As Antonio warns in the Merchant of Venice, “the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” And you can make quite a lot of mischief quoting Shakespeare too. The villain of Othello, Iago, gets many of the best lines in the play as he manipulates events to bring about the hero’s doom. In one memorable passage, Iago lectures Othello on the importance of reputation:
The global economic crisis has filched many good names (not to mention a fair few purses). Some of this is deserved: the notion that markets are intrinsically self-regulating, for example. As President Barack Obama observed in his recent address to Congress: “without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited.”
But some reputations need rehabilitating. Open markets have lifted living standards for millions across the world, relieving the burden of crushing poverty. We must not reject them.
Similarly, some people now claim that making things is always better than providing services. This is mistaken – both manufacturing and services have their place in today’s economies. Within this, financial services have come in for particular flak. But while we may reject some of the worst excesses that preceded the economic crisis, we should also recognise that modern financial services provide powerful tools for allowing firms to raise capital, allow businesses and households to manage risks, and create higher returns for savers.
And, for some, the whole “Anglo-Saxon” economic model has been tarnished. While some criticisms are justified, many are not – and I worry when they are directed particularly at the UK. Correcting some of these misconceptions will be a big project for me and my colleagues at the Washington embassy in the coming months.
Posted at 12:01 14 October 2009 by Tom Barry | Comments[0]
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