Thursday, Sep 17, 2009
Typical capital apologist rubbishes arch bishop
Daily Telegraph: Archbishop of Canterbury's views on the City capitalism veer close to populist sloganeering
This article really got my goat, what a ludicrous apologist for kleptocratic capitalisms this Madsen Pirie is - but read the comments below. I am warmed by the comments on many telegraph articles showing up the what appalling excuse goes for journalism these days. well done to the moral wisdom of so many decent people.
Posted by the number cruncher @ 09:34 PM (473 views) Add Comment
7 Comments
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1. the number cruncher said...
Poor Adam must be turning in his grave to have that T**ser as the President of the Adam Smith Institute.
Tom Norton ommented:
Capitalism has, as Tawney pointed out, to be harnessed to a social purpose to do any good.
What Pirie is defending is greed on an industrial scale (idolatry of the golden calf). Adam Smith would have been aghast at such mindless practises, since he was first and foremost a moral philosopher.
The Right have caused enormous damage to British society and community. It is all very well to generate such vast and unimaginable profits - what happens then - do they create meaningful work in the form of jobs to build human dignity, do they protect the environment?
No, they are squandered on frivolous expenditure, and on creating further monetary surpluses, out of which to pay meaningless sums of money to people who enjoy such an extravagant lifestyle that they are indulged to the point of obscenity. Absurd.
2. jamonit said...
This is why I never read the torygraph.
3. mr g said...
@1 said: "The Right have caused enormous damage to British society and community. It is all very well to generate such vast and unimaginable profits - what happens then - do they create meaningful work in the form of jobs to build human dignity, do they protect the environment?"
The Left in the form of ZaNulabour and Crash Gordon have and still are, creating enormous damage to the ordinary people of this country and future generations, whilst brown nosing (no pun intended) with the parasites in the financial sector.
As for jobs, I would hardly call the proliferation of non jobs in the public sector since 1997 "meaningful work"
4. icarus said...
A proper demolition job on this tosser would be too long for a blog, so in response to his idea that financial services are there in order to allocate resources efficiently I'll just quote John Kay's piece in a recent FT article.
"Foreign exchange dealing is necessary to enable businesses to export and import and to handle the capital flows that are the converse of trade surpluses and deficits. Some speculative trading in these markets does indeed improve information, smooth prices and aid liquidity. But the volume of dealing that is needed to serve these purposes does not need to be several hundred times the volume of the underlying trade. That level of trading leads to instabilty, not stability."
Pirie is at one with the Chicago Boyz, who helped to financialise whole economies, starting with Pinochet's Chile, enslaving the people in order to free the markets.
5. icarus said...
Comparing bankers' remuneration with that of footballers doesn't work. When footballers score goals they stay scored and paying customers know what they're getting. That's more than you can say about bankers' short-term profits that morph into losses and their customers, who get suckered into funding their gambles.
6. shipbuilder said...
"I am sure he will not mind me pointing out, either, that financial services are not founded on greed. For the most part they represent honest trading by well-intentioned people whose skill lies in the efficient allocation of resources."
Madsen Pirie is being somewhat disingenuous here. Capitalism is founded on greed, the idea (flawed, in my opinion) being that self serving instincts in competition will end up working for everyone. He should at least admit it and not pretend that there is a moral element to it.
7. letthemfall said...
The remarks in this article range from ignorant to crass. The notion that politicians are wholly to blame while bankers are innocent is absurd. And to believe that high pay reflects economic worth and what people are prepared to pay is fantasy.