greatly complicate the task of sustaining price stability and could reduce the flexibility of the F.O.M.C.,” Mr. Bernanke warned Wednesday, referring to the Federal Open Markets Committee, which sets interest rates.
“Accordingly, in the months ahead, the Federal Reserve will continue to closely monitor inflation and inflation expectations.”
But even as he acknowledged the growing dilemma between fighting the downturn and fighting inflation, Mr. Bernanke appeared to put more weight on promoting growth and made it clear he has not shut the door on more reductions in interest rates.
Noting that monetary policy “works with a lag,” the Fed chairman said, “it is important to recognize that downside risks to growth remain.”
More important, he repeated the Fed’s recent promises to “act in a timely manner as needed to support growth and provide adequate insurance to downside risks.”

Fonte: The New York Times, 27.02.2008.

Censura na La Sapienza

O cancelamento da visita do Papa Bento XVI a La Sapienza em Roma devido a intolerância de parte do corpo discente e docente, tem sua origem em uma leitura superficial de um trabalho antigo em que ele cita uma passagem de um texto do Feyerabend(conhecido filosofo da ciência) sobre o julgamento do Galileo.

O debate no blog Leiter reports é, na minha opinião, a melhor introdução sobre a origem desta controversia. Abaixo uma pequena amostra do debate que pode ser acessado em:

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2008/01/pope-quotes-f-1.html#comments

"Mohan Matthen: I think you are reading far too much into this passage. Ratzinger was neither endorsing Feyerabend nor Weizsacker. Even the not very good translation at ncrcafe.org makes that clear -- Ratzinger's conclusion was that "it would be absurd, on the basis of these affirmations, to construct a hurried apologetics. The faith does not grow from resentment and the rejection of rationality, but from its fundamental affirmation and from being inscribed in a still greater form of reason. Here, I wished to recall a symptomatic case that illustrates the extent to which modernity’s doubts about itself have grown today in science and technology."
So his point was to show examples of increasing loss in faith in science and technology as holding the key to human salvation.
But there is an official translation in the book A Turning Point for Europe (Ignatius Press, http://www.amazon.com/Turning-Point-Europe-World-Assessment-Forecast/dp/0898704618/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200937884&sr=8-1, now out of print). From this you will see (Amazon search-inside-the-book!) that the remarks translated at ncrcafe.org are only part of a longer address on "Paths of Faith in the Revolutionary Change of the Present Day." The general point is about the loss of faith in various ideologies that had sustained hope in the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Ratzinger begins with Marxism (writing in 1989) and then moves on to "Analogies and Variations in the Western World" which is subdivided into "The Crisis of Faith in Science," "The Search for the Spiritual and the Ethical," and "New Religiosity," before concluding with "Paths of Faith Today."
The offending passage comes from the section "The Crisis of Faith in Science," and the views of Feyerabend and Weiszacker are presented as extreme forms of this crisis of faith, which reject reason altogether and blame science for such things as the atomic bomb. Weizsacker took "another step forward" on this path, which is not the path that Ratzinger endorses. In the more official translation Ratzinger says that Feyerabend "sounds much more aggressive" than Bloch and that Weizsacker "goes even one step farther." The conclusion of the section then reads "It would be foolish to construct an impulsive apologetic on the basis of such views; faith does not grow out of resentment and skepticism with respect to rationality, but only out of a fundamental affirmation and a spacious reasonableness; we shall come back to this point. I mention all this only as a symptomatic case that permits us to see how deep the self-doubt of the modern age, of science and technology goes today." In this version it is even clearer than in the ncrcafe version that Ratzinger was not endorsing the views of Weizsacker and Feyerabend (whatever you may think of the "loss of faith" story that he tells).
Posted by: Michael Kremer January 21, 2008 at 12:19 PM "

