Do we now have the truth from Bottler ?

[youngmafbog]

Brown has admitted in the US he made mistakes and the the FSA he created and oversaw failed too, helping to throw us all into the mess we are in.

Is this the first signs that the guilt is starting to get to the man ?

[rov1100]

I've heard that Brown is standing down from politics in the next couple of weeks. I suppose he tried his best but is our system wrong in making History graduates head of our financial system by being the Chancellor of the Exchequer? I mean you wouldn't give an engineer a job in a hospital operations department.

[Sqad]

Everyone makes mistakes.

Everyone knew at the time that the FSA was not performing well, but nobody did anything about it because all seemed well and contented at the time. The bankers were concerned as they realized that the members of the FSA were ill equipped for their task as "overseers"

Banks were lending, people were spending, so the attitude of "don't rock the boat" pervaded.

No need for GB to feel guilty, he assessed the facts and then made decisions based on these facts.....some decisions turned out to be correct, some wrong.
I have difficulty with those who shy away from making decisions.

[modeller]

Could it be the fact he was brought up in a religious household where mythology takes precedence over reality. Iran has its Mullahs we had Blair and Brown.

[Quizmonster]

I wonder whether you grasp that the phrase, "HELPING to throw", is the most significant in your question, Youngmafbog. Clearly, any government in power at a time of financial meltdown HELPED to create the financial situation that brought it about.
However, don't you think it's time that you and other right-w(h)ingers grasped that Brown was NOT the Secretary of the US Treasury, nor was he Chief executive of Lehman Brothers, nor boss of Northern Rock, nor Chancellor of Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, Greece etc? So why were THEY all in trouble?
In other words, isn't it about time Tory cabinet members stopped harping on about the "terrible legacy" left to them by Labour and started whining about the mess left to them by their pals in the city, the casino bankers who are STILL robbing all of us ordinary mortals blind? And don't even begin to imagine that the latest report on banking activities will do anything to sort THAT out if the Tories have anything to do with it.

[New Judge]

Well, QM, where to start?

Ireland, Portugal and Greece were (and still are) in trouble because they joined the Euro. They are thus not equipped with two important tools to control their economy, namely interest rate variation and currency fluctuation to suit their own specific needs. They (and a few more Eurozone members) will continue to struggle whilst their economies are linked to those of Germany and France and so would have the UK had we joined the single currency.

Iceland is in the mire because, like the UK, it had a “boom” founded on borrowed money (both personal and governmental) that could not be repaid. The mistake that Brown made in “rescuing” the banks was just that. The banks should have been allowed to stew in their own juice and only the retail depositors should have been protected.

This is not a party political broadcast because i doubt the Tories would have handled things much better, though I doubt public spending (for which read "borrowing") would have spiralled quite so much out of control and the beneficiaries of the shambles may have been their City mates rather than public service employees. .

[Quizmonster]

I take the euro-zone point, NJ, re Ireland etc, but I note that you make no mention of the other facts I listed. What of the USA's parlous financial state - they were, as I understand it, on the verge of closing government down a few days ago because of it! - or of the point I made about that, namely that Gordon Brown had nothing whatsoever to do with it? Same applies re the British institutions I mentioned...Northern Rock plus our very own casino bankers and their shenanigans. Again, Brown directly ran none of them and probably wouldn't have recognised a toxic mortgage if he'd found one in his soup!
He may not be blameless, but it is high time that the bulk of the blame was laid at the doors of those who WERE.

[Quizmonster]

Were at fault, I meant to add.

[Gromit]

What Brown admitted to was not foressing how interconnected the banks had become. More else no else did either. Certainly not the Conservatives, who lightened regulation in the first place. The FSA was at least an attempt to oversee the big banks. Problem was, it was toothless. Just as the Bank of England was asleep on the job and toothless.

// Mr Brown said: “We set up the FSA believing the problem would come from the failure of an individual institution. That was the big mistake. We didn’t understand just how entangled things were.”

The crisis in 2008 saw the rapid spread of problems from one bank to another because of how interconnected the global financial system had become.

The former prime minister also said that the opportunity to secure a global agreement on financial regulation had probably passed.
“I do believe we’re going back to a race to the bottom,” he said, referring to countries competing to have the lightest regulation. //

http://www.telegraph....mistake-on-banks.html

So this is really a warning that it has gone back to business as usual, and the same mistaKes are being repeated. Yet the press are reporting it as an addmission Rather than a warning.

So, no, not guilt, more fustration that the opportunity to reform the banking system is being squandered.

Remind me, How many City donations did the Conservatives get Before the election?

[modeller]

It's not a question of Labour v Tory . It was a total lack of common sense especially in E

[modeller]

cont. It was a total lack of common sense especially in Europe and the US . It was the property bubble that could not go on . It was bound to burst. Brown was chancellor for 10 years and could have clamped down anytime on the unlimited lending . He failed to do so and is now admitting he got it wrong.

[jno]

the banks were unleashed by Maggie Thatcher, in the 'Big Bang'. Don't expect signs of contrition from her any time soon.

[modeller]

Oh jno you will be blaming Churchill next.! Under Maggie our National debt was the lowest since WW II and whatever faults Labour may or may not have inherited they had 13 years to put them right. In fact even after the collapse in the US Brown still was spending money like confetti .

[Gromit]

// Brown still was spending money like confetti //

Government spending is planned years in advance and contracts are entered into. To cancel those contracts usually invokes a penalty fee. It would have been nice to stop all Government spending as the banking collapse started, but the cost of cancelling contracts would have been huge and a complete waste of money.

I must be getting old. I remember when right-whingers used to boast about deregulating the City, the "Big Bang" and taking the shakcles off of the square mile. They closed the North of England because the Financil Services Industry was going to save the country. (Ironic then that they in fact bankrupted it).

[modeller]

gromit // Government spending is planned years in advance and contracts are entered into. To cancel those contracts usually invokes a penalty fee. //
These were not fulfilling contracts these were new commitments and contracts entered in the last 18 months of Browns reign. You may argue they were needed, like school repairs , but it shows Brown had still not accepted the fact we carried the highest debt in northern Europe and he was making it worse. The only thing that has saved us needing a bail out was the fact we are not in the Euro.