Washington's Woes

[Quizmonster]

American politicians seem to have agreed a (temporary?) solution to their financial default problems. One can't help wondering, though...what if they hadn't? Meltdown there would certainly have had a major impact here. Might we taxpayers, for example, have had to keep our banks afloat yet again, given that we still hold billions of pounds of US debt? And, if we had, would right-wingers have agreed that it was all the fault of David Cameron? I ask because when much the same happened in 2008, with Gordon Brown in charge, they decided he and he alone was to blame for our subsequent woes.

[andy-hughes]

Greetings QM - hope you are well?

I wonder sometimes if these financiers are just playng Monopoly?

After all, nothing physical seems to change hands, it's all based on calcuations and figures, so I do wonder how it's all actually backed up.

I also wonder how on earth so many financial brains in so many countries. with nothing else to dfo but work in this stuff all day every day, can manage to get it all so spectacularly wrong!!!!

[Quizmonster]

I totally agree, Andy. I especially despair, for example, of the organisations which produce predictions such as, "Growth in the third quarter will be 1.8%" and so forth. They seem utterly unashamed when it turns out to be no such thing. Where did they GET the figure...and given that the source is clearly useless, why do they go on using it?
I'm well, by the way, and trust you and yours are, too.

[andy-hughes]

Indeed - thank you very much.

The thread that runs through the woes of the world is just one word - 'accountability'.

There is an utter absence of anyone who creates problems, either fiscal, or indeed military - being called to any kind of account.

Just what exactly have Blair and Bush done to account for the loss of life in the wars they have created - before they silmply walked away?

And now, with the phone hacking - what will actually be done to account for anyone who has done wrong?

I suspect, that as with the financial crisis we still endure, the answer will be nothing at all.

And that just has to be wrong.

[rov1100]

I don't think the US are out of the woods yet. All they have really done is extend their overdraft by another 2 trillion dollars with no agreement yet on how to lower the overall deficit. We have seen what spending cuts can do to the economy so expect many riots on the streets as people lose their jobs and firms collapse.

[R1Geezer]

I didn't blame Gordon Brown for the banking crisis, in fact a search will show I supported his solution. I blame Brown for incompetence for the 10 years prior to that. Numerous c0ckups that have been gone over many times here.

[Quizmonster]

I've often claimed here on AB that right-wingers rarely possess memories that extend further back than a decade or so.
You refer, R1G, to the ten years of Gordon Brown's "errors" prior to the earlier American financial meltdown in 2008. You do not appear to recall his last-but-one (Tory) predecessor as Chancellor, Norman Lamont, and his ERM debacle together with Black Wednesday some nineteen years ago. The latter cost us over £3 billion - more than Brown's oft-quoted gold-sale - and a further £27 billion spent in propping up the pound according to Wikipedia.
I'm astonised, therefore, that you did not lose faith in the Conservative party back then, given that fiscal error is clearly, in your opinion, a mortal sin. (I'm assuming, of course, that you are 40+ years old and actually COULD recall the facts given if you chose to.)

[whiskeryron]

Nice one QM
Ron.

[jno]

Quizmonster, off topic, but I wondered if you had a definitive answer to this question

http://www.theanswerb.../Question1043261.html

I'm pretty sure my answer is correct but for the life of me I can't see why.

[R1Geezer]

Yes QM, I'm over 40 and yes Lamont and co c0cked up the main problem was trying to link us to other currencies, any economist will tell you that is asking for trouble, anyway the subject hasn't come up.

I also remember that in May 1997 Britain the strongest Economy in Europe until Prudence got hold of it.

Politicians are appalling at handling finance it's just a case of picking the lesser of several evils.

[whiskeryron]

Could anyone explain to me why countries are duty bound to borrow huge amounts of money in order to survive? When I started out in married life & throughout, my wife & I always lived within our budget & only spent & bought what we could afford, we would have been horrified to have lived on borrowed money.Why therefore cannot governments do this?
Ron.

[AB Editor]

I just thought I'd correct that last line R1:

"Politicians are appalling, it's just a case of picking the lesser of several evils."

In seriousness, we do have a problem of our parliament being filled with a pretty useless breed.

[Quizmonster]

Click http://bit.ly/oSu1Yo for a view on "evils".

[Quizmonster]

Thanks for your earlier comment, Ron, and no, I don't understand either why it seems that virtually every country seems to be financially beholden to someone or other.

[Quizmonster]

J, I posted a comment on that other thread.

[heathfield]

Obama is criticised for not being strong enough or early enough in trying to get Congress and the Senate to come to an agreement on the US debt. Imagine if Bush had still been the president !!

[jno]

thanks, Quizmonster.

[Quizmonster]

R1G, you wrote:
"Yes Lamont and co c0cked up the main problem was trying to link us to other currencies, any economist will tell you that is asking for trouble," (sic)
The famous photograph I linked to earlier (http://bit.ly/oSu1Yo) shows David Cameron - Norman Lamont's Special Adviser - behind the Chancellor, himself an economist, on Black Wednesday. Cameron has a First Class Honours degree in PPE from Oxford. The ‘E' in PPE actually stands for Economics! Are you confessing that Cameron, as well as his then master, is/was clueless as regards that subject in the real world rather than amidst the dreaming spires? More to the point perhaps...is he any the wiser about it today?

[R1Geezer]

Yes for all sides