Socialism by default
Iain Dale comments on the likely part-nationalisation of Royal Bank of Scotland and several other major banks):
Nationalisation is no longer the 'N' word which is used to be. And once it has been done once, it will be easy to do it again and again. So, tomorrow it will be RBS. The markets, far from seeing this as a stabilisation move, will then be searching for the next candidate. There is a real risk of much of the banking system ending up in the public sector by the end of the month.
Does anyone really believe the government will be any better at running banks than it was running the railways? But what is the alternative? Answers on a postcard to the usual address... Iain is right. There is no alternative to nationalisation, given that nobody with all their marbles other than a national government will buy bank shares at the moment. Global capitalism may not have collapsed, but it has certainly fallen on its backside, at least for the moment. In the meantime, the liberalisation of the economy achieved since the days of Margaret Thatcher will be reversed by default.
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