The Age of Insecurity

by Larry Elliott, Dan Atkinson

We live in an era in which the culture and values of big business are dominant. The riptides of capital swirl around the globe ruining entire economies overnight. Directors and chief executives cash in stock options for unimaginable fortunes while whole workforces are “downsized” as companies relocate at a whim. Environmental degradation escalates as the earth’s resources are looted. The dream of worldwide prosperity and peace is given the lie from Kosovo to the Congo, from the drug baronies of South America to the criminal empires of the former Soviet Union. Welcome to the Age of Insecurity. In the face of this slow-motion global coup d’etat by untrammelled finance, traditionally left leaning parties now in power have abandoned their concern with regulating business for a compulsive and self-righteous moralism; the Blair government stands as a perfect exemplar in this trend. In the coruscating argument the authors make a plea for government to turn strictures concerning ethics away from the citizen and on to a financial system that is making our society ever more precarious. Since the publication of the hardback of The Age of Insecurity in May 1998 events have conspired to validate the author’s argument. In a new preface and afterword Elliott and Atkinson draw out the lessons to be learned from the hedge-fund crisis, the disintegration of the rouble and the spreading of economic turmoil in Latin America. The Age of Insecurity is, more than ever, a vital and radical tract for our times.

352 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1998

Reviews

[Bill Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe not for the beginner, when it comes to basic economic, but this brilliant book even today is well worth a read. It describes in political / economic terms how the UK (in a world context) has progressed from the post war consensus, through the social democratic 1960s/70s, to the triumph of Thatcher / Reagan free market financialism.

There is also a good discussion on how the left has been unable to come to a clear and correct position on the EU (written before the in / out vote) but still hugely relevant.

Although the rot hadn't set in at the time of writing, it is clear now that free market capitalism is by no means a perfect solution, and the trend is for more wealth to migrate to the wealthy and income inequality to steadily grow.

There is the usual section at the end dealing with very reasonable suggestions on how to improve things.

My take is that we are in the hands of capitalists, and we need to take back the control of capital that existed in the past before markets were liberalised. At least we could start by introducing some sort of wealth tax to stop this terrible accumulation of wealth by the already wealthy. At the moment, the Labour Party is even afraid to increase the rate of capital gains tax to the same level as income tax, so we have a long way to go to get capital controls back.

Recommended read .