The Economics Editor of the Guardian, Larry Elliott, describes how capitalism is facing an increasing crisis. He says that after the fall of the Berlin wall, we have seen the dark side of the post-Cold War model. Instead of trickle-down, there has been a trickle-up. Instead of the triumph of democracy there has been the triumph of the elites. We are seeing this in so many ways – the avarice of bankers, growing inequality, executive salaries and greed. This article suggests that the Vatican may be right that markets must be underpinned by morality. For this interesting and challenging account, see the link below. John Menadue.
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2 responses to “As the Berlin wall fell, checks on capitalism crumbled.”
John — Race M. mentioned your blog to me today; looking forward to reading it Best wishes John Mathews
One quote from this article caught my eye:
“A powerful country with a rival ideology and a strong military acted as a restraint on the west. The fear that workers could “go red” meant they had to be kept happy. The proceeds of growth were shared. Welfare benefits were generous. Investment in public infrastructure was high.”
I have often thought that one of the best things to have happened to this country was the High Court’s declaring Menzies law to ban the Communist Party unconstitutional, and then the people rejecting his referendum to change the constitution. Menzies then had to stop a majority of the voters “going red”. And he was at least smart enough to see that the only way to do this was by building a social democracy. While he may not have gone as far as Whitlam, Menzies at least knew he had to do something to discourage the attractions of Communism. Once the wall came down and the Communist Parties collapsed, the restraints ended. And so, we have the chant “the age of entitlement is over”….What Joe Hockey was really saying is “the age of privilege has begun”.