Leave it to The Telegraph to smooth things over with their dedicated readers and set the News narrative for the dwindling middle class. When a group of people work in unison to make certain a thing is done or not done, that action is called by several names but they’ve decided that parroting BoE’s “group think” is fitting terminology.
For the uninitiated, back in 2007 when the first signs of crisis began to appear on the horizon, neither the Bank of England nor the chiefs at the Financial Services Authority could explain in plain English what a Credit Default Swap was. We ‘think’ they finally got it but to this day, they refuse to acknowledge that it’s quite simply a bet, a fake insurance product without reserves and literally not worth the paper it’s printed on. As we’ve come to expect from regulators that fail to regulate, all they need is some more power and everything will be hunky dory.
If the object of the exercise is to keep the Housing Bubble from popping, they don’t have a prayer. Should this be a genuine attempt to rein in the banks, they’ll have to prove they have the power to separate them from their cash cows, raised from the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in the USA since they’re all represented in The City. It’s a fine political waltz but for those who care to peruse some mind numbing excuses from people who according to their credentials should know better, the Telegraph article is full of chuckles.
Here’s one gem;
“As it happens, the Bank of England did sound the odd (our emphasis) warning about collateralised debt obligations – the toxic mortgage-backed securities that sparked the original liquidity crisis – and about the growth in credit more generally, but with no obvious powers to control the phenomenon did little about it. “
And here’s how Tony Blair was able to fake the numbers;
“When Labour came to power in 1997, the Bank was stripped of responsibility for banking supervision and told to focus more or less exclusively on inflation targeting. For the first 10 years, it excelled in this task. Inflation was stable and output conformed to long-term trend. In such circumstances, it’s hard to argue that monetary policy was off track.”
In genuine News, Professor Michael Hudson ponders whether the Eurozone is kaput.
at Counterpunch
