Britain needs more Capitalism not less

In his 21 March 2011 Daily Telegraph article, Britain Needs More Capitalism, Not Less, Tony Blair's former economic advisor, Derek Scott, says this:

“It was not capitalism that failed, simply the fact that the capitalists didn't understand capitalism.”

So, it was't the greedy elite, gobbling at the trough that the governments of the western world had given them licence to gobble at, who failed. It was a lot of nice, albeit obscenely rich, gamblers, along with the political bookmakers who had made the book, not quite understanding the gamble they were undertaking.

Whichever way you want to twist it, Derek, it all boils down to the same thing: Muggins Majority must cough up. If your elite capitalist crew were the nice, misguided folk you're trying to make them out to be, wouldn't they put therir hands in the air and say, 'hey, we'll forgo our bonuses until the debts paid off'! Might they not consider, making a bit of a contribution to cleaning up the mess they made themselves? I don't see any lovely, fluffy capitalist suggesting such a thing, Derek. All I see is the same old, same olds with their snouts just as far down in the trough as they've ever been.

Internationalise the wealth of the Rothschilds!

And the Lloyd Blankfeins, the Dick Fulds, the $50bn fraudsters, the Alan Greenspans, Robert Rubins, Ronald Cohens and Fred Goodwins. Make the guilty (in my world) and the not really guilty (in your world) pay!

Make a few mega-rich trough-gobbing hogs squeal. And the happiness and financial peace of mind of the honourable, non-trough gobbling majority will be assured.

As for the pipsqueak wealth of the Blairs, the Browns and the Cabinet Millionaires, let's have their ill gotten gains off them as well. It might not make much of a monetary difference in the scheme of things but, boy oh boy, the unhappiness it would cause the creepy few would inspire the decent many to boundless joy and jollity.

As for Master Scott, he is a special advisor to Europe Economics, a member of the advisory board and economic adviser to Vestra Wealth LLP, a non-executive director of Liberty Syndicate Management Limited and visiting professor at Cass Business School. He was Director of European Economics at Barclay’s de Zoete Wedd, economic adviser to KPMG, chief economist at Shell UK and international policy adviser at Shell International and special adviser to Denis Healey from 1976 to 1979.

Looks like we should have a few sovs off Derek as well, doesn’t it?

A contributor calling himself dexter_rankin commented thus underneath the article:

"What is the point of EU or US anti-trust legislation?"

To which Ironwand (me) replied:

“I presume you to be arguing that the western world already has in place enough tough measures to deal with greedy elite? And this on the back of sub-prime, the credit-crunch and the world-wide recession the 'greedy elite' is not having to pay for. You know, Dexter, in my previous post I mentioned Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary. He did away with the glass Steagall Act, which had been put in place after the Wall Street Crash to protect the little people.

Rubin is the yardstick by which we should measure the trough-gobblers. Someone who, actually, found himself in a position so powerful that he could strip away the safeguards that had protected the 'little people' from the likes of him for almost sixty years.

Glass and Steagall were being benign and societal when they formulated their law. They were trying to protect a vulnerable majority from the predatory instincts of the Rubins of the time. 'The point of EU or US anti-trust legislation', Dexter, should be to protect the 'little people' from the Rubins and the Nigel Lawsons, the Chancellor that authored our very own predator-encouraging 'Big Bang'. I suspect you'd have more in common with these latter day Sherrifs of Nottingham, Dexter, than Mr Glass or Mr Seagall."

Dexter: “My wife and I pay well over 6 figures in taxes every year.”

Ironwand:: “Lots and lots of Dexter dosh in the bank account, therefore. And all of it earned so righteously. How many hours would my father have had to work down a mine to have been able to fork out '6 figures in taxes', I wonder? How many years taking part in how many D-Day landings before he was worth a hundredth of just one Dexter? How many years would my dear old Ma have had to work in a glass bulbs factory before she earned what Dexter sucked up in one week?

When I was nineteen I worked two seven day, twelve hour shifts back to back in a factory for £52.00. Is Dexter worth so much more than I was back then? In Thatcher's world, yes. In Blair-Brown world, yes. In the world of the international financier and the multinational corporation owner, yes. In the world of the Sir Victor Blanks and the Fred 'the shred' Goodwins, yes. In the world of Gordon Brown's top financial advisor, Sir Ronald Cohen, 'the father of British venture capital', yes. In the world of Alan Greenspan, boss of the Federal reserve in the 19 years leading up to the credit crunch and the world-wide recession, yes. In the world of Ben Bernanke, boss of the Fed when the sh** hit the fan, yes. In the world of Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary, who did away with the glass Seagall Act, which had been put in place after the Wall Street Crash to protect the little people, yes. In the world of Dick Fuld, boss of Lehman Bros when it collapsed, yes. In the world of Bernard Madoff, the $50bn fraudster, yes. In the world of Roland Arnall, 'the father of sub-prime', yes. In the world of James H. Simons, the leading hedge-fund manager in 2009, earning $2.5 billion, yes. In the world of Lloyd Blankfein, the boss of Goldman Sachs, (Golden Sacks) the bank that has more clout with the White House than any other, yes."

Dexter: "We dont use the NHS..."

Ironwand: “The way it is nowadays, Dexter, you're not missing much.”

Dexter: “We wont send our child to state school…”

Ironwand: “So, your child will never have to put up with being taught alongside a whole lot of kiddiewinks utterly unlike himself, who don't speak English and take the teacher's attention away from the indigenous. I think I'd call your sprog a lucky boy, Dexter.”

Dexter: “And neither of us went to state school.”

Ironwand: “Are you for real, Dexter? Are you actually claiming the life enhancing opportunities cited above as some kind of badge of merit? You know, you're right in one way. You shouldn't be paying all that tax here. You should be forking out on planet Zog. Because, as sure as God made little, green apples, you don't come from anywhere round here.”

Dexter: “It is the rest of us, the successful people, who are funding your children's education.”

Ironwand: “Wow! Perhaps we should be down on our knees thanking you for so being so 'successful' at sucking up more than your fair share, eh? Perhaps we should be wagging our tails furiously at the thought that you 'successful' types have just landed we unsuccesful ordinary folk with a huge debt burden in the trillions? I don't think so, Dexter.

Exactly the same 'succesful' type who got Thatcher to privatise what once belonged to all of us, destroyed British industry and exported all the jobs in the eighties, was hogging at the Blair/Brown trough in 2000s.

YOU pay for the education of the children of this country? You pay for your lawn to be mowed, your swimming pool to be skimmed, your silver to be polished and for your own kids to go to Eton, Dexter. Over the years you've paid out a lot less than you should for your season ticket to the Gimme-Gimme-Gimme, free-for-all-but-the-little-people cafeteria.

I'll tell you what, Dexter, if I was the boss, instead of the Nigel Lawson 40% top tax rate, we'd have an 80% rate for the highest earners. It would be a retrospective tax all the way back to 1979, when the fattest of the already fat cats and and the largest and most asocietal of the trough-gobbling hogs began muscling the societally and ethically 'responsible' of the true-British piggiwigs out of the way.

Your sort sucked up a lot more gravy than yout talents and morality were due along the way, Dexter. British society owes you zilch. You, on the other hand, owe the rest of us an apology a thousand light years wide.”

Dexter disappeared after that.