“In almost permanent possession of the wrong end of the stick in every aspect of their lives”

Sarcasm is hard to convey on Twitter.

Passing the Buck

The Chairman of the London Stock Exchange Chris Gibson-Smith says that it’s the government’s failure to properly regulate the banks — not the banks themselves — that’s landed us in this mess:

“There are unintended consequences of free markets,” he added. “It’s not capitalism that has been the problem, but irresponsible governments and politicians who have allowed the financial system to explode by permitting the build-up of ludicrous amounts of debt and leverage.”

I think he’s conflating ‘capitalism’ and ‘banks’. Nobody’s blaming capitalism. The banks knew what they were doing. The government isn’t entirely blameless but to try & shift the entire blame away from the banks is a bit of a stretch.