Who is the State working for: the banks or the public?  In many
respects, the ongoing international financial crisis throws into
sharp relief the deceit and denials of those who promote
financial globalization, whether they sit on the board of the
big private banks or move in the higher spheres of the State.
Over recent years, the dominant discourse was that all was fine
on the debt front: with the introduction of new products, such
as the securitization of debts, the risk had been spread among a
number of players. No crisis could be expected, profits were
astronomical and growth was sustained.   Today, the edifice is
crumbling. How could it be otherwise, when big banks conduct
huge operations off the books, erect a house of cards with
dubious credit and contribute to the creation of a speculative
real estate bubble that eventually bursts? Far from spreading
the risk, the system achieved the contrary, with the big banks
having accumulated its weaknesses. Each of them then tried to
pass the hot potato to its a