I always thought we came out of recession in 1997 when NuLabour got elected.Brown said no more boom and bust,and set off on a 16 year boom.Unfortunately we are now into the bust. Practically nobody predicted this, least of all the Bank of England who have not performed at all well. To allow the massive rise in debt, house prices, pouring petrol on the flames in 2003 when they cut rates to 3%. Brown has always bragged that making the BOE independent was a masterstroke, I'm not so sure. What are the Tories going to do? if they get in. I'm sure i don't know. Osbourne looks far too clever for his own good,I'd rather have Clarke.
He was actually stupid enough to think he had "broken the cycle of boom and bust". It's all over government publications up until about a year ago.
Not been reading uk.finance then?
Then bragged about "lowest mortgage rates for 40 years" at the last election...
But he still set them their inflation target. A bit like letting someone else drive but telling them where to go. He chose the CPI inflation measure as the target, which specifically *excludes* housing costs! So the BoE weren't bothered about house price inflation.
Yup - that's why they brought him back - a bit of experience.
Are you serious? I thought you were a regular here! Try searching uk.finance for the words "bubble" or "crash" between 2005 and mid 2007. There were plenty of people, and referenced newspaper articles, predicting far worse that we've seen already (food shotwages, riots etc).
Vince Cable was the only politician who made serious noises about the credit bubble, several years ago, I think?
One should bear in mind that the last two recessions were in the 80's and in 1991, when the Tories were in power. I remember it well, I retired in '91 and was able to get 10% in instant access accounts. Whoopee!
I did. (posted lots of times and mostly got called a panic-monger) Most of my posts are headed 'Crash!'
I am 46 and have been broke since I grew up. Firstly Labour economic mismanagement, then the early Thatcher years (4 years of unemployment, horrific interest rates), then the economy showed signs of blooming from the weeding but Socialist Major happened along and then several years of doldrums and stagnatation. Even so, we had enormous potential in 1997 (with all the weeding done) - that's when I started my business. I was only a market trader, but sensitive to what was happening on the street
- I know damn well that nobody had much money to spend at that time - the 'boom' really was based on loose credit lending and actually very short-lived, relatively. It is the only time in my entire life that I was offered credit and actually got it - prior to that I was not even allowed a bank account with a debit card. I asked myself for all that time what would happen when the credit dried up (which it had to) and we even speculated in the group (us foil-hatters that is), what would happen should Sterling become virtually worthless. Along with that was Bliar's mad spending - new schools, roads, hospitals popping up everywhere, all manned by taxpayer-funded idiots (not front-line staff), and a virtual army of new government employees, along with the apalling wastage. I believe that people who did not see this coming were in denial and now we can see the reason why. All IMHO of course. :)
I read that with a frown, and prepared my rant, then I read it again with a smile. You forgot to mention Blair being a closet Tory, but that's too close to the truth maybe. ;-)
A closet socialist Tory perhaps! - he spent shedloads of money! Brown is spending even more. FWIW I don't believe that Cameron will do anything much differently. New labour seem to have achieved a nasty combination of massive spending, corporate favouritism and oppressive government. I'm sure there is a word for that...
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