I got a few brickbats the other day when I chose to tackle Evan Davies application of his economics training in an interview he conducted with TUC comrade Brendan Barber on Today. This morning in an interview Davies conducted (8.50am)with Larry Elliot on a new book which he even admits “comes from the left” attacking the institutions and systems that has led to the credit crunch, Davies asks “if the current crisis should not make us question the fundamentals of the capitalist system that got us here” I bet. The BBC struggles with free market capitalism and always will be hostile to it because it exists in a timewarp, protected by the license tax from the very market which it critiques.
TIME TO QUESTION CAPITALISM?
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Are you saying that it’s impossible to question aspects of the workings of the free market? Or that it’s immoral?
Or just that the BBC cannot do this?
THe job of the BBC is to provide “balance” in its reporting.
Mr Vance, the Capitalist system should always be questioned. Just like any system if it is not questioned/examined it cannot be monitored for signs of failure.
Once again you have missed Mr Davies – but keep trying. Once he has settled in he will revert to nativism, they all do.
Martin | 07.06.08 – 10:22 am |
THe job of the BBC is to provide “balance” in its reporting.
Oh no it isn’t. The job of the BBC is to provide entertainment and news. It’s duty is to be balanced.
Free market capitalism thrives on discussion and criticism, which lead to innovation, – it is a ‘work in progress’, and like all such projects, not always perfect.
The BBC, by it’s very nature, is incapable of making any worthwhile critcism, having neither the experience or knowledge of – to them – such an alien system. Whenever they do step in where angels fear to tread, the result seems to be nothing more than sycophantic sneering.
The crunch has had such a severe effect on the UK because of the lack of understanding by our Dear Leaders of just what a free market entails.
As with so many of their supporters, they thought that the good times would just keep on rolling. – – Surprise!!!
Gil Harding:
Examine these two statements:
Free market capitalism thrives on discussion and criticism, which lead to innovation
And
The BBC, by it’s very nature, is incapable of making any worthwhile critcism
The system must be criticised. But not, apparently, by those who are deemed to be outside it.
Is it me?
“It’s duty is to be balanced”
And no doubt you’ll be telling us that it fulfills that duty …
Nearly Oxfordian | 07.06.08 – 11:33 am |
And no doubt you’ll be telling us that it fulfills that duty …
I’m assuming you’ve missed off the smiley there … 🙂
Just in case – it rarely fulfills that duty.
Anon,
Criticism is good, but only from informed sources. Unfortunately the BBC’s bigoted dogmatic approach to matters it doesn’t understand bar it from being considered even minimaly qualified on this matter…
Yes, it is you!
Can everyone please note, there is *no* such free-market capitalist system in operaton that everyone is refering to.
Our economic system is swamped with government interference and hence distortion at all levels that impact prices of everything you buy.
Gil Harding:
Criticism is good, but only from informed sources.
As the interviewer in this case was Evan Davis, it’s interesting to look up his CV, which includes the fact that he authored a book, Public Spending, in which he argued for the privatisation of public services as a means to increase efficiency. He worked as an economist for the Institute of Fiscal Studies and the London Business School, neither of which, I believe, are regarded as left-wing or anti-capital.
Questioning technical details of the banking system is not the same as questioning the “fundamentals of the capitalist system”, which sounds like a line from Alexi Sayle, the difference being that Sayle would be joking, albeit unfunnilily.
David, re Hillhunt:
Accusing you of lying was out of order, but I’m sure he’s learned his lesson. Can we unban him now please? His posts were often funny and gave a bit of perspective.
fewqwer,
I’m applying the 42 rule to him! Leave it with me – but I was not amused by his accusation.
David: I’m applying the 42 rule to him!
LOL!
Re banking – in such a heavily regulated sector, the overwhelming likelihood is that any problems are the unintended consequences of state regulation, but the chances of hearing that from a Beeboid are precisely nil, even if true.
I’m with anon; I think Evan Davis is a good reporter. I’ve never heard a report from him that wasn’t pretty balanced. If they were all like him, I wouldn’t visit this site.
BBC: if the capitalist system should be critically questioned, shouldn’t the system of Islam be critically questioned by the BBC too?
When the economic cycles of capitalism prove to be beyond Brown’s statist-inclined control (to the BBC’s chagrin), we get Darling’s tinkering.:
“Brown versus the Old Lady of Threadneddle Street”
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/759191/brown-versus-the-old-lady-of-threadneedle-street.thtml
Anon,
I didn’t see the programme, and was merely commenting on the original post.
However, I find it surprising that someone as qualified as you say he is could have shown such poor understanding of his subject, so poor in fact that he asked such a stupid question in the first place.
