Ringer; it would be helpful if you dealt in facts, rather than mythology. The bank regulatory regime was tightened under both Blair and Brown, (though clearly not enough) with the Tories complaining all the way that deregulation was a better idea. Please read my post above; prior to the bank-generated financial crisis, the UK economy was indeed healthy; The bank bailout cost £950bn (and growing), and our current deficit is £850bn. Even the mathematically challenged should be able to work out that the current deficit is entirely the responsibility of the banks and their reckless and self-interested approach to lending and buying bad debt. Until the banking crisis, we were actually repaying national debt at a healthy rate. The banks were indeed subject to a regulatory regime; but the reason for the crisis was that they operated in such a way that they ignored the first commandment of banking, which stands above any external regulation; the rule of prudence, that says 'thou shalt safeguard thy depositors money'. To that extent, it is not necessarily capitalism that is to blame; it is the version of capitalism practised in the USA and the UK. This version emphasises short-term personal and corporate gain over long-term economic growth. If you really want to know more, read Will Hutton's excellent book 'The State We're In'. I'm happy to debate this with you, but not on the basis of ill-informed posts like your latest one.