Ed Balls, the PM's closest ally, warns that downturn is ferocious and says impact will last 15 years
Britain is facing its worst financial crisis for more than a century, surpassing even the Great Depression of the 1930s, one of Gordon Brown's most senior ministers and confidants has admitted.
In an extraordinary admission about the severity of the economic downturn, Ed Balls even predicted that its effects would still be felt 15 years from now. The Schools Secretary's comments carry added weight because he is a former chief economic adviser to the Treasury and regarded as one of the Prime Ministers's closest allies.
Mr Balls said yesterday: "The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I'm sure, over 100 years, as it will turn out."
He warned that events worldwide were moving at a "speed, pace and ferocity which none of us have seen before" and banks were losing cash on a "scale that nobody believed possible".
The minister stunned his audience at a Labour conference in Yorkshire by forecasting that times could be tougher than in the depression of the 1930s, when male unemployment in some cities reached 70 per cent. He also appeared to hint that the recession could play into the hands of the far right.
"The economy is going to define our politics in this region and in Britain in the next year, the next five years, the next 10 and even the next 15 years," Mr Balls said. "These are seismic events that are going to change the political landscape. I think this is a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s, and we all remember how the politics of that era were shaped by the economy."
Philip Hammond, the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said Mr Balls's predictions were "a staggering and very worrying admission from a cabinet minister and Gordon Brown's closest ally in the Treasury over the past 10 years". He added: "We are being told that not only are we facing the worst recession in 100 years, but that it will last for over a decade – far longer than Treasury forecasts predict."
The minister's comments came as the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, admitted the global economy was "seeing the most difficult economic conditions for generations". Writing in today's Independent, Mr Darling said his plans for shoring up Britain's finances included "measures to insure against extreme losses" as well as separating out impaired assets into a "parallel financial vehicle". Unemployment figures out tomorrow are expected to show the number of people out of work has passed two million. The Bank of England's quarterly inflation report, also released tomorrow, is expected to include a gloomy forecast for economic growth.
Yesterday, the Financial Services Authority warned that the recession "may be deeper and more prolonged than expected", adding that the global financial system had "suffered its greatest crisis in more than 70 years".
Speaking to Labour activists in Sheffield, Mr Balls conceded that the Government must share some of the blame because it had failed properly to control the banks. But he accused the Tories of blocking Labour's attempts to tighten financial rules.
He said: "People are quite right to say that financial regulation wasn't tough enough in Britain and around the world, that regulators misunderstood and did not see the nature of the risks of the dangers being run in our financial institutions – absolutely right."
The other great depressions
*Long Depression, 1873–96
Precipitated by the "panic of 1873" crisis on Wall Street and a severe outbreak of equine flu (Karl Benz's first automobile did not chug on to the scene until 1886), it was remarkable for its longevity as well as its global reach. In Britain, it was the rural south rather than the rich cities of the north that suffered. The UK ceased to be a nation that relied in any way on farming for its livelihood.
*Great Depression, 1930s
The "Hungry Thirties" were rough on many, at a time when welfare systems were rudimentary. The worst period was from the Wall Street Crash of 1929 to about 1932, but in places such as Jarrow, the unemployment rate hardly dipped below 50 per cent until the economy was mobilised in 1940. However, for many in the south and for the middle classes, the times were relatively prosperous.
22 comments:
The IMF seems to think that this nation is on the verge of bankruptcy,and sneaky jew rothschild wants a return to the gold standard,guess who owns all of the gold.it seems to be on a twenty year cycle that the elite steals our money,1971 the great decimal swindle,1980s brittan regreting nothing,1990ssauros crashing the pound,2008 the biggest robbery the world has ever seen,aided and abetted by the nwo.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5712634.ece
It's not a recession in the Griffin family !
That's why the BNP are not now 'straining at the bit' with activity with this economic recession.
Griffins job is to 'curb' nationalist activity.
http://der-stuermer.org/
Top website!!!
Well done for the the different finance/economic articles you have posted on this and the forum John.
There is so much to learn and I must admit I wonder whether the various bits of jargon are testimony to my ignorance or are embedded in (newspaper) articles so as to present a mist veil beyond which the intelligent ( :-) ) reader cannot penetrate.
Taking the last article and the first few sentences:
"“Estimates of total expected asset write-downs suggest that the budgetary costs of asset relief could be very large both in absolute terms and relative to GDP in member states,” said the document, prepared for a closed-door meeting of EU finance ministers.
“For some member states, it may be the case that asset relief for banks is no longer an option, due to their existing budgetary constraints and/or the size of their banks’ balance sheet relative to GDP...
