Back in 2006, into 2007, too-big-to-fail superbanks, complacent governments and boosterish business media ignored the few economists who predicted there would be a financial crisis. Today, governments lack the will or the legal weapons to control the greed endemic to elite bank culture.
Given the persistence of that culture in big banks, I am not at all optimistic that we will avoid another, even more serious, financial collapse in the not-so-distant future.
To prepare for that day -- and perhaps avoid it altogether -- we need to reduce the power of big banks, weakening their grip on society’s financial resources, and challenging their support for destructive, neo-liberal economic policies.
Second, we have to take matters into our own hands, rewarding and inventing independent financial systems that we can trust and control.
