This blog post was written in response to an article which appeared on The Guardian's CiF blog site. The article, I blame the Queen for this crisis, (Ann Pettifor, The Guardian Thursday 26 February 2009). Ann wrote:
This week I was asked by the Guardian to address the Queen's question: "Why did no one see it coming?" I tried to answer the question by sharing some of the seriously flawed analysis and advice provided by orthodox economists – those that dominate both the economics profession and the economics commentariat.
Iceland is a miniscule economic guinea pig, the liberal media journos saw all of this coming, the orthodox economists didn't have a feckin clue, the bad economics commentariat (The Economist) are guilty, the OECD fiddled while Reykjavik burned, and it's all Brenda's fault.
But don't worry, some old dears who earn their daily crust from blogging and book writing will fix the world. If what they learned in A level Economics doesn't work for everything, they can always google for the answer.
I'm just so glad that all of that's been cleared up now.
Look, the Bush Administration was expressing concern about debt and credit in 2003 - yes, that's right, even those laissez faire nobs were getting all tired and emoitional about it. In 2004 I was in China working on the issues of banking credit, debt, performance and productivity. The Fed was still worried about debt and credit. In 2005 I was in Zurich and the City, again, very much concerned about mounting corporate and personal credit and debt, in 2006 in Dusseldorf and London, in 2007 in Cork and Amsterdam and Istanbul. Towards the middle of 2008 the illuminati in the mainstream quality press saw the light .. bingo.
Have people ever wondered why the likes of Max Keiser has warned about this crisis for the best part of six years, maybe more?
If you want an economic genius then don't look for one in the newspapers; journalists are almost invariably the last to know and the first to blow their own trumpet, and even then, they have to be enlightened using language that even junior George B would understand. Okay, little rant over.