I've italicised words/phrase I don't understand and I'm willing to bet that very few people understand what this all this means :-( :- )
(The same goes for the cross examination of bankers by MPs seen a few days ago)
Simon Smith
LULZ !!
And what is the impact in terms of votes?
BNP poor third in Waddon yesterday, with an experienced Croydon BNP anti-griffin organiser replaced for no reason by an oddball Charlotte Lewis, who has no support in Croydon BNP.
This is something the Jews cannot get around with a bit of Zionist Islam bashing, NG will need a change of tactic.
There's an Appeal going out for funds for the BNP (I've received it 4 times now!). Supposedly to Fight for Freedom and the EU Elections. I can't help but feel the Court case with Sadie and Co must be coming up soon. (I know this is off thread - but nowhere else to put it!)
WHAT NEWS ON PURPLE AKI AND OUR JOEY ,HAS THE PROBLEM WITH DAVE HOWARD THE BOTTOM PINCHER BEEN RESOLVED!!!!
an Obama escape the dominating influence of AIPAC and the American Jewish/Zionist Israeli lobby?
By Debbie Menon
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
By John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
No one in Mainstream US media, is addressing the real problem which is, the fact that nothing contrary to Zionist, Israeli and American Jewish lobbies, AIPAC and other Pacs interests, which are all-dominating in the American political scene, will go very far. Anyone who supports such a move will have no tomorrow in American politics or business. They will be Finkelsteined to death by the Zionist assassins.
Recently, a group of very high-minded and virtuous but, retired diplomats and academics who do not owe their future success to AIPAC or any Israeli lobbies, asked the question: "Can Obama Untangle the Iranian Challenge?" But the question they should be asking is: "Can Obama escape the dominating influence of AIPAC and the American Jewish/Zionist Israeli lobby?"
The answer is "probably not and live."
It isn't enough, I think, just to point out that in the US, Jews have acquired the lion's share of many key political appointments in the US Administration. It is a known fact and I iterate it was 56% in the Clinton years, and almost the same in the Bush years and we are beginning to see the same shape in the formation of Obama administration. Even that Congress has been largely compromised by AIPAC and the brigade of Jewish PACs in the US -- is all true, and apparent of course.
In my recent essay I mentioned my fading faith, hope, trust and expectations in Barack O'Bama. That was before I read Christopher Bollyn's article illustrating the Israeli Zionists in the Obama Administration and the US Government, The Israeli Who Runs the Obama White House - bollyn and the way they "fixed" the entire US Presidential elections, and created a dramatic charade, including the comedy team of McCain and Palin. With Obama refurnishing the White House with Clinton leftovers and resurrections, it is beginning to look like business as usual and nothing has changed since the regime of Lyndon Johnson, the Clintons, the Bushes, et al.
The New Emperor's new robes are being cut and tailored of the same material and by the same City Island tailors as his predecessors!
So much for dreams, ideals, hope and promises of change.
The question is why a large majority of the American people go along with this entire exercise? And when did it all start?
The answer to the second question came from an Israeli diplomat who lectured to a class at Georgetown in the late 1980s, I am told by Professor Alan Sabrosky, who taught at the University, a course on Comparative Foreign Policy, among others, and had 3-4 diplomats from different countries in to the class each semester that at dinner with the Israeli diplomat and two students, he remarked during the conversation that the real turning point in Israel's approach to the US had come in the wake of the 1956 War, when President Eisenhower had ordered Israel, Britain and France to "cease & desist" and return home. He said the Israeli Embassy tried to get to Congress to reverse that decision, and found that in fact they had access to only two "minor Congressional offices" (his phrase, I remember it clearly says Prof. Alan Sabrosky). So, they set about crafting a network of PACs and other things to reverse that state of affairs. One of the students asked "how many Congressional offices they could access successfully now?" (that was in late 1980s please note)-- and with a satisfied smile, he remarked "Almost all of them." The students faces registered astonishment, so he quickly added words to the effect that "But of course, we don't control them, they still act in the best interests of the American people," but the students didn't believe him, and there you have it...."
Admittedly, the more I read, the More I realize why it took the American people so long to react to Bush Administration idiocy. Too many obstacles, making it a monumental task.
I suppose when so many people in comparable positions have a consensus on something (like "thou shalt not allow criticism of Israel"), you don't need a conspiracy. There are so many Jewish PACs, besides AIPAC. There exists a coordinating agency called "The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations," Their website (www.conferenceofpresidents.org/) is worth exploring (and AIPAC is just one of literally dozens of organizations under its umbrella).
