The Euro crisis of 2010
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So its seems that the whole world, the IMF, the EU and even the UK acting on its own, are gathering round to help Ireland out of their little difficulty. Just as they did earlier this year to help out Greece and Iceland. And may have to do again in a few months for Portugal and Spain. An excellent example of international cooperation, you might think. But dig a little deeper, or look a little back in time, and a different story emerges.
Ask yourself how these financial troubles arose? You're probably thinking of the immense unchecked greed of bankers and finance market gamblers. And up to a point, you're right. But greed is human nature, and therefore inevitable, and yet its victims have to be protected. Why weren't we?
The reason, I suggest, is that we persist with a mode of political organisation which business and finance have long left behind, i.e. nationalism. Politics is there to serve the needs of the people, and we should set it up in terms of the present and the future, not of the past. National governments find themselves ineffective against the wider base of big business. The modern requirement is for powerful political bodies given enough power to control the global companies no matter how widespread they are : we need international governments with real teeth. And we need them not only to deal with economic matters, but also with issues of terrorism and the environment.
But, while national governments cling desperately to their power in the face of increasing ineffectiveness at both community and international level, will we get them? Time all our politicians realised they don't control the whole world, and they need to.
Ask yourself how these financial troubles arose? You're probably thinking of the immense unchecked greed of bankers and finance market gamblers. And up to a point, you're right. But greed is human nature, and therefore inevitable, and yet its victims have to be protected. Why weren't we?
The reason, I suggest, is that we persist with a mode of political organisation which business and finance have long left behind, i.e. nationalism. Politics is there to serve the needs of the people, and we should set it up in terms of the present and the future, not of the past. National governments find themselves ineffective against the wider base of big business. The modern requirement is for powerful political bodies given enough power to control the global companies no matter how widespread they are : we need international governments with real teeth. And we need them not only to deal with economic matters, but also with issues of terrorism and the environment.
But, while national governments cling desperately to their power in the face of increasing ineffectiveness at both community and international level, will we get them? Time all our politicians realised they don't control the whole world, and they need to.
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