[lbo-talk] Gordon Brown nationalises the banks

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Oct 14 05:53:44 PDT 2008


On Oct 14, 2008, at 5:48 AM, James Heartfield wrote:


> Still, I can't help but think that the British bank
> 'nationalisation' (they are not entirely in public hands, let it be
> said) fails to get to the root of the problem: the country's
> extraordinary dependence on financial intermediation, and the
> depletion of its manufacturing base

I'll sorta agree on this: the bailouts on both sides of the Atlantic address, and probably more or less resolve, the financial crisis, but they don't alter the economic fundamentals. Both countries have eviscerated manufacturing sectors (though next to the UK factory sector, the US looks like Germany), hypertrophied financial sectors, and an overreliance on housing. Don't see how these bailouts change that.

Doug



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