Good letter about the economy in The Observer this week

If capitalism is unstable, it's not just because it deals with unknowable risk but because it lives by that risk and makes it more unknowable.
Capitalism disconnects wealth, profit and growth from any material or social measure of benefit or improvement. Hutton calls for daring deeds, not words, but fails to get much beyond the chimera of monetary growth and GDP. His bold measures treat mainly symptoms, not causes, symbols, not substance. The task of government is not simply to quantify and manipulate financial targets, but to enable us to define and deliver the goods and services we most need. Not just to turn the tap marked "Growth", but determine what is to be grown and how.
Human wellbeing is never totally knowable or quantifiable. But we do know we all need health, housing, education, useful employment, peace and care in old age. And a world fit for our children and theirs. This real market is all our business, central to good life and good government. Our future is not reducible to "Profit" and "Loss", or to be left at the door of "Good Capitalism".
Greg Wilkinson
Swansea