RAPID responses
King looks coy
[Re: Mervyn King should have hiked rates to deflate the bubble, Thursday]
Mervyn King does seem self-contradictory when he describes growth before 2008 as a bust without a boom. But much of the financial bubble was “offshore,” outside the direct control of central banks. Specifically, much London banking involved transactions in dollars, outside the supervision of the Federal Reserve. Who is the lender of last resort when these assets lose value? The liquidation of Lehman’s non-US operations showed that the Fed and the Treasury wouldn’t stand behind these sort of banking assets. In this sense, King is right to blame “the system”, even if he seems coy about what that system is.
William Jeffery
………………..
Blame the exports?
I disagree that export orders plummeted because of the strong pound. Although the pound has recently appreciated against the euro, a few years ago it was even stronger. Moreover certainly my company’s exports don’t react in so fickle a manner. They are ordered months in advance, consist of high-quality manufactured items, bought on the basis of specification, quality and performance, and are not subject to short term whims for the difference of a few pence. We have a habit in the UK of always expecting the currency to depreciate to make our exports attractive. No such benefit appears to matter historically to the Germans. Our currency is not a major deterrent to our success
David Peddy, managing director of Surgical Instrument Group Holdings
………………..
TOP TWEETS
Centrism’s dead. It’s massively hurt the Tories. Voters want parties that say what they mean and mean what they say.
@DrEoinClarke
Owners have a right to intervene in their companies, politicians don’t.
@TheBigFish_UK
Chief executives who want to run a business without restraint should create or buy one. Otherwise they’re just the agents of company shareholders.
@stefanxl
Has the euro elite apologised yet? We must not let these megalomaniacs off the hook.
@MarKLawson