FRANK Jurga’s diagnosis of the financial crisis (he makes no mention of any other aspect of the Recession), is that it was due to US mortgage swindles. He makes no mention of the deregulation and resulting feeding frenzy of speculators which led to these swindles.

Underlying the crisis, which is entirely unmentioned in Frank’s optimistic panegyric is that since the early 1970s, as a result of capital accumulation, it has become tougher for profits to be made through investment in production.

Recessions and stagnation have been held at bay by a sequence of increasingly wild speculative bubbles. Deregulation has made the process possible, indeed certain.

Frank celebrates business deals done with entrepreneurs and private investors. He doesn’t say whether they involve the production of anything but I’d bet the profits from those deals don’t match Andy Krieger’s. David Harvey reports that Krieger joined Bankers Trust in 1986 in time for the ‘big bang’ of financial deregulation. He bought currency and placed options to buy more in the future.

The prices went up as other speculators bought in anticipation of resulting price rises and Krieger sold at a massive profit. He then cancelled his option to buy, losing the modest deposit, but who’s counting. When he did this to New Zealand’s currency he caused a panic. In 1987 he made $270m profit. He produced nothing. The highly profitable speculation in various forms of packaged debt is just the latest example of this poison. Krieger’s fellow speculators produce nothing but their activities produce misery round the globe.

The new government has made it clear they intend to slash public spending and, less clear here for obvious reasons, this is to boost profit for the rich. It isn’t envy that points to the conclusion that it’s wrong to have a society set up so a tiny minority can ‘achieve their ambitions’ ie satisfy their greed, at the expense of the rest of the population.

PETER SMITH Woodside Avenue Swindon