Castro and the Catholics

The man who has led Cuba since 1949, and who was widely expected to remain in office until he died, is stepping down from the presidency. The relationship of Fidel Castro with the Church was more complicated than might be expected in such a ‘devout' Communist
Fidel Castro's sense of his own immortality, legendary during his 49 years as Cuban leader, was never more in evidence than in some of his attitudes towards the Catholic Church. It is said that his advisers had to remind him that Catholicism had been a force in Cuba for half a millennium and was likely to be around after the Comandante en Jefe himself was long gone, and so he had better start to make accommodations with it. Castro is still alive, but his decision this week to step down from his role as president will still come as a surprise to many who had expected him to hold on to power until the very end.
Castro's relationship with the Church has been complex and ambiguous. Indeed, any visitor to the shrine to Our Lady of Charity, the patron of Cuba, in Santiago will find the prayerful offerings and gifts that his devout mother, Lina Ruz, made to the Virgin in return for her son's safety during his guerrilla struggle. One of Castro's close aides, promoted to the rank of commander during the Sierra Maestra campaign, was the Catholic priest Fr Guillermo Sardiñas, with whom he retained a lifelong friendship. After Castro's arrest in the wake of the failed uprising in 1953, he owed his life and his freedom to the guarantees of the Archbishop of Santiago, Enrique Perez Serantes.
As a brilliant student of the Christian Brothers and then the elite Jesuit-run Bethlehem College in Havana, Castro was to retain an abiding respect for the austerity, rigour, discipline and the self-sacrificing commitment of his teachers. In the 1980s, Castro was to shock his comrades with a speech delivered at a party congress in which he held up the example of a religious sister, Sor Fara, a Vincentian nun who ran a hospice for the disabled, as a perfect model for good Communists to emulate. Among the must-see sites for every visitor to Cuba were the old people's homes and day centres run by religious communities but fully funded by the state.
But the Cuban revolution and Castro's relationship with the Church were victims of their time. When Castro and his guerrilla army triumphantly entered Havana on 1 January 1959, the winds of the Second Vatican Council had yet to blow through the Church. This was a time when Rome was warning Italian Catholics, under pain of excommunication, against voting Communist. The emergence of the theology of liberation in Latin America and its progressive message of social justice was a decade away.
So, while some commentators insist that the revolution and Castro's "26 July Movement" (named after a failed attack on that day on a Santiago barracks in 1953) were universally popular, others close to the Church remember the early years of the revolution not as a honeymoon but as a time of mutual distrust. One of the first acts of the Government, the nationalisation of education, came as a cruel blow to the Catholic Church, which in Cuba, unlike in other parts of Latin America, possessed neither great wealth nor lands, but ran a first-class, but elitist, private school system.
The involvement of several Catholic priests in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, followed by Castro's declaration that the Cuban state was to be both socialist and atheist, marked the end of the shortlived period of tolerance, and unease turned into confrontation, with the Church doing much to help Cubans escape into exile to the US. The state cancelled Christmas, restoring the holiday only in 1997. In the aftermath of the invasion not only Catholics but all "believers" were deemed by the Government as unsuitable for membership of the Communist Party, effectively barring them from a whole range of careers in public service. In this period the "military units to aid production" - the notorious "Umaps" - were created as labour camps for "antisocial" elements, including beggars, petty criminals, homosexuals and even some seminarians.
Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Archbishop of Havana for the last three decades, spent 18 months in a Umap until they were closed down on the direct orders of Castro. For the next two decades, to all intents and purposes the Catholic Church became invisible, denied an outlet to the media and public manifestations of religion.
However, it was the Church of Latin America that had a profound impact on Castro. The "option for the poor" embraced by the 1968 conference of Latin American bishops in Medellín, Colombia, led in time to Castro's becoming a close friend of the Mexican Bishop Sergio Mendez de Arceo. In 1985, the publication of Fidel and Religion, a series of conversations between Castro and Frei Betto, a Brazilian Dominican friar, topped Cuba's bestseller list for months.
In the same year, the Church celebrated the culmination of a two-year process of internal reflection in the National Ecclesial Encounter, in which it committed itself to becoming "incarnate" in the people of Cuba and re-engaging in its missionary purpose. Confrontation and silence developed into dialogue and a level of cooperation. Hesitantly and with setbacks, a process began that led to the visit of Castro to Rome in 1996 and Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba in 1998.
The most significant challenge for the process was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which led to Cuba being increasingly gripped by a siege mentality after the loss of its major trading partners and allies in the socialist bloc. The lifting of the ban on Catholics being members of the party in 1991 was seen as a gesture that was too little and came too late: but as a result many members of the party went public about their Catholic beliefs.
For its part the Catholic Church has long been at pains to avoid confrontation. If it has problems with the Government it has preferred to deal with them in private rather than allow the enemies of Cuba - particularly successive US administrations - to use the Church as a stick to beat the regime. Church leaders have been clear and unequivocal in their condemnation of the economic and trade boycott and they have generally been discreet in their well-founded criticisms. The future leaders of Cuba may well find a valuable ally in the Church in their efforts to make a peaceful transition to democracy, and avert unwanted intervention in the country by the United States.

