This is a quite extraordinary crisis with no end in sight yet. Both Houses of Parliament have had Ministerial statements made recently. The following one was made in the Lords yesterday and I made a contribution on the intergovernmental aspect of the crisis. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldhansrd/text/81008-0004.htm
It is a rash person who draws too many conclusions just yet. The press are full of predictions about massive tax rises to pay the banks. I’m not so sure. If, as with Northern Rock, they return to profit then that aspect of the crisis may not be so bad. What will be bad is rising unemployment from a recession the length and depth of which is very difficult to predict.
My question in the statement emphasises the importance of intergovernmental organisations. The IMF is quite unable to meet the needs of a global economy and financial regulation. A global economy will need some regulation and how to achieve that is a mega challenge for all nations. That is just one of the reasons I want the Liaison Committee of the House to re-establish the Intergovernmental Organisations Select Committee of which I am still technically the Chair. Unfortunately their last decision was to bring the Committee to an end because it was originally an Ad Hoc Committee and therefore time limited. It is time we established it on a permanent footing and I will be working to achieve that.
Doris Day (Que Sera Sera)
When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be pretty, will I be rich
Here’s what she said to me.
Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.
When I was young, I fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows, day after day
Here’s what my sweetheart said.
Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.
Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother, what will I be
Will I be handsome, will I be rich
I tell them tenderly.
Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.
Plan for the future and consider what legislation must be rolled back or repealed in order to support a sustainable recovery. The Tories have a man with a plan – I would like to think the house has one too.
Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whatever_Will_Be,_Will_Be_(Que_Sera,_Sera)
This apparently all started in the USA and may well end with all the Banks being (part) owned (if not completely) by THE STATE. I find that very unhealthy. Has it been contrived? All part of the greater vision?
If this money is the ‘tax payers’, why not distribute it back to them? Let then spend or save it once more as they might have done if the “tax man” had not removed it from them in the first place? Why oh why did organisations not bank their money in their own Country?
The very first speech I listened to and watched on TV re this matter, I said out loud that he (un-named) was talking us into a recession. It turned out, I was correct.
Will it delay the change of President in America I wonder? Did our Government REALLY decide for themselves what should be done? Was it REALLY their decision? Ireland certainly acted alone at that time and other Nation States did as they should do and looked after their own State for once although it may have slowed EU Integration a little. You see, I have so little trust in our Government that I question everything they say at the moment.
Lord Soley,
If the justification of avoiding a recession is a good reason to (massively) buy into an industry, then Schumpeter’s creative destruction goes out the window, doesn’t it?
If you just need to make your company(ies) too big to fail, it appears massive gambling & an extraction of profits into the hands of employees (and executives) is fine.
Investment bankers made huge incomes(mostly bonuses) based on little more than projections (NPV) of deals. Their pay wasn’t tied to actual results. Yet, none of this is clawed back. So, you save some shareholders and these fraudster (let’s be honest) move on to the next scam.
In the case of emergency, a criminal’s punishment (for, say, murder) can be delayed until the end of said emergency but must be carried out in the end. Can you promise the same will happen to the bankers when this crisis (of their own design) is over? If not, you’ve (Govt) just emptied our purses to fund further travesties