Pam Martens On Hot Topic ‘Inclusive Capitalism’ Meet-Up

For ongoing commentary about the worst of Wall Street's behavior (is there any other?), visit Pam Martens at Wall Street on Parade. Ms. Martens is very familiar with the Wall Street culture having spent 21 years on the Street observing it. She is now an outspoken critic of Wall Street’s corrupt practices and its private justice system. 

In Try to Contain Your Laughter: Prince Charles and Lady de Rothschild Team Up to Talk About 'Inclusive Capitalism', Pam quotes Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF, citing a statistic I had been looking for:

The 85 richest people in the world, who could fit into a single London double-decker, control as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population  – that is 3.5 billion people.

This statistic was previously noted in Forbes in January 2014. Forbes reported, "Oxfam International has released a new report called, “Working for the Few” that contains some startling statistics on what it calls the “growing tide of inequality.” (Forbes)

I had not heard the term "Inclusive Capitalism" until two days ago when Tim Richards of the Psy-Fi Blog weighed in on it (here).

 

Try to Contain Your Laughter: Prince Charles and Lady de Rothschild Team Up to Talk About 'Inclusive Capitalism'

By Pam Martens

Lady de Rothschild Speaks on Bloomberg News About the Inclusive Capitalism Conference

Prince Charles, who lives in four mansions in England, Scotland and Wales, delivered the opening speech yesterday for a conference on “Inclusive Capitalism” hosted by Lady de Rothschild, wife of multi-billionaire Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild, in the heart of financial skulduggery, the City of London, Wall Street’s alter ego.

Rounding out the day’s speakers were former President Bill Clinton, who repealed the depression era investor protection legislation known as the Glass-Steagall Act which deregulated Wall Street and is widely blamed for the 2008 financial collapse and for ushering in the greatest wealth inequality in America since the Gilded Age; and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers who helped Clinton muscle through the deregulatory legislation. (You can see the full-day agenda here.)

The lurking undertone of the conference was not so much a noblesse oblige gesture to spread the wealth as it was an effort to address the growing anxiety among the well-heeled that if they don’t step up their PR game, government and/or a populist revolution is going to take the reins – and possibly their heads.

Lady de Rothschild (Lynn Forester) summed up the anxiety the day before in an interview with Bloomberg News, saying it’s “really dangerous when business is viewed as one of society’s problems.” She noted further that 61 percent of Britons say they will elect the party “that is toughest on big business.”

The web site of the Inclusive Capitalism Initiative which sponsored the conference adds this note to explain its motivations: “To avoid heavy-handed government interference in the banking sector, a revolution in management, supervision and ethics is required.”

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