Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1981. július-december (35. évfolyam, 27-50. szám)
1981-09-03 / 33. szám
AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ 2. HHHBHHH IliiaiHI The Seven Pillars of Righteousness by Joseph Budish, Consulting Economist July 19 saw the opening of the Ottawa Conference of the Seven Wise Men of the “non-Commu- nist world”, as the Times calls NATO. Assembled at the exclusive Canadian resort of Montebello were Reagan, Trudeau, Schmidt, Mitterand, Thatcher, Suzuki and Spadolini. After an impressive public display of informal cordiality they sat down and politely proceeded to tear each other to pieces over the unyielding contradictions and conflicts that divide their governments. High U.S. interest rates provided the first pressing issue, raised by the Canadian and European conferees even before the conference opened. Those high rates have stimulated the multi-billion dollar migration of investment funds into the U.S. financial market, attracted also by the feeling of greater economic and political security in the much larger U.S. market, under the umbrella of a government more open in its complete dedication to the service of big capital than that of any other major power. Meanwhile, the hue and cry over that issue by the other six governments has not been preventing them from following the example of their private financiers by socking over $ 90 billion of their own government funds into U.S. Treasury securities, about $ 7 billion more than a year ago, to grab a slice of those high interest rates. Under pressure from his confederates Reagan fell back on his only defense. He said that the President does not control interest rates on loans, which happens to be true. Neither does the Federal Reserve Bánkor any other organ of the Federal government, in spite of the propaganda hullabaloo on the subject, as shown in mv column of June 4th. Not that they couldn’t, even without new legislation, except for the simple fact that they exist to serve big capital, not to be its master. With rapidly rising military expenditures, combined with reduction of taxes on the big money Federal government borrowing to meet deficits is again escalating . It is today the mainstay of the huge money market demand that enables the big banks to extort high interest. (The Federal Reserve is also again increasing its own purchases of Treasury Bonds, buying them with worthless paper dollars that it prints for that purpose. This inflationLet us learn Hungarian TRAVELING UTAZÁS How long have you been in Hungary? " 1 arrived (in Hungary) only a feio days ego. I’ll stay in Hungary a few days fa week, two wales]. Where do you come'from? What nationality? I am English <an Englishman, -woman ). I’m a member of the English IScottish, American/ delegation. i;i\ an English sportsman [ commercial traveller, businessman, tourist/. Mióta van Magyar- országon? Csak pár napja érkeztem (Magyarországra). Pár napig jegy hétig, két hétig) maradón Magyarországon. Honnan Jön ön? <Hcvá való ön?) Milyen nemzetiségű? Angol vagyok. Én az angol [a skót, az amerikai] delegáció tagja' vagyok. Angol sportoló [kereskedelmi utazó, üzletember, turista] vagyok. producing watering of the currency went down for a while last year but has again risen, about $ 5 billion in the past few months.) The other principal issues in the conference were trade conflicts among the NATO allies, none of which were settled, and Reagan pressure for economic quarantine of the Soviet Union, on which he did not get to first base. The constant Reagan administration demands for European and Japanese accelaration of war preparations against the Soviet Union, regardless of economic effects, is the basic background for the economic quarantine drive. The mushrooming of huge production capacity in even the remotest corners of the capitalist world is more rapid than ever, temporarily providing an enormous outlet for investment capital and making it possible for the international banks to get exorbitant interest. That production capacity is now outracing market capacity at a rate which sharply intensifies the battle for markets and opens the door to the development in the next few years, of the first true general crisis of overproduction since World War II. Under these circumstances asking the allies to reject Soviet trade is like asking a starving man to throw away a juicy steak, particularly when Reagan himself found it expedient to lift the U.S. grain embargo and release certain industrial orders for the Soviet Union. The conference ended with a lot of hot air, “full of sound and furv, signifying nothing”. Nobody gave an inch on any economic question, least of all the U.S. To quote the Times of July 22, “After two days of what one official called ‘sometimes brutal discussions’ the U.S. made no concessions on economic policies.” In the Times of July 24 Flora Lewis effectively characterized the central politician’s aim in this conference (and all others) as follows: “The prime value of a meeting like the seven- nation Ottawa conference comes *'rom the need all participants feel to make it look successful, both to their very different home audiences and to the world at large.” The possible miscalculations of these dangerous finaglers is that perhaps we of the American public and the world at large are not quite So stupid as they figure. amerikai ^ MAGYAR SZO USPS 023-980 ISSN 0194-7990 Published weekly, e>c. last week in July and 1st 2 weeks in August by Hungarian Word Inc. Inc. 130 E 16 St. New York. N.Y. 10003. Ent. as 2nd Class Matter, Dec 31. 1952 under the Act of March. 21 1879, at the P.0, of New York, N.Y. Szerkeszd a Szerkesztő Bizottság Előfizetési árak New Yorkban, az Egyesült Államokban egy evre $ 18.- félévre $ 10.- Kanadaban es minden más külföldi országban egy évre $ 20.- félévre $ 12.- Postnjaster« Send address changes to Hungarian Word, Inc. 130 E 16 St. New York, N.Y. 10003. Thursday, Sep. 3. 1981. A Hungarian American Editor in Hungary (Frank T. Csongos, Pittsburgh reporter left Hungary as a teenager. He returned to his native land this summer to spend an extended period there for the first time in nearly two decades.) The restaurant outside Budapest offered roast lamb, chicken prepared in paprika sauce and white wine from Lake Balaton. It was a warm night, the place was jammed. “I hope you enjoyed your dinned - the waiter said. - Please come back again. Perhaps you will taste our palacsinta for desert.” It was time to pay. The meal, including the wine, came out to the equivalent of about $ 3 per person. “It is nice to have pleasant service and good food - a fellow customer said. -It shows that this place is privately owned.” The restaurant in the town of Szentendre situated near the Danube was one of hundreds of private enterprises permitted by the communist-ruled Hungarian government. A business not owned by the state is called “maszek”, private sector in Hungarian. Such privately owned enterprises flourish in Budapest, specially in and around the fashionable Váci Street. “It took us 35 years to realize that permitting private ownership of small restaurants and other ventures has nothing to do with building socialism in Hungary”, said a top Hungarian journalist. “You will see plenty of changes since 1956.” I have spent about a month in Hungary this summer, My first extended stay in my native land in nearly two decades. The journalist was right. Things have changed. My earliest memories are of the 50’s, during the rule of communist leader, Mátyás Ra’kosi. He was a dictator. Under his leadership most businesses were nationalized. Peasants were forced to form collective farms. He ruled Hungary, a nation of 10 million in central Europe, with an iron hand. His political enemies were purged and executed. People vanished. Nearly everything from the West was banned, movies, plays, consumer products. As a small child I remember his pictures everywhere. In school we were taught songs to praise him. There could be no dissent. The West, led by the U.S., was portrayed as the enemy. In 1953, after the death of Stalin, Rákosi began to gradually lose power. Then came 1956: the uprising that began on Oct. 23.The fighting in the streets of Budapest. The Soviet tanks in November. Buildings ravaged by gunfire. The exodus of thousands of Hungarians to the West. Janos Kadar, a victim of Rakosi’s purges, who was tortured and imprisoned by his fellow communists, took control with Soviet backing during the winter of 1956. tto be continued) The HUGO GELLERT TESTIMONIAL SOUVENIR JOURNAL contains illustrations and an in-depth assessment of the artist’s life and work. Copies are available for $ 2.00 each. Add 75 cents for postage For orders, please make checks or money orders payable to the HUGO GELLERT TESTIMONIAL COMMITTEE 130 E 16 St. N.ew York,NY 10003.
