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page 174 chapter VI
The Future of Europe:
Value-based Society as an
Economic Factor and the
Lisbon Strategy
Jean Asselborn, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for
Foreign Affairs of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The world’s economy is today in the midst of the
greatest crisis since 1929. The property crisis in the
USA first turned into a global financial crisis and then
into a planetary economic crisis that is proving to be
all-embracing and deep. All-embracing in that it affects
every country and every sector. Deep in that
there is a substantial lack of confidence, not only on
the financial markets, but also among businesses and
consumers.
This crisis is not solely the consequence of false estimations
and unfortunate developments in the market,
or of overheating of the financial markets. It is
also the result of the ideology of an unbridled market
economy. “More returns, faster returns, higher returns”
- that was the battle cry of the greedy elements
in banks and on exchanges. This attitude slowly but
surely became the dominant creed of economic action,
causing the social market economy to degenerate
into wild capitalism. The kind of capitalism that
believed it was the task of the financially capable to
put the incapable out of business. That is economic
cannibalism, and has very little to do with demo-