Are the Banks our Berlin Wall?

I remember crossing through "Checkpoint Charlie" into the East when Berlin was still a closed city and the wall was a blight on the landscape and the lives of the people it separated. Going from affluent to poor and from lively and energetic to depressed and oppressed was a sobering experience.

I was at the BBC, as an audience member for 'Question Time', on the night in Nov, 1989 when the wall came down and it became another landmark in the calendar of things that change the world; the day when the worst extremes of communism were expelled by the people and the east embraced capitalism.

Interesting isn't it that this week a Russian billionaire (Banker) and former KGB agent has bought the London Evening Standard. Wow, how times have changed.

I was musing yesterday and wondering if we will have witnessed a similar moment in 2008 and lived through the time when the worst extremes of capitalism have been exposed and the greed of the few has brought hardship on its loyal followers for years to come?

I have always prided myself on being 'apolitical' and seeing the selective strengths in all societal models but the effects of the last twelve months will last for a long, long time and the financial burden it will place on the whole world will take decades to recover from.

Gareth