I have given this topic some thought, and have enjoyed reading the views and thoughts of all who have contributed to this thread, so thank you one and all.

I think we all agree that capitalism is indeed far from dead, there being really no viable or practical alternative, we are it would seem, stuck with what we have.

the system has suffered a serious shock and setback, but the vital signs are still apparent and all signs indicate a full recovery.

I do feel though that there has been and will continue to be a seed change, peoples views and feelings have been, I personally anyway feel, permanently changed, the excesses of the recent financial bubble have come back to haunt those that now find themselves cap in hand begging for funding from the public purse to keep their empires afloat.

I also read a great quote the other day with regard to government intervention, and perhaps going forward closer scrutiny and regulation “ anyone can ride the bear markets, it is the bull market that it the difficult one to contain”

Gone are the days I feel of if the city makes money lets not question how, their interaction and impact upon all of us and all aspects of our everyday lives is now painfully apparent to us all and very clear to see and understand.

The scale of the bailouts, and the amounts are truly astronomical, it is easy to become almost desensitised about the amounts of money we are talking about, one figure that I have seen quoted is equal to 25% of the total global GDP, here in the UK the amount is far lower than that promised by the US government, however we are still talking about considerable sums of money, let us never lose sight of the fact that all of these funds are collected from people like me and you, your family and friends, the ordinary tax paying majority.

The cut throat days are I feel, and hope coming to an end, hopefully we will see the development of a more all encompassing capitalist system, with winners and losers but not winners and dead bodies so to speak. The public all be it via our elected representatives do own large stakes in many of these companies now, as such there is a sort of collective feel to the system, we being the majority shareholders across the financial and banking sectors.

If our representatives to their jobs properly and our interests are best looked after then there should not be the desire for one of our partially owned entities to screw another into the ground.

I can see the public ownership encroaching more and more in the day-to-day operations of many of these companies as the politicians seek to both justify the investments, but also to be seen to be doing the right thing by our interests in holding these organisations to account.

Yes I hope we are turning a new page in the economic cycle, a more user friendly and all encompassing version of capitalism.

Of course the proof of the pudding will be in how our investments are managed and run, and to what extent those still at the helm of these organisations are willing to allow the state to impact upon their operations.

Interesting times indeed, I feel, of course there is a duty of care on all of us as tax payers and voters to make sure that our money is not squandered or lost amongst the financial trickery and clever accounting, all of us need to make sure we keep those responsible for monitoring our interests accountable.

Thanks again all for making this a most interesting debate.