RAPID RESPONSES
King ducks charges
[Re: Was Mervyn King powerless to stop the financial crisis?, Friday]
Mervyn King is no lame duck regulator, but his arguments are certainly lame. The King-led Monetary Policy Committee set interest rates that were far too low for far too long. One key turning point was in August 2005. The housing market stalled, and seemed on the point of correction, as prices froze and volume sales fell for months. What did the Bank do? It cut rates (although King voted against the majority) sending a signal for people to borrow, because banks would keep lending huge amounts. King will not rewrite the history books, however. People know what happened, and the perennial excuse – that of “hindsight” – won’t wash.
Robert Birkett
………………..
Vote against elites
[Re: Folly which crippled Greece will be repeated in socialist France, yesterday]
Kwasi Kwarteng reminds us that many Germans weren’t committed to the single currency in the early 1990s. The euro was the offspring of a European political elite and a consequence of irrepressible egoism. If referendums had been allowed in the Eurozone, including Germany, in many cases the euro would have been rejected and much economic pain avoided. The rejection of austerity in France and Greece is now effectively a vote against the euro. If only politicians had taken more of an interest in the opinions of their voters before the euro was created, the current debacle could easily have been avoided .
Derek Coggrave
………………..
TOP TWEETS
Chief executives should remember whose money it is and reward shareholders first.
@simonhcwilson
Shareholders (especially institutional ones) were asleep at the wheel and carry a lot of blame for both risk and excess.
@ObliviousReaper
Hollande, as a staffer to Mitterrand, knows what happens when socialism collides with the markets. It gives way. It has no choice.
@SirSocks
People primarily voted against Sarkozy, not so much for Hollande’s promises. Hollande will likely moderate to the centre.
@_earth