This global economic downturn thing seems to be getting worse. I haven’t yet felt any pinch from it, mind you: I just go about my business here on campus, withdrawing around thirty quid a week. Last week I used more, mind you – girls and beer are expensive. But I hear about the credit crunch every day, and we are heading, I think, for another depression.

However, yesterday I read the most absurd thing. this guy seems to be claiming that this isn’t the fault of capitalism, but the fault of human nature and greed. Even more absurd is the fact that this guy claims to be intelligent. Capitalism and the free market economy is an individualistic ethos – it’s an every-man-for-himself philosophy. It is based on a quazi-darwinian principle of the survival of the fittest in order to maintain society. And just as the gene can be called selfish, so must be capitalism. Thus any attempt to separate capitalism from greed is an absurd misunderstanding of capitalism.

Frankly, it is as if this guy and those like him are still trying to protect their values at all costs, and so would tell us anything rather than admit that their system has once again failed us.