Sahra Wagenknecht, member of the party executive of THE LEFT, comments the increase in corporate insolvencies by 10 percent in the first quarter of 2009:

“The fact that ever more corporations steer into bankruptcy is owed last but not least to the policy of the federal government. It has failed to link the rescue of rotten banks to strict conditions. The consequence is that banks pocket tax monies in the hundreds of billions, but do not waste a single thought to handing these on to businesses in the form of credits. The result of this policy is a worsened credit crunch that is hurting mainly the small and medium-sized enterprises. Yet the insolvency of the Arcandor Group also has to do with the obstinate attitude of the creditor banks that simply refused to provide sufficient credits for the restructuring of the enterprise.

It is becoming ever more obvious: the tax billions that the government wasted to buy fee the biggest gamblers are lacking now when it is a matter of fighting mass firings and growing unemployment. Instead of supporting individual banks it would have been cheaper and better to have transferred the whole banking system into public hands. A functioning banking system does not need any private banks. It needs banks that finance sensible investments instead of speculating on global markets.“

Sahra Wagenknecht
Berlin, June 10, 2009