THE (FREE MARKET) GODS ARE CRAZY

free market fundamentalism.

two British economists, Larry Elliot and Dan Atkinson. the “free-booting, super-rich free-market operatives”

• “They promised economic stability, and have delivered chaos and volatility.

• They promised an economic order based on enterprise, thrift and personal effort and have delivered one based on chronic indebtedness and wild speculation.”

• “They promised a ‘transparent’ future in which all the costs and prices would be clearly laid out, allowing people to make informed choices in their lives. They have delivered a world of bizarre, occult financial knowledge, one in which everything from the true cost of a mobile phone package to the real value of billions of pounds worth of ‘securitised’ debt is impossible to gauge.”

• They promised an expanded middle class of property and share-owning individuals, a new Yeomanry of sturdy, independent citizens. They have delivered the unleashing havoc on professional and white-collar career structures smashed up the pension schemes of the middle class and forced their children deep into debt for the privilege of attending university.”

The authors argue that the world economy has been reduced to this state by the “mania of speculation.” These speculators, they maintain, have “taken advantage of the gradual erosion of any serious control over their activities.”

What were once marketed as ‘innovative’ financial products by investment bankers, were just balloons filled with hot air. these bankers created a 600-trillion-dollar derivatives market, which is 10 times the world GDP



fundamentalism does not work, be it a political, religious or economic doctrine.

President Nicolas Sarkozy remarked, “Self-regulation is finished … Laissez-faire is finished.”

Bric countries. What saved them, they have not followed in the footsteps of these ‘teachers’ and opted for unbridled markets.

• The regulators have failed in their job of protecting the interest of the common man.

• And so have auditors and global rating companies in looking after the interests of shareholders.

The trouble is that both the regulators and the regulated around the world are the ‘Taliban’ of the same madrassa that teaches ‘unbridled free-market fiqah.
Indeed, it is time to deal with the anger-spitting inequality dragon. It cannot be wished away by the faith-healers of the ‘trickle down theory.’ It’s time for a sustainable flow of resources to the dispossessed.