Step aside capitalism, how about leverageism
Our recent post on the End of Capitalism triggered much interest and comment. There were plenty of diverse views, as one would expect. But one thread that came out was that what we are now seeing is not true capitalism (nor, of course, is it old-style communism). Ok, but what is it?
Anthony Conforti suggested in a comment that we need a name for what is happening,:
The first step in defining a new economic paradigm is coming up with the proper terms…new words to define a new economic environment. As words, “capitalism”, “communism”, “socialism” may now be inadequate to describe the emerging economic reality. We need new nomenclature. Any thoughts?
Here’s one suggestion. There seems to have been precious little capital building going on is the last few years, so even in a free market, capitalism sounds a bit inaccurate. How about “leverageism”? Borrowers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your shirts.
Time to pick up the challenge. What should we call the dominant economic system?
Anon, Glass/Steagall, Breton Woods and other agreement were broken to further capitalist gain. What was forgotten was that this regulatory framework was put in place as a response to a similar crisis that unfolded in the 1930s.
We made the mistake of not regulating and keeping banking separate from investing 80 years ago. We changed that. Shame on the bad bankers. We repealed all of that and the bad bankers went at it again. Shame on us!