THE AUSTRALIAN: KEVIN Rudd has urged international leaders to end an era of "extreme capitalism" and reject the notion that "greed is good" by embracing a new world order of global financial regulation.
The Prime Minister has refused to step back from his argument that the big banks might not be able to pass on in full any cut in official interest rates this week, with new Treasury advice underlining the rising cost of credit in the face of the global financial crisis.
But in attacking the multi-million-dollar executive salaries of the modern era, Mr Rudd has sought to place the global financial crisis within a values framework, warning that "the disease" of short-termism has infected governments and financial markets.
"We've seen the triumph of greed over integrity; the triumph of speculation over value creation; the triumph of the short term over long-term sustainable growth," Mr Rudd said.
"It is perhaps time now to admit that we did not learn the full lessons of the greed-is-good ideology. And today we are still cleaning up the mess of the21st-century children of Gordon Gekko."
Mr Rudd said such ideologues always argued that the market knew best except when there was a crash and then "the self-same ideologues argue, having privatised their profits, we should socialise their losses - and, by the way, having demanded lower and lower taxes all the way through". Greed Has Brought Us Undone: PM >>> Samantha Maiden, Online political editor | October 6, 2008
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