ISSUE 152 NOVEMBER 2008

Contributors to this issue

PHILIP BALL is a science writer

PETER BAZALGETTE is a media consultant and digital investor

ROBIN BLACKBURN teaches at the New School for Social Research in New York

RODRIC BRAITHWAITE is a former British ambassador to Russia

JASON BURKE is a foreign correspondent at the Observer

MICHAEL BYWATER is a writer and critic

MARK COUSINS ’s collection Widescreen is published by Wallflower Press

CLIVE COWDERY is founder of Resolution, a financial services group

JONATHAN FORD is deputy editor of Prospect

JIM GILES is a San Francisco-based writer

ANDREW GILLIGAN is a columnist and reporter for the Evening Standard

DAVID GOLDBLATT is the author of The Ball is Round (Penguin)

DAVID GOODHART is editor of Prospect

AC GRAYLING is a philosopher

MARK HANNAM is chair of Fair Finance

CAR HILLS is a former editor of PEN News

ANATOLE KALETSKY is an economic commentator

ERIC KAUFMANN is a fellow at the Belfer Centre, Harvard University

MICHAEL KENNY is head of social policy at the IPPR

MARTIN KETTLE is a Guardian columnist

MARK KITTO runs a caféé near Shanghai

BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari

GWYNETH LEWIS is a poet and writer

JOHN LLEWELLYN was senior economic adviser at Lehman Brothers

MYRON MAGNET was editor of the City Journal from 1994 to 2006

ALEX MCBRIDE is a criminal barrister

KAMRAN NAZEER is the author of Send in the Idiots (Bloomsbury)

SIMON NIXON is the European editor of the WSJ ’s “Heard on the Street”column

ALEX RENTON is writing a book about the rise of the food industry

ROBERT SKIDELSKY is the author of John Maynard Keynes 1883-1946 (Pan)

MICHAEL SOUSSAN ’s book, Backstabbing for Beginners (Nation) is out in November

IAN STEWART is a mathematician

JONATHAN TEL is the author of the novel Freud’s Alphabet (Scribner)

contents

Coverstory 22A greedy giant out of control We used to think that finance performed a useful role, shunting capital to the most profitable outlets.Its growth was thus a function of success.But after the crunch,says Jonathan Ford a new generation of critics,such as Paul Woolley,are challenging this thesis

Opinions

12A good recession Is it possible to cleanse the system without too much pain? DAVID GOODHART

13The problem with PC PCs Ian Blair resigns, and the Metropolitan police remains as racially divided as ever. ANDREW GILLIGAN

16Anyone for realpolitik? Events in Georgia show how out of touch the British foreign policy establishment has become. RODRIC BRAITHWAITE

17Nature good, humans bad? Nature writing is split between those who want to describe and preserve the earth. Time to move on. GWYNETH LEWIS

Symposium

30Finance in the furnace What began as an American sub-prime mortgage problem has mutated into a terrifying global financial meltdown. But what does it mean for the economy and what lessons should we learn? MARK HANNAM,CLIVE COWDERY,ALEX RENTON,JOHN

LLEWELLYN,ROBERT SKIDELSKY & SIMON NIXON

Debate

38Should capitalism be transformed? Is the market system broken? If so, the state should intervene much more. Or will the system bounce back after a few minor adjustments? ROBIN BLACKBURN VSANATOLE KALETSKY

Essays

44Come on,people Many African American communities remain disfigured by crime and failure. And whether or not Barack Obama wins, black America will continue to argue over the “responsibility”debate sparked by Bill Cosby’s views on that failure. MYRON MAGNET

48Who needs digital privacy? A new generation of digital tracking technologies are unleashing a world of personalised adverts. Privacy campaigners are furious. But embracing these tools may be the only way to save the media from bankruptcy. PETER BAZALGETTE

My story

54Mission implausible I joined the UN as a youthful idealist, but ended up in front of Congress reporting on the oil-for-food scandal. For all its good intentions, the UN is broken. MICHAEL SOUSSAN

Witness

58Misreading the Taliban The west is losing in Afghanistan in part because it misreads its Taliban opponents. Understanding what they want is the only basis for future negotiations. JASON BURKE

2 Prospect NOVEMBER2008