Saturday, March 21, 2009

Telegraph: UK "stands on precipice"

Iain Martin, "Gordon Brown brings Britain to the edge of bankruptcy" (Telegraph, March 21, 2009):
hey don't know what they're doing, do they? With every step taken by the Government as it tries frantically to prop up the British banking system, this central truth becomes ever more obvious.

Yesterday marked a new low for all involved, even by the standards of this crisis. Britons woke to news of the enormity of the fresh horrors in store. Despite all the sophistry and outdated boom-era terminology from experts, I think a far greater number of people than is imagined grasp at root what is happening here.

The country stands on the precipice. We are at risk of utter humiliation, of London becoming a Reykjavik on Thames and Britain going under. Thanks to the arrogance, hubristic strutting and serial incompetence of the Government and a group of bankers, the possibility of national bankruptcy is not unrealistic.

The political impact will be seismic ...
Update
  • Josh Painter, "Barack Obama’s Bankrupt States of America" (RS, March 22, 2009): "Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) knows more than a little about sound fiscal policy... Appearing Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” program with John King, Gregg said:
    The practical implications of this is bankruptcy for the United States. There’s no other way around it. If we maintain the proposals that are in this budget over the ten-year period that this budget covers, this country will go bankrupt. People will not buy our debt, our dollar will become devalued. It is a very severe situation.

    “It is as if you were flying an airplane and the gas light came on and it said ‘you [have] 15 minutes of gas left’ and the pilot said ‘we’re not going to worry about that, we’re going to fly for another two hours.’ Well, the plane crashes and our country will crash and we’ll pass on to our kids a country that’s not affordable."
    The Senator’s choice of metaphor drives home the seriousness of what the Obamunists are doing to the nation."
[Hat tip to S.K.]

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