Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) Mr Biti should listen to Mr Brown, Washington Consensus is dead

Mr Biti should listen to Mr Brown, Washington Consensus is dead
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Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:20:00 +0000

CAPITALISM, at least the version once respected by British Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair and former US President George W Bush, is officially dead. Gordon Brown yesterday 'admitted' this hard fact when he had breakfast in Wall Street.

The "Washington Consensus is dead" said the British premier a day after saying the same thing to the European Parliament during a debate on the forthcoming London G20 summit.

"I propose that we in Europe take a central role in replacing what was once called the old Washington consensus with a new principled economy for our times," Brown told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

In his first speech to European Union (EU) lawmakers as British prime minister, Brown said that Europe should take the lead to ensure that every continent makes necessary changes in its own banking systems, participates and cooperates in setting global standards for financial regulation and injects the resources into their economy needed to secure economic growth and jobs.

This is called "interference" in the economy. What else can it be called? Is this Brown's new command economy?

With nine days to go before the G20 leaders meet on the financial crisis and the world economy, Brown said he was confident that the summit would reaffirm commitment to "do whatever it takes to create the growth and the jobs." Whatever it takes? Including commanding the economy?

Mr Brown masks it as "strengthening financial regulation." Is he, in a way accepting that the government failed in regulating underperforming companies before?

"Tough regulatory standards should be set across Europe and the world, agreed to and fully monitored, not just in one country but in every continent," he said.

Mr Brown is effectively reversing the New Labour project. We can all smell political expediency in the air and the loss of his reputation for prudence.

He is indeed rewriting the New Labour Project, but is not prepared to admit it. But it is clear that he is grasping the ideology of socialism as the answer to the global financial crisis, or simply put the demise of the Blair-Brown-Bush version of capitalism.

Simply put, Mr Brown is a socialist and the bond market has started eating him up. the bond auction in London yesterday came up short. The UK Treasury failed to sell all its government bonds in an auction for the first time since 2002. It wanted to sell £1.75bn of 40-year bonds, but investors only bid for £1.63bn of the debt.

Mr Biti beware. Take heed! Please do not go where others are running from.

Labels: GORDON BROWN, NEOCONSERVATISM, NEOLIBERALISM, TENDAI BITI

posted by MrK @ 12:46 AM