Today discovers economists
For the second day running radio 4's today programme has given up on the politicians and found itself some real economists to debate things.
On this occasion the lady from Goldman Sachs tried to explain why reducing interest rates was not going to work, and was in effect a tax on savers. She described the £12billion Brown has borrowed to pay for the VAT election bribe cut as wasted.
There was another economist to give an alternative view - I can't be sure but I think he was a Labour supporter.
But my point is this: No one is listening to the politicians any more. Most of them, like most of us, had no idea what libor was 6 months ago, and they don't know how the economy works - they just know how to make announcements to win votes.
So we have Gordon Brown bullying the banks to be reckless in their lending and at the same time telling savers that their interests are looked after be inflation coming down despite the fact that most of the governments actions now are inflationary ( the Bank of England base rate is -2.5% in real terms right now ).
So its a well done to the Today program, I hope we'll hear from more economic experts and less self serving politicians (esp Labour ).
5 comments:
How bad do you think this is all going to get?
I think there's a reasonable chance the UK won't be able to place its debt and the IMF will have trouble saving us. Perhaps its a one on four chance.
Labour will do anything to hold onto office, and that includes ruining the country.
I think we are heading back to the late 60's and early 70's with amazing speed. ( That was also the opinion of one of the economists on the previous days Today show ).
Even if the worse doesn't happen our country will emerge much reduced for decades to come.
I note the Germans are having none of Brown's insane borrow more to save the next election message. They normally know what they are talking about.
I have some reasonable savings and I'm looking at how to get them out of sterling. ( Any ideas gratefully received ).
Laban is asking the same question.
http://ukcommentators.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-is-to-be-done.html
Thanks - I wonder how long it will be before currency controls etc kick in.
Will Brown confiscate pensions ( or force them to buy yet more government debt ? )
in the end there is a limit on what can be done against a determined government.
FDR's government confiscated gold from its citizens, and it seems to me that Brown admire FDR a lot.
Check out also Clarkson's wrold view here.
Problem is I keep hearing this sort of view from different sources.
Post a Comment