Fonte: Clare Dixon , The Tablet, 25 February 2008.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

I

Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird

II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one.

V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

VI
I cicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?

VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.

XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.

XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.

Wallace Stevens

Was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on October 2, 1879. He attended Harvard University as an undergraduate from 1897 to 1900. He planned to travel to Paris as a writer, but after a working briefly as a reporter for the New York Herald Times, he decided to study law. He graduated with a degree from New York Law School in 1903 and was admitted to the U.S. Bar in 1904. He practised law in New York City until 1916.

Stevens moved to Connecticut in 1916, having found employment at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co., of which he became vice president in 1934. He had begn to establish an identity for himself outside the world of law and business, however, and his first book of poems, Harmonium, published in 1923, exhibited the influence of both the English Romantics and the French symbolists, an inclination to aesthetic philosophy, and a wholly original style and sensibility: exotic, whimsical, infused with the light and color of an Impressionist painting.For the next several years, Stevens focused on his business life. He began to publish new poems in 1930, however, and in the following year, Knopf published an second edition of Harmonium, which included fourteen new poems and left out three of the decidedly weaker ones.

More than any other modern poet, Stevens was concerned with the transformative power of the imagination. Composing poems on his way to and from the office and in the evenings, Stevens continued to spend his days behind a desk at the office, and led a quiet, uneventful life.
Though now considered one of the major American poets of the century, he did not receive widespread recognition until the publication of his Collected Poems, just a year before his death. His major works include Ideas of Order (1935), The Man With the Blue Guitar (1937), Notes Towards a Supreme Fiction (1942), and a collection of essays on poetry, The Necessary Angel (1951).

Stevens died in Hartford in 1955.

La speculazione

Il termine "speculazione" deriva dal latino speculari, cioè scrutare, guardarsi attorno. Esso viene usato in diversi sensi. Si dice di un filosofo che è speculativo, cioè che si muove sul piano sommo della conoscenza (in questo senso si dice anche che un’opinione è puramente speculativa, in opposizione a "pratica"). In senso derivato si parla nell’ambito economico di speculazione laddove uno raggiunge qualcosa senza attività, cioè senza lavoro o sforzo, ma semplicemente sulla base di riflessioni, previsioni e prudenti calcoli. Se questo significato del concetto viene allargato, includendo nel prudente calcolo anche l’intenzione di percepire con malvagità l’occasione propizia per sfruttare a proprio vantaggio il competitore o in generale la società economica, siamo giunti alla parola "speculatore", con cui intendiamo il giocatore d’azzardo che non vuole lavorare e pensa solo a sé: in questo caso è l’uomo che somiglia a colui che cerca fortuna senza particolare sforzo alle slot-machines, al casinò, alla lotteria ecc.

Per trovare nel processo economico il luogo in cui questo giocatore d’azzardo possa trovarsi allo stato puro, dobbiamo esaminare i singoli rappresentanti dell’attività economica.
Il lavoratore "specula" nel senso che osserva accuratamente dove gli si offra il posto di lavoro meglio pagato per trovare le condizioni di lavoro più favorevoli: un posto in cui possa aspettarsi un lavoro relativamente facile da portare a termine con una buona retribuzione e orario il più breve possibile. Nessuno sulla faccia della terra può rimproverargli questa speculazione e stigmatizzarlo come fosse un giocatore d’azzardo: anche il lavoratore più zelante cerca un lavoro che corrisponda alle sue aspirazioni personali.
L’imprenditore abbisogna di molta intelligenza per scovare che cosa e come produrre in vista della domanda. Poiché egli, come è il caso in un’economia di mercato, non conosce esattamente il richiedente, può cavarsela solo con l’aiuto di indagini di mercato, nelle quali deve fare i conti con potenziali compratori. Ciò facendo deve pensare anche agli attuali e possibili concorrenti. Tutto ciò significa scrutare, guardarsi attorno, "speculare". La speculazione determina la sua prestazione. Neanche lui è per questo un giocatore d’azzardo: egli vuole soltanto vincere nella gara con i suoi concorrenti grazie a una prestazione migliore.

