Cavalry of American taxpayers rides to the rescue
It’s hard to keep a sense of perspective in these seat-of-the-pants times in the global economy.
The Gordon Gekkos of Wall Street finally go so far over the top that the economy stands on the brink of collapse. We - i.e. the government - can let that happen because there will be too much pain for all of us, so it steps in and buys all the rubbish created by the Gordon Gs.
It is in times like these that I’m tempted to reopen my largely unread copy of Das Kapital and see whether Karl (Marx) had the answers after all. He didn’t, of course. But I almost wish he had, because it is ugly what’s going on at the moment.
Maybe we could instead reintroduce medaevial stocks into which we could put the Investment Bank leaders - the (former) Masters of the Universe - and throw rotten tomatoes at them.
But it is not to be. Rather we have an anonymous system in place in which US taxpayers will foot the bill for profligacy and hubris. ‘Twas ever thus.
