The R-word
Peter Hoskin 9:51am
The throng saying we're entering a recession has been joined by its most significant member so far. Mervyn King deployed the R-word in a speech to Leeds businessmen last night, and the markets have reacted accordingly. Sterling collapsed against the dollar - hitting a five-year low of $1.6203 earlier. Whilst the FTSE share index has looked wobbly since opening. All of which fuels the idea that no amount of Mandelsonian manoeuvring - or no amount of public cash - can prevent the poor state of the economy being the story of the next few weeks, months, years. The question that remains is whether Brown & Co. will capitalise because of it. Or whether it will sink them.
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Rex Burr
October 22nd, 2008 11:48am Report this commentIs this the man who suggested, a few weeks ago, that the worst would be over by Christmas?
Susan Hill
October 22nd, 2008 1:53pm Report this commentWhen do 'entering a recession' and 'on the brink of a recession' and 'moving into a recession' become a recession ?
Dora
October 22nd, 2008 2:44pm Report this commentThere is mine after mine to go off. It's no good saying you're superman if you're the villain who wrecked the economy and if people are still losing their houses.
The pain has barely begun.
Daniel
October 22nd, 2008 4:02pm Report this commentIncredible that the Governor could describe the last few months as an "almost unimaginable sequence of events", given that in the US Professor Nouriel Roubini predicted it with such devastating clarity and precision well over a year ago. Two years ago, the Bank of England made many of the staff in its Financial Stability wing redundant, presumably on the grounds that there was insufficient work for them to do. It's a pity that the monetary economists they kept on have proven to be so singularly useless at forecasting financial sector developments. There's a scandal of mis-management and complacency here which the Treasury Select Committee should sink its teeth into. Wouldn't have happened under Eddie George.
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