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THE NEXT FINANCIAL CRISIS IS JUST A MATTER OF TIME
Roberto Savio
SEPTEMBER 2009 (IPS) - The theme of a radical reform of the financial system, central to the
administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression,does not appear on Obama's agenda writes Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of IPS.
In this article, Savio writes that if, as seems to be the case, the
only certainty to come out of all of this is that banks will not be
allowed to fail even when their own actions lead them to the verge
of bankruptcy, there is clearly nothing keeping them from returning
with impunity to their speculative practices and recreating
conditions for another catastrophe, for which once again the
taxpayers, and not they, will pay the price.
But would a radical reform of the financial system have been
possible? In recent years, the US has changed its beliefs and
tendencies so profoundly that the idea of another Bretton Woods is
more dream than reality. Keynes famously likened financial
speculation to gambling: "When the capital development of a country
becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is
likely to be ill-done." Today would such language and a true reform
of private financial institutions be possible?
(*) Roberto Savio is founder and president emeritus of IPS.
//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND,
THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM// (END/2009)
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