In response to an FT article by Alan Milburn on 13th April 2014, entitled 'The two Eds need a more pro-business tone for a Labour win'
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e256a0aa-c17a-11e3-97b2-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz46a4de9Jn
Mr Milburn
You say: "Most people in business know markets need to be managed". Who are these 'most people' you are talking about?
Markets were 'managed' by government 6 years ago, and instead of the big banks being cleaned out by market forces, governments on both sides of the Atlantic managed to transfer their debt to the taxpayers, cementing the culture of privatised profits and socialised losses. Since then the funny money of QE has primarily gone to repair their balance sheets, maintain their bonuses and inflate stock market bubbles, leaving governments with debts that when added to unfunded future entitlements, will never be paid off.
Prior to that, Mr Brown was more than happy to turn a blind eye to the the looters and the skimmers because they made his figures look good, and emboldened him to make such ridiculous claims as having abolished boom and bust. I suspect that Mr Balls has the same propensity for hubris.
If government regulators prosecuted illegal activities such as financial market rigging, for which laws already exist, a few big names would already be in jail for fraud, a lot more would be sweating as we speak, and I suspect that these consequences would do more to restore genuine free market competition, and therefore a healthy economy, than all the neo-Keynesian meddling being proposed by the Eds.
Governments do not create wealth, free enterprise does. The best that governments can do is make just laws and uphold them fairly and transparently. Looking around the world right now, governments and politicians are better at ignoring and breaking the law in order to further the hidden agendas of their paymasters - primarily the looters and skimmers. 'Truthful politician' is almost an oxymoron.
For me, your final statement sums up the arrogant mindset demonstrated by Labour and Conservatives and Liberals. You say:
"If the Eds play it right they can make the economy an advantage for Labour not a disadvantage come the 2015 election".
The economy isn't your play thing. How about making Labour an advantage for the economy rather than the other way round.