[interestrateripoff]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...?Submitted=true

Quote

Gordon Brown claimed today that he had been warning for ten years that the international financial markets needed to be more strongly regulated.

The Prime Minister said that it was a decade ago in Harvard that he first called for an international early warning system to alert countries to developing crises in any part of the world, because the huge global growth and reach of financial systems meant that all markets, all economies and all banks were now interdependent.

Mr Brown said that he had recognised the need for a stronger regulatory framework ever since the crisis in Asian markets in the 1990s.

The current global crisis, which began when the US housing bubble burst but whose effects were now being felt worldwide, he said, proved the need for world leaders to meet to put in place a new international system of regulation akin to the Bretton Woods conference after the second world war.

The subject would be top of the agenda at the G20 summit in London in April, he promised.

"As I said in Harvard ten years ago, we need an early warning system so that international financial flows are properly monitored," Mr Brown said in a speech this morning.

"We must create a framework for the international governance that we currently lack. We must consider at a global level the regulatory deficit. For a decade I have said that the current patchwork arrangement is inadequate."

The Prime Minister's claim to have been warning of the risks of failing to regulate global markets is likely to provoke derision from opposition parties, who accuse him of failing, as Chancellor from 1997 to 2007, to do anything to halt the worst period of unbridled risk-taking by financial institutions.

Britain's heavy dependence on the financial markets of the City of London as the motor for its economy means that the country will find it harder to recover than other more diverse economies, Mr Brown's critics say.

Mr Brown defended his record, claiming that Britain had "low public debt, low inflation and low interest rates", and that corporate debt was far lower than in previous times of financial crisis. He did not allude to Britain's record levels of personal debt.

"We are in a stronger position because we have taken action early to recapitalise our banks and aid recovery," said Mr Brown.

"In the last 10 years since the Asian problem we in Britain have been advocating greater international supervision and reforms in transparency and exposure.

"Every financial system will have to look at how it organises its affairs in future, but every financial system will also have to find a way of working with international partners. Because if something that happens in the US can affect every country in Europe, there needs to be a way by which regulators and supervisers can be more closely linked with one another."

Mr Brown listed the international reforms he said were needed, including:

* ensuring national financial regulators stay in close touch with their counterparts in other countries

* setting standards for all financial institutions around the world on transparency and corporate governance

* reforming bankers' pay and rewards to encourage responsible, long-term risk-taking rather than quick profit.

The rules would have to cover the new and complex, highly leveraged financial instruments that had come into being to spread risk, but which were too little understood and had now exposed investors everywhere to huge financial problems, Mr Brown said. He advocated "a simple rule - if you don't understand the risk, don't take it".

He said that international co-operation was needed to handle the threat of "de-leveraging" - when such investments are given a new, and much lower value, causing violent plunges in the balance sheets of banks, businesses and pension funds that have bought into them, and leaving ordinary people finding that their investments and pensions have dramatically shrunk.

He said that he and Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, would be inviting bank chief executives for talks before the G20 conference on how to handle de-leveraging.

He also warned against "de-globalisation" - a tendency for governments and banks to stop lending outside national borders, which Mr Brown said would only make the credit crunch worse.

Once more brilliant journalism here which fails to nail the bar steward to the wall by his gonads.

No mention of the warnings given by the IMF, isn't this a global organisation capable of issuing warnings?

No mention of the questions raised by Vince Cable in 2003 in the houses of parliament that Brown laughed off.

No mention of the likes of Roubini etc.... who've been warning about this for years that Brown ignored.

No mention of the laughable speeches by Brown which applauded his own genius for producing a stable economy.

WTF is a matter with the press, it's like they are all asleep at the wheel or high on crack cocaine.

This post has been edited by interestrateripoff: 26 January 2009 - 03:14 PM

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/finance...tectionism.html

Quote

The economic storm lashing Britain will pass, Mr Brown said on Monday, but warned that his efforts to tackle the crisis will be undermined if other countries do not follow his lead.

He denied that last week's UK bank rescue package had been rejected by the markets and said other world leaders would soon be following Britain. He again pointed the blame for the crisis at excessive and unregulated lending overseas.

In a speech at the Foreign Press Association Mr Brown said: “This is an international economic hurricane sweeping the world and lashing our country.

”But we are taking action to calm the storm to bring order to our chaos so Britain can be better placed to benefit as the storm passes – as pass it will.”

The Prime Minister is now pinning his hopes on other countries acting quickly to stem the problems with similar rescue plans as Britain's. He warned if they do not then there is a danger that “financial protectionism” would arise, with dire consequences for growth.

He said: “If what happens to a bank in one country can within minutes have devastating effects for banks on a different continent, then only a truly international response of policy and governance can be effective.”

