"It's survival of the fittest and sometimes it's not pretty."

We let it slip, Bank governor Mervyn King tells unions

"Before the crisis, steady growth with low inflation and high employment was in our grasp. We let it slip - we, that is, in the financial sector and as policy-makers - not your members, nor the many businesses and organisations around the country which employ them.  And although the causes of the crisis may have been rooted in the financial sector, the consequences are affecting everyone, and will continue to do so for years to come."




Hedge Fund trader: 'Capitalism is survival of the fittest, and sometimes it's not pretty'

"People seem to say, everything is the bankers' fault, or everything is the computers' fault. They tend to point to the crashes as evidence of this. I disagree with both. I think crashes are simply part of the system. That's why you always hear 'the worst crash since'. Crashes are an intrinsic part of the system, they clear out deadwood. You can't have capitalism without crashes. It's survival of the fittest and sometimes it's not pretty.


"Accidents happen, that's how the principle of survival of the fittest operates. In Fukushima we'll find out what caused it and learn from it ... We all know that California will be totally destroyed at some point by a huge earthquake. This is going to happen. Surely it's madness to live there – so why do people still do it? It's because until the earthquake happens, life is extremely nice over there. The benefits outweigh the cost, even if ultimately the cost will be their own lives."