[lbo-talk] Roubini, March 5

[Chuck Grimes]

``I don't see where the fraud is. If you mean regular capitalist
operations, it is a defense of capitalism to call them fraud. It lets
capitalist relations off the hook and pretends that all would be well
in the best of all possible worlds if only we could get rid of those
scoundrels who are committing fraud. That is silly...''

---------------

The fraud mentioned was the ideological propaganda that wealth and
prosperity were available to all, provided financial capital was
allowed to play previously forbidden games.

The current crisis does not let captial relations off the hook. On the
contrary, the crisis has exposed the whole complex artiface to public
scrutiny. Sure market types celebrate the crude ponzi scheme frauds
like Madeoff, but I am pretty certain the corporate elites and their
center-left Democrat enablers are deeply worried that the entire
armature of neoliberal capitalism will become exposed to the same harsh
appraisals. Maybe not by the US public, but perhaps in Europe, Latin
America and perhaps Asia.    

CG