correction

the world is in a supermegahyper crisis, financially. and according to all, it's the end of capitalism as we know it, a sign that the free market has failed, greed has got us here, etc.

i disagree. my 1 year of economics classes at soas have taught me the basics of economic theory. and i have learnt that the free market is a very workable model for organising the economy of a country or the world. the only problem is that we never had a free market, an exchange of goods and services regulated by supply and demand. even in the us, and certainly not in the uk. what we have had was an economy riddled with political and other group interests. so the banks are to blame for giving loans to people unsuitable for them, who would never be able to pay them back at market rates? errr... wrong. the us president carter forced banks to give loans to poor people, lest they would be *discriminated against*. and under clinton the us revoked that old law introduced after the 1920s crash that kept retail and investment banking separate. they thought it would win them votes. now that several banks and insurers are folding, do we let the free market correct itself by allowing unprofitable enterprises to go down? no, once again, politics is meddling, and we say that obviously capitalism has failed.

pure capitalism never existed, as little as pure communism.