The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, condemned the financial traders who made millions by driving down the share price of leading banks as "bank robbers and asset strippers".
In a powerful speech to City bankers on the effects of the credit crisis on Wednesday, he denounced the "Alice in Wonderland" world of global finance where short-sellers profited by laying bets that shares in HBOS would fall in price.
Meanwhile the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, warned in a magazine article that modern devotion to the free market is a form of idolatry and that Karl Marx was right in his analysis of the power of "unbridled capitalism".
There\’s plenty out there that can be blamed for all sorts of things but short sellers just aren\’t one of them. Further, capitalism and markets, whether free or not, are just not the same thing at all. Criticising a method of ownership is one thing. Critiquing the only efficient method of working out what people want that we have is very different.
But then while I would hesitate to argue with a noted theologian such as Dr. Williams on the difference between consubstantiation and transubstantiation he seems not to fear discussing matters he knows little of.
Why is it that economics is always fair game for those with so little knowledge of it?
In a powerful speech to City bankers on the effects of the credit crisis on Wednesday, he denounced the “Alice in Wonderland” world of global finance where short-sellers profited by laying bets that shares in HBOS would fall in price.
Isn’t it a bit rich for an Archbishop to be lecturing city traders in the first place, never mind accusing them of operating in a fairytale world?
The good priests would be advised to heed JC’s words and render unto Caesar.
Not surprising that Rowan Williams is now turning to Marxism; if you can start by supporting a competing religion, what’s to stop you moving onto someone who hated all religion?
“Why is it that economics is always fair game for those with so little knowledge of it?”
The same thing goes, in spades, for evolutionary theory. I often wonder why Catweazle doesn’t expound on M-theory into the bargain.