"Relying on markets alone would make for a poor, dishonest, and miserable society. Banks lend for the short term, and business has to make a profit in less time than that. It succeeds brilliantly when product life is shorter than credit maturities, in retail, consumer durables, services, and some capital goods. It is governments, not markets, that engage with uncertainty, underwrite society's long-term projects, or undertake them itself. This requires integrity, but private-public intermingling engenders corruption. The ...
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"Relying on markets alone would make for a poor, dishonest, and miserable society. Banks lend for the short term, and business has to make a profit in less time than that. It succeeds brilliantly when product life is shorter than credit maturities, in retail, consumer durables, services, and some capital goods. It is governments, not markets, that engage with uncertainty, underwrite society's long-term projects, or undertake them itself. This requires integrity, but private-public intermingling engenders corruption. The Victorian legacy of honest bureaucracy is currently undermined by democratic pretensions and commercial greed. Families bring children to maturity as workers. They need protection from uncertainty. Government underpins education, social insurance, healthcare, old age, mass housing, and infrastructure. In these activities, business falters or fails on its own. The market delusion draws a veil on things that last, that matter most, on economic security, equity, compassion, knowledge, art and science. As a response to climate change it has become a threat to our very existence"--
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