| Topic: | Greed and less regulation | |
| Posted by: | Francis Rowe | |
| Date/Time: | 10/10/08 21:57:00 |
| They may be said to have caused this present financial market difficulty but they also have been largely responsible for the most sustained period of global economic growth since the second world war and the present high living standards that most of us enjoy. Whatever your view of Gordon Brown as a person or his politics there are very few people who have the level of knowledge of this country's economy that he does. He may instinctively have been inclined towards intervention but as Chancellor he recognised that increased globalisation of both trade and financial markets was both unstoppable and to the ultimate benefit of people in this country. The fact that manufacturers, banks, stock brokers etc. could more than ever before in history move to another country if there was an attempt to over-regulate them meant that Government intervention was more often than not only going to achieve the disappearance of an industry rather than its reform. What we are experiencing now is the turning of an economic cycle, not the end of civilisation as we know it. The downturn may be very severe but mainly because the upswing was so sustained and powerful. Gordon Brown will know that simplistic explanations which hold people working in the banking industry solely responsible for what is happening are not the basis for solving the problems. Thus far the policy responses of Brown and Darling have been decisive. I would not be sure that David Cameron or the painfully out of his depth George Osborne would have had the confidence to have made any decision in the same circumstances. 'No Time for a Novice' indeed. Cameron and Osborne can have their go in 2010 hopefully just in time for renewed growth in the economy. |