Il banchiere riflette a come giungere facilmente e sicuramente a clienti che depositino presso di lui i loro risparmi, e ancor più a come può prestare queste somme per poter, grazie agli interessi pagati dai destinatari del prestito e le rendite dei suoi investimenti, assegnare ai suoi clienti gli interessi spettanti e mantenere e far crescere la sua impresa. Nessuno avrà nulla da ridire contro questa speculazione, finché la banca non faccia gravare sul cliente spese che non corrispondono alle loro prestazioni. L’investimento del denaro ricevuto dai clienti richiede la massima attenzione nell’osservare lo sviluppo del mercato delle merci e del denaro, e una seria valutazione dei rischi da affrontare. Per investire i loro patrimoni la banca, in rappresentanza dei suoi clienti, deve rivolgersi alla borsa.

La borsa è per ciò che riguarda lo scrutare e il guardarsi attorno, dunque lo "speculare", il luogo più rischioso e dunque anche più esposto all’accusa di cattiva speculazione. Qui si tratta dello "speculare" lo sviluppo economico prevedibile nel prossimo e lontano futuro. Lo strumento per ottenere profitto da questa speculazione è la transazione a termine. Finché il mediatore di borsa non fa altro che stimare lo sviluppo reale dei prezzi e concludere affari in base a questa stima, egli compie all’economia di mercato un prezioso servigio, per il quale gli spetta il corrispondente profitto. Ma le cose hanno tutt’altro aspetto quando per il proprio utile cerca di manipolare lo sviluppo dei prezzi tramite acquisti o vendite escogitati astutamente, o quando addirittura persegue fini politici con speculazioni valutarie. Qui abbiamo il cattivo giocatore d’azzardo, per il quale soltanto è adatta l’espressione spregiativa di "speculatore".

Se quando un’azione cresce di valore, il commissionario di borsa afferra il telefono o il computer per comprare in un’altra borsa azioni al prezzo vecchio inferiore e poi rivenderle sul posto al prezzo più alto, eticamente questa è pura speculazione individualistica tesa al profitto, che non esercita più alcuna funzione nell’ordinamento economico.
Mentre la transazione a termine può servire a tranquillizzare i mercati, il puro commercio con denaro, senza merci, non è più eticamente giustificabile. D’altra parte è comprensibile che nel sistema delle libere valute il mediatore con la sua speculazione vuole compensare con profitti derivanti dalle variazioni di cambio le perdite che sono sorte dal commercio in valute straniere (assicurazione del rischio). Ma questo è però un circolo vizioso senza fine. Bisogna pensare ancora alla situazione psicologica in cui il mediatore si trova nei suoi affari: egli è dominato o dal desiderio di profitto o dalla paura.

Quando la motivazione è la seconda, si giunge facilmente al crollo dei prezzi di borsa. Da questa situazione si comprende facilmente il pericolo della speculazione valutaria per l’economia globale, addirittura per l’economia mondiale. Profitti degli speculatori di valuta sono perdite della banca nazionale: queste perdite non dovrebbero dunque nelle notizie sul bilancio dei pagamenti essere dissimulate come "perdite contabili".

Come si vede, in ultima analisi il concetto di speculazione viene ricondotto alla mira di colui che specula. Nella scolastica si partiva in linea di principio da questa fattore etico-individuale e si dichiarava che la speculazione era eticamente da respingere laddove il commerciante mirasse unicamente al profitto. Tommaso d’Aquino parlava di profitto solo nel commercio (il guadagno che il produttore cerca a causa della diminuzione dei costi dei suoi prodotti non veniva preso in considerazione). Il profitto da commercio lo riconosceva solo laddove esso veniva impegnato per scopi sociali (mantenimento della famiglia, assistenza ai poveri ecc.) [ S. Theol., II/2, q.77 a 4]. Nel quadro dell’economia di mercato dinamica, che Tommaso d’Aquino ancora non conosceva, il desiderio di profitto non può essere globalmente condannato con questa prospettiva etico-individuale, giacché al desiderio di profitto normalmente è connessa una prestazione socio-economica. Tuttavia questa considerazione etico-sociale riporta in fin dei conti alla decisione etico-individuale, cioè alla responsabilità personale dello speculatore in vista del bene comune economico. E’ questa ancora una riprova che l’etica sociale ed economica non può essere divisa

dall’etica individuale.

