Breathtaking sanctimony from MONG

[policecar]

Gordon Brown: "I called for global financial reform ten years ago"

Gordon Brown claimed today that he had been warning for ten years that the international financial markets needed to be more strongly regulated.

The Prime Minister said that it was a decade ago in Harvard that he first called for an international early warning system to alert countries to developing crises in any part of the world, because the huge global growth and reach of financial systems meant that all markets, all economies and all banks were now interdependent.

Mr Brown said that he had recognised the need for a stronger regulatory framework ever since the crisis in Asian markets in the 1990s.

business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5590281.ece

[mids]

He's just a joke now, although a dangerous one, and totally desperate to cling on to power.

[flatandy]

Hahahahaha!

So, what he's saying is that he's been totally ineffectual on the world stage for 10 years and is so useless that not only did he fail to get other countries to implement his cunning plan, but he even failed to introduce it in the country where he was running the treasury all that time.

And, the silly thingy, as usual, in his neo-liberal free-market, bollocky way, thought the solution was "early warning", in the same way that league tables and assessment forms and all that kind of stuff are used as best solutions. Not actually getting things done. Just setting targets.

Fool.

[ricklinc]

He so reminds me of the unpopular kid that would run forward and shout, "Follow me!" only to turn round and see that everyone just ignored him and fcuked off home for tea. Leader of the nation and global statesman, my arse.

He's going to end his days rocking back and forth behind a sofa in South America gibbering that the world failed to see his brilliance.

[tarrant]

If this is indeed true then it does shed a little more guilt onto Bu$h.

[minge tightly]

Weren't the IMF warning Britain that it was teetering on the edge of recession since 2006?

[ricklinc]

I don't see why not. Jonren was warning long before that.

[omnipleasant]

The IMF were calling us an economic miracle pretty much until the global crisis hit. Latest wisdom is that we're not really any better nor worse than similar countries.

We've got some things going for us compared to other countries - low government borrowing, falling currency value, flexible labour markets, a government taking the right action.

And some things against us compared to others - high personal debt, overinflated housing market, over reliance on financial markets, and a currency that isn't a reserve unlike the Euro or Dollar.

As for Brown - it's true that he was warning about it years ago, and true that in a global free market economy he couldn't do it unless other countries were on board.
His mistake was that he didn't reshape our economy along more socialist lines so we could be protected, and instead pressed ahead making the UK a free market, conservative, rightwing, low regulation economy.

[omnipleasant]

And of course the IMF are saying what everyone except the UK Tories are saying is necessary at the moment:

A number of governments around the world have announced stimulus plans, including in the United States, Japan, Europe, China, and India. But Strauss-Kahn said he did not think enough had been done so far. "In Europe especially, they are still behind the curve," he said. "There needs to be more done on the spending side, especially because the reaction of the economy to more spending is quicker than the reaction to a decrease in taxes."

[flatandy]

Jan 26, 2009 15:32:19 GMT @omnipleasant said:

"There needs to be more done on the spending side, especially because the reaction of the economy to more spending is quicker than the reaction to a decrease in taxes."

Isn't, you know, this the complete opposite of what you were telling me last month when I was saying the VAT cut was stupid and Mong should have been bursting the bank to spend on cool, huge infrastructure projects? You were saying he should cut taxes now and think about spending way in the future.

Which was wrong then, as it's wrong now, and was wrong when Mong the Mongbrained did it.

Admittedly, the only people more wrong than Mong are the Tories. But, that's to be expected.

[omnipleasant]

I've always said spending is good Andy, as long as it's on stuff that has been planned and can be started right now, which is what the govt has done.

Building the Hoover Dam, however, is pointless because we'll be out of recession by the time the first brick is laid.

[policecar]

ahh and MONG's witchfinder general arrives banging his drum to tell us all that we've never had it so good and if we just beleive then autistic spazzer will lead us to the promised land. Incredible.

the audience are beginning to see through the conjurors trick omni - the little boy has just pointed out the emperor isn't wearing any clothes.

[ricklinc]

Spending, eh? Well Brown has certainly done a lot of that. But he's spent it on dung. When there was a chance to spend on rail infrastructure he instigated more NGOs instead. When there was a chance to spend it on nurses he employed more managers. When there was a chance to build more prisons he payed some electronic tagging firm to lose track of convicts. When there was a chance to employ more police on the streets so that the home secretary wouldn't need a posse of guards and a stab vest to get a kebab he allowed special task forces to investigate abusive text messages to lesbians.

The creepy fat one-eyed incompetent can spend all right. Will I get my ID card through the post or do I just sort through the ones left on the pub bar until I find mine?

[flatandy]

Jan 26, 2009 15:37:45 GMT @omnipleasant said:

I've always said spending is good Andy, as long as it's on stuff that has been planned and can be started right now, which is what the govt has done.

Building the Hoover Dam, however, is pointless because we'll be out of recession by the time the first brick is laid.

Doesn't matter. Companies can plan in the knowledge they'll be involved in a £50bn Severn tidal barrage project.

And, anyway, know is as good a time as any to force forwards projects that would otherwise be killed by whining NIMBYists. If any time was right for riding roughshod over planning rules, it's now.

[omnipleasant]

Well that's true. If stuff needs building, now is a good time to get doing it.

It'd be daft to pencil in money to build the Eifel Tower in 2012 when it could be spent right now on helping us through the recession, though.

[flatandy]

Why can't you start building the TGV network within the next month?

[omnipleasant]

Planning, design, tender processes, recruitment, etc etc.

I suppose it's true that alone would boost the economy - but the real meat of the spending would only start coming through later, when we could be spending it now.

I'm not against it, I think it's actually a pretty attractive idea - I just personally think the money could be better spent right now, whilst building stuff that is ready to go sooner than planned.

[omnipleasant]

Darlo's budget is going to be very interesting though. I reckon we'll see fiscal stimulus that will make the last one look like child's play.

I hope so anyway. Only swivel-eyed rightwing lunatics like the Tories think it's best to let the recession rip unchecked.

[policecar]

Only swivel-eyed rightwing lunatics like the Tories think it's best to let the recession rip unchecked.

History will be the judge of that - surely the fact that the last two downturns were prevented by an orgy of excess capital and debt is the reason the shiit is hitting the fan so badly now. Still if you think reanimating the corpse one last time is the way to go who are we to grumble? After all it's not like we live in a democracy is it?

[omnipleasant]

Can you name one serious world goverment or organisation who thinks it's best to cut back spending on jobs now, PC?

I'm not including the Tories in that, for obvious reasons.