Surely it was only yesterday that the west was engulfed by the crisis of capitalism? Markets buckled under the strains of the credit crunch. Portraits of Adam Smith made way for freshly-burnished busts of John Maynard Keynes. Popular rage against greedy bankers promised to restore politics to parties of the left.
Pace the doomsayers who predicted imminent Armageddon, liberal market capitalism has survived: somewhat humbled and, in the case of the financial services industry under much tighter official supervision, but recognisably much as it was. Governments have stepped in to prop up markets rather than to dismantle them. Nationalising the banks has been a means to an end rather than an end in itself.
The global economy is still in shaky condition. Recovery will be long and painful - and not just in those countries where prosperity had been built on the feeble foundations of unrestrained credit. Britain is paying the price of its borrowing spree in the ruinous state of its public finances; prudent Germany faces a still deeper economic slump because of the collapse of its export markets. Bailing out the banks has meant turning private profligacy into public debt.
That said, predictions of a return to the 1930s have proved as misjudged as the reckless complacency of policymakers and economists during the boom years. This week banks started paying back some of the money they borrowed from taxpayers. As for the predicted lurch to the left, it has not materialised. I have not seen anyone rushing to imitate the Russian model of state capitalism.
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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4a5b642c-56e8-11de-9a1c-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
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