A.F. UTZ, Etica Economica, pp. 272 -275.

Mais estudo, menos retórica vazia

Brasil “zera” a dívida externa. A noticia é ótima ,alem de ser histórica. É uma pena que a mesma performance não se repita com a dívida interna: alta, como proporção do PIB, de curto prazo e , portanto, cara.

Espero ansiosamente pela reação de segmentos da intelectualidade católica e da extrema esquerda que insistem em apontar a dívida externa como sendo o grande problema da economia brasileira. Que o segundo grupo tenha uma percepção equivocada da realidade econômica é esperado, mas é surpreendente que isto ainda ocorra com o primeiro grupo. Esta ignorância em matéria econômica é prejudicial a causa daqueles que, como este missivista, defendem uma política econômica com foco nos interesses da maioria sofrida da população brasileira. É necessário estudar mais teoria econômica, teoria da política econômica e melhorar o conhecimento dos dados econômicos. A pratica atual destes dois grupos nada mais é que um conjunto de ignorância em matéria econômica embalada em uma retórica populista que já deveria ter sido relegada a lata de lixo da história.

A Lullaby

For wars his life and half a world away
The soldier sells his family and days.
He learns to fight for freedom and the State;
He sleeps with seven men within six feet.

Hi picks up matches and he cleans out plates;
Is lied to like a child, cursed like a beast.
They crop his head, his dog tags ring like sheep
As his stiff limbs shift wearily to sleep.

Recalled in dreams or letters, else forgot,
His life is smothered like a grave, with dirt;
And his dull torment mottles like a fly’s
The lying amber of the histories


Randall Jarrell

Was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1914. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Vanderbilt University. From 1937 to 1939 he taught at Kenyon College, and then at the University of Texas. His first book of poems, Blood for a Stranger, was published in 1942, the same year he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He soon left the Air Corps for the army and worked as a control tower operator, an experience which provided much material for his poetry.
Jarrell's reputation as a poet was established in 1945, while he was still serving in the army, with the publication of his second book, Little Friend, Little Friend, which bitterly and dramatically documents the intense fears and moral struggles of young soldiers. Other volumes followed, all characterized by great technical skill, empathy with the lives of others, and an almost painful sensitivity. Following the war, Jarrell accepted a teaching position at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and remained there, except for occasional absences to teach elsewhere, until his death. Even more than for his poems, Jarrell is highly regarded as a peerless literary essayist, and was considered the most astute (and most feared) poetry critic of his generation. Randall Jarrell was struck by a car and killed at the age of 51 in 1965, in a death that may or may not have been a suicide.

Pluralismo

Pluralismo, quantas vezes ouvimos esta palavra nos últimos meses? Ela tornou-se a palavra chave do discurso do marxismo fundamentalista e vulgar na sua busca para justificar o injustificável. O irônico é que eles não estão sozinhos no uso seletivo desta palavra. A direita americana também a usa como justificativa em sua luta por um maior espaço nas Universidades. Aqui como lá, a Universidade deixa de ser o sítio em que diferentes visões teóricas tem espaço em razão da sua relevância acadêmica , para transformar-se no locus em que a justificativa para a inclusão da teoria A ou B está no seu caráter progressista ou conservador. Hayek , por ex., é descartado por ser um reacionário de direita, Marx ganha espaço por ser um economista progressista. O fato de ambos serem ótimos economistas é colocado em segundo plano. Se fossem guiados pela paixão pelo conhecimento saberiam que o primeiro tinha grande apreço pelo livro II do Capital e colocava seu autor no mesmo nível intelectual de Smith.

