By Simon Heffer
There is no political system without flaws: however, some have more flaws than others. It has always struck me that Capitalism is by far the best of the lot. It is the only way to allow personal freedom its most complete expression, and to build prosperity. The state of the Soviet bloc by the time the Iron Curtain fell, or of China at Mao's death, should make the case against the alternative more powerfully than I ever could. As the American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand once put it: "The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time."
The difficulty with Capitalism is that some capitalists do dirty things with other people's money: such as the scam this week, in which someone may have walked off with over $100 million profit after spreading false rumors about the state of HBOS. We reported yesterday the existence of a dirty tricks department in a hedge fund that tried, maliciously, to move markets. The authorities here rightly come down heavily on such practices - or say they do. But Capitalism is global. The HBOS scam is thought to have originated in the Far East, possibly in Singapore. Punishing people who commit crimes in our jurisdiction is one thing. Punishing those who do it abroad, but affect us here, is less easily handled.
Many seem to think that dishonest practices such as these have only been invented since capitalism entered its latest, rampant phase since the late 1980s. I'm afraid this is not so. At Easter, we might remember Christ throwing the moneylenders out of the temple; or the expulsion of the Jews from England by Edward I in 1290, partly because they were accused of clipping the edges off coins, putting them back into circulation and melting down the parings into bullion. More recently, insider trading was considered quite normal until a few years ago. It was indeed disclosed - though, sadly, not until after his death in 2005 - that Sir Edward Heath had benefited from this in the 1960s, becoming rich thanks to share tips given him by insiders who wished to curry favor with him when he led the Tory party.
But now that almost all of us have a stake in this system - whether directly through investments that we hold, or through our pension funds and life assurance policies - it matters more than ever that capitalism should be run fairly. If confidence in Capitalism is destroyed by thieves and other brands of criminal, then we are finished. I am in no doubt that anyone found to be running a dirty tricks department within British jurisdiction should be prosecuted and, if convicted, sent to prison and fined a sum relevant to the proceeds of their theft. We deserve no less from justice.
But what if the originators of such crimes are abroad? If they are in a jurisdiction that understands the importance of upholding the rules (and I suppose Singapore, which did for Nick Leeson and Jim Slater, is one such), then I trust we can rely on the co-operation of authorities in those countries to come down heavily on transgressors. Some jurisdictions may not be so willing to enforce the rules, and in that case we have to get nasty. Strict economic sanctions by all developed nations against such states, of the sort America has operated for half a century against Cuba, may be the only way to deal with it. In the internet age, policing becomes a nightmare.
It is, however, only because capitalism is now global that our prosperity is now so significant. It brings with it risks other than those simply of economic judgment. If we have the will to punish the crooks the means ought to follow. And if we still think Capitalism isn't worth the candle, let us recall that the alternative ends in the gulag.
All of the opinions expressed in the above article do not necessarily reflect those of the National Capitalist Party or Movement.