Sarkozy: 'Self-regulation is finished'

PARIS, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday the global financial crisis "is not a crisis of capitalism" but he called for more state control of the economy.

Speaking in Toulon, France, Sarkozy said the government should expand regulation to cover all funds and financial institutions, The Financial Times reported. He said the crisis has put an end to any notion that the fall of the Berlin Wall meant that democracy and the market would solve any problem.

"The idea of an all-powerful market without any rules and any political intervention is mad," Sarkozy said. "Self-regulation is finished. Laissez faire is finished. The all-powerful market that is always right is finished."

Sarkozy said it would be a mistake to respond to the market turmoil by abandoning capitalism.

"The crisis is not a crisis of capitalism," he said. "It is the crisis of a system that is far from the values of capitalism and has betrayed capitalism."

The French president called for a "new balance between the state and the market."