Question

David Miliband, Do you think that capitalism has lost its way morally in causing the current crisis? If so, what can the London summit do about that?
Asked by rotherblog on Feb 09 2009 10:51:44 PM and supported by 4 members MORE!

Answer

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6 comments

PatNInterupt at Feb 18 2009 12:00:00 AM : I think the answer lies in the fact that capitalism is not immoral, it is amoral - it is purely the most efficient wealth creation system that ever existed. It's lack of morality needs to be tempered by politics not bad economics (such as socialism). The notable decline in 'economic morality' in recent years is likely more explainable in terms of the rampant credit creation (monetary inflation) that the government has not only presided over but actively encouraged in order to create a false sense of prosperity (that is now unraveling). Some of the best work on this theory was by the Italian economist Constantino Bresciani-Turroni in his work on the German Hyperinflation (search for the word moral). - http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=KFsHhDedYn0C&dq=bresciani+turroni&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=mkOLkjDgcx&sig=eY8RxzpiJmKM2V3YQM0a0NyHW3s&ei=ctmbSfCVEZ6Dtwfct9nXBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PPA5,M1

ThomasT at Mar 13 2009 12:00:00 AM : So do you think that Gordon should apologise Pat? And also that other famous GB (who I don't think is a socialist)?

PatNInterupt at Mar 16 2009 12:00:00 AM : Thomas, to be honest, I don't really care if Gordon Brown apologises or not (please no crocodile tears and false humility). If he hadn't made the mistakes, the British public would have elected someone else to make the mistake for them. The mistakes I think were inevitable in a society wanting to get rich quick - the same in the US, Australia and everywhere else. Gordon Brown is out next election anyway, his place in history confirmed. George Bush!? Well yup, he's just an idiot! I think it's not an argument about left and right, it's just about a totally incompetent political class all over the world on both sides of the political spectrum. If anyone in the US should apologise it is Alan Greenspan, and he's currently getting paid $100k a speech tell us why it wasn't his fault! What I do care about though is establishing the truth that the the mistakes WERE made by those in power - bankers did what was required of them - to be greedy, to lend money where it should never have been lent, to people who should never have had access to credit - that was a socio-political requirement of the times. It is the governments' task all over the world to do a good job of regulating free-markets in order to temper these well-known and documented problems of excess. They failed. Now the incompetent people who made these mistakes, who failed to anticipate, who misunderstood what went wrong, and who still don't get it, are now attempting to compound their mistakes further. The blind leading the blind.

PatNInterupt at Mar 16 2009 12:00:00 AM : Sorry, Thomas, I failed to address the issue of whether George Bush is a socialist or not. I think his policies were regarded as 'big government conservatism' - ie. he was a political conservative but a classic big-government spendaholic. That he chose to waste government money on his pet war projects and his network of crony 'capitalists' probably does not make him a socialist, but he is/was certainly far from a libertarian free-market kind of guy. Let's not forget, Adolf Hitler was a socialist.

ThomasT at Mar 16 2009 12:00:00 AM : I'm sorry Pat, I clearly made an assumption about you which wasn't correct. But, as you say, if it wasn't Brown making these mistakes, it would have been Cameron - so where does that leave us?

PatNInterupt at Mar 16 2009 12:00:00 AM : I think it leaves us, as Bertie Wooster might say, "In the soup." Don't get me started on Cameron, the epitome (along with most front-bench MPs on either side of the house) of the 'professional politicians' who are ruining this country. The sad thing is, I'm going to end up voting for the Tories, not because I like them or their leader, but because the only way in this dysfunctional 'democratic system' a normal voter can express dissatisfaction is to remove the incumbent government before they do more damage. Repeat each election. I think surely from the general public's perspective, the real questions we should be asking are not what politicians and bureaucrats should be doing about the current economic problems that they caused, but how should the political system be changed for good so we actually have competent, truly accountable governments in future.

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