We have had fantasy football & cricket, and now we have
Labour fantasy economics and politics. Even 'moderate' Liz Kendall has made the
statement that "Labour overspending did not cause the collapse of
(American financial services giant) Leahmen Brothers." Nobody claims that.
It's a deliberate straw man argument.
In America the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) kept interest
rates artificially low and created a consumer boom in order to buy cheap
Chinese exports. American banks were encouraged to take extreme risk in
investment banking and sell sub-prime mortgages, and oversight of these
activities was reduced. Growth in the economy
meant increasing tax revenues could be used to increase government
spending. The boom could not last and financial collapse caused a massive bust.
Here in Britain the Bank of England kept interest rates
artificially low so we could all buy cheap Chinese goods, British banks made
risky investments and took on sub-prime mortgages, Gordon Brown reduced
oversight of the City and increasing tax revenues were used to increase public
spending. The boom did not last and turned to bust. Gordon Brown had to use
massive sums of taxpayers' money to save British banks from the collapse he
helped to cause.
Just what was the difference between America and Britain?-of
course, nothing. It was the British Labour
Government which nearly bankrupted our country. None of the Labour Party
leadership contenders appear to have learned any useful lessons at all and
still inhabit an economic fantasy world.
No comments:
Post a Comment