Letters

摘要

There is a Chinese proverb which says, 'May you live in interesting times'. And boy, have things been interesting. We have the credit crunch -the selling of dodgy mortgages to insecure workers in the US leads to the nationalisation of building societies in England, via an international monetary system of short selling, hedging, high-yield derivatives, futures, toxic loans, ad infinitum. Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac will cost Americans $itrillion. Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley will cost the UK taxpayer many thousands of pounds each. Will we fall into a repeat of the Great Depression? Is capitalism defunct? I don't think so. Capitalism, like Catholicism, is the great survivor -flexible, adaptable, ever reshaping itself to new conditions.