RC:
Well Robb’s statement seems apt only it appears that during the financial collapse of the past week that there has been an historic rupture in the relationship between the power of the State apparatus and those fundamental institutions (Investment Banks) of millennial hyper-capitalism which have hereto been perpetuating the myths of Hayek’s market fundamentalism and its economic certainties of unregulated markets. It is almost as if disaster capitalism imploded and began cannibalizing itself, and there would have only been a pile of bones left which would if the Corporate Welfare State did not step in to prop them up.

That States will lurch from crisis to crisis certainly defines the past decade of global economics is undeniable: The Asian Crisis of 1997, the Russian Crisis of 1998, Argentina Collapse 1999-2002, the Internet Crash of 2000, September 11, 2001, the Financial Collapse of 2008.

Robb:
Widespread economic dislocation. Since everyone is now in competition with everyone else in the world (the state won’t/can’t protect you from that), there will be an accelerated shift towards primary loyalties as people scramble for economic protection (to eat, get energy, and move forward). On the whole, these groups will opt for open source warfare to fight their foes (both states and corporations). IF you don’t have a group (other than the state) to rely upon to back you up, you are vulnerable. The best alternative for those not willing to resort to violence/crime will be to shift towards resilient communities.

RC:
Is something similar not already status quo in the role that ten thousands competing special interest groups play that define the corporatist state?

Robb:
Privatization of everything. The financial distress of nation-states will cause them to enlist allies from the corporate world.

RC:
Well this situation has been dramatically reversed this week. It seems that some new hybrid form of the corporatist state has begun, one which will more completely obscure the separate identities of corporate wealth and state power. Because in fact it is the infusion of state wealth that has now provided the life support for the global financial system of streamed capitalism. Has there been a dramatic reversal of the destiny of the nation state visa vie the corporate state or is this implosion of the global banking system just the beginning of a political system which will be defined by the wholesale plunder of public funding by free market capitalism?

Rich