I apologize

By
Frei Betto                                                                            Read Spanish Version

ALAI
AMLATINA

I
am gravely ill. I would like to publicly express my apologies to all
those who trusted me blindly. They believed in my alleged power to
multiply fortunes. They placed in my hands the fruit of years of
labor, of family savings, the capital of their enterprises.

I apologize to whoever sees his savings evaporate up the virtual
chimneys of the stock exchange, as well as those who find themselves
asphyxiated by the impossibility of paying high interests, by the
lack of credit and the proximity of a recession.

I
know that, in the past several decades, I exceeded my own limits. I
became King Midas, I created around me a legion of devotees, as if I
had divine powers. My apostles — the neoliberal economists — went
throughout the world announcing that the financial health of all
countries would improve, the lower those countries bowed at their
feet.

I
made governments and public opinion believe that my success would be
proportional to my freedom. I freed myself from the restraints of
production and the State, of laws and morality. I reduced all values
to the global casino of the stock exchanges; I transformed credit
into a consumer product; I convinced a significant part of mankind
that I could perform the miracle of making money out of money without
the encumbrance of goods and services.

I
clung to the belief that, faced with turbulence, I would be able to
self-regulate, as happened in Nature before its balance was affected
by the predatory action of the so-called civilization. I became
omnipotent; I imposed myself on the planet as if I were omnipresent.
I globalized myself.

I
never slept. When the Tokyo Stock Exchange shut down for the night,
there I was, trading euphorically at the Sao Paulo exchange. If the
New York exchange closed at a loss, I made up for it with the gains
in London. My pronouncements on Wall Street turned the opening of its
stock exchange into a liturgy that was televised throughout the
globe. I became a cornucopia that (many thought) would always spout
wealth, easy, immediate, abundant wealth.

I
apologize for having fooled so many in such a short time, especially
the economists who tried so hard to immunize me from the influences
of the State. I know that their theories are now melting as their
actions did, and that the state of depression in which they live can
be compared to that of the banks and the major corporations.

I
apologize for inducing crowds to accept as sacred the worlds of my
supreme pontiff, Alan Greenspan, who occupied the Financial See for
19 years. I admit I incurred the mortal sin of maintaining interest
rates low, lower than the index of inflation, for a long time. Thus,
millions of USAmericans were encouraged to follow the dream of owning
their homes. They obtained credit, bought houses. Then, because of
increased demand, I raised the prices and pumped up the inflation. To
contain it, the government raised the interest rates — and the
defaults multiplied like the plague, undermining the purported
solidity of the banking system.

I
collapsed. The paradigms that held me up were swallowed by the
unforeseen black hole known as lack of credit. The spring dried out.
Wearing the sandals of humility, I beg the State to protect me from a
shameful demise. I cannot stand the thought that I, not a left-wing
revolution, am the only one responsible for the progressive
nationalization of the financial system. I cannot picture myself
under the tutelage of governments, as in the socialist countries.
Just now that the central banks, a public institution, were achieving
autonomy in relation with the governments that created them and
sitting down at the table of my cardinals, what do I see? The entire
argument that "outside of me there is no salvation" cracks
and crumbles.

I
apologize in advance for the bankruptcy that will spread throughout
this globalized world.

Farewell,
assigned credit! The interest rates will rise along with a
generalized insecurity. Once the faucets of credit have been closed,
the consumer will become cautious and businesses will suffer a thirst
for capital. Obliged to reduce production, they will reduce the
number of their workers. Exporting countries, such as Brazil, will
have fewer clients abroad; therefore, they will place fewer profits
in their coffers and will have to rethink their economic policies.

I
apologize to the taxpayers in the rich countries, who see their taxes
becoming life vests for banks and financial institutions, a fortune
that should have been invested in social rights, environmental
protection, and culture.

I,
the market, beg for forgiveness for having committed so many sins and
for shifting to you the burden of penitence. I know that I am
cynical, perverse, avaricious. I can only beg the State to take pity
on me.

I dare not ask for forgiveness from God, whose place I
attempted to take. I expect that, right now, He is looking down upon
me with the same ironical smile with which he watched the fall of the
Tower of Babel.

Frei
Betto, a writer, is the author of ‘Letters from Prison’ (Agir
Publishers), among other books.