The Establishment: and How They Get Away With It
Owen Jones
Allen Lane, 358pp, £16.99
When Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, sparking the deepest recession in at least 70 years, it seemed that the end of neoliberalism, even of capitalism, was close. This was the biggest market failure in history, largely attributable to the dismantling of regulatory structures that had once restrained bankers, traders and speculators. We had long been told by neoliberals that markets were super-efficient vehicles for allocating resources and that, left to themselves, they would deliver prosperity for all. Surely nobody would believe that any longer? Surely the merits of the state, so long reviled as a meddlesome enemy of enterprise and initiative but now compelled to step in and rescue the masters of the universe, would at last be recognised? Surely governments would take control of banks and perhaps other commanding heights of the economy as Labour Party pioneers envisaged? Surely bankers would lose their lavish salaries and bonuses? The party was over, wasn’t it?
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