Comments on: Devalued Prime Minister of a devalued country – that Daniel Hannon speech http://thusmagazine.com/2009/03/devalued-prime-minister-of-a-devalued-country-that-daniel-hannon-speech/ because it does not have to be that way Tue, 17 May 2011 10:42:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: John Kelly http://thusmagazine.com/2009/03/devalued-prime-minister-of-a-devalued-country-that-daniel-hannon-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-189 John Kelly Tue, 31 Mar 2009 06:47:13 +0000 http://thusmagazine.com/?p=2733#comment-189 With respect, Daniel, the Hannon speech is about Brown's consistent and persistent attempts at self-justification, and his complete obfuscation of a very real Uk crisis. the so-called blogosphere mainly, and partially, attempts to take a party-political line - principally that something or someone purporting to be on the 'Left' must be preferable to someone on the 'Right.' No doubt there are inaccuracies in Hannon's speech - but it's not really good enough to state that - list them. There are also some very important economic truths. As far as a reality check, it's as near as we have got to one in Britain, at least. A persistent failure to address the trutrh in favour of spindoctored reality has led to this impasse. Hannon makes that point. If anything, he errs on the side of caution, particularly where the UK deficit is concerned. I'm with Soros - I predict the IMF begging bowl next year (if the IMF has enough money). That's why nearly 2 million YouTube visitors have viewed it (and that's why I featured it). I agree about Scandinavian banks being better regulated, in general, (pace Wallenberg) but not about Scandinavia as a whole. Sweden has serious problems. Iceland (OK a Nordic country and Norway, ditto) are at different ends of a spectrum which in itself is not healthy. Denmark has horrible racist issues and Finland collapses without Nokia. You're absolutely right that the general ethos and balance is far superior to most other economies, but let's not forget that what Sweden practises at home, for example, is not the same as the vicious mercantile capitalism which it has been wont to practise abroad (Wallenberg's antics with BFG Banken of Germany, turning the biggest trade union pension fund holding bank into a disastrous offshoot of SE Banken was neither clever nor particularly socially democratic, for example). Ikea has some unpleasant methods. ABB screwed the engineering sector. Not all Scandinavian models are pretty, in other words. With respect, Daniel, the Hannon speech is about Brown’s consistent and persistent attempts at self-justification, and his complete obfuscation of a very real Uk crisis. the so-called blogosphere mainly, and partially, attempts to take a party-political line – principally that something or someone purporting to be on the ‘Left’ must be preferable to someone on the ‘Right.’ No doubt there are inaccuracies in Hannon’s speech – but it’s not really good enough to state that – list them. There are also some very important economic truths. As far as a reality check, it’s as near as we have got to one in Britain, at least. A persistent failure to address the trutrh in favour of spindoctored reality has led to this impasse. Hannon makes that point. If anything, he errs on the side of caution, particularly where the UK deficit is concerned. I’m with Soros – I predict the IMF begging bowl next year (if the IMF has enough money). That’s why nearly 2 million YouTube visitors have viewed it (and that’s why I featured it).

I agree about Scandinavian banks being better regulated, in general, (pace Wallenberg) but not about Scandinavia as a whole. Sweden has serious problems. Iceland (OK a Nordic country and Norway, ditto) are at different ends of a spectrum which in itself is not healthy. Denmark has horrible racist issues and Finland collapses without Nokia. You’re absolutely right that the general ethos and balance is far superior to most other economies, but let’s not forget that what Sweden practises at home, for example, is not the same as the vicious mercantile capitalism which it has been wont to practise abroad (Wallenberg’s antics with BFG Banken of Germany, turning the biggest trade union pension fund holding bank into a disastrous offshoot of SE Banken was neither clever nor particularly socially democratic, for example). Ikea has some unpleasant methods. ABB screwed the engineering sector. Not all Scandinavian models are pretty, in other words.

]]> By: Daniel Taghioff http://thusmagazine.com/2009/03/devalued-prime-minister-of-a-devalued-country-that-daniel-hannon-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-188 Daniel Taghioff Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:16:43 +0000 http://thusmagazine.com/?p=2733#comment-188 Brown has made quite a mess of things, but the comment on the blogo-sphere reveals a mass of inaccuracies in that speech. Hammond is very careful to avoid discussing how this melt-down is not about public spending, but about private money being poorly regulated, and public money being privately regulated, as a result of the kinds of policies he advocates at the start of his speech. If you need a reality check look at Scandinavia, higher public spending, better-regulated banks, not as much crisis... Brown has made quite a mess of things, but the comment on the blogo-sphere reveals a mass of inaccuracies in that speech.

Hammond is very careful to avoid discussing how this melt-down is not about public spending, but about private money being poorly regulated, and public money being privately regulated, as a result of the kinds of policies he advocates at the start of his speech.

If you need a reality check look at Scandinavia, higher public spending, better-regulated banks, not as much crisis…

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