With all the money, political and corporate connections they have at their disposal they must certainly have a tremendously powerful influence over the ambitious and greedy men and women who enter politics. But to practically dominate everyone in the game, including those with the popular support which both Obama and Bush have experienced, and including the statistical minority of what I might assume to be "honest men of principle," (or am I being naive in believing that any such still exist?) is astounding.
The answer to the first question is partly because a key part of that program, has been the steady diet of images fed to the general American population. For bad or worse, a large majority of the general American public get their impressions and opinions about the world at large from fiction: movies, television shows, and novels. For half a century, thanks to many of the people who sit on the Boards of Directors and in the executive suites of studios and networks, they have been fed a constant stream of messages around certain core themes: (a) poor, brave, misunderstood little Israel as America's only true friend in the world; (b) the dirty, dangerous, barbaric, and malevolent Arab as the direct lineal successor to the architects of the Holocaust; and (c) more recently, Islam through Islamic terr'rists as the only direct threat to Israel, the United States, and Western civilization and culture generally. Those messages until recently were rarely in the form of the "in-your-face" overt propaganda, but a form of low-level political socialization that becomes part of the background against which opinions are formed, and thus more pervasive and more enduring than mass parades with people carrying banners and shouting slogans. After more than a half-century of this "diet," the dumbest had a greater capacity for independent thought than the average American hearing the words "Israel" and "(Palestinian) Arab."
This "steady diet of imagery" coming out of Hollywood and the Infotainment Industry for nearly a hundred years now has been insidious and we cannot ignore who the initial investors and funders of the industry were, and still are, and where they came from.
A great proportion of those beautiful and handsome "movie stars" with the exotic names who set the scene for what the "normal" American should strive to become, were of Eastern European extraction. Jewish movie actors, actresses> and then try to persuade me that they are proportionally representative of the incidence of Jewry in the American population. Check the names of Studio Owners, Producers, Directors, Writers, any one in the Movie and Infotainment profession, and tell me that they are proportionally representative!
Hollywood is and has been for nearly a century, one of the most intense and tightly organized, efficient and malevolent propaganda and thought control machines in the world. It was during the Korean War that the US Government invented and promoted what they called "brainwashing," which they attributed to the North Koreans, but which they have been employing in Hollywood for fifty or sixty years already. One cannot over-emphasize the "images" aspect insofar as the general American public is concerned, and how it enables AIPAC and company to leverage Congress. And it is not only Hollywood and the New York TV industry; it is also publishing houses and major newspaper chains, all of which send images to the public. These have increasingly over more than a half-century molded how most Americans "feel" about the Middle East, and Israel and the Arab (now more broadly Muslim) states/peoples in particular. And especially Israel as a state and Arabs as people, now terr'rists, have become embedded in their cultural and emotional background.
So when anti-apartheid leaders like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu are dis-invited from lecturing at American colleges and universities because of their public opposition to Israel's maltreatment of the Palestinians, and plays like "My Name is Rachel Corrie" is scrubbed from major theaters (but does appear in smaller ones), all under pressure from Jewish organizations and donors, virtually no one thinks to quarrel with the decisions, or even wonder why.
Can President Obama change anything?
Yep! He could start 1) Appoint some people that represent real change such as Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, Paul Krugman, Paul Findley or Robert Reich, Ariana Huffington, Robert Kennedy Jr., Paul Craig Roberts, some folks from The Nation, etc.
2) Keep the discussion on the costs of 2 very expensive wars that have accomplished next to nothing (other than enriching the war profiteers). (Seven years and still no Osama bin Laden; can you imagine fighting WWII and say you could never find Hitler??)
3) Use money for the crumbling infrastructure in the U.S. Discuss costs in terms of Months of Iraq War/Occupation--- how many MIWs for the loan to the Big Three auto companies or how many MIWs for Universal Health Care coverage etc.
4) Get to the root cause of Arab frustration and anger festering for decades. For starters, by simply ordering that Israel immediately lift the Gaza blockade, so Palestinians smoldering from the Israeli siege that killed 1,285 people - nearly 70% of them civilians, destroyed at least 4,000 homes, that sent more than 50,000 people to temporary shelters in the recent blitz, could begin to get bread, clean water, medicines and electricity, the basic essentials for their survival. His silence on the issue speaks louder than words.
Yes, he can, but he won't!
Even as President, he is powerless without his support system, and it apparently is AIPAC.
He could appoint anyone he wanted, and I have no doubt it would be a simple matter to find men and women of high ideals and standards who would willingly go to work to correct many of the ills which affect US Government and which we had hoped he would attack, and correct... if that were his objective.