Wicksell

Se você é neoclássico então você não esta do lado dos trabalhadores. Esta é uma afirmação recorrente que tenho ouvido de alunos e professores anti-neoclássicos. Este tipo de discurso é o esperado em um ambiente em que o marxismo fundamentalista e vulgar é hegemônico e o desconhecimento das demais escolas do pensamento econômico gigantesco. Mas o fato é que um dos grandes economistas do século passado, Wicksell, era neoclássico e ardoroso defensor dos direitos dos trabalhadores. Nunca perdia um desfile de primeiro de maio e no seu enterro compareceram os mais importantes lideres sindicais que, apesar de discordarem, em varias ocasiões,de algumas das teses do Wicksell, sempre souberam de que lado ele estava: o lado dos trabalhadores

Criação e distribuição de riqueza

Um querido ex-professor, católico de esquerda e neo-marxista, uma vez me disse que a economia de mercado era o melhor sistema econômico para criar riqueza mas o pior para distribui-la. Concordo com a primeira parte e parcialmente com a segunda: é um dos piores, mas não o pior, este prêmio eu entregaria aos países do antigo “socialismo realmente existente”.

Há , naturalmente, diferentes modelos de economia de mercado. Em alguns deles, principalmente nos países em desenvolvimento, injustiças e mazelas sociais parecem indicar que uma alternativa socialista estaria na ordem do dia. Contudo, as poucas experiências socialistas são desanimadoras no aspecto econômico e social. É verdade que a Guerra Fria em nada ajudava, mas será que este realmente era o problema?

Para Rosa Luxemburgo a justificativa do socialismo encontrava-se na sua superioridade econômica em relação a economia de mercado. Sem ela o socialismo seria apenas mais uma opção moral para resolver as mazelas sociais. A experiência histórica não parece confirmar tal superioridade e somada a reflexão teórica a partir de Hayek confirmam o papel fundamental do sistema de preços livres para o bom funcionamento do sistema econômico.

Naturalmente, a questão colocada pelo meu ex-professor é importante e ainda espera por uma resposta: como resolver o problema da distribuição da riqueza criada pela economia de mercado sem a eliminação do sistema responsável pela sua criação.

Uma certa aliança....

Qual o resultado da aliança entre a esquerda católica e a intelectualidade marxista? Uma consequência obvia foi o desaparecimento da Doutrina Social Católica do curriculum e uma “overdose” de um marxismo fundamentalista e vulgar nos deptos/faculdades na área de humanas. Criou-se um pensamento único que, como sua contrapartida de direita, é emburrecedor , alem de vender ao aluno, preocupado com as inumeras mazelas sociais brasileiras, o argumento que sem a substituição da economia de mercado por um modelo marxista-leninista seria impossível resolve-las.

O estranho é que apesar da debacle do Império Sovietico esta visão ainda prevalece.

Sem a ética, ciência, técnica e política podem ser usadas não para o bem mas para o mal

No encontro com os Universitários de Roma, o Papa recomenda a Encíclica "Spe salvi", e apresentou a seguinte reflexão


A [...] reflexão, que desejo propor-vos, refere-se à recente Encíclica sobre a esperança cristã intitulada, como sabeis, Spe salvi, "salvos na esperança", palavras tiradas da Carta de São Paulo aos Romanos (8, 24). Entrego-a idealmente a vós, queridos universitários de Roma e, através de vós, a todo o mundo da Universidade, da escola, da cultura e da educação. Não é porventura o tema da esperança particularmente congenial aos Jovens? Em particular, proponho que façais objecto de reflexão e de confronto, também de grupo, aquela parte da Encíclica na qual falo da esperança na época moderna. No século XVII a Europa conheceu uma autêntica mudança epocal e desde então foi-se afirmando cada vez mais uma mentalidade segundo a qual o progresso humano é só obra da ciência e da técnica, enquanto à fé competiria apenas a salvação da alma, uma salvação meramente individual. As duas ideias principais da modernidade, a razão e a libberdade, separaram-se de Deus para se tornar autónomas e cooperar na construção do "reino do homem", praticamente contraposto ao Reino de Deus. Eis então que se difunde uma concepção materialista, alimentada pela esperança que, mudando as estruturas económicas e políticas, se possa dar vida finalmente a uma sociedade justa, onde reina a paz, a liberdade e a igualdade. Este processo que não está privado de valores e de razões históricas contém contudo um erro de fundo: de facto, o homem não é só o produto de determinadas condições económicas e sociais; o progresso técnico não coincide necessariamente com o crescimento moral das pessoas, aliás, sem princípios éticos a ciência, a técnica e a política podem ser usadas como aconteceu e como infelizmente ainda acontece não para o bem mas para o mal dos indivíduos e da humanidade.
fonte:(©L'Osservatore Romano - 22 de Dezembro de 2007),

