by John Reimann

 On Tuesday, July 17, the Egyptian government’s interim cabinet was announced. Several appointments serve to confirm our previous perspectives. These appointments can only be understood when the extreme economic crisis of Egypt is taken into account. At present, Egypt lacks enough foreign reserves to finance three months of imports – which puts Egypt in what is considered to be the red zone by economists. The state is running at a massive deficit. The donations from various Arab states may stave off the crisis for a few months, but that is all.

From Greece to the United States, the capitalist prescription to such economic problems is austerity and the “free market” – that is, privatizing everything in sight and eliminating the state role in the economy. At the time that Morsi was running for president, the pressure was already on him to take these steps. Only the pressure from below forced him to stay his hand.

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