What caused the UK to be in so much debt?

[Penistone999]

Do the general public know that it wasnt Labours fault, if the Tories were in Government, it would have been just the same.

When Ken Clarke was the Chancellor, he borrowed more than Gordon Brown, it was the banks going tits up that got us into this mess.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/oct/18/deficit-debt-government-borrowing-data

 

Labour , simples

[ElasticMan]

Take 30 minutes to read this

 

http://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2015/apr/29/the-austerity-delusion

 

It explains how public spending didn't cause the crisis, and that cutting it is not the solution (quite simply because it doesn't work).

 

It is a shame that labour have bought into the austerity lie when they should have been shouting this out from the start.

Edited May 2, 2015 by ElasticMan

[Anna B]

Take 30 minutes to read this

 

http://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2015/apr/29/the-austerity-delusion

 

It explains how public spending didn't cause the crisis, and that cutting it is not the solution (quite simply because it doesn't work).

 

It is a shame that labour have bought into the austerity lie when they should have been shouting this out from the start.

 

I was surprised that Ed just stood there and took it in the last leader's debate. He had umpteen oportunities to refute the charges and didn't take one of them.

Some people will quite wrongly interpret that as an admission of guilt.

[psynuk]

Banks have always been self serving and I have no idea why you think they suck money out of the economy when every penny in the economy exists because banks created it by expanding debt.

 

Is that meant to be ironic?

 

So all of the wealth created by peoples labours, their goods, their services, ideas, the natural resources of the world and others. That was all down to banks and their credit?

[loraward]

Is that meant to be ironic?

 

So all of the wealth created by peoples labours, their goods, their services, ideas, the natural resources of the world and others. That was all down to banks and their credit?

 

No, just the money.

[I1L2T3]

Banks have always been self serving and I have no idea why you think they suck money out of the economy when every penny in the economy exists because banks created it by expanding debt.

 

Since the crisis we are still covering their asses for losses they made. The banks are still being subsidised and we have the vast costs of the state bail-out to contend with. The money that has to go to them could be used for something else so the banks are draining the economy.

 

Add to that there has been little change in their behaviour with their continued mal-investment that diverts funds into rent seeking unproductive sectors like buy to let when those funds should be going into productive business.

 

And yes banks do create money through making loans but the critical point you miss is they created way too much and that led to the crisis in the first place. It was the banks excessive expansion of credit that helped fuel bubbles like housing etc... And of course for every extension of credit a debt is created

[mjw47]

The big banks should be broken up. 'Too big to fail' is little short of blackmail requiring public money to bail out failed gambling debts.

 

The banks and financial companies together with international business corporations have too much influence.

 

The line where elected politicians and big business wield power is blurred, and the general public are being kept in the dark as to the true nature of how policy is made.

 

Tony Blair receives a salary of £2 million a year from J P Morgan an American financial institution.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Flabour%2F1575247%2FTony-Blair-to-earn-2m-as-JP-Morgan-adviser.html&ei=Gj1FVZSiKMPdaqLmgIgF&usg=AFQjCNEXsg74R7qaD8uIRBupEbvdMFsVyg&bvm=bv.92291466,d.d2s&cad=rja

 

J P Morgan were selected to run Iraq's banks after the Iraq war. A war which Blair unnecessarily got the UK involved in.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fapps%2Fnews%3Fpid%3Dnewsarchive%26sid%3DaEKCAEHxVEBI&ei=3TxFVdC6EYHSaLTfgfgI&usg=AFQjCNHObMukBDVlx-d9dyKquhWMbPnWtQ&bvm=bv.92291466,d.d2s&cad=rja

 

Now, this may have been simply one of those coincidents that occur from time to time, but you do tend to wonder as to what the time frame was regarding the offer of this £2 million a year for a part time 'advisory' position.

[loraward]

Since the crisis we are still covering their asses for losses they made. The banks are still being subsidised and we have the vast costs of the state bail-out to contend with. The money that has to go to them could be used for something else so the banks are draining the economy.

 

Add to that there has been little change in their behaviour with their continued mal-investment that diverts funds into rent seeking unproductive sectors like buy to let when those funds should be going into productive business.

 

And yes banks do create money through making loans but the critical point you miss is they created way too much and that led to the crisis in the first place. It was the banks excessive expansion of credit that helped fuel bubbles like housing etc... And of course for every extension of credit a debt is created

 

What would the consequences have been for the economy if the banks hadn't been bailed out.

 

I agree they created too much, but some people would have been unhappy with a significantly slower economy, especially the Labour government.

[SteveJ68]

What would the consequences have been for the economy if the banks hadn't been bailed out.

 

I agree they created too much, but some people would have been unhappy with a significantly slower economy, especially the Labour government.

 

 

The allotment always needs a bit of manure!

[Anna B]

Would we really have fallen for all this austerity, if the truth was out?

 

That we're out of money and everybody has to suffer because the banks need propping up?

No, better blame the opposition, and the punters, and tell them it's their own fault.

 

'We're the politicians so they're bound to believe anything we tell 'em. And they're too stupid to look any deeper than that...'

 

Jobs a good'un...

Edited May 2, 2015 by Anna B