UK elections

the biggest problem I see is that the Tory's aren't traditional tories, Labour is becoming steadily more right-wing (I think a lot of the 'credit' there goes to Jacqui Smith) and generally everyone's fighting for the middle ground without having any damn principles or ideals.

How was a housing crisis inevitable? I completely disagree. Granted, the current rate of growth was unsustainable (and the fact that it persisted for so long, in spite of economic forecasts to the contrary, can only be to the credit of the government, and shows unprecedented confidence in the economy by the consumer, and by businesses). However, this only necessitates a slowdown, not a downturn. The crisis we face now is mainly to do with international pressures, the massively inflated cost of oil (arguably partly Blair's fault, but definitely not Brown's) reducing expendable income, and putting people off moving homes; the sub-prime crisis (caused by uncontrolled capitalist greed) which has lead to restrictions on the availability of credit, which lead to the run on Northern Rock in particular, and the uncertainty fallout from that; and another large factor is our sensationalist press, who tend to hyperbolise everything, which further undermines consumer confidence.

twat-ers wrote:How was a housing crisis inevitable? I completely disagree. Granted, the current rate of growth was unsustainable (and the fact that it persisted for so long, in spite of economic forecasts to the contrary, can only be to the credit of the government, and shows unprecedented confidence in the economy by the consumer, and by businesses). However, this only necessitates a slowdown, not a downturn. The crisis we face now is mainly to do with international pressures, the massively inflated cost of oil (arguably partly Blair's fault, but definitely not Brown's) reducing expendable income, and putting people off moving homes; the sub-prime crisis (caused by uncontrolled capitalist greed) which has lead to restrictions on the availability of credit, which lead to the run on Northern Rock in particular, and the uncertainty fallout from that; and another large factor is our sensationalist press, who tend to hyperbolise everything, which further undermines consumer confidence.

it was inevitable because it was becoming unstable. I don't remember much from economics but i remember the graph which depicts growth. There was always going to be peaks and troves and it was the government’s job to try and keep the line as flat (positive correlation) as possible (eliminating depressions) but they will always occur some time. 

I think it could of been delayed and i think it could be handled better (we could only have a short depressions if it wasn’t for the pessimistic views of some) but i think depressions are always inevitable it’s just a matter of when. 

This said it is not the current governments fault as such because the options taken during Bair’s terms weren’t long term. We are seeing a lot of problems now which were delayed from previous years.

Emphasis on the word 'crisis'. While the existing growth wasn't sustainable, a 'crisis' wasn't inevitable. Something had to change, but the current situation, and the severity of it is, in my opinion, largely due to outside factors.

twat-ers wrote:Emphasis on the word 'crisis'. While the existing growth wasn't sustainable, a 'crisis' wasn't inevitable. Something had to change, but the current situation, and the severity of it is, in my opinion, largely due to outside factors.

Surely the crisis was inevitable too. The government wanted to keep demand high and money flowing so in our market that meant low interest rates to increase the number of loans thus stimulating the housing market. 

The only problem is theres only so much you can borrow so As time went on and we were lending more and more we would have to eventually say no as there would be nothing more to loan. Somewhere along the line it was inevitable that people wouldn't pay back all they were meant to. The fact that this happened in foreign countries first and triggered northern rock etc doesn't make a difference. The growth was unsustainable and therefore had to collapse eventually.

Even the government went for benefit now problems later policies which given another year or so would of caused crisis. 

Yes we can blame fuel problems but surely they where expected? Shouldn’t we blame those who are meant to see the problems on the horizon and steer us clear? Well we seem to be doing that now but when you’re already in the mind field its not exactly the spotters fault.