The Great Crash of 2008: Are governments or markets to blame?

I wouldn't even try to explain the financial mess but below is a link to the writing of a man who can, Professor Deepak Lal. The article appears on the website of the Adam Smith Institute.

The Great Crash of 2008

It's well worth a read.

Recession, Recession, Recession

Now I'm no wizard when it comes to economics and government finance. I tend to think that like sociologists and others, economists are just making commonsense difficult at best, or are nothing but soothsayers at worst.

When Margaret Thatcher was around the country was also coming out of a Labour government created economic shambles and all the talk was of Monetarism. At first I thought Monetarism must be some deep and complex economic theory devised over decades by blokes in thinktanks and university economics departments. Then, to my relief I discovered it just meant you can't spend what you haven't got. We can't and the government can't. Well actually we can but we end up with a mountain of personal debt and have our homes reposessed, the government just taxes more and more, bleeding us all dry and borrowing from elsewhere on top until the people realise that socialism is a sham and will kill us all. Then they turn to the Tories. The Tories for God's sake! Now that is rotating dictatorship, frying pan and fire and any othe cliches you care to throw into the mix.

So after Blair's con trick in 1997 we have all, even the most deluded Labour zombie, seen the country slide towards economic disaster and a police state. As a layman I found this article in the Timesonline very intersting.

Talking of party conferences, why not run an office sweep on how many different words for 'cuts' the three old parties come up with at their conferences?

More Crap From Brown

Here is Gordon Brown waxing lyrical about how he feels for the plight of the jobless.

But the piece de resistance has to be the following taken from the above article:

The Prime Minister told MPs he had got into politics to tackle joblessness and poverty.

Well you've buggered up properly then haven't you you nitwit?

I suppose he'll be on a fast-track teacher training course after the next general election. Or are the populace really stupid enough to...no, I can't even contemplate that.

Let's All Be Optimistic

Gordon Brown has delivered a plea for Britons to remain optimistic in the face of the financial crisis.

Despite forecasts that the UK will experience the worst downturn out of the major developed nations, he urged against "talking the country down".

He said he has "utter confidence" the UK will recover, but warned failure by the G20 in April to agree to financial reforms could have severe consequences.

So now Gordon wants us all to be optimistic about the economy. After 12 years of New Labour we all know he really means "let's pretend everything's fine". You may remember the WMDs in Iraq as the justification for invasion. What weapons? Exactly!

It's interesting though, that Mr Brown is already lining up the G20 in April as a scapegoat if the optimism proves misguided. I can't imagine a welder I know being very optimistic when he as had no work since before Christmas. Or the Woolworths staff, now they must be brimming with optimism and confidence.

I really do think that the only way Gordon will see us walking round all happy and optimistic about the economy would be to send us all a pack of free hallucinogenic drugs.

Bishops Bashing Labour

How refreshing that five Anglican bishops have attacked the governmnent for its lack of morality. It's just a shame that it took the shit hitting the fan for them to stand up and be counted, but better late than never.

The problem is that politicians now, more than ever, seem to exist merely to buy off the electorate at all costs, so few political parties have principle any more. Indeed even the parties outside the big three, who have extremely principled and honest members, appear to be led by professional politicians with few morals or principles. Let's hope that one side effect of the current shambles might be a cleansing of the political system.

Archbishop In Commonsense Shock!

I rarely agree with Dr Rowan Williams but, for once, he talks sense.

Yes the recession is making people stop and contemplate their lifestyles. For far too many the shopping malls, especially monsters like the Trafford Centre, have become the new cathedrals and as long as they got their hands on cash, or credit, they continued to worship at them.

Now the shit has hit the fan the lesson has been learned surely? No, it hasn't. The government is now playing the greedy shopper extraordinaire and borrowing masses more money so people and businesses can continue behaving in the exact same way that got us in the shit in the first place. Pity the generations to come who will have to pick up the tab, because the government is merely buying off today's nitwits who will probably now vote for them, regardless of the consequences, on June 4th 2009 when I am convinced the general election will be held.

Where I do take issue with Dr Williams is on the role of the Church of England in the last few decades. He can squeal now but where was the CofE when they could have stood up and said "enough is enough" and given a moral lead in many areas of life that would have helped save us from the nation's current plight?

Oh, that's right, they were trying to be cooler and trendier than anybody else in the establishment. There are no men of real principle in Parliament and it seems there are few in the christian churches either, until they can react in a way that doesn't rock the boat because it's what everybody is thinking anyway. It's people prepared to go against the tide when necessary that we need now, not the gems at stating the obvious when it's too late.

Old Labour Still Cocking It Up

Every day feels more like we have travelled back to the bad old days of the 1970s. I don't claim to be a financial wizzard but commonsense says that the government is cocking up the economy, as socialists always do.

In an effort to back up my instincts from various sources I found John Redwood's explanation of why it is wrong. It makes sense to me.

Financial Mess

I remember back in the late 70s early 80s wondering what monetarism was. Although being politically active since school, where I also studied politics, government and economics, I would never profess to be an expert on government finance. I was surprised back then to discover that monetarism turned out to be exactly what I thought it was, don't live beyond your means.

It seems to me now that the main reason for this current fnancial fiasco is people, and business, living beyond their means, including government. So the message seems to be, to me at any rate, that many individuals, businesses and government need to tighten their belts, pretty damn quickly and pretty damn severley. Like most things in politics and life I favour the simple and commonsense approach, it is usually pretty effective.

So I am confused at the moment, especially having read this article. A rash of public borrowing and spending may mask the problem, and give the government some very short term political benefit, but in the longer run we are even more knackered thanks to this irresponsible government response.

The Recession

When it comes to matters financial I am an absolute no-hoper. But one thing that does trouble me in the current situation, is the use of our taxes to bale out failing banks. I have visited my accountant this morning, to be told that my tax burden has increased, and I mentioned my view on the bale out of banks to him. Surprise, surprise he agrees with me, let them go to the wall.

One blog that I look up to in a certain amount of awe when I am wondering about matters financial is Mark Wadsworth's Blog. I can definitely recommend a visit and, a few days ago, he ran a poll on baling out banks and 51% believed they should be left to fail. Perhaps I'm not that dim after all.

The other concern is that the current trend, here, in the USA and elsewhere, is going directly against the free market system and will merely store up trouble in the future. It seems to be a gross distortion of free market capitalism and gives failing banks an unfair advantage over banks that have perhaps behaved a little more responsibly. It is corporatism and not free market capitalism to blame. So I was heartened to visit T Bishop Finger, another excellent blog, to find that he had posted a film of Ron Paul, the American libertarian, saying exactly that.

Other than that the only thing to say is tighten your belts!