Is the recession really Brown's fault?

dandy-candy

I was commenting to a friend about the irony of Brown wanting to be PM for so long and then as soon as he gets hold of the reins the country goes to pot, and my friend said he believed it was all Brown's fault anyway because of the mistakes he made as Chancellor. Do you think that's true? I know it is happening in other parts of the world also, but if we had never had Brown as Chancellor/PM would things be this bad?

vivatifosi

The recession is too complex to be pinned on a single person, however just as HBOS should not have sacked its Head of Risk, Brown should not have got caught up in his own mantra "no more boom and bust" without considering downside risks. He may not have caused it, but he sure as hell has to take responsibility for the state the country is in entering it.

domcastro

No -it's not his fault. Life is swings and roundabouts. The recession would have happened regardless of the person in charge. And if the Tories had been in power they wouldn't have saved the banks and we'd all have lost our money. hear hear for Gordon Brown

JayScottGreenspan

vivatifosi wrote: »

The recession is too complex to be pinned on a single person, however just as HBOS should not have sacked its Head of Risk, Brown should not have got caught up in his own mantra "no more boom and bust" without considering downside risks. He may not have caused it, but he sure as hell has to take responsibility for the state the country is in entering it.

I'll second that.

It's important to make the distinction that Gordon Brown didn't trigger the recession, but he did prime the country to be particularly vulnerable to one.

If Brown had done all the right things (regulate lending, balance budgets, manage the economic cycle) then we'd be probably still be in recession, but a very shallow one.

As it happens he ran huge deficits at the height of the boom, let the banks run riot, and generally kept his foot on the gas blowing up the house price bubble. Which is why we will have a very deep destructive recession, amongst the worst of all developed nations.

Dithering_Dad

The recession is Global and would have happened anyway, but the UK would have been in a much better position to survive it if Brown hadn't given away all our Gold reserves at knock-down prices (after he announced he was going to sell it all, the price crashed, he sold it anyway against the advice of everyone), had he taken hold of the housing market and deflated it in a controlled way - or indeed not let it balloon out of control in the first place, had he not bloated the civil service and public sector with thousands of staff, had he not spent all of the tax money gleaned during the good times instead of putting a bit by for a rainy day, had he not carried out a raid on peoples pensions making them worth even less after the stock market crash and providing a disincentive for people to invest for their old age, had he not helped take us into two wars that have cost us billions of pounds, If he had put in better banking regulations we would not have had a debt boom, etc. etc.

No, the recession is not his fault. The fact that the UK was knackered before we even got into a recession is his fault.

Generali

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

The recession is Global and would have happened anyway, but the UK would have been in a much better position to survive it if Brown hadn't given away all our Gold reserves at knock-down prices (after he announced he was going to sell it all, the price crashed, he sold it anyway against the advice of everyone), had he taken hold of the housing market and deflated it in a controlled way - or indeed not let it balloon out of control in the first place, had he not bloated the civil service and public sector with thousands of staff, had he not spent all of the tax money gleaned during the good times instead of putting a bit by for a rainy day, had he not carried out a raid on peoples pensions making them worth even less after the stock market crash and providing a disincentive for people to invest for their old age, had he not helped take us into two wars that have cost us billions of pounds, If he had put in better banking regulations we would not have had a debt boom, etc. etc.

No, the recession is not his fault. The fact that the UK was knackered before we even got into a recession is his fault.

What he said.

Dithering_Dad

Generali wrote: »

What he said.

I could have gone on all day, but that was all I could summon from the top of my head.

It was the longest sentence I have ever written.

Wookster

Who's to blame... the question to vex us.

I lay blame at the door of

1. Bankers who lent too much
2. Individuals who borrowed to much
3. Estate agents who encouraged people to borrow too much and used sharp practise to squeeze people.
4. Credit rating agents for giving packages of MBS AAA+ ratings when they were more like BB-
5. Auditors for not reporting on banks over reliance on wholesale financial markets or the vulenrability of banking assets to a downturn.
6. Central bankers for not raising rates WHEN THEY KNEW THAT CRAZY RISKS WERE BEING TAKEN and that asset price bubbles were being formed.
7. World president's & Chancellor's (Crash included) for presiding over this lax regulatory framework
8. Crash for increasing the government deficit when it should have been maintained or reduced - had he done so he'd have more dry powder for this dark time.

Generali

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

I could have gone on all day, but that was all I could summon from the top of my head.

It was the longest sentence I have ever written.

It is far to simplistic to say, "It's Brown's fault", or "It's the bankers" or whatever.

Wookster

I should also add I further blame Crash for recklessly spending money NOW on bailouts (like this useless credit insurance scheme) and the car bailout.

Keep your powder dry for people who's lives have been wrecked!

Wookster

Generali wrote: »

It is far to simplistic to say, "It's Brown's fault", or "It's the bankers" or whatever.

Its very easy to blame only the bankers and this irks me as it somehow absolves people for their own part in this mess. I notice that Gordon never misses a chance to blame the bankers or call this a global recession in a desperate bid to have us believe Britain is "well placed" to ride out the recession.

I am NOT fooled.