What happens when political leaders fumble and dither, as they are doing now in face of the world financial crisis?

Check the empty mumbo-jumbo about B次元官网网址渞ecoveryB次元官网网址� that spills across the business pages while stock markets continue their decline. Ordinary people arguably must look beyond the orthodox money-gurus for smarter advice.

Economist Heinner Flassbeck sounds believable. He says nations must co-operate to shut down the B次元官网网址渃asino economyB次元官网网址� that ran out of control and landed us in this mess.

Flassbeck, the chief economist of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, said B次元官网网址淭he real economy is producing goods ... that people need. But on top of that ... a huge casino was built, where gambling was the most important activity. And people really expected (to) get a ... net gain, a net income, out of this casino, but every reasonable person knows that is not possible, casinos are what economists call B次元官网网址榸ero sumB次元官网网址� (games) B次元官网网址� what one guy loses the other one wins.

B次元官网网址淭he fact that they played with commodities and currencies and houses gave them the illusion, for a time, that they really could get a net gain out of this casino game. But it is impossible and that has been shown now. After all the speculative pyramids collapsed, we see there is no net gain left.B次元官网网址�

Against the background of flimsy debts wrapped together as trustworthy securities, Flassbeck said: B次元官网网址淲e have a B次元官网网址榮hadow banking systemB次元官网网址� of hedge funds and investment bankers ... B次元官网网址榦ff-balance-sheet vehicles,B次元官网网址� where banks engaged in gambling. Regulators were overwhelmed by the huge amount of new and sophisticated complex structured products on these markets, which were created ... to disguise the character of gambling behind it.B次元官网网址�

Flassbeck was talking to the Pambazuka B次元官网网址, an African social-justice site. A clear conclusion emerges from his findings: We need public financial management in the public interest. The B次元官网网址渇ree marketB次元官网网址� failed us.

And it isnB次元官网网址檛 just honest gambling that critical thinkers have in mind. ItB次元官网网址檚 gambling with loaded dice that favour a wealthy, privileged elite.

Rev. Peter Millar, former warden of Iona Abbey in Scotland, drew attention to the stunning hypocrisy displayed by BritainB次元官网网址檚 Conservative government and by an even more arrogant government in Argentina.

B次元官网网址淚n 2001, when the Argentinian economy was in free-fall, thousands of people living in poor neighbourhoods stormed foreign-owned superstores. They came out pushing shopping carts overflowing with the goods they could no longer afford B次元官网网址� clothes, electronics, meat. The government called a B次元官网网址榮tate of siegeB次元官网网址� to restore order; the people didnB次元官网网址檛 like that and overthrew the government.B次元官网网址�

Journalist Naomi KleinB次元官网网址檚 remembered Argentinian phrase, el saquero, the sacking, was B次元官网网址渢he same word used to describe what ArgentinaB次元官网网址檚 elites had done by selling off the countryB次元官网网址檚 national assets in flagrantly corrupt privatization deals, hiding money offshore, then passing the bill to the people with a brutal austerity package.B次元官网网址�

Tory politicians call the recent U.K. riots merely criminal, not political. But who were the worse criminals B次元官网网址� the looters or the CEOs who pocketed enormous bonuses after their banks had received bailout money from taxpayers?

Rev. Millar goes on to say: B次元官网网址淭he U.K. government continues to force sacrifices on the most vulnerable, while the elites continue to pursue their insane lifestyles. In the U.K. we are witnessing daily the firing of public servants, the scapegoating of teachers, the closing of libraries, the rolling back of union contracts, the botched-up rush to privatize public assets.

B次元官网网址淭he list is never-ending, and once again we are being lectured by the very people who sacked the economy in the first place.B次元官网网址�

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, the target of MillarB次元官网网址檚 tough words, recently showed up as Prime Minister Stephen HarperB次元官网网址檚 political pal and kindred spirit.

gemort@pacificcoast.net

B次元官网网址擥.E. Mortimore is a Langford-based writer. Think About It runs every second week in the Gazette.