4 responses to “Healthy / destructive system of capitalism (2d version), by Lambert de Haas”

1. Beste Lambert,
   I do fully approve the picture that you have drawn.

   The weight of investment banking should never exceed the reasonable expectations of real economic growth (growth in production and service sectors of the economy)….Those lines should in a perfect world never be getting thicker and thicker but be a continuation into the near future in the growth in thickness of the lines WITHIN the real economy, anything more means …. “gambling”

   The picture should be animated……

   Actually the picture shows the need to reverse the relaxations given to the financial world in the eighties and the urgency to go back to the containing measures that have been imposed after the 1929 crisis. In short…the separation of Wall Street/The City/De “Zuidas” and the High Street that were abandoned with the neo-liberal revolution of the eighties.

   So, let investment banking be a gamble again and let’s not mix it with the real economy.
   (Such as currently strongly propagated by the important European politicians and early in his government by President Obama but in his country heavily opposed by the financial lobby.)
   Growth must be real growth and not “hoped for” growth.

   The only way it MUST be part of the real economy is by means of taxation.

   Of course this answer does not include the way of how to deal with the “profitability” in sense of money and EMPLOYMENT of the real (SOCIAL) economy.

   Profit means gain on invested capital, what attracts investment?…the chance to earn money!..as easy as possible…at the lowest cost possible. That’s how I get back to my plea for protection (of the chances to work for all classes)

   Can we make an image of that…….who is first?…..

2. Beste Jens,

   Thanks for your comment.

   Exactly! The picture mainly tries to explain the disturbing role of “moneytrade” in our current economical system. Social and environmental issues of the real economy are subjects that need to be answered, but they were not the main purpose of this drawing.

   On the French blog, a comparison is made with “healthy cell vs. cancer cell”. From a system point of view I think this is very true!

   I’m working on an animated picture. This will appear later today.

   Groet,

   Lambert

3. Beste Lambert,

   Thanks for your reaction,

   Regrettably my knowledge of French only just can take me through my daily life in France (Belgium) when I visit those countries..

   I did try to read some of the material on Mr. Jorion’s french blog…but too time consuming, I still work full time and have a family that wants my attention. English is my second language, so…..

   I find the comparison between the workings of cancer as a decease and the build up and manifestation of the economcal crisis we are in now really striking. The human system subject to an overwhelming attack from within and the social economic system undergoing the same problem.

   There are only two ways to survive cancer…kill it….or…contain it, I am convinced that the last option is …for the time being…the only option, but how can public opinion be mobilized?

   I am looking forward to see the animated picture

   Groet,

   Jens

4. Beste Lambert,

   Well done, the circle is round………..this makes it a lot clearer, definitely something to work on..

   I think it would be great if the flow between the communicating vessels with the fat and the thin bottom. i.e the consequence of boundarylessness within a supply side economy ( = globalization) with the leading aim, to generate higher profits for the financial sector…hedfgefunds for instance and the effects of their investment on the value of labor worldwide….. should be included in the picture somewhere.

   I think another possibilty is to work with the fatness and the flow of the arrows, for instance weighing the increasing body of the arrows within the financial circle against the size of the lines within the social economic circle, starting of with equal “fat” ness within the two circles…..the ideal situatiion…..

   I do not think it is possible or necessary for that matter to include the effects of (Industrial) automation, in my opinion, in a sense because of the increased diversity of products…and the honest reduction in costprice (once a machine is installed, the costprice of it’s products will be more or less the same everywhere and for everybody)

   I think that innovation will just result in more consumption, which however should be clean and sustainable (C2C)…think of the amount of jobs that would create!

   Final question…..Did you make it yourself or is this a soft ware package availkable on the market?

   …..I am looking forward to see the intervieuw with Mr. Jorion in Brandpunt.

   Beste groet,

   Jens