Our two weapons are fear and surprise... and ruthless efficiency

[koganbot]

We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and negative equity...

In any event, Paul Krugman is on a roll today. Thinks the coordinated cut in rates was the right thing to do but that it probably won't help much, thinks that Gordon Brown is doing what Hank Paulson should have done in the first place* (seems to be temporary partial nationalization) but that Britain being so small and all, it might well get swamped by all the surrounding cluelessness. (And Krugman had yet to see the actual Brown plan when he posted.)

Anyway, flist, what do you think of the Brown maneuver? (Er, that's manoeuvre.) Btw, can Brown just say it and it's done, without having to go through parliament? Or is parliament a foregone conclusion with the Labour majority? But how will the fellow's low popularity affect his efforts?

*I wonder, even if Paulson had wanted to go for a straightforward cash infusion and partial nationalization, whether he'd have had any chance of getting such a plan through Congress. Or whether Obama will in February, if that's what he decides to do.

Comments

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

There's no need for parliament to ok the moves by the Treasury, but the opposition have said that in a time of crisis they'll back the government anyway.

I've no idea whether this will have the desired effect. I spoke to my father the other night - he used to be a commercial banker, and quit quite early into what has turned out to be the current bubble on the grounds that he thought he could see where the banking sector was going and he didn't like it - and he quoted Rumsfeld to the effect that we've gone from the known unknowns to the unknown unknowns.