Origins of Austerity - the 2008 financial crash

Article originally appeared in The Ludlow Advertiser in September of 2018

In 2018 there will be many tenth anniversaries of significance but I would suggest few are of more significance than the tenth anniversary of the 2008 financial crash: the great golden god of banking proved to be a hollow worthless clay creature witness George W Bush’s statement ‘this sucker could go down’. The pundits of modern economic theory, almost to a man, failed to see the disaster coming, as per Gordon Brown ‘we will never return to the old boom and bust.’ The arch critics of the involvement of the state in our affairs held out their hands for a bailout. They were not asking for a bailout along the lines of social security; the UK's bailout figure for the banks was £850 billion with a nice little earner for financial advisors of £107million, presumably the same financial advisors who had not had the slightest foresight of the financial disaster that was to hit us.

What punishment has been imposed on the banks and financial institutions as a result of their gross failing. Perhaps the re-writing of banking regulations to prevent those very highly rewarded bankers continuing to play roulette with our money whilst earning eye-watering salaries? It seems not, the government backed down under threats from board members. Perhaps the prosecution of the worst offenders? It seems not, not a single banker has been brought to trial never mind brought to book.

The punishment meted out was Mr. Osbourne’s ‘Austerity’, introduced to deal with his reframed causes of the financial melt-down: too generous benefits to unemployed people, sick people and families, profligate local authorities, a too costly NHS, feather-bedded university students and all the other usual suspects resulting in the longest period of decline in real incomes in economic history; interest rates equal to putting the money under the bed; local authorities services now almost non-existent; an NHS on its knees; a police force without resources to investigate crime. Even life expectancy has fallen back. What an amazing sleight of hand Mr. Osbourne! Perhaps a career as a stage magician would have been more suitable than as a newspaper editor.

— Joyce Brand Reproduced with permission NOTE: This is an extract from Joyce Brand's new book - a collection of her columns from the Ludlow Advertiser newspaper. The book is entitled 'As It Seemed To Me' and if you are interested in purchasing a copy, please contact this blog using the form.

'As It Seemed to Me' by Joyce Brand is available from Castle Books in Ludlow, and by contacting this blog through the form below.