The limits of Atlantic capitalism
The Community Minister of Training, Marc Tarabella, former employee of CGER and Fortis, estimated that the takeover of CGER by Fortis was accompanied by a change in culture. If the customer’s interest was prioritized at the time of the CGER, it was the shareholder’s interest that took precedence from the moment Fortis took control, he declared on RTL-TVi on Sunday. . “Before the interest of the client was at the center of concerns. Since there was the private shareholder, the interest was the interest of the bank and the private shareholder with excessive profitability”, said Mr. Tarabella, a Fortis employee, currently on unpaid leave. “I think we were selling in the interest of the bank when initially it was in the interest of the client. There were instructions to place certain products rather than others,” says Mr. Tarabella . He emphasizes that he was reluctant to sell these products. “Anyone who did not do so was less considered than someone who obeyed instructions,” Mr. Tarabella added. Excessive profitability only benefited the most influential shareholder, to the detriment of customers and staff members who experienced a deterioration in their working conditions, said Mr. Tarabella. He believes that all banks have followed this strategy. (Belga, 07/12/2008)
This interview with a Fortis employee… interestingly highlights the aspects that led to the so-called financial crisis that began in 2007 – meaning the collapse in the stock market value of companies in the banking industry, and its repercussions on the the entire economy.
Because these new behaviors are those of liberal capitalism (American, Atlantic) focused on short-term financial profitability and stock market financing of the economy. What we perceive here is the shift of power towards the shareholder to the detriment of other stakeholders in the company (customers, suppliers, employees), possibly in the name of a new “good governance”. We are far from the Toyota model of the community of all the internal and external stakeholders of the company. The accentuation of the search for profitability leads to aggravated risk-taking, then to the fictitious creation of value.
Already, a few years ago, the Enron affair had highlighted the risks of this type of operation, involving company directors who were at the same time shareholders, and whose interest was to manipulate the price of their company. on the rise thanks to false information, complacently disseminated by consultants who had the power to certify the accounts. The new American legislation, deemed rigorous, was not enough to dispel the confusion of roles and to achieve a balanced partnership between the different players in the company.
Today we are witnessing, in a way, a new form of Enron affair on the scale of the entire financial industry. This crisis is likely to be long, even if there may be remissions. It also risks proving to be particularly cleansing and purifying, because it calls into question the overall functioning of this Atlantic (liberal) capitalism, presented a few years ago as triumphant over so-called Rhineland (community) capitalism.
It can also be accompanied by a remarkable transformation of the economic options of our society, because it is the most speculative sectors – finance, real estate, automobiles – which suffer the most: those whose prosperity was based on the circulation of artificial wealth thanks to credit, against a backdrop of the unequal distribution of real wealth. The automobile, which today requires help, is also – is it a coincidence? – one of the most destructive sectors of the environment, and certainly the one that most encourages individualistic, aggressive, egocentric and materialistic behaviors of self-identification with the object.
However, this crisis does not mean a return of the State or the superiority of regulated capitalism. This would undoubtedly delight the Jacobino-Bonapartists who would thus see their image restored. Unfortunately for them, this is not the case. This intervention by States is only very short term. We can only approve of these German businessmen and politicians who wonder if these recovery plans will really be effective and if the considerable debts thus accumulated will be able to be paid, pointing out the loss of credibility of the securities of certain States, such as Italian state. In reality, an entire system is collapsing: environmental collapse and societal collapse are now compounded by economic collapse.
