I doubt I'll get round to reading Anatole Kaletsky's Capitalism 4.0, so you should treat my commentary lightly. However two things have prompted me to write. Firstly, I caught a recent appearance on Newsnight, in which he refered to the prevailing financial system as "free market capitalism". Again, let me repeat:
At present, we have a nationalised organisation that holds a state-granted monopoly on the issuance of currency. If this were any industry other than finance, the Bank of England would be seen as the Soviet-style planning board that it is
If an economist can't see this, ignore them. Anyone who thinks the present system is even remotely like a free market one is simply ignorant - and as I've pointed out before Kaletsky is indeed ignorant about free markets. Secondly, I noticed The Economist's review, demonstrating that Kaletsky suffers from what I refer to as the "halfway there problem":
Oddly, given his contempt for policymakers’ decisions during the crash, Mr Kaletsky is full of optimism about what they can now achieve. Provided that governments are willing to use the tools at their disposal—such as zero interest rates and fiscal stimulus—he expects a rapid and robust recovery
Indeed - be very skeptical of anyone who thinks that the wrong people were in charge. It's not about people, it's about institutions.
It's so nice to have you do all of the research for us. It makes our decision making so much easier!! Thanks.
Posted by: MBT Shoes | July 14, 2011 at 11:10 AM