Cristofobia

O tópico é a controversia sobre ausência de qualquer menção as raizes cristãs da Europa na proposta da Constituição Europeia, mas as reflexões do Professor Joseph H.H.Weiler, da New York University, se aplicam ,tambem, às discussões sobre diferentes questões nos tristes trópicos . No livro “Uma Europa Cristã”, ele afirma: ”É um absurdo que na futura Constituição Europeia não se mencionem as raízes cristãs da Europa” [...]“...devo recordar que a eleição constitucional de metade dos países membros da União Europeia é a de ter em conta e mencionar o cristianismo... uma Europa cristã não é uma Europa exclusivista ou necessariamente confesional, mas que respeita por igual todos os seus cidadãos, crentes e laicos, cristãos e não cristãos”. A citação a seguir é uma excelente descrição da praxe intelectual, aparentemente, hegemônica no Brasil. “Quanto à cristofobia, falo sobretudo, de um sentido cultural, de uma tendência que existe, e é a do progresso identificado com o laicismo. Há quem leia Habermas ou Derrida com autêntica devoção, mas não lê uma Encíclica do Papa, que é igualmente profunda e enriquecedora”.

Les Crimes Cachés du Communisme

A edição de outubro de 2007(numéro spécial), da revista francesa L`histoire, é dedicada aos arquivos inéditos dos "crimes cachés du communisme". O editorial, reproduzido, abaixo, levanta questões importantes e quem sabe um dia consiga chegar aos ouvidos e mentes dos bravos revolucionários brasileiros que ainda comemoram a revolução de Outubro. A revista pode ser encontrada em qualquer boa revistaria/banca de jornais de São Paulo.

Ne pas oublier Lénine

Il y a quatre-vingt-dix ans éclatait la révolution d'Octobre. Jadis, on la commémorait, même em Occidente, à son de trompes, parce que Lénine et ses camarades avaient incarné pendant longtemps l'idéal prolétarien et humain de l'emancipation, de la libération, de la venue d'un monde fraternel. Aux temps de la déstalinisation, Lénine avait été épargné; il passait pour le bon communiste trahi par le mauvais.

Près de vingt ans après la chute du mur de Berlin et l'implosion du communisme soviétique, le ton n'est plus celui de la célébration. Il est difficile aujourd'hui d'eluder les responsabilités de Lénine dans la mise em place d'un régime de terreur. Ce que, pendant des décennies, l'Occidente lui-même s'était refusé de savoir a été porte au grand jour, d'abord par une avante-garde intellectuelle des pays de l'Est, puis par les historiens mettant à profit l'ouverture d'archives jusque-là inaccessibles. Ce sont ces sources inédites qui sont à l'origine de notre numéro spécial.

"La folie de la Révolution fut de vouloir instituer la vertu sur Terre. Quand on veut rendre les hommes bons et sages, libres, modérés, généreux, on est amené fatalement à vouloir les tuer tous", a fait dire à l'un de ses personnages Anatole France. Tel est le paradoxe de toute révolution dont le rêve central est de changer l'homme, créer l'homme nouveau et um peuple neuf. L'enterprise implique um pédagogie mais aussi une violence d'Etat. La terreur imposée est à proportion de l'ambition. Les arrestations arbitraires, les condamnations sommaires, les liquidations de masse, la police politique omniprésente, la surveillance ininterrompue de chacun, les persécutions religieuses, les déportations, l'encouragement à la delation on été érigés en système permanent de gouvernement. Des pratiques qui ont laissé de profondes cicatrices. Aujourd'hui, en Europe de l'Est, dans ces pays si improprement nommés "démocraties populaires", les mémoires douloureuses et les ressentiments enfouis refont surface pour s'installer parfois au coeur du débat public. On n'en a pas fini avec les effets de la terreur.

"Oublier Lénine" était dans les années 1970 un slogan des intellectuels de gauche pour qui le bolchevisme n'était plus un exemple à suivre. Aujourd'hui, devant le bilan humain du communisme soviétique, dont il fut le fondateur, mais aussi des régimes qui, en Chine, au Cambodge ou dans l'ancien glacis soviétiques aprés 1945, se sont réclamés du "marxisme-léninisme", le mot d'ordre des historiens doit bien
être de "ne pas oublier Lénine".

