inclusive capitalism
Mark Carney, Head of the Bank of England, Speaking on Inclusive Capitalism
Now that the worldwide Occupy Wall Street protest movement has been beaten, pepper-sprayed, mass-arrested and hog-tied into submission; now that assorted financial luminaries have exhorted corporate media to stop giving air time to people calling bankers evil; it's now safe for the 1 percent to take over the debate - or so the thinking goes in London.

Prince Charles, who lives in four mansions in England, Scotland and Wales, delivered the opening speech yesterday for a conference on "Inclusive Capitalism" hosted by Lady de Rothschild, wife of multi-billionaire Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild, in the heart of financial skulduggery, the City of London, Wall Street's alter ego.

Rounding out the day's speakers were former President Bill Clinton, who repealed the depression era investor protection legislation known as the Glass-Steagall Act which deregulated Wall Street and is widely blamed for the 2008 financial collapse and for ushering in the greatest wealth inequality in America since the Gilded Age; and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers who helped Clinton muscle through the deregulatory legislation. (You can see the full-day agenda here.)

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Fiona Woolf, Lord Mayor of the City of London
The lurking undertone of the conference was not so much a noblesse oblige gesture to spread the wealth as it was an effort to address the growing anxiety among the well-heeled that if they don't step up their PR game, government and/or a populist revolution is going to take the reins - and possibly their heads.

Lady de Rothschild (Lynn Forester) summed up the anxiety the day before in an interview with Bloomberg News, saying it's "really dangerous when business is viewed as one of society's problems." She noted further that 61 percent of Britons say they will elect the party "that is toughest on big business."

The web site of the Inclusive Capitalism Initiative which sponsored the conference adds this note to explain its motivations: "To avoid heavy-handed government interference in the banking sector, a revolution in management, supervision and ethics is required."

The participants at the conference came from the same rarefied air as the speakers. It leaked out that the 250 corporate execs and financial bigwigs who attended the event control $30 trillion in assets. Deutsche Welle wrote: "Time will tell whether the 'Inclusive Capitalism Initiative' bears any fruits other than more of the sort of conferences at which extremely wealthy people arrive in private jets to spend a pleasant few hours together and reassure each other that they're doing their best for society."

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Lady de Rothschild Speaks on Bloomberg News About the Inclusive Capitalism Conference
Serving as something of a co-host for the day-long conference was Fiona Woolf, the Mayor of the City of London who goes by the 12th Century title, "Lord Mayor." (Watching a partial web cast of the proceedings was akin to sitting through an animated children's fairytale set in the 12th Century with repetitions of Prince, Lord and Lady tumbling off everyone's lips.) Prior to her Lord Mayor-ship, Woolf was a partner at the 3,000 lawyer-strong law firm of CMS Cameron McKenna, which has a heavy presence in finance and banking.

Woolf sounded absolutely dazzled with anticipation when she wrote at the Huffington Post yesterday: "Today, I am hosting one of the most star-studded gatherings of recent times at the City's Mansion House. Economic and political luminaries from across the globe are attending..." ("Star-studded" and "inclusive" do not immediately spring to mind as synonyms.)

Read the rest of the article here.