economonkey

“Economy at 60-year low, says Darling. And it will get worse.” So says The Guardian which also quotes the Chancellor as commenting, “People are pissed off with us.”

Quite.

The penny at last seems to have dropped, with Alistair Darling stating that the economic times faced by Britain and the rest of the world “are arguably the worst they’ve been in 60 years … And I think it’s going to be more profound and long-lasting than people thought.”

Based on our independent assessment of the UK economy, we’d agree. In fact we’ve been predicting this perfect storm for some time.

Yet again we come back to the simple question: Why, if a couple of hacks on this site and a handful of others around the country saw this mess coming years ago, did the government and its advisers not realise what inevitably follows a debt-based boom? Alternatively, if they did realise, why did they let it happen?

And the bonus question: Will Alistair Darling still be in the same job this time next week?

We are likely to see some knee-jerk reactions to this ‘news’ in the coming months, not least from within the Treasury. Whatever’s announced, everyone should ask themselves where the money is coming from. As with Northern Rock, tax-payers (or their children, through greater national borrowing) will probably pay the price for Gordon Brown’s economic ‘miracle’ that never was.