I was amused by the following FT headline this morning:
I have nothing against new rules against market abuse; indeed, I'd welcome them. But it did occur to me that Osborne might have to bring himself to account if he introduced such rules.
After all, who has inflated the stock markets by failing to control the proper use of quantitative easing? He has.
And who has created a housing bubble? He has.
And who has deflated wages and productivity by forcing people into marginal employment and unprofitable self employment? He has.
When it comes to market abuse the rules had better be tight or the Chancellor is in trouble.
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He he indeed. But repression is a time honoured method to inflate away government’s debts. Does its use (although particularly strongly with QE this time though still less significantly than the US) make Mr Osborne any more particularly guilty than any of the other central bankers or officials in charge?!
And re the housing bubble, Christine Lagarde considered “getting on her knees” to apologise for speaking against it…so Osborne might even feel vindicated at the moment. Imagine…
On a serious note though if repression and stimulus is the only way to defeat deflation exported from the developing world and combat the floods of excess savings sent over by resource countries (tax gaps notwithstanding) then so be it because we are in a beggar thy neighbour world. Just don’t call it a depression.
You do realise that QE started before the coalition came to power, right?
Likewise, the biggest house price increases also happened under Labour (around 2002 if memory serves).
So if we are going to hold Osbourne to account, shouldn’t we be holding Brown to account too?
Yes
I criticise Labour too
And was very critical on occasion of Brown
“And re the housing bubble, Christine Lagarde considered “getting on her knees” to apologise for speaking against it”
Personally, I wouldn’t trust anyone from the IMF as far as I could throw them. House prices in London and the south are being pushed up to ridiculous levels. I am convinced that the BoE and the government will do everything they can muster in order to hold down interest rates. They know that if they do rise, even by a small amount, it will be game over.
She knows as well as I do the the so-called UK “recovery” is built on sand!
With regard to this, “And who has deflated wages and productivity by forcing people into marginal employment and unprofitable self employment? He has.” let’s be fair, Duncan-Smith has rather more to answer for here.