I’m a little late getting to read this very provocative new Atlantic piece by a former chief economist at the IMF, but it is an absolute must read as we continue to flinch at these massive banks and their massive problems. It has also been making the rounds and causing quite a bit of secondary discussion on most of the good blogs. I’ll let this summary do the work and hopefully pique your interest:
The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.
And I agree with Erza Klein, that this is probably the most important line in the whole thing:
Anything that is too big to fail is too big to exist.
The Quiet Coup ( Simon Johnson @ The Atlantic )
hat tip: Dario
