CAPITALISM DOESN'T END AT THE END OF HISTORY:

Bankers, bonuses and the market: plus ça change (Philip Stephens, October 15 2009, Financial Times)

Remember those hysterical forecasts about a world hurtling towards economic Armageddon. Well, they turned out to be just that – hysterical.

The global economy has taken a serious knock, at huge human cost. But even the ever-cautious IMF thinks it is now on the mend. Capitalism, to adapt one of Winston Churchill’s famous aphorisms, has proved again to be the worst possible system of economic management, except for all the alternatives.

Politics carries the same message. A backlash against free markets would have seen the resurgence of the left. Well, I suppose you could say the crisis gave Mr Obama a helping hand into the White House. But look elsewhere and we are scarcely witnessing a resumption of socialism’s long march.

The centre-right Angela Merkel has just won the German election. The Conservative David Cameron seems set to emulate her in Britain. France’s Nicolas Sarkozy looks impregnable against a divided socialist opposition; even Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, sad to say, looks secure against the left.

As for the bankers, one or two have been packed off with platinum-plated pensions. Most of them are again counting the numerous noughts on their bonuses.

Our felt need to live in a uniquely dramatic and difficult time does not make it so.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 16, 2009 6:08 AM