Lacklustre British economy all down to Conservative incompetence

Not much has really changed in Capitalism despite massive changes in technology, market reach, etc. The underlying behaviour is stable – chicanery, bleeding the state for all the advantages that capital can gain while berating workers (unions) and welfare recipients, rigging financial, share and product markets, lying about state finances to gain more access to public handouts, lobbying government to socialise risk and privatise profit, paying off politicians to engage in corrupt behaviour where conflicts of interest dominate, and more. I was reading about the famous – South Sea Company – today, which was a public-private partnership that began life in 1711. It was a total scam and had all of the elements noted above. Its collapse in 1720 on the back of corrupt and incompetent behaviour (GFC anyone?) caused one hell of a recession in the UK. The only thing it managed to do in any significant volume with its trade monopoly between the UK and South America was to buy and sell slaves and, even then, it messed that up financially – quite aside from the repugnance of the venture itself. Interestingly, its collapse led to the rise of the, then private Bank of England, becoming the Government’s banker, and ultimately, its dominant role as the central bank. What is the contemporary relevance of the South Sea Bubble and its collapse? There are many angles that resonate in the current debate, but the point today is that the current recovery in the UK is the slowest in 300 years – that is since the glacial recovery following the collapse of the South Sea Company. And George Osborne thinks he is a champion.

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