The worst crisis I've seen in 30 years | Comment | Guardian Unlimited Politics - The Diigo Meta page

• 07 Nov 07
  

  Arne Løining

  economics neoliberalism

  • For 30 years we have been suckered into thinking that public authority has no business intervening in the wealth-generating, free-market financial system. This is the year when reality resurfaced with a vengeance.
  • The credit crunch is testimony to the exhaustion of a conservative free-market world-view.
  • In a free-market fundamentalist world, this, like regulation, is regarded as wrong. Instead, the most expensive and riskier route has been taken so that Northern Rock remains part of the problem rather than the solution.
  • This crunch is already upon us - hence the massive selling of bank shares at the end of last week and the extraordinary news that the taxpayer, one way or another, now has supplied £40bn to the stricken mortgage lender Northern Rock, a sum that could climb to £50bn by Christmas. Stunningly, that represents 5 per cent of GDP.

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