Dear Powdies

In 'Tone Poem' (Capricornia) there's a line "invisible hand, clutching
at the throat".

In 'The Monthly' (Nov 2006) Kevin Rudd, now Oz PM, quoted a David
McKnight ('Beyond right and left'), who may have coined the phrase. 
It's political analysis of free-market guru Frederick Hayek (a
favourite of Lady Thatcher, yes, the one who said there's no such
thing as society), for those who are keen:

"Rather than the two worlds existing simultaneously, one world is
slowly crushing the other. Hayek's intellectual paradigm has
turbo-charged the privatised, marketised economy, which is
relentlessly encroaching on the life-world of family, friends and
community. The invisible hand is clutching at the invisible heart and
slowly choking it. Thus the story of New Capitalism's effect on the
family is just part of a wider story of what is happening to all
non-market relations between people. Bonds of respect, civility and
trust between people are being weakened, and relations based on
competition, self-interest and suspicion are growing."

The whole essay is free at:

http://www.themonthly.com.au/tm/node/312  

t