[lbo-talk] "Debt is capitalism’s dirty little secret"

Itamar Shtull-Trauring itamar at itamarst.org
Wed Jul 1 13:36:02 PDT 2009


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e23c6d04-659d-11de-8e34-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

"Just why is there so much debt in the Anglo-Saxon world? Bankers and regulators know well that it is in nobody’s long-term interests to have allowed borrowing to escalate to a position where the US now owes far more, as a multiple of the economy, than at the start of the Great Depression. The answer is capitalism’s dirty little secret: excessive lending was the only way to maintain the living standards of the vast bulk of the population at a time when wealth was being concentrated in the hands of an elite."

His proposed solutions: lower living standards, higher productivity via education, and *not* taxing the rich.



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