Gordon Brown: "not me Guv, I wouldn't change a thing"

Entertainer

He is similarly bullish about any suggestion that, after a decade running the economy from the Treasury, he could have done more to avert that recession. Does he accept with hindsight that it was asking for trouble to let credit card debt spiral so high, or allow banks to offer mortgages of six times salary? "We have to look at this in historical perspective," says Brown. "The demand for home ownership has been growing radically and we wanted to help meet that demand for home ownership. There's more than one million new homeowners [created] in the last few years."

But what if some of them now lose those homes? Even then it appears he would have no doubts, merely remedies: "We are going to do everything in our power to stop repossessions." While he admits he himself has a "Presbyterian background" of fiscal caution, the prime minister says there is nothing wrong in people wanting to have "the best for their families".

Besides, he argues, in normal times even large mortgages would still be manageable: it is only because the banking system has seized up unprecedentedly, choking off credit, that people are squeezed. "This financial crisis is less to do with the level of personal debt in any single economy and it's more to do with a failure in the financial system itself. If you look at the economy in normal situations, where we have low inflation and low interest rates, people are able to pay their mortgages."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/04/gordon-brown-interview

Good to see "not Flash just Gordon" has learnt something.:mad:

dopester

Yvette Cooper was saying similar things on Newsnight or Question Time not long back.

Home-ownership good yes... but not home-owner for FTBs at huge prices simply because new-fangled securitisation, credit-expansion and self-cert allowed for heavy borrowing.

Brown and Co. These spoons would have happily had house prices trebling again with wages barely budging up if the banks had been able to continue using the markets to get funding to lend. They'd also continue congratulating themselves for it.

1echidna

He doesn't seem to realise that a crash was inevitable sooner or later with the financial system so overextended. It seems that it is 'foot to the floor Gordon' now accelerating into massive public indebtedness and another crash, this time with the public finances.

chewmylegoff

he was on the TV this morning banging on about the same stuff.

yet again claiming that our national debt is insignificant compared to other countries, conveniently ignoring PFI, and personal + corporate debt.

WTF?_2

chewmylegoff wrote: »

he was on the TV this morning banging on about the same stuff.

yet again claiming that our national debt is insignificant compared to other countries, conveniently ignoring PFI, and personal + corporate debt.

I believe that the UK is one of the most indebted countries on the planet (per head capita) when you add all the various kinds of debt up.

The solution is reducing that debt - not massively increasing our borrowing.

It's a bit like realising you urgently need to go on a diet for medical reasons but decide to pig out even more for an indeterminate amount of time before cutting down the calories because you don't really fancy going a diet right now.

StevieJ

!!!!!!? wrote: »

I believe that the UK is one of the most indebted countries on the planet (per head capita) when you add all the various kinds of debt up.

The solution is reducing that debt - not massively increasing our borrowing.

It's a bit like realising you urgently need to go on a diet for medical reasons but decide to pig out even more for an indeterminate amount of time before cutting down the calories because you don't really fancy going a diet right now.

So how do the German govt and other continentals handle their future pension obligations on or off balance sheet? I do know that they have generous pensions. This is a genuine question as I don't know.

Rochdale_Pioneers

There is this utter cobblers being spouted about debt levels. Apparently we are not only broke but the most indebted nation on earth. Personal debt levels may be high but they don't affect how much a government can borrow.

The truth is that even including PFI our borrowing last year was still substantially less than a host of countries you can name - Germany, Canada, the US, Japan amongst others. Since then we have spent a fortune - as have they. The Germans berated us for spending £37bn on banks and 1.5% of GDP as a stimulous - then spend 50bn on their bank bailout and so far 2% of GDP.

Sorry if this doesn't fit in with the Conservative worldview that 1997 is the year zero and everything is Brown's fault, but there you go. Funnily enough the polls, the economists, the CBI, the IMF, the World Bank and almost all governments disagree with you. Must be a lonely life - no wonder you all keep your selves warm spouting so much rubbish.

Punters have seen what Conservative recessions look like and don't want to repeat the experience. They don't want to be told that losing their job and the homes again are in the public interest. They watched the landed classes do OK last time as they suffered and now that they have identified the bankers as at fault they aren't going to suffer whilst they get off scot free again.

napoleon

The UK will be a banana republic within 10 years thanks to Brown the Clown

1echidna

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

There is this utter cobblers being spouted about debt levels. Apparently we are not only broke but the most indebted nation on earth. Personal debt levels may be high but they don't affect how much a government can borrow.

The truth is that even including PFI our borrowing last year was still substantially less than a host of countries you can name - Germany, Canada, the US, Japan amongst others. Since then we have spent a fortune - as have they. The Germans berated us for spending £37bn on banks and 1.5% of GDP as a stimulous - then spend 50bn on their bank bailout and so far 2% of GDP.

Sorry if this doesn't fit in with the Conservative worldview that 1997 is the year zero and everything is Brown's fault, but there you go. Funnily enough the polls, the economists, the CBI, the IMF, the World Bank and almost all governments disagree with you. Must be a lonely life - no wonder you all keep your selves warm spouting so much rubbish.

Punters have seen what Conservative recessions look like and don't want to repeat the experience. They don't want to be told that losing their job and the homes again are in the public interest. They watched the landed classes do OK last time as they suffered and now that they have identified the bankers as at fault they aren't going to suffer whilst they get off scot free again.

Unfortunately personal debt in a crisis becomes losses for private companies (banks) and then public debt as the banks are rescued. Look at what happened to Iceland. UK plc cannot escape its total debt level which prudent gov't management would not have let grow so high. I expect it will take stark reality of a very brutal kind before there is any chance of Gordon Brown admitting this.

CLAPTON

I'ld be interested to see references to threads of a year or two ago calling for substantial increases in interest rates or a return to quantitive controls on bank lending (like before the deregularation of the 80s).
And it seems only yesterday the conservative shadow chancellor was calling for further deregulation of the financial markets (although he's been a bit quiet about that recently).
Brown clearly got in wrong but he clearly had lots of company.

chewmylegoff

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/3078296/the-true-extent-of-britains-debt.thtml