30 march 2010, bad banks

Wednesday 31st March 2010

A national elderly care scheme was dismissed today as its cost, some 2 billion pounds, was far too much for the public purse to bear. I am sure that many people had a sharp intake of breath at this, given the more than 800 billion spent “saving” the banks, in the uk alone. Somehow, huge profits after the seminal events of 2008/9 just aren’t the same as before. Surely a rubicon was crossed – or at least it should have been. Somehow though, the current framework of capital’s critical mass, buttressed by our perceptions of globalisation and our very real need for that same capital from those same gatekeepers has meant that we have not, in any way, forced anyone across any such line. We remain in the banks' thrall. There is surely a rich political prize for the alchemist that can turn this perversion into a through-the-looking-glass philosophy that brings about control change without bringing down the amphitheatre.