Turbo capitalism

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Turbo capitalism , also known as predatory capitalism , is a derogatory political term for a market economy with little or no restrictions .

The vocabulary book Neologisms of the 90s in German sees it as a term that goes back to the American economist Edward Luttwak . Karl Bachinger and Herbert Matis classify it as a political catchphrase , which is often subject to less precise meanings.

Concept history

Turbo capitalism was first adopted as a neologism in 1999 in the Wahrig . The synonym "killer capitalism", which has been documented since the mid-1990s , however, did not catch on. The Duden defined from 2006 "turbo-capitalism" as "ruthless, undisguised exclusively on profit maximization oriented capitalism." The Truig - Dictionary of the German language defines turbo- capitalism, on the other hand, as "a rapid change from a long-term socialist economy to a capitalist system (upon dissolution of socialist states)". In the New Vocabulary Dictionary : Neologisms of the 1990s in German , the use of the neologism “turbo-capitalism” was examined; Turbo capitalism is a form of capitalism that is characterized by the sole focus on constant profit maximization of companies to the exclusion of other, especially social aspects.

As a term , it is a loan translation of the Anglo-American word turbocapitalism and goes back to the economist Edward Luttwak from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, who dealt with the market economy in his book Turbo Capitalism .

“The capitalism of the 1990s is completely different from that of the previous decades. That's why I came up with the word turbo-capitalism. It denotes the completely deregulated , completely unleashed market, without any protective barriers. Turbo capitalism creates wealth because only one thing counts for it: efficiency . "

- Interview with Edward Luttwak in “Die Zeit”, 1999, issue 50, p. 25: “Few winners, many losers” .

According to reviewer Nils Röller, Luttwak argued in his book for a careful limitation of the “turbo-capitalism” unleashed by the new technologies . This also has positive consequences, but leads to an ever widening gap between rich and poor, which leads to many political risks. Röller notes with astonishment that Luttwak, as the son of an entrepreneur and proponent of capitalism, comes up with arguments that were previously developed by the left, while officially left leaders from Blair to Schröder have developed into unreserved supporters of deregulation . Some authors see parallels between Luttwak definition of turbo-capitalism and the "creative destruction" in Joseph Schumpeter . Jürgen Ritsert stated that the "word" turbo-capitalism has found its way into the serious press and even into the jargon of some politicians.

In 1995, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote: “The visible approaches to 'turbo-capitalism'… cannot let the People's Party [CSU] rest on old pillows.” Die Zeit put it in 1998: “'Turbo-capitalism' or 'killer capitalism' is supposedly forcing the whole globe to be ruthless Logic on: With their cheap goods, low-wage countries like India or China will make millions of jobs in rich countries superfluous and push wages down. "The Berliner Zeitung printed in 2001:" It is appalling that no political force is opposed today the systematic destruction of jobs by turbo-capitalism, which is based only on stock values. "

In 2012, David Cameron used the term “turbo-capitalism” to denounce the Labor Party's responsibility for developments in the UK . Instead of this he promised an age of true “popular capitalism”.

Predatory capitalism

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt warned in 2003 in the time before "predatory capitalism" which threatens the society. He was referring to the reckless use of power by some managers of large associations, corporations, financial institutions and media companies. In 2007 he spoke of predatory capitalism in the context of hedge funds and private equity houses. In his autobiography Out of Service. A balance sheet (2008) traced the beginnings back to the early seventies, "to the time of the exchange rate disorder after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system ". The speculators who had drawn profits from the freeing up of exchange rates had grown into tens of thousands who speculated internationally on every conceivable future event.

literature

  • Elmar Altvater , Frigga Haug , Oskar Negt u. a .: Turbo capitalism. Society in transition into the 21st century. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 1997.
  • Robert P. Brenner : Boom & Bubble - The USA in the world economy. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2002. ISBN 3-87975-886-7
  • Rudolf Hickel : From Rhenish to Turbo Capitalism In: Blätter für deutsche und Internationale Politik , 12/2006, pp. 1470–1479.
  • Edward Luttwak: Turbo Capitalism. Globalization winners and losers. Europa Verlag, Hamburg Vienna 1999. ISBN 3-203-79549-3
  • Fritz Reheis : Decelerate. Farewell to turbo capitalism . Riemann, Munich 2004. (An investigation into the paradox of the constant striving for acceleration and time savings, with the result of a constantly increasing shortage of time.)
  • Thomas Weiß: Turbo Capitalism? - On current global economic problems . In: WSI-Mitteilungen 12/1998. (Instead of "turbo", the image of the "rattling mill on the rushing brook" is considered more accurate as a description of the current world economy.)
  • Hans-Peter Studer: The Limits of Turbo Capitalism. Facts and perspectives for a new economy. Fischer Media 2001. ISBN 3-85681-473-6

Web links

Commons : Turbo Capitalism  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
Wiktionary: Turbo capitalism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Keyword “turbo-capitalism” in: Dieter Herberg, Michael Kinne, Doris Steffens, Elke Tellenbach, Doris Al-Wadi; New vocabulary: Neologisms of the 90s in German, Volume 11 of writings of the Institute for German Language, Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 2004, ISBN 978-3-11-017750-3 , p. 346
  2. ^ Karl Bachinger , Herbert Matis : Socio-economic development: conceptions and analyzes from Adam Smith to Amartya K. Sen. Volume 3074, UTB 2008, ISBN 978-3-8252-3074-6 , p. 75.
  3. ↑ Keyword “turbo-capitalism” on Duden online
  4. ↑ Keyword “ turbo-capitalism ” from Der kleine WAHRIG, Dictionary of the German Language , ed. by Renate Wahrig-Burfeind, edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-577-10236-0
  5. ↑ Quoted from Jürgen Ritsert, Key Problems of Social Theory: Individual and Society, Social Inequality, Modernization, Frankfurt Contributions to Sociology and Social Psychology, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2009, ISBN 3-531-16446-5 , p. 353
  6. ^ Sueddeutsche Zeitung of November 10, 1999, review by Nils Röller
  7. ↑ Jürgen Ritsert, Schlüsselprobleme der Gesellschaftstheorie, 2009, p. 354
  8. ↑ Harald Schumann, Hans-Peter Martin: Die Globalisierungsfalle , 1999, Hamburg, p. 250
  9. ^ Jürgen Ritsert, Key Problems of Social Theory, 2009, p. 353
  10. ↑ Nicholas Watt: David Cameron pledges era of 'popular capitalism' The Guardian , January 19, 2012
  11. ↑ Helmut Schmidt warns of "predatory capitalism" . In: presseportal.de. December 3, 2003 (press release of the time ).
  12. ↑ Helmut Schmidt castigates the "predatory capitalism" of hedge funds and is glad that Deutsche Bank (exists) . In: welt.de . February 1, 2007.
  13. ↑ Helmut Schmidt: Predatory Capitalism - What Can Be Done About It? In: Out of service. A balance sheet . Siedler, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-863-2 , p. 255-268 (citation p. 255).