End of Gentlemanly Capitalism?

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Team openDemocracy's Editor-in-Chief Tony Curzon Price has a must read article in The Spectator on the end of gentlemanly capitalism. The term was first used by Cain and Hopkins in their pioneering analysis of British imperialism published in the early 1990s. It refers to the powerful, informal network of a rules-based but flexible and non-bureaucratic finance capitalism created by the Victorians based on the code that a gentleman's word was his bond. It disintegrated along with the Empire and so much else as the teddy boys (often from public schools) took over the city. Tony suggests that the ethos of self-regulation under the flag of the market knowing best (not to speak of Ayn Rand) nonetheless took hold of global capitalism but now faces its demise. He first ran with the thesis in August last year in a widely read oD article so he was ahead of curve. It has significant implications for British politics in that the high rhetoric of all three main parties seeks shelter in the pockets of Alan Greenspan - who along with Murdoch was Gordon Brown's first weekend guest at Chequers.