The BBC’s business editor Robert Peston has produced a report on the causes of the current financial crisis and the likelihood of an emergence of a new kind of capitalism. Eye catching stuff with lines like ‘monumental financial folly and ‘over-consumption and a high reliance on credit is the cause of the…financial crisis’. He writes:

“Arguably the global economic crisis will turn out to be more significant for us and other developed economies than the collapse of communism.

A New Capitalism is likely to emerge from the rubble. And although it’s impossible to be precise about how the reconstructed economy will operate, parts of its outline are taking shape. What lies ahead can be determined from an understanding of what’s gone wrong with the existing model.

This, in itself, is no reason for gloom or despair. For many, the New Capitalism may well seem fairer and less alienating than the model of the past 30 years, in that the system’s salvation may require it to be kinder, gentler, less divisive, less of a casino in which the winner takes all.”

Needless to say, I think a reshaping of the economy is vital and wouldn’t it be great if some of the visionaries and architects of a new way of doing business were Christians? There’s a thought.

*2021 update. This turned out to be hogwash. Capitalism hasn’t changed a jot.