subject: Who Failed The British Banks? [print this page] Gordon Brown said in his Budget Speech of 1998 and I quote "Booms channel too many resources into speculative activities and not enough into others, hampering economic progress. The fleeting gains that such episodes bring are invariably far outweighed by the pain of the downturn that must follow."
Gordon Brown said in his 1998 Budget Speech and I quote "Booms channel too many resources into speculative activities and not enough into others, hampering economic progress. The fleeting gains that such episodes bring are invariably far outweighed by the pain of the downturn that must follow."
Now here we are firmly and squarely in the down turn that Gordon Brown's policy of boom and bust has induced.
The severe UK banking crisis was clearly created in Britain by Gordon Brown, and he has now admitted that his idea of taking regulation away from the Bank of England was a disaster.
A very light touch on banking control coupled with removing the role of regulator away from the Bank of England was a very dangerous and short sighted policy.
Had he forgotten the secondary banking crisis of the 1970's? After all this was the chancellor that had said no more Boom or Bust but had in fact conjured up a far worse banking crisis than some 30 years ago.
In those days it was only the secondary banks like London & County Merchant Bank, Cannon Street Securities, First National Finance Corporation and many others that had to be rescued.
None of the major players, that is the clearing banks, were affected.
Under Gordon Brown major banks, like the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland, have all ended up being owned by the state having previously been independent of Governement control or ownership.
The lack of proper regulation due to the relaxation of the controls and the light touch approach enabled Banks to over expand and not build and retain prudent reserves. Some of the s Banks that failed had previously been held out as shining beacons of success.
To argue that their problems arose in America and are of a global nature is simply a lie. They had simply over extended themselves in times of lax regulation.
To balance their cash flow they were borrowing on the overnight money market, and of course when the other banks stopped doing that they hit a brick wall and the Government nationalized Northern Rock.
Gordon Brown states that this is a great thing and that he acted as a saviour.
But all that he had to do was the same thing that happened in the 1970's when the Banks were not nationalized, and indeed they did not need to be nationalized now. As usual he panicked.
In the 1970's the Bank of England put in place a life boat and that is exactly what should have happened this time around with the Banks.
Recently Gordon Brown has admitted the error of his ways in an interview with presenter Mark Austin which was screened on ITV1 when he was asked what his biggest political mistakes had been. He said that the Government had helped to fuel the banking crisis by failing to step in and stop reckless lending.
In what is undoubtedly a damaging admission, just some three weeks before the General Election, Gordon Brown said: "We should have been regulating them more." Perhaps he should have said I wish I had not interfered with a perfectly good regulation system in the first place.
Let's remind our selves of what he said as Chancellor some 12 years ago in 1998. Gordon Brown stated that "Cycles of boom and bust have been particularly damaging to the UK's long-term economic performance. Recessions lead to premature scrapping of productive capacity and increase both short-term and long-term unemployment."
Only three years ago in his 2007 Budget he said no more "Boom or Bust" but at that date all the warning lights and klaxons were sounding. So why did he not then wake up from his dream like sleep and take some corrective action.
Only after the ship has smashed up on the rocks has he started his recovery plan.
The question that has to be asked Is Gordon Brown fit for Purpose?
Sadly no as it would be like asking the Captain of the Titanic to be in charge of the Life Boats.
