Simon Caulkin has some interesting reflections on the managerial aspects of the crisis…

The credit crunch conclusively demonstrates that we can no longer afford a corporate model that generates repeated crises for society as a whole as a byproduct of pursuing vast rewards for a few. This makes a mockery of the corporate social responsibility movement, of which the City is a pillar. CSR is simply incompatible with the unbridled incentive schemes, lemming-like pursuit of risk and unaccountability that have produced today’s meltdown. It is time to bring CSR inside – to do what New Labour flirted with ever so briefly in 1997 and then abjectly abandoned – and lay on companies the formal obligation to take into account the wider interests of all stakeholders, including the community, on pain of having their charter removed. To the conventionalists who object that the notion of benefiting all stakeholders is a recipe for fudge and compromise, tell that to rivals of Toyota (largest auto company in the world), Whole Foods Market (fastest-growing retailer), John Lewis, and many other successful companies that include wider social wellbeing in their corporate aims…

And, in case anyone thinks that the Cameroonians will do any better, here’s a sobering thought from Nick Mathiason’s piece about the cosy relationship that New Labour cultivated with the City.:

But just as Labour grapples with regulating the City, it seems likely that the reins of power will be seized by the Conservatives, bankrolled by hedge-fund managers, spread-betting tycoons and blue-blooded Tory bankers. It could soon be political business as usual.