Gordon Brown World Economic Forum Role

[wotsnext]

Gordon Brown takes on World Economic Forum role

He had been touted as a possible head of the International Monetary Fund

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13171942

:)

[rgjbloke]

I think he would do a good job with the IMF. I see Cameron is sticking to petty politics to stab him in the back about it though.

[Flagg]

I think he would do a good job with the IMF.

What specifically makes you think that?

Although I have to admit to sitting on the other side of the table on this issue.

I'm usually not one to bag an allied nation's leader.......but Brown was arguably the most powerful and influential person in the UK for most of the last 15 years regarding the UK's fiscal and monetary policy.

The UK is a financial catastrophe...it can be argued Brown was the most powerful player that completely failed to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Yes, Tony Blair was PM too.....but he performed the world's most brilliant political exit in history, leaving it to blow up in Brown's face and leave him wearing the blame....but it IS more deserved with Brown with his previous role as Exchequer.

And then there's the very embarassing "Brown Bottom" when Brown sold the UK's gold reserves at the lowest gold price in a generation......JUST before gold went on it's biggest bull run in a very long time.....both by commission and omission...Brown is a failing failure who fails...enough to potentially put a serious dent in the quality of life/standard of living of many UK citizens as well as to accelerate the decline of the UK's relative power position in the world.

Brown's only self-aggrandized claim to fame is "saving the world" during the initial financial collapse......at best, he helped rally international support for collective monetary action to prevent an even bigger global economic stroke.

At worst, he was an embarrassing and largely ineffectual cheerleader who did nothing but selfishly try to promote himself during a crisis in which he was a significant player in creating.

In my opinion, based on his track record, Brown is unqualified to run a fish and chips shop.


It's not my intention to criticize the UK or it's citizenry...my venom is focused exclusively on Brown and his mates....it's quite distressing seeing such a great country brought to it's knees...especially when it didn't have to happen this way.

[Wahnsinn]

What specifically makes you think that?

Snip

It's not my intention to criticize the UK or it's citizenry...my venom is focused exclusively on Brown and his mates....it's quite distressing seeing such a great country brought to it's knees...especially when it didn't have to happen this way.

Expressed in a far more eloquent manner than I ever could. As somebody who allowed the massive spending of money we didn't have without pausing to think of the consequences, I can't see why Gordon Brown would be any good.

[Corrupt]

I can't see why Gordon Brown would be any good.

He eliminated boom-bust remember! Oh wait...

[Wahnsinn]

He eliminated boom-bust remember! Oh wait...

Bet he's laughing right now watching the reaction the current Government is facing to spending cuts.

[rgjbloke]

What specifically makes you think that?

Although I have to admit to sitting on the other side of the table on this issue.

I'm usually not one to bag an allied nation's leader.......but Brown was arguably the most powerful and influential person in the UK for most of the last 15 years regarding the UK's fiscal and monetary policy.

The UK is a financial catastrophe...it can be argued Brown was the most powerful player that completely failed to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Yes, Tony Blair was PM too.....but he performed the world's most brilliant political exit in history, leaving it to blow up in Brown's face and leave him wearing the blame....but it IS more deserved with Brown with his previous role as Exchequer.

And then there's the very embarassing "Brown Bottom" when Brown sold the UK's gold reserves at the lowest gold price in a generation......JUST before gold went on it's biggest bull run in a very long time.....both by commission and omission...Brown is a failing failure who fails...enough to potentially put a serious dent in the quality of life/standard of living of many UK citizens as well as to accelerate the decline of the UK's relative power position in the world.

Brown's only self-aggrandized claim to fame is "saving the world" during the initial financial collapse......at best, he helped rally international support for collective monetary action to prevent an even bigger global economic stroke.

At worst, he was an embarrassing and largely ineffectual cheerleader who did nothing but selfishly try to promote himself during a crisis in which he was a significant player in creating.

In my opinion, based on his track record, Brown is unqualified to run a fish and chips shop.


It's not my intention to criticize the UK or it's citizenry...my venom is focused exclusively on Brown and his mates....it's quite distressing seeing such a great country brought to it's knees...especially when it didn't have to happen this way.

Well of course it's common for people, especially members of the current government to blame Brown for the economic woes that we have but first of all, he didn't create them. Half of the industrialised world entered into an economic crises largely triggered by events in America. Are we going to blame him for all that as well? I hope not because it plainly wasn't his fault. That doesn't stop many blaming him for the problems but in actual fact, his stewardship of the economic helm in Britain helped this country to weather very stormy sea's and without the policies set in place and the actions taken by him, we might well have been in a lot more trouble than where we actually are now. A good example is interest rates. Brown gave the Bank of England the job of setting interest rates without any political interference and the result has been that for quite some time now, those rates have been at an historic low. Something that has made living through this economic tsunami bearable and a very different picture to the time when hundreds of thousands of people were living trapped in huge amounts of negative equity under a conservative government back in the eighties.

Secondly, the other part of the reason we are in this mess, the banking crises. Again, Brown's stewardship has ensured that the financial framework that we all rely on for economic stability in Britain, and in our role as part of the world's economy has survived. That's in spite of the best efforts of some of the biggest financial institutions who caused the collapse in the first place. That crises cost huge amounts of taxpayers money but the alternative would have been a financial nuclear holocaust. I think history will show that Brown pulled us through this episode as best as anybody could have. The fact that he is being blamed for the whole thing is convenient for some politicians and for those who wouldn't vote for him anyway.

If Labour were running the show now, would there be cuts in services and increases in taxes etc. The short answer is yes there would be. Thank the bankers for that and thank the manipulators who all made a contribution to pushing the industrialised nations who were affected into recession but would it be the same menu as what this government is serving us? No it wouldn't be. This government has so far picked on students, pensioners, consumers generally and public services including huge cuts in the defence budget. All easy targets and they are going for the jugular now because they want to clear the decks to bribe people with tax cuts before they call the next election. It's a risky strategy that could go badly wrong and cause another recession before we have even departed from the current one.

[Wahnsinn]

Still doesn't explain away the previous Government spending money we simply didn't have over a sustained period. Tory, Labour, Lib Dem or whatever spending money we don't have is totally reckless.

[rgjbloke]

Still doesn't explain away the previous Government spending money we simply didn't have over a sustained period. Tory, Labour, Lib Dem or whatever spending money we don't have is totally reckless.

A simplistic view that has no relation whatsoever to how the economy works. Contrary to what some politicians would have you believe, it's nothing like a credit card.

[Wahnsinn]

A simplistic view that has no relation whatsoever to how the economy works. Contrary to what some politicians would have you believe, it's nothing like a credit card.

No relation to how the economy works? So if less investors are willing to buy Government securities and the Government starts printing money leading to inflation what is that? Higher levels of interest paid on increasing debt, needing higher taxes to pay it off when less people are paying taxes (i.e. unemployed, elderly) isn't related to the economy?

Spending money to finance projects such as improving infrastructure makes sense as it will benefit the country. However, if we are spending money to provide healthcare and pensions for the elderly (something we will not get a return on) we will just end up with more debt because it isn't a sustainable investment. Considering the amount of dependents is only set to increase in the next few decades so healthcare and pension speanding will increase with the number of taxpayers decreasing we're in for some pretty rough times and a large national debt does not make things any better when money is being spent on schemes that give no return. This will have an impact on the economy as a whole.

[nemowork]

It wouldnt even have been a problem if we were getting improvements in things like the health service, there was just a feeling money was being thrown at problems for political appearences sake with little care about the results as long as a few tick boxes were completed at the end.