Gordon BrownStuff:
Can everyone please note, there is *no* such free-market capitalist system in operaton that everyone is refering to.
I’m with you – there is, and never has been, such a thing as “free market capitalism”. The closest thing to it was perhaps in the 1800’s, which incidentally was when the phrase “rags to riches” came about.
What we have now could more accurately be described as “neo-mercantilism”.
But the BBC is definitely weighted towards anti-capitalism, no doubt about it. When was the last time you heard any analysis or comment from the Mises school of economics? How come the Beeb never ask economists like George Reisman for their view on the economic situation?
No, the narrative has to be, and always has been, “capitalism run amok”.
I can’t remember which show it was on or who was doing the talking, but years ago I heard a lefty guest on BBC radio praising Charles Dickens for his anti-capitalist work in portraying the “inhumanity” of capitalist conditions of the time. Which was funny, of course, because the racist Dickens attacked capitalism from a pro-slavery position – upset as he was that capitalism was phasing out an institution he felt was the best thing for “inferior” blacks, guided as they were by their “superior” white masters.
I am of the view that virtually everything bad about our economic system today is the result of state interference in the economy. What the Beeb doesn’t tell us about the US credit crunch is that the situation would never have come about had the government not passed a bill which, in a roundabout way, basically forced banking institutions to lower their underwriting standards in order to provide mortgages to low income minority families the left felt were being “discriminated against” by being denied loans they quite clearly couldn’t afford. Of course it’s more complicated than that, but I’ve yet to hear the Beeb even make passing mention of this fundamental point. You won’t hear about the role played by hard-left US community pressure groups such as ACORN, but you will hear a lot about the “greed” and “deception” of unfettered capitalism.
The irony being, without capitalism, the Beeb would have no license fee to collect.
I like the parsing of words.
Liberals aren’t questioning Capitalism, they are trying to destroy it.
Those who don’t like Capitalism are merely unable to compete without the aid of government. Government has zero revenues without Capitalism.
The very toilet paper that liberals (sometimes) wipe themselves with is a product of Capitalism.
The left thinks that given the oppurtunity THEY could make Communism viable. Puppycock.
The greatest nations man has ever rendered. (that being the U.K. U.S.A, CANADA, GERMANY and a few others) are built on Capitalism and Oppurtunity.
Libs are desperately trying to F@#% that up. Because they cannot compete in the market place.
The Government is not my MOMMY. It needs to protect me from Islamofascism, provide schools, patrol the streets with law enforcement, put out fires and NOT MUCH ELSE.
Puppycock.
Great. Just…great. Another image I didn’t want stuck in my head.
The evil capitalist system is totally responsible for generating jobs, advertising, incentives, employees, products, services, trade and MONEY, in order to fund things like… the BBC!
gus:
The Government is not my MOMMY. It needs to protect me from Islamofascism, provide schools
I don’t even trust the government to provide schools. State schools invariably end up as nothing more than centers of left wing indoctrination where socialist teachers spend more time teaching kids about their idea of “social justice” than teaching them marketable skills like languages, computers, engineering and science.
I’ll never forget my headmaster Mr. Yale. He put up a big mirror in the hallway with a sign underneath saying “the most dangerous animal known to mankind”. What an idiot.
As Jim Rogers has said, investment banks go bankrupt all the time, they should be left to die, not a penny of taxpayers money should go to rewarding banks for their stupidity.
America is not a capitalist country, as long as the unconstitutional Fed continues to dole out Corporate Welfare to the Beare Sterns cretins (they get to keep their Maseratis, we pay the bill).
Ben Bernanke is an Anti-American traitor. The man should be impeached and thrown in jail. He makes Brown look competent ffs.
Oh, here we go. We now have two lunatics telling us that the USA is a Marxist country.
“Davies asks “if the current crisis should not make us question the fundamentals of the capitalist system that got us here””
It’s perfectly valid to question the details of the capitalist system, but the fundamentals?? Surely that implies questioning capitalism itself. Anti-capitalist politics is a pretty tiny area these days (how many votes did it get at the last election) and the Beeb really shouldn’t be suggesting that its considered a serious viable alternative by any great section of the UK public.
Equally I don’t think we’re quite ready for Ron Paul over here so I think the ideological purity school of ultra free-market capitalism shouldn’t be taking up too much airtime either…
Cockney:
I think the ideological purity school of ultra free-market capitalism shouldn’t be taking up too much airtime either…
Why not? You’re just talking about the encapsulation of “freedom” – ie of individuals trading values voluntarily. To the degree that we don’t have free market capitalism, then we don’t have freedom. I think the idea of individual freedom should be given as much airtime as possible.