But, it makes little difference, however, whether that is his objective or not, because it would be absolutely impossible to carry it out against the will of AIPAC!
If he were to promote a program which went against the aims of AIPAC, with the entrenched powers and the deep penetration they have infiltrated throughout the system, he and his loyal Lieutenants would never find sufficient and dedicated people who would be willing to sacrifice their careers in government service, nor their passes through that revolving door between government, and Corporate/Self-service, of which AIPAC is the doorman, and the overseer and keeper of the Chalice of Post-Government Service lucrative relocation and $ucce$$.
For most of that hustling crowd in Washington, D.C., government service is a short-time stepping stone to bigger and better things. That AIPAC doorman guards the gates to the afterlife.
Walt and Mersheimer are correct! "They" run the show! They write the script, stage the production, sell the tickets, usher the audience to their seats, operate the lights and stage effects, write the Sunday morning reviews, and select casts for the next production. They also take the receipts to their own bank.
The Presidency and every simple job in US Government is controlled by the Israel Lobby. If they do not actually select those who get the positions, they certainly ensure that those whom they do not want to have them do not! If you wish to apply for a position trimming hedges on the landscaping staff of the White House, it is best to drop in and pay your respects at the local AIPAC office and the synagogue on your way to the Employment Office.
Debbie Menon
About the author: Debbie Menon is an independent writer based in Dubai. She can be reached at debbiemenon@gmail.com.
http://www.prometheism.net/library/jewishsupremacism.pdf (A REAL TREAT)
Dear Cllr Chris,
No the civil court case against Sadie and Mat cannot take place while they are on bail re the totally trumped up membership list leak allegations. I'm convinced (although I can't prove it) that Griffin released the list for that very reason, ie to delay the civil case until after the European elections.
The removal from that list of the membership dates, made it appear we have 12000 current members. But anyone who has received a membership list knows that at least half the names on it are past, not current members.
As for the begging letters, that's Griffin trying to suck the membership dry before disappearing into Europe.
From
Chris Hill
(Lancaster)
Every single social and economic trend which has been predicted by Griffin to launch the BNP into the mainstream is now upon us. In fact I would go as far to say probably a better situation for a Nationalist rise to power will never come our way again.
If the BNP do not win even one seat at the Euros, it's all over. We must accept we will never win power. Maybe just hang around the edges with some council seats, but that s about it.
The only hope would be that Griffin would be forced to resign (what leader who had failed to win in 2 general and 2 Euros would be allowed to stay on)as a failure. I hope a new carismatic leader could be found to try and ressurect the party from the mess it's now in. Sadly not the likes of Chris Jackson, who has failed to promote himself at all. Not even a decent web site from him. It's no good turning up at RWB moaning about constitutional changes, most punters there were asking who this guy was.
I don't say I have all the answers, far from it,and I hope I am wrong, but I think end of days for Nationalism is upon us.
...... NG will need a change of tactic .......
Yessirrreeee, like resigning and letting a true nationalist head the BNP.
Griffin is still a cunt.
The theiving jew bankers have Obama' black balls in a vice-like grip.
Free thinker, do'nt give up hope.
The truth truck could accidently flatten that lying cunt Griffinski.
Here's looking forward to the day Griffinski gets his.
Free Thinker said...
Every single social and economic trend which has been predicted by Griffin to launch the BNP into the mainstream is now upon us.
I've circled the BNP for over 10 years and I can assure you that the BNP did NOT predict 9/11 (or a similar event) and the ill feeling towards Islam that followed. The BNP said next to nothing about Islam prior to 2001.
If the BNP do not win even one seat at the Euros, it's all over.
Failure to elect an MEP will be a disappointment for the BNP but it is a million miles away from being the end of the world for them. After all - what can an MEP really achieve for them?
The only hope would be that Griffin would be forced to resign (what leader who had failed to win in 2 general and 2 Euros would be allowed to stay on)as a failure.
Something tells me that Gri££in will be ditched if he wins and ditched if he loses the Euro elections.
Griffin Watch will provide full coverage of the "Rebel" court case as soon as it continues.
Free Thinker, I agree with your treatise, but we, the BNP, may have a good chance winning a seat in the Commons, next General Election.
Tyndall forecasted that the day will come, when the enevitable political meltdaown occured, the English people will vote for the Devil himself; AND THAT DAY IS UPON US.
"AND THAT DAY IS UPON US.
15 February 2009 11:34"
You watch Griffin fuck it up on purpose
`You watch Griffin fuck it up on purpose'
Anon, you're dead-on target. That's the real danger.
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