14 October 2008

Nothing to Fear but the Flannel

It was the fact that we were hearing a lot about Zimbabwe on the news again that gave me the clue. The media-financialist complex has moved into a different gear. Now that they have frightened us into ramping up the national debt even unto the tenth generation we have stopped hearing the market disaster stories and the traders are playing along by boosting the values of stocks.

It is still unclear whether the elastoplast solution will work as there is as yet no sign of a fall in the interest rates banks are charging each other, or any increase in lending between them. The success of this latest attempt to reboot the corrupt banking system so that banks will accept each other's debts as money is not yet evident.

But what about the attempt to convince people that a system which has been variously referred to as a rollercoaster and a confidence trick by sober BBC commentators is the best we ingenious and sophisticated people can come up with? Will this crash prove a radicalising experience that people will remember and that will undermine their faith in the capitalist system as such and send them looking for something better?

As green economists we have grown tired of being told we must be communists just for questioning this wasteful and destructive way of organising economic affairs. We have an alternative paradigm up and ready to go. It will only take the courage of green politicians to announce it and the wisdom of the voters to choose it at the ballot box.

In the mean time I, for one, will be keeping in mind the words of John Lennon from 'Give Me Some Truth':

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope

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