This issue of the interests of individual capitalists (and countries) being at variance with their collective interests seems, to me, to be central to this whole crisis.  We have seen how, in the US, a few key strategically placed and politically active firms - think Koch brothers, Oil majors, Goldman Sacks etc - can drive an entire economic agenda (Tea party economics) which can enrich them at the expense of other capitalists, the economy, and of course everyone else.

Remarkably they can (mis)represent themselves as being on the side of the common man, whilst those, like Obama, who want greater regulation/taxation in the interests of capitalism and the economy as a whole are presented as the stooges of Wall as opposed to Main street.

This has got to be one of the greatest marketing tricks of all time.  Teh Stoopid will always identify with the rugged individualist/"self-made" capitalist versus the "wealth destroying" bureaucratic economic regulators/taxers.  Individual need/greed is leveraged to promote identification with individual corporate interests and to mobilse support against the collective bests interests of the whole.

This is perhaps also why "dictatorial" China is managing a more strategically effective economic policy than "democratic" USA which eschews all infrastructural investment/regulation in favour of private get rich quick schemes legitimised by an appeal to individualistic "freedom".

The greater problem here, in both EU and USA, is not even legal or institutional.  It is the ingrained popular ideology which equates individual personal interests with individual corporate interests with the best interests of the collective as a whole.  There is no concept of common good any more, except as an emergent property of collective private greed.

Index of Frank's Diaries