The Gods That Failed: How Blind Faith in Markets Has Cost Us Our Future [Paperback]

 

 

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In this brilliant book, Larry Elliott, the economics editor of the Guardian, and Dan Atkinson, the economics editor of the Mail on Sunday, explain why the economy is in such a mess.

Previously, strong unions, progressive taxation, managed trade and controls on capital and immigration produced higher living standards for the majority. As the authors note, "A fifth factor, immigration controls, also contributed to rising real incomes of blue-collar workers." Now the opposite policies are producing stagnant or falling incomes, massive debts, tepid growth, and soaring income inequality and economic insecurity. Workers are subjected to material losses and moral uplift. GB plc is not a decent industrial company but a dodgy hedge fund.

Elliott and Atkinson blame what they call the twelve gods of globalisation - communication, financialization, privatisation, liberalisation, competition, and their partners speculation, recklessness, greed, arrogance, oligarchy and excess. They show how the Labour party, the European Commission, the IMF, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the International Court of Justice have all embraced these gods. As the authors note, bodies like the EU "far from being essential in order to exercise some sort of control over large companies ... look rather more like being essential to the simplification of large companies' dealings with political authorities."

The present crisis arose because US companies promoted enormous `ninja' loans to those with No Income, No Job or Assets. So US household debt is now three times the economy's annual output, the highest proportion since 1929. Two million insolvent borrowers means insolvent lenders, builders and hedge funds. Every previous crash in the US housing market has led to a full-blown recession and this one will too, largely because the US economy has relied not on increased production but on growing debt. Its productivity has grown less since 1973 than it did in 1947-73 and it created no more jobs between 2000 and 2005 than anywhere else.

Elliott and Atkinson show how the Treasury, its Financial Services Authority, and the Bank of England all failed in the Northern Rock debacle which signalled the start of the crisis in Britain. Their answer was to nationalise the losses and privatise the profits. The authors sum up finance capitalists' plight, "They have to borrow money from the public purse because their system does not work."

Instead, Elliott and Atkinson urge a New Populism focusing on a real-world agenda of jobs, living standards and security in retirement. Its aims should be to subordinate finance to industry, establish personal and social security (mainly by providing high-quality pensions), enhance democracy, curb the semi-detached super-rich, strengthen the professions, value social stability above market efficiency or shareholder value, and reaffirm the liberty of the person.

They urge protection for our industries, tighter controls on lending and credit, splitting retail from investment banking, smaller banks, proper vetting of all financial products, higher taxes on hedge funds and private equity partners, and deregulation for smaller businesses and the self-employed.

This is a bold set of proposals, whose implementation would go a long way towards saving industry and rebuilding Britain. Those who worship the twelve gods would, of course, fiercely resist, and it would take the strength of the organised working class to make this New Populism work - but we could do it.

This is an important book. It's a follow on from Fantasy Island but this time it's a fantasy world.

The book begins slowly with a forensic deconstruction of current problems. It's detailed, and not the easiest reading. However it summarises down to the fact that money has been created and lent beyond the worth of assets and incomes. The scale of this, and the hiding of it in obscure off balance sheet transactions, is a scandal, that will come home to roost. Inevitably there will be a devaluation from such financial recklessness. The USA and UK are particularly vulnerable to this "correction." We will be paying for the problems created for many years to come.

The authors suggested remedies are at the back of the book (last 15 pages out of 310)

I found this book's argument convincing. I liked the author's set of suggested remedies. I recommend this important book to other readers. And may it send shivers down Mr Brown and Mr Darling's spines.

Having read the authors' previous effort 'Fantasy Island', which was a well written, if devastating, critique of New Labour's failed agenda, I must admit to being a little disappointed with their latest book. Not so much in terms of what they are saying - which I believe to be another accurate assessment, this time of the the economic mess the Western World is in, indeed just how much worse things are likely to get - and it isn't looking good - but in terms of style. They have chosen to use metaphor instead of just straightforwardly making their case, relying on a comparison with the 12 Greek gods, though in place of Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Athena and so forth, we have globalisation, liberalisation, privatisation and competition etc. The problem with this approach is that it is very cumbersome and hard to pull off. It would be a challenge for any creative writer, let alone a couple of economic journalists. As a result, the book is very stodgy and, at times, hard to follow.

That said, if you are struggling to understand why the Government, the City and a whole range of related institutions are suddenly starting to panic; why the property market is falling through the floor; and why America, the UK and much of Europe are facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, but are unsure of what all the fuss is about then this might be the book for you.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Prophetic Read
I read this book at the beginning of 2008, just after Northern Rock but before the truly seismic events that followed. Read more

Published on 30 April 2009 by D. Tomlinson

2.0 out of 5 stars A sermon for the converted and modestly informed
'The Gods What Failed' (sorry, changed title to reflect the failing educational standards under New Labour). In parts a bit waffly, in an attempt to fill out the book. Read more

Published on 2 Feb 2009 by C. Barclay

3.0 out of 5 stars Overly Biased
This is one of those books that preaches to the converted. There are many unspoken assumptions used within the books (commerce = bad, risk=bad, regulation=good, profit=evil)... Read more

Published on 22 Oct 2008 by M. Murdoch

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