Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Bankers and other charlatans - the story of Labour's demise?


Can't resist copying this article on ConservativeHome by Michael Fallon, the Conservative MP who is Deputy Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee.

The killer punch is here: "...Remember: when Gordon Brown first set up his new system of banking supervision, the amount British banks lent out was matched by the amount that they held on deposit. In fact, they were often in overall surplus.By the time he finished as Chancellor, they were lending over £625 billion more than they held on deposit. That’s not supervision – it was sheer recklessness. It’s that funding gap which is the key to understanding how our banks have crumbled.
Never again. We need banks that do banking – simple, straightforward banking. Taking in deposits and lending out against them. Measuring risk properly. Tailoring bonuses to genuine performance and long-term shareholder value. And we need a proper regulator. Brown’s FSA quango has failed us all – it slept through Northern Rock, it didn’t challenge the Scottish banks, and it didn’t warn against the Icelandic banks. 3,000 bureaucrats who didn’t do their job. Thank you again Gordon Brown."


As I have said earlier: When will Gordon Brown say he is sorry for his own incompetence? When hell freezes over?

Update: It appears that Brown is doing his homework on how to phrase his apology, according to Martin Bright on the Spectator blog.

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