Saying that nobody saw the the economic disaster coming is just not true

Frank Dobson was on BBC Radio London's Eddie Nestor hosted Drivetime programme this evenimg. During the interview Frank Dobson pushed the Labour party line (enthusiastically spread by the BBC) that absolutely nobody had seen the worldwide economic crash coming. Not a politician, not an economist, not a journalist; really?

Back in February I blogged about Peter Schiff who in 2006, 2007 & 2008 predicted what has now happened.

Below is the relevant video and do watch out for the derision that was poured upon Peter Schiff for making such predictions. I really would like the fool laughing from around 3:40 to account for his actions then and to comment on who was eventually right and who was wrong. The share-tipping of "Financials" from 6:30 is really quite scary as is the scorn poured upon Peter Schiff for declaring that the Emperor was naked.

An interesting comparison

Whilst perusing yesterday's debate on the Northern Rock, which I covered in my previous post, I found a very telling comment. It was made by the former Labour Minister Frank Dobson. He was singing the praises of Spanish banks and explaining how Spanish banking law "will not allow banks not to consolidate off-balance-sheet debt. Spain’s new law requires that all debts and obligations be consolidated, recorded and transparent. Lo and behold, the Spanish did not get substantially involved in mad mortgages in the United States."

He went on to explain that "I gather from the Financial Times that the Spanish law has another merit. It has a counter-cyclical arrangement designed to ensure that banks’ capital and lending capacity is not reduced during an economic downturn, and that excessive credit is not made available during an upswing. We might discuss what financial stability is, but by and large it is a sound idea for the economy as a whole."

Can anyone think of a Government closer to home than Spain that encouraged, and indeed itself lived upon,"excessive credit"? A Government that has not repaid debt during the good years and so is worse placed than most other large industrialised countries to ride out the bad years? Do you really need any clues?