Friday, Apr 25, 2008
Time to throw the money counters out of the temple, again
timesonline: Archbishop of Canterbury criticises rich over credit crunch
"Dr Williams and other bishops around the world are becoming increasingly concerned at the growing gap between rich and poor as the credit crunch bites, causing difficulties for the poor and first-time buyers but leaving many in the world’s financial centres still enjoying large bonuses and barely affected by the economic downturn."
... Whatever happened to ethics?
Posted by bystander @ 03:53 PM (746 views) Add Comment
20 Comments
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1. Stevie Dee said...
In the name of the Dollar, and of the Pound, and of the Holy Euro. Amen
2. uncle tom said...
I sense he's jumping on a bandwagon here - where his wise words before the crisis unfolded?
3. Mightytharg said...
I don't think anyone can blame this one on us. It's definitely the feckless poor who bought houses they can't afford who caused this crisis.
And where are these barely affected financial centres? I need to get myself a ticket.
4. last_days_of_disco said...
To be fair the C of E and other churches have been banging on about debt for ages.
The brutal way in which people have pursued materialism and worshiped money over the last ten years, I think he is being WAY too softly softly.
He should be lambasting us for our folly in worshiping money, its not working for us our economy is in tatters, our national identity is stuffed (imigration is really driven by greed) and we are on the brink of being subsumed into some huge polyglot nightmare (the EU).
The bankers are the high priests of this dodgy religion and he is right to have a go at them. Problem is he is too nice about it (DEATH or cake as Eddie Izzard would say, CofE, hopelessly too soft ;-)).
We need someone with a bit more fire in their bones!
5. icarus said...
Part of the Church Commissioners' remit is to obtain the best possible return from a diversified investment portfolio - so they're in the game. If he's on this particular bandwagon he needs to specify how the CCs differ from other investors.
6. taffee said...
bit rich from the uk's biggest property and land owner and who I believe lost £800 mill in the dot com boom
7. inbreda said...
Hypocrisy?
From the church?
Are you sure?
8. plato said...
Spot on taffe. I believe they own most of Soho too, just to put icing on the cake.
'The Church' is a business and this is essential in our capitalist society as they would say.
Hypocrisy is probably the most important factor in making vast amounts of money, which actually is against all religous teachings, but blatantly practised by such. Still this is another subject. I have my doubts in their own true belief. Perhaps their guilt is becoming too heavy a burden and we will see more of these statements.
9. letthemfall said...
I don't think Rowan Williams is the kind to jump on bandwagons. Yes, the Church has substantial assets, though far less than historically, but that is no reason for the Archbishop to say nothing on the distortions of wealth which we all feel keenly here. The Church investing its money to make a return is perfectly acceptable and should not be criticised, any more than we should when we invest our cash. What should be condemned are the incompetent bankers, fund managers, etc, who help themselves to enormous sums of money as they destroy value with their monumental inability to do their jobs.
10. Tehlam3 said...
i don't know why they give that egit the time of day ...
11. icarus said...
@ letthemfall - what about the competent ones, who make millions or billions for themselves and their investors using investors' (including the Church Commissioners') money - but do so in speculative, anti-social ways?
12. it_is_going_with_a_bang said...
What's wrong is the vast number of bankers who think they earn; their money. They clearly don't. They take it. The problem is huge sums of money corrupts governments. So don't expect any government to actually do anything about it. They are quite simply in their pockets. I mean where did the last PM go - oh yes - to a bank.
13. harold said...
"Time to throw the money counters out of the temple, again"
Shouldn't that be "Money Lenders"?
14. Stevie Dee said...
Someone should tell Dr. Williams not to worry as Gordon Brown is the new messiah.. the chosen one..
15. alan said...
The people that Jesus chucked out of the temple were the traders and money changers. The prople were forced to buy their stuff in the local currency and the money-changers were ripping them off.
I'm sure these money-changers would have argued that if the Jews had joined the Roman currency, costs would have been lower!
16. japanese uncle said...
Dr. Williams is a man of courage and integrity. No question about that.
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18. Unplugged said...
@ last_days_of_disco.
IMO the governments policy of immigration on such a huge scale is part of a wider plan to get us into the EU. England has/had strong communities and culture and that needs/needed to be diluted and broken down. This worship of money also has the same effect. Now everyones too worried about their house value and job security to pay attention. We'll be a capitalist-socialist state in no time.
@ japanese uncle
I reckon Dr. Williams suggestion that sharia law is inevitable was just a test to get a feel for the reaction and maybe stir up some emotion. He's part of the establishment. Call me cynical but for a man in his position to suggest something like that seems absurd. Dr Williams integrity is questionable to say the least. To survive in the game means to pull a few strokes surely.
19. bystander said...
" but do so in speculative, anti-social ways?"
....you mean like speculating on the price of rice, for a quick [rofit, at the expense of the lives of countless millions who will suffer from food shortages, brough about, not by supply and demand issues, but poverty and an inability to pay these ridiculous prices. This will be the next bubble sold to the investor in the street, like the housing market before it, but this time people will really suffer, with death, rather than debt. Something has to be done, about this pursuit of greed at all costs, as it is never the speculator, sitting in their Ivory towers who suffer. They may lose a bit of money, or' worst case scenario' their jobs, but rarely will it lead to death on a 'biblical' scale. The Free market needs to be less 'free'. IMHO.
20. shipbuilder said...
Hear, hear, bystander. I think we're seeing the real face of capitalism/corporate fascism, whatever label we put on it. When it comes down to the 'crunch', unfortunately the invisible hand of the 'market', as it is, determines that companies and rich individuals (now effectively the same thing) preserve their own wealth at all costs. When the 'market' is no longer a multitude of sellers competing for customers, but rather a few corporate entities who own everything with the common goal of preserving profit, they do what they like.