Eye-Opener for the Elite on Inequity by Chrystia Freeland

[applegrove]

Eye-Opener for the Elite on Inequity

By CHRYSTIA FREELAND | REUTERS at the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/world/europe/14iht-letter14.html?src=recg&_r=1&

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Mr. Papandreou is a son of privilege — both his father and grandfather were prime ministers of Greece — but, in a sign of the times, he inveighed against “plutocrats hiding their assets in tax havens” and “powerful lobbies protecting the powerful few.” His comments made an impact partly because he was so open in declaring his own shortcomings. Nor did he shy away from how angry a lot of people are about them.

“It’s no wonder many political leaders, and I don’t exclude myself, have lost the trust of our people,” Mr. Papandreou said, in the most affecting passage of his talk. “When riot police have to protect parliaments, a scene that is increasingly common around the world, there is something wrong with our democracies.”

For the chosen few inside the TED hall, Mr. Papandreou also inadvertently served as a physical reminder of how bitterly felt the rage is among some of the masses on the outside. Gray, rainy Scotland is a long way from Greece, but even here, Mr. Papandreou was greeted by protesters incensed at the pain his austerity measures imposed on his country. The city’s gracious, granite streets were plastered with posters calling on Mr. Papandreou to go home and attack austerity across Europe.

That was just a start. A session devoted to “Money” offered more critiques. Didier Sornette, a professor of risk at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, took the world’s financiers to task for being so bad at anticipating asset bubbles. Booms and busts, he asserted, are predictable and often controllable, and he offered his own technique for spotting them.

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