LONDON, United Kingdom — Former U.S. president Bill Clinton today declared that ISIS and indeed free market “ideologues” were both opposed to his vision for a more “inclusive capitalism”.
Clinton spoke without irony at one of England’s most exclusive venues, the Guildhall, in the City of London — London’s financial district — which governs itself by way of a private corporation.
But Clinton, who was speaking just moments after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favour of same sex marriage across the whole United States, didn’t even mention the breaking news once, to the confusion of some in attendance who had hoped to hear comments on the development.
Instead, he gave a speech about the future of capitalism, ISIS, and the danger of free market “ideologues.”
He stressed corporate responsibility and the need for big businesses to be warmer and cuddlier. And he remarked upon the latest ISIS-linked atrocities in Tunisia, which he described as an “extreme example of resentment”, linking it with the Arab Spring, and successful, Western and Western-influenced economies. President Clinton said that the world must have inclusive capitalism, inclusive economics and inclusive politics to hold an interdependent world together.
Coming away from a speech in which he claimed that both ISIS and free market “ideologues” rejected his idea of “inclusive capitalism” — some may have believed that he was lumping the two groups into the same camp, or even blaming an “uninclusive” capitalism for the rise of ISIS.
Amusingly, and awkwardly, President Clinton’s host Lady Lynn de Rothschild joked about getting 500 people to listen to a speech about capitalism on a Friday night in London. She said she had thought of calling the talk “50 Shades of Capitalism” but instead invited Bill Clinton. She described him as as the “most generous and most gifted man of his generation”.
Although weak and faltering, and at times barely audible, President Clinton managed to attack the idea that companies should look after their shareholders, claiming that his idea of inclusive capitalism “is a move from a shareholder to a stakeholder economy,” which requires companies to give back to the communities they are based in, in addition to paying taxes and creating jobs.
He also used Magna Carta, which celebrates its 800th year in 2015, to make the claim that there are “no final defeats or victories in politics”, though this was unrelated to today’s developments in the U.S. Supreme Court and targeted more towards changing the way business works. He urged people to take action against free market capitalism, and instead to produce a third way — something he is known for implementing in his political career — marrying corporate interests and government.
President Clinton took no questions from the floor after his address, to the disappointment of journalists and members of the public in attendance. But he did at least receive notes of praise from local workers who told Breitbart London that Mr Clinton was “the best president ever.. apart from Obama.”
Music to his ears, surely.
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