This is how we let the credit crunch happen, Ma'am ...

[CHIMO]

Source: The Observer

A group of eminent economists has written to the Queen explaining why no one foresaw the timing, extent and severity of the recession.

The three-page missive, which blames "a failure of the collective imagination of many bright people", was sent after the Queen asked, during a visit to the London School of Economics, why no one had predicted the credit crunch.

Signed by LSE professor Tim Besley, a member of the Bank of England monetary policy committee, and the eminent historian of government Peter Hennessy, the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by the Observer, tells of the "psychology of denial" that gripped the financial and political world in the run-up to the crisis.

The content was discussed at a seminar at the British Academy in June that was attended by economic heavyweights including Treasury permanent secretary Nick MacPherson, Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O'Neill and Observer economics columnist William Keegan. The letter explains that as low interest rates made borrowing cheap, the "feelgood factor" masked how out-of-kilter the world economy had become beneath the surface, with some countries, such as the United States, running up enormous debts by borrowing from others, including China and the oil-rich Middle Eastern states, that were sitting on vast piles of cash.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/26/monarchy-credit-crunch

---

The wheels of justice grind .....

[SpiralHawk]

1. The failure of 'Republiconomics' is the so-called 'collective imagination.

Let us speak plainly now, no with euphemisms.

FatCat Republiconomic Totalitarianism = FAIL.

A PROVEN FACT.

[undergroundpanther]

5. The economists are doin' it wrong...

Because I knew the shit was gonna hit the fan before the millennium's end. Why? because I knew the housing prices back then were impossible,so they were a speculation bubble.And bubbles pop.I saw some of the very important rules lifted off corporations,I saw taxes drop for the very rich and the burdens fall upon the backs off the poor and working poor.I saw the bloated military and unjust wars that would rob us.
Secondly, with bush,I knew that greedy asshole and his war loving piggy sociopath buddies were not decent people at all and would fuck up everything for everyone else to to get what they wanted, total control and global domination of everything..Meglomaniacal sociopaths seek positions of power precisely to EXPLOIT that power and as long as we fail to watch those in power they'll rob us blind again and again.. Until people realize that we have let these sociopath fuckers run us all off a cliff for generations things will not change.Because the people who have NO conscience are the people that hunger for more and more power over others ,so they should be KEPT AWAY from power,and in this type of economy money= power.Starve the petty tyrant beasts and bullies,deny them privacy, control, power or money. The economists are doin' it wrong because they have done it wrong from the beginning from the start,on purpose because they have NO conscience, no inner restraints, unsound judgments.. but these slick monsters are good enough con men to act like they know their shit when they are basically conning a nation to rob it blind..Profit is basically getting something for nothing.It's a kind of theft.

[midnight]

9. It's human rights violations!

[undergroundpanther]

11. I agree

We as a world of(non-rich) people have been financially abused to varying degrees,and just outright abused too.Our human rights have been disregarded.Never should the means of survival like food,water,shelter,health care,etc. be withheld because of money,a lie invented to control and get away with horrendous things.Money only means access to food etc. if you BELIEVE it has the power to buy these things.Hence the term consumer CONfidence!!(I for one have NO confidence in the value of money,food is valuable,shelter is,so is heat,health care etc.) Money is a tool of oppression and the engineered scarcity of it allows the violation of human rights..

http://www.ranprieur.com/readings/jensenbox.html

[Missy Vixen]

2. The British get an explanation, the Americans get bupkis

Maybe we need to import Queen Elizabeth for a few days. She can get some answers, huh? :woohoo:

[izquierdista]

3. But what will she do?

We could send her some historical accounts of what Henry VIII used the Tower of London for.

[Missy Vixen]

13. We could

At the same time, I wonder why the monarch of England gets a speedy and complete explanation; the government of the United States doesn't seem to rate that.

[cosmicone]

4. That pic looks like George Clooney and kathy Bates in a scene n/t

[ShamelessHussy]

6. When you know the people will pick up the tab for your recklessness their are no limits.

It really is as simple as that.

And now we are enabling to do it all again, on our dimes.

[Lorien]

7. Funny. Most of DU saw it coming. Krugman saw it coming. So did many

noted economists across the pond. We were all sounding alarms a year ago, two years ago, sometimes more...but the disaster capitalists LET it continue. We hit the iceberg because they wouldn't let out the alarm on the MSM. Too much good looting to be had in the event of a "crisis".

[No Elephants]

12. A year or two ago, it was already too late. This has been in the making since Reagan.

We let him de-regulate, including dropping the barriers that kept companies from getting "too big to fail." We let him end the draft, not realizing that was part of a plan to allow government to do whatever it wanted in that regard, without all those pesky anit-war movements and anti-war protests that result from having our children drafted and dying for whatever the President and Congress feel like making them die for. And on and on, through repeal of Glass Steagall and Dummya's administration.

[AlphaCentauri]

8. Those bright people are not so bright n/t

[UpInArms]

10. bubbles happen when people that have the ability to change them

live in their own bubble

some freakin' asshole could have looked up - seen the view from the back of his ass and realized that his head resided inside a very dark place

these people make me sick