The end of capitalism as we know it?

The current world economic crisis has provoked various commentators recently to speculate that the rules of the capitalist game are going to have to change. These have, if memory serves, included such writers as Larry Elliott, Will Hutton, Naomi Klein, Polly Toynbee and Johann Hari.
The trouble is, those are just the sort of left-inclined people you would expect to say those things, and there is the risk that it is just wishful thinking.

Last night, however, the BBC gave an hour of prime-time television to a documentary called Super Rich: the Greed Game, explaining (I quote from the Radio Times) "how the super-rich were able to amass their fortunes, leaving the rest of us to pick up the bill for their avarice".

And this was not one of those "a personal view by ...." shows that they occasionally let people like John Pilger make. No, this was presented by the BBC's Business Editor, Robert Peston. Of the behaviour of the bankers and hedge fund managers, he says:

It has encouraged people to take foolish risks that are now endangering the financial system.

So, if it is now official that all this is a huge scandal, will anything be done about it?

Not here in the UK, I fear, as long as Gordon Brown is in charge. He has been buttering up all these shysters and crooks for donkey's years.

Read Robert Peston's blog entry about the programme here.