Democracy or Bust?

Does anybody remember when democracy was about, er, the people? Apparently it isn’t any more.
The news helpfully informs me that when leaders of the free world gather round a table these days, it’s not to talk about what’s best for their people, but rather to talk about what’s best for something called ‘the markets’. I thought I’d investigate.

As it turns out, everything an elected government does has to be approved of by the markets – or else it’s not actually allowed. Nothing but a resounding ‘YES!’ from the markets will do whenever a new policy is introduced. They operate a sort of veto over sovereign governments. So when President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel triumphantly presented their Euro-saving super package last week, and the markets shrugged and said ‘meh’, it wasn’t good news.
From what I can tell, the financial markets are comprised of the hopes and fears of a rather small group of traders who deal in things like Credit Default Swaps, Derivitaves – whatever they are.

People buy debt from other people, pass it on, package it, re-sell it, and insure it lest the Government which originally borrowed it defaults. But since nobody knows who owns what, we can only assume that if Greece were to default, we’d all be screwed. And that means that the markets get what the markets want.They want to make a profit, and so governments bend over backward to make sure that happens.

Essentially, the markets are a modern-day Roman Emperor, watching the gladiators of the Eurozone tough it out, before deciding merely with a thumbs up or thumbs down whether they deserve to live.

My economist friends smile patronisingly at my naivety when I challenge the idea that a relatively small group of rather wealthy people should be able to decide the future of democratic nations. It doesn’t matter, apparently, that the Governments have the mandate of the people, that they control the army, or that they have the legislative power to do pretty much whatever they want. That’s not important.

And don’t think you can challenge the markets. They know best. And anyway, if we don’t carry on like this Asia will gobble us up because they have so much more respect for their market overlords than we do.

You have been warned.