Marx e a esperança( excertos da Carta Encíclica SPE SALVI do Sumo Pontifíce Bento XVI)

"20. O século XIX não perdeu a sua fé no progresso como nova forma da esperança humana e continuou a considerar razão e liberdade como as estrelas-guia a seguir no caminho da esperança. Todavia a evolução sempre mais rápida do progresso técnico e a industrialização com ele relacionada criaram, bem depressa, uma situação social completamente nova: formou-se a classe dos trabalhadores da indústria e o chamado « proletariado industrial », cujas terríveis condições de vida foram ilustradas de modo impressionante por Frederico Engels, em 1845. Ao leitor, devia resultar claro que isto não pode continuar; é necessária uma mudança. Mas a mudança haveria de abalar e derrubar toda a estrutura da sociedade burguesa. Depois da revolução burguesa de 1789, tinha chegado a hora para uma nova revolução: a proletária. O progresso não podia limitar-se a avançar de forma linear e com pequenos passos. Urgia o salto revolucionário. Karl Marx recolheu este apelo do momento e, com vigor de linguagem e de pensamento, procurou iniciar este novo passo grande e, como supunha, definitivo da história rumo à salvação, rumo àquilo que Kant tinha qualificado como o « reino de Deus ». Tendo-se diluída a verdade do além, tratar-se-ia agora de estabelecer a verdade de aquém. A crítica do céu transforma-se na crítica da terra, a crítica da teologia na crítica da política. O progresso rumo ao melhor, rumo ao mundo definitivamente bom, já não vem simplesmente da ciência, mas da política – de uma política pensada cientificamente, que sabe reconhecer a estrutura da história e da sociedade, indicando assim a estrada da revolução, da mudança de todas as coisas. Com pontual precisão, embora de forma unilateralmente parcial, Marx descreveu a situação do seu tempo e ilustrou, com grande capacidade analítica, as vias para a revolução. E não só teoricamente, pois com o partido comunista, nascido do manifesto comunista de 1848, também a iniciou concretamente. A sua promessa, graças à agudeza das análises e à clara indicação dos instrumentos para a mudança radical, fascinou e não cessa de fascinar ainda hoje. E a revolução deu-se, depois, na forma mais radical na Rússia.
21. Com a sua vitória, porém, tornou-se evidente também o erro fundamental de Marx. Ele indicou com exactidão o modo como realizar o derrubamento. Mas, não nos disse, como as coisas deveriam proceder depois. Ele supunha simplesmente que, com a expropriação da classe dominante, a queda do poder político e a socialização dos meios de produção, ter-se-ia realizado a Nova Jerusalém. Com efeito, então ficariam anuladas todas as contradições; o homem e o mundo haveriam finalmente de ver claro em si próprios. Então tudo poderia proceder espontaneamente pelo recto caminho, porque tudo pertenceria a todos e todos haviam de querer o melhor um para o outro. Assim, depois de cumprida a revolução, Lenin deu-se conta de que, nos escritos do mestre, não se achava qualquer indicação sobre o modo como proceder. É verdade que ele tinha falado da fase intermédia da ditadura do proletariado como de uma necessidade que, porém, num segundo momento ela mesma se demonstraria caduca. Esta « fase intermédia » conhecemo-la muito bem e sabemos também como depois evoluiu, não dando à luz o mundo sadio, mas deixando atrás de si uma destruição desoladora. Marx não falhou só ao deixar de idealizar os ordenamentos necessários para o mundo novo; com efeito, já não deveria haver mais necessidade deles. O facto de não dizer nada sobre isso é lógica consequência da sua perspectiva. O seu erro situa-se numa profundidade maior. Ele esqueceu que o homem permanece sempre homem. Esqueceu o homem e a sua liberdade. Esqueceu que a liberdade permanece sempre liberdade, inclusive para o mal. Pensava que, uma vez colocada em ordem a economia, tudo se arranjaria. O seu verdadeiro erro é o materialismo: de facto, o homem não é só o produto de condições económicas nem se pode curá-lo apenas do exterior criando condições económicas favoráveis"