Vince Cable to the rescue?

While following politics in the U.S. is a passion of mine it is not limited to U.S. politics. I also follow what is going on in the U.K. Because the Tories did not gain enough seats to allow them to govern on their own they were forced to form a coalition with the far left Lib-Dems. This resulted with many Lib-Dems being in the government. One of them is Vince Cable, who ended up becoming Business Secretary in the Cameron government.

Well it seems Mr. Cable caused a row recently with his speech to a Lib-Dem conference when he allegedly "attacked capitalism". Some on the right have even characterized his comments as "Marxist". Well let's take a look at what he had to say;

"On banks, I make no apology for attacking spivs and gamblers who did more harm to the British economy than Bob Crow [general secretary of the RMT union] could achieve in his wildest Trotskyite fantasies, while paying themselves outrageous bonuses underwritten by the taxpayer."

"We need successful business. But let me quite clear. The government's agenda is not one of laissez faire. Markets are often irrational or rigged. So I am shining a harsh light into the murky world of corporate behaviour."

"Why should good companies be destroyed by short-term investors looking for a speculative killing, while their accomplices in the City make fat fees? Capitalism takes no prisoners and it kills competition where it can, as Adam Smith explained over 200 years ago,"

That all seems fairly reasonable to me. Why should one sector, the financial sector, be permitted to ride roughshod over an entire economy? In the U.K. the financial sector is known as "The City" as here in the U.S. it is refered to as "Wall Street". They were none too happy with Mr. Cable's comments and labeled him as extreme and marxist. But those claims don't hold water. Cable is clearly pro-market but not pro-corporate. And he is right, in both the U.K. and the U.S., the financial sectors are allowed to hold too much sway over the whole economy which results in a corporatist economy, which is anti-competitive, and not a truly free, and competitive, market. But of course the corporations don't want to release the stranglehold they have on the global economy...though they should be forced to.

It seems difficult for many politicians to stand up and make the case that what we have now in no way resembles truly free markets, because of the undo influence of the financial sector has over our governments. As long as we allow the interests of the wealthiest to trump everything, including country and the people, western civilization will be in decline. Thank God at least there is one person left in the world today willing to stand up and speak the truth to power, and he goes by the name Vince Cable.