Recently, for the first time in a long time, I heard someone use the term ‘invisible hand’ to describe the benign self-righting mechanism that the original political economists thought to be inherent in competitive markets. One thing that can be seen is that the fanciful hand has been more than usually invisible or else of course we do not have competitive markets.
Both are true in my view. Hidden hands are not only invisible but also insubstantial and totally incredible. Many ‘markets’ in these benighted days of globalisation act as loose cartels owing no loyalties save to mammon. They profit by taking advantage of credulous governments and politicians, such as many here in England, who witter on, textbooks in hand, about the equally non-existent ‘level playing fields’. This and the pure virtues of ‘free’ trade while other countries cheat with none-too-subtle trade restrictions and fiddled exchange rates, plundering our once proud industries as they go. What fools we were and what fools we continue to be.
The only ‘invisible hands’ were digging deep into less than invisible tills fishing out quantities of the nation’s money that would make a spectre blanche. What we need of course are very visible hands, not only bringing the discipline of regulation and a sizeable stick but the helping hand of direct intervention in the real economy. We either save what we’ve still got left or we lose that as well.
I have argued in other postings for Keynesian measures including taking advantage of the balanced budget multiplier effect including direct investment in physical assets. This along with ‘exemplar’ companies in co-operative or public ownership. Complaints that such organisations would ‘disrupt the market’ miss the point - that is exactly what they need to do.
One thing at least is clear, either we take our future into our own hands or we will have very little that is visible to hand on to future generations.
Both are true in my view. Hidden hands are not only invisible but also insubstantial and totally incredible. Many ‘markets’ in these benighted days of globalisation act as loose cartels owing no loyalties save to mammon. They profit by taking advantage of credulous governments and politicians, such as many here in England, who witter on, textbooks in hand, about the equally non-existent ‘level playing fields’. This and the pure virtues of ‘free’ trade while other countries cheat with none-too-subtle trade restrictions and fiddled exchange rates, plundering our once proud industries as they go. What fools we were and what fools we continue to be.
The only ‘invisible hands’ were digging deep into less than invisible tills fishing out quantities of the nation’s money that would make a spectre blanche. What we need of course are very visible hands, not only bringing the discipline of regulation and a sizeable stick but the helping hand of direct intervention in the real economy. We either save what we’ve still got left or we lose that as well.
I have argued in other postings for Keynesian measures including taking advantage of the balanced budget multiplier effect including direct investment in physical assets. This along with ‘exemplar’ companies in co-operative or public ownership. Complaints that such organisations would ‘disrupt the market’ miss the point - that is exactly what they need to do.
One thing at least is clear, either we take our future into our own hands or we will have very little that is visible to hand on to future generations.
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