Reply to: Government (ie. your taxes) at work

[PM-Junkie]

Certainly 2) was deliberate government meddling - goosing the money supply for no good reason.

I think it was more incompetence from someone who wasn't qualified or skilled enough to be doing the job.

[bobhope]

Wrong actually. Lack of government meddling in the form of:

1. Excessive de-regulation of financial institutions
2. Lax monetary policy

got us where we are today.

Certainly 2) was deliberate government meddling - goosing the money supply for no good reason.

[Doggy Styles]

Wrong actually. Lack of government meddling in the form of:

1. Excessive de-regulation of financial institutions
2. Lax monetary policy

got us where we are today.

I disagree with that actually. It was government meddling that resulted in that excessive de-regulation. They decided they could monitor banks better than the BoE, took it in-house, and did it 100 times worse.

Lax monetary policy is a result of government meddling too. They started hiding debt off the accounts, introducing pet redistribution projects, and they introduced a target culture across the public sector which was gamed by managers, and meant we spent more to get less from public services.

They are only the most obvious examples. If they'd left all that lot alone we would not be as far up the creek as we are today.

[sasguru]

Sassy, you seem to know the answer to everything. Have you thought of appearing on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

I'm sure even if you choose the wrong answer, you could entertain us by arguing with the quiz master that you know best.

It just seems I know everything from the point of view of your puny intellect.
HTH

[AlfredJPruffock]

Alistair Darling is a solicitor from Edinburgh.
And economics has been a hobby of mine ever since the 1990 recession.
Anyone who could not predict the mess we are in (which includes Gordon Brown) is an idiot in my book, as I managed to do it and even profit from it.

Your blind assumption of expertise at the top shows you are idiot who doesn't understand how the real world works.

HTH

Darling was also an ardent Communist in his time with Edinburgh Council - did you ken that ?

Like it or not we are being conditioned for a Communist Light Society - its all going according to plan.

[AlfredJPruffock]

I think the future lies with making all jobs pay exactly the same amount of money equally, regardless of the job. All future houses are built to an exact specification, and 50% of all tax money is spent on the military.

Smacks of communism - but what the Hell - I like it.

[DimPrawn]

Wrong actually. Lack of government meddling in the form of:

1. Excessive de-regulation of financial institutions
2. Lax monetary policy

got us where we are today.

Sassy, you seem to know the answer to everything. Have you thought of appearing on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

I'm sure even if you choose the wrong answer, you could entertain us by arguing with the quiz master that you know best.

[sasguru]

There's some truth in that. After all, government meddling has got us where we are today.

Wrong actually. Lack of government meddling in the form of:

1. Excessive de-regulation of financial institutions
2. Lax monetary policy

got us where we are today.

[Doggy Styles]

Really the best thing the government could do, is the last thing they're likely to do: do nothing.

You can guarantee whatever meddling they dream up will only make things worse.

There's some truth in that. After all, government meddling has got us where we are today.

[sasguru]

Really the best thing the government could do, is the last thing they're likely to do: do nothing.

.

This is true in times of boom. In times of bust the givernment is really the only entity that can kick start the economy.
That lesson was learned in the Great Depression.

[Doggy Styles]

Alistair Darling is a solicitor from Edinburgh.
And economics has been a hobby of mine ever since the 1990 recession.
Anyone who could not predict the mess we are in (which includes Gordon Brown) is an idiot in my book, as I managed to do it and even profit from it.

I agree with that.

[bobhope]

Really the best thing the government could do, is the last thing they're likely to do: do nothing.

You can guarantee whatever meddling they dream up will only make things worse.

[sasguru]

I think he was right too. Unless of course you have the knowledge of their UK chancellor equivalent as well as the intelligence and experience. It is possible you could make a good call about something but without having the scope it would always be a guess or a recommendation based on the small amount of info that's available to you, not to mention the fact they are thinking for a whole country, you just don't have the experience and knowledge to to think like this and why would you? You're an IT contractor from the UK

Alistair Darling is a solicitor from Edinburgh.
And economics has been a hobby of mine ever since the 1990 recession.
Anyone who could not predict the mess we are in (which includes Gordon Brown) is an idiot in my book, as I managed to do it and even profit from it.

Your blind assumption of expertise at the top shows you are idiot who doesn't understand how the real world works.

HTH

[Cyberman]

As they made such a schoolboy error, maybe you should take over? You obviously know a lot on the subject. I'll vote for you

Actually, I learned about 'Lender of the last resort' as a schoolboy in 1972. That is what makes the country's plight so sad. We have people in power and authority that do not know their own jobs, especially Mervyn King, governor of the BofE.

[d000hg]

... but it was the secured debt on mortgages that was used to cover irresponsible borrowing on credit cards. Mortgage borrowing to pay off debt should never have been allowed, because this then encouraged further credit-card debt. This was the crux of the problem that was never addressed.

Quick question for those who have studied the numbers, although house prices were crazy and therefore average mortgages grew very large, was there actually a significant level of people not managing to make repayments? I can see statistically 100% or 105% mortgages will have a higher delinquincy ratio (if that's the right term) but even so was it significant?
Was all this mess due to people not affording their debts, or due to the finance sector getting scared this would be the case and acting accordingly?