So, where is the scandal? Both practices – manipulating LIBOR rates and transferring money to tax havens – are absolutely normal practices in a capitalist world-economy. The object of capitalism is after all the accumulation of capital – the more the better. A capitalist who doesn’t maximize revenue, one way or the other, will sooner or later be eliminated from the game.
The role of the states has never been to control or limit these practices, but to wink at them for as long as they can. Every once in a while, the practices – of the capitalists and of the states – gets momentarily exposed. A few people go to jail, or are forced to return the technically illegal profits. And politicians talk of reform – seeking to adopt with great fanfare the lowest level of “reform” they can get away with.
But this is not a scandal, because what is called “scandal” is in fact the heart of the system. Will this ever change? Yes, of course. One day the system will be no more. Of course that opens another question. Will the successor system be better? It’s possible, but far from certain.
In the meantime, to call the LIBOR manipulations a scandal is to draw our attention away from the fact that it is simply one more normal way of accumulating capital. In 1992, James Carville, campaign strategist for Bill Clinton, then running for U.S. president, famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Faced with the so-called scandals, we ought to be saying, “It’s the system, stupid.” http://www.iwallerstein.com
