Welt online: Financial Crisis: The Rebirth of Capitalism

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The leaders hope that by suspending this requirement, banks balance sheets will look more healthy and the risks will be reduced that they be swept away by a run on the markets.

Is this the End of Capitalism? Its enemies wish it were so. This so-called financial crisis may in fact be the greatest crisis of confidence yet experienced by the free market economy. In other words, the protagonists of the capitalist system could hardly batter their own convictions more effectively. The gravest danger is—next to the impact on economic growth and overall economic health—a long-term shift in peoples’ mentality. The depressing economic slump can only give strength to anti-capitalists. The crisis of confidence in capitalism can be observed in three main areas: Disenchantment with the dogma of the self-regulating powers of the markets, deregulation as necessary for the flourishing of the private sector, and the policy of the U.S. government precluding nationalization and state intervention in the private economy. In the end, the American president and his finance minister threw all principles over board and did exactly that, which America has for decades—rightly—criticized other nations of doing. They intervened and nationalized like a ‘East Germany lite’. It is this ‘Lafontaineization’ of American policy—even if out of desperation—which will for years and even decades bring a derisive sneer to the lips of socialists. They will say: ‘Look then, when it really matters, only the strong state can set things right again.’

In the end, the crisis of capitalism is a crisis of values. Therefore we do not need to change the basic economic order and sing the song of the socialist cynics. Instead, one can all to mind Ludwig Erhard’s closing statement: “Freedom and responsibility constitute the basis of the free market economy.” If as a consequence of the crisis responsibility returns to the forefront, the present debacle can emerge as a great opportunity: for the rebirth of a better, stronger capitalism, the nightmare of its enemies.