G20 – BO = 0 a.s.

( or: This weekend’s G20 meeting in DC without President Elect Obama cannot amount to a ‘new Bretton Woods.’ Nor should it.)

You will no doubt have seen the recent reports regarding home repossessions by Northern Rock.  This has led to a wider debate on the repossessions all banks are making, especially those that have received substantial amounts of public money in the form of extra capital, and extra loans from the Bank of England.  We can all see the heartache losing your home brings, and can imagine the sorrow and difficulties it would bring to us if it ever happened.  Less easy to see is what it costs all of us, as taxpayers, when it happens.  Families made newly homeless need to be housed and supported, while our neighbourhoods are blighted by empty homes, forlorn "For Sale" signs waiting for an answer.

The Left Economics Advisory Panel (LEAP) is hosting a rally on Monday 13th October 2008 at 7:30pm at the House of Commons - entitled 'Who Pays for the Credit Crunch'

Under-regulated mortgage lenders giving more than they could afford in loans to people who would fail to meet the repayments has led to a world economic crisis. Who was right in Britain? Let's examine the evidence.

Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor, blogs that:

Today's 6% fall in Bradford & Bingley's share price means its days as an independent bank look numbered - and there probably aren't many days before we see some kind of rescue takeover.

Are we ready for this? (We know the Tories aren't.)

The writing was on the wall for so long!

What an extraordinary spectacle that in the world’s capitalist bastion two of the biggest mortgage providers – the curiously named Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac - are being nationalised in an attempt to reverse the economic cycle. But clearly it’s working, and this week’s worldwide stockmarket boom, a direct result of the U.S. government’s actions, must have had Marx chuckling in his grave. An easing of the credit crunch in the US will have a more or less immediate effect on the banking and mortgage sector here, making the prospect of an economic turnaround before 2010 at least a possibility.

If you think about it for a bit and grind the numbers, real growth in the UK economy has only been about 1% a year for the last ten years.