Looking for the Causes and Consequences of the Global Financial and Banking Crisis: Neo-Liberalism in the Dock

Abstract

The current financial and banking crisis must not be mistaken for evidence of the impracticality of market economics, nor should the crisis be attributed to any lack of economic regulation. The message of the political centre-right to European voters must rather be the following: Decentralisation of political and economic power still helps society to cope with current and emergent problems and possibilities in a much more efficient and humane way than centralised political decision-making. When innovation and development are widely encouraged, societies are less likely to become vulnerable to economic setbacks and upheavals. A market economy, combined with autonomous local self-government, will lead to structural sustainability in societal development.