Citizens and workers in most European countries—Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and so on—who suffer the consequences of the current economic depression—unemployment, wages and salary reductions, frozen pensions and so on—are being forced by present governments to finance the losses of banks that embarked on reckless financial adventures with our taxes through inappropriate aid, guarantees, soft loans and even deliveries of sunk capital.
Moreover, some top executives of those banks that have caused technical bankruptcy abandon ship, taking away millions in compensation and pensions without any kind of responsibility for their mismanagement. That’s serious and flagrant injustice.
Banks that have received important assistance only think of their own survival. They capitalized and refuse to lend to small and medium enterprises and the self-employed, who undertake new businesses to create employment and keep the economy productive. In addition, these financial institutions, with their negative attitudes, have caused the closure and disappearance of many small enterprises and the widespread recession in which we live.
I think it is time to affirm the failure of capitalism, especially the financial capitalism that produces an economy that benefits mostly speculators, not the entire society. I mean the failure of an unproductive economy for almost all citizens, even though some of them (the savers) benefit from the interest that financial institutions offer.
This finding makes me think that it might be appropriate to try something that the socialist defended previously: the nationalization of banks. This nationalization should be done with the agreement of the two major parties in Spain (PP and PSOE), so neither could abuse its position by acting against other people, such as those who don’t think like them.
Many things can be avoided by taking this action: the irresponsibility of executives who would become officials with specific and scheduled roles and responsibilities; the lack of credit to small and medium entrepreneurs and freelancers; exorbitant soft loans to large companies; arbitrary debt relief to parties, unions and any other entities; and so on.
Roberto Grao writes for Independent Forum of Opinion, indeforum.wordpress.com.