Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
I wouldn't disagree that the economy is unbalanced, but it's a peculiarly socialist idea that the way you rebalance it is by smashing the successful bit so it's a similar size to the less successful bit. Most people would suggest trying to boost the less successful bit so it gets nearer parity.

And please don't let's talk about 'the real economy'. It doesn't exist. It's not a thing. Anything that makes money is 'the economy'.
I think the problem is the direction of investment from the sector. Investment in fake money that no-one really understands or can control (like toxic debts) is surely not as 'real' as investing in, for example, a high-tech manufacturing plant that makes real things that won't suddenly evaporate overnight when a bubble of fantasy and speculation explodes.

Whether it is possible or practical to direct or encourage the financial sector to invest in such a way I don't know. Market-fetishist dogma says no and perhaps that is true, but I don't think the idea is to smash the sector, as for it to function in a better way overall. We have discussed before that TfL is an organisation that works pretty well on the whole for a collective rather than a private interest, and there are doubtless other examples to suggest that it may be possible to run things more rationally than the pure market permits.