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When British Petroleum’s deepwater rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, causing an unprecedented oil eruption and an ecological disaster, the U.S. government rushed to explain that only BP could fix the problem that it had caused. Why? Because a few petroleum companies, including BP, had a virtual monopoly of technical expertise in the field of deepwater drilling and repair. Many observers assumed that this situation – having to rely on the wrongdoer to correct the wrong – was unusual. But it has become as common as dirt. The perpetrator as savior is a typical symptom of late capitalist crisis and decline.
Consider the financial upheaval of 2008-09. The global credit system, which suffered an aneurysm when an enormous speculative bubble burst, was resuscitated (although not healed) by an equally enormous injection of public funds into the treasuries of private financial institutions. Those in charge of the resuscitation, as well as of current programs of therapy and regulation, are the same “masters of the universe” whose acts and decisions precipitated the crisis. Why them? Because a few private institutions like Goldman, Sachs have a virtual monopoly of technical expertise in the fields of financial instruments and securities regulation.
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