It's Finished

A good piece from John Lanchester on the nature of the government bailout of the banks and the need for a state takeover of the financial sector in the LRB:

In fields such as education, equality of opportunity, health, employees’ rights, the social contract and culture, the first conversation to happen should be about values; then you have the conversation about costs. In Britain in the last 20 to 30 years that has all been the wrong way round. There was a reverse takeover, in which City values came to dominate the whole of British life.

That, as the saying goes, is about the size of it.

Hearteningly, Lanchester has taken seen the benefits of a bit of the old swearing, and shows a natural aptitude for lacing shrewd financial analysis with rude words.