Peter Mandelson's Bond-Market Democracy

Former EU Trade Commissioner Lord Peter Mandelson--whom Wikipedia describes with unintended humor as also having "served in a number of positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown"--took time off to give an interview to Russia Today television, in which he chuckled his way through a description of how London-run "markets" this week succeeded in toppling the elected governments of Greece and Italy.

"What we've seen recently in the Eurozone, is some governments not as strong as others, not taking the decisive action that they need to take, and frankly not getting on top of events. 

Now, they're elected governments: it's rather difficult for democratic machinery to be used [chuckles] simply to take out a government that's been democratically elected. 

And actually what we've seen, certainly in the case, I think, of Greece and Italy, we've seen the bond markets being able to achieve what normal democratic means have not been able to do, and that is for those countries to get the governments they need at this particular time. 

Now I don't attach any value judgment to that; it's merely an observation: that in these circumstances we've seen [chuckles] bond-market democracy operating rather more effectively than ordinary democracy."

Mandelson was made a "life peer" by Queen Elizabeth and took his seat in the House of Lords on October 13, 2008.