Remaking the capitalist system? Not on President Bush's weekend to-do list

When President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Jose Manuel Barroso, the head of the European Commission, visit President Bush at Camp David, Md., on Saturday, the business at hand will be the global economic crisis.

The solution that Sarkozy is touting is nothing less than to "recast the capitalist system."

In less dramatic but similarly sweeping terms, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is talking about an overhaul of the global financial order.

Writing on the op-ed page of today's Washington Post, he called for the sort of "visionary internationalism" that led after World War II to the post-war international economic order -- and institutions that he said must be "wholly rebuilt."

But don't expect anything like that to come floating out of the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains at dusk on Saturday.

Speaking early this morning to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, across Lafayette Park from the White House, Bush said "our European partners are taking bold steps," and they had the "full support of the United States."

The goal of Saturday's meeting, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said this morning, was "to address the challenges so that we can prevent a crisis like this from happening again [and] also preserve our free market system."

As for overhauling capitalism, Saturday's meeting may fall short.

Perino said: "I don't expect anything to be announced tomorrow or worked out."

In other words, stay tuned. There'll be no re-making of the world order this weekend. At least no announcement of it.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: David Boily / AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[dr david hill]

‘Ethical Markets’ and not ‘Capitalist’ Markets is what Humankind needs for its long-term 'Development'. Indeed, humankind's very survival depends upon this vital change.

With the turmoil in the financial markets that has shown quite clearly that they do not work in the long-term interests of sustainability and humankind, there is now no doubt that they have to be re-engineered to those of ‘ethical’ financial markets. Indeed, as the ‘capitalist’ market system and ‘capitalist’ economics are not also working in the long-term interests of sustainability and humankind, they too have to be re-engineered to those of ‘ethical’ markets and ethical economics.

For the financial crisis is a clear indication that governments do not control the world, but the very rich and powerful. These failures of ‘capitalism’ have, over the last quarter of a century of modern global ‘capitalism’, provided vast wealth to the very few and impoverished over 3,000, 000,000 of the world’s people. Indeed, the poor who live on no more than $2 a day will increase and by 2025 according to former World Bank president James Wolfensohn, will increase to 4,000,000,000 by 2025 where they will then be 8 billion human inhabitants - "If the world cannot make progress against hunger and poverty, by year 2025, there could be 4 billion people living on less than US$2 per day and more than 2 billion living in extreme poverty (1999).

These predictions that are now on course to be realised as poverty is not decreasing, clearly shows again that ‘capitalist markets and systems do not create wealth for the majority of the world’s people, but creates wealth for a very small minority of the world’s people. This cannot be good for the long-term survival of humankind, for as the population explosion and climate change hits head on with ever dwindling natural resources to sustain life, the ‘capitalist’ system will deliver global wars and possible human extinction. Indeed, it only takes no more than a 15% reduction in oil supplies and the whole of the capitalist engineered economies will shut down and fail humankind. Therefore the world’s people have to push their governments to change to both ‘ethical’ financial and trade markets, for if they do not with time now clearly running out, human misery on a scale never see before and far, far worse than the two world wars pt together, will be the eventual outcome.

Unfortunately for humankind and especially for our very young who will inherit this future world of anarchy and hellish conditions, mainstream economists, politicians and bankers have no real comprehension or willingness to adopt either ‘ethical’ markets or ‘ethical’ financial systems. Therefore as the world stays as it most probably will with these terrible systems that are totally redundant in human development terms, the world had better get prepared for human suffering of nightmarish proportions over the next quarter century.
For as the financial systems have failed already adhering to the ‘capitalist’ dictates, so too eventually will the capitalist market system fail humankind. Indeed, one was built on the foundations of immense global debt and the other is based upon unlimited natural resources, both of which now are to be seen as the coffin nails of human existence. There are many thousands of highly innovative people spread across the globe, independent of governments and commercial interests, who would help progressive governments to move towards ‘ethical’ markets and systems, but where it has to be said that governments are still presently blinded by current economic dogma and vested interests. Indeed, vested interests and sheer greed at the base of the minority will be found out eventually to be the total undoing of the human experience itself.

Dr David Hill
World Innovation Foundation Charity (WIFC)
Bern, Switzerland