The Wardman Wire

The most powerful men appear powerless
Yesterday marked one of the most extraordinary events in world economics, possibly since the great Wall Street crash of 1929. The pace at which events are now taking place makes the boom times of just a couple of years ago seem like a lifetime away. But what is most striking is that the world’s most powerful men – people like George Bush and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and our own leaders in Britain seem absolutely helpless to do anything whatsoever about it. Are we now having to face the reality that our elected representatives are nothing more than figureheads who can talk a good game but when action really needs to be taken they are absolutely powerless?

It seems extraordinary that the senior figures of both major parties in the US can push so vigorously for a solution to the current crisis through the $700bn bailout proposal and yet they still failed to get it through. Not only that, but all the major leaders around the world were pushing for this bill to go through too. It seems that some junior members in Congress were more interested in making political and partisan points while the speaker, Nancy Polosi, was more interested in some George Bush bashing. What we are looking at is just about every single one of the world’s most powerful men and women all pushing for one solution and it still failed.

In the hands of the gods
Worse still, even if the Representatives had voted this bill through there were no guarantees that the crisis was over – far from it. It could merely have been extending and deepening the problem. Gordon Brown has now bailed out Northern Rock and B&B, the British are left with an ever growing tax bill and all that seems likely is that things are going to get worse.

It is said that understanding that it is the “economy stupid” is what makes a successful government. They say that Brown should be held responsible for the continuing mess. They say the Tories have no idea what to do either. It seems that the US government is not only powerless but clueless as to a solution. In short, we are in the hands of the Gods from here on in.

But where does this leave democracy and capitalism for the UK? So what does it matter if we have Brown and Darling or Cameron and Osborne? We are at the mercy of men in Wall Street and a bunch of people in Congress. Our whole economy and therefore political direction relies on these few. Of course there are more issues that a government deals with than the economy – but the real bottom line is politics IS economics and it is the money that talks. Are we witnessing globalisation gone mad?

Time redress the balance
The real problem here is finding the balance between elected power and decision makers. Striking a balance between freedom for the markets and regulation of them. It is often reduced to a battle of ideology and a fear of slipping in to socialism – that was clearly part of the problem for some Republicans yesterday in voting for the bail out, but this is counter-productive. Maybe it is time to stop looking at politics as being on a linear scale. Perhaps too much globalisation has taken place and too much does now reside with the unelected super bodies who are effectively controlling our lives through the markets.

I am not suggesting a breakdown of capitalism, we are not even close; but we might well be close to an end to such extreme greed and heading towards a rethink on who we want to be in charge – elected officials or financially incentivised investors? Perhaps when this crisis is all over lessons will be learned and then it will be time to take to take a step back and look at the direction the world is heading. Or perhaps we will slip back into ignorant bliss.

We need stronger government
I have no doubt that we need stronger government immediately to get us through this crisis and little doubt that we need stronger government when the crisis has died down. If that means nationalisation of banks in the short term and more regulation in the long term, then so be it. One thing is for sure, this crisis is making our democracy and elected leaders look very weak indeed.