He added: “We have not yet seen the protectionism in trade with beggar-thy-neighbour policies such as the 1930s and I will work hard to ensure we do not.

”But we also need to work to ensure that we do not experience a new form of financial protectionism, of mercantilism, of retreat into domestic financial markets.”

Leaders of the top 20 industrialised nations – the G20 – will meet in London in April. Mr Brown wants that meeting to focus on a new set of principles to guide the world economy and financial systems.

He said: “At the G20 we should seek to discuss the charter of principles for financial regulation and supervision which all will follow. Under this, we need to bring into the regulatory system non bank institutions and complex new markets and products.

”If financial firms are doing similar things, then the principles by which they are regulated must be the same regardless of their business models and countries of origin.”

More bottom kissing.

[rw42]

Just for the record, can he or anyone else link the speech which he claims to been making for the last 10 years, saying that a stronger international framework is needed?

Quote

As I said in Harvard ten years ago, we need an early warning system so that international financial flows are properly monitored," Mr Brown said in a speech this morning.

Harvard speech = ?

Quote

For a decade I have said that the current patchwork arrangement is inadequate.

For a decade would imply he has said it more than once.. in which case a few linkies wouldn't be hard to find?

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/ja...economic-policy

Quote

Gordon Brown today called for a "new global order" to deal with the economic crisis as he warned against the protectionist policies of the 1930s.

In a wide-ranging speech on the global economy, the prime minister said that a radical step-up in global cooperation was necessary to prevent the emergence of "financial mercantilism".

"We face a choice. We could allow this crisis to start a retreat from globalisation. As some want, we could close our markets – for capital, financial services, trade and for labour – and therefore reduce the risks of globalisation. But that would reduce global growth, deny us the benefits of global trade and confine millions to global poverty.

"Or we could view the threats and challenges we face today as the difficult birth-pangs of a new global order – and our task now as nothing less than making the transition through a new internationalism to the benefits of an expanding global society – not muddling through as pessimists but making the necessary adjustment to a better future and setting the new rules for this new global order," the prime minister said.

This is the start of a 10-day period when Brown, who talked to Barack Obama, the new US president, on Friday, will meet a number of world leaders to discuss preparations for the G20 meeting in London in April.

The meetings will discuss how Britain can best work internationally on financial reform, economic expansion and the creation of jobs in new sectors such as the environment.

Having held lengthy discussions with European leaders last week, Brown will meet the prime ministers of China, Korea and Japan in the next week. He will also meet the heads the international financial institutions, starting with Robert Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, on Tuesday.

In his speech this morning Brown said: "The ability of banks in Britain to operate as we wish depends not only their management at home but on getting regulation right internationally.

"Our banking systems have been shown to be totally interdependent and interconnected. No financial institution anywhere can insulate itself from the shock that started in the US mortgage market earlier this decade. As banks facing losses retreat to their home markets, we have had a loss of lending capacity in every major market.

"And it is in order to fill this gap, we put forward last week a package of support for the economy."

The prime minister argued that the latest rescue package was designed to reduce the uncertainty that banks faced with losses on their historic loans, alleviate their capital ratios, ensure their funding, and most importantly enable and require them in return for this to increase their lending to businesses and families.

"This is the key to preventing a deeper and longer recession than we need to have," Brown said.

"The fragility of the global financial system must be addressed internationally. If what happens to a bank in one country can – within minutes – bring potentially devastating effects on banks in a different continent, then only a truly international response – in policy and governance – can be effective. If we all coordinate our response there will be a quicker global and therefore British recovery.

"We have not yet seen the same protectionism in trade with beggar-thy-neighbour policies of the 30s. And I will fight hard to ensure we do not. But we also need to ensure we do not exercise a new form of financial mercantilism of retreat into domestic lending and domestic financial markets."

Again no criticism of what he's saying.

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/pap...?researchid=244

Quote

Preventing Financial Crises: The Case for Independent IMF Surveillance

by Edward Balls, Chief Economic Adviser to the British Treasury

Remarks at the Institute for International Economics
Washington, DC
March 6, 2003

Introduction

These are particularly uncertain global economic times. And my argument today—as we prepare the IMFC Deputies meeting in London at the end of this month in advance of the Spring IMFC Meeting of Finance Ministers—is that it is now urgent that we move forward in both implementing agreed reforms and shaping the next steps on both crisis prevention and crisis resolution.

The Institute of International Economics and its fellows have played a central role in this debate about reform. At the Federal Reserve and US Treasury, Ted Truman developed and delivered vital reforms; Fred Bergsten, Morris Goldstein, Michael Mussa, and John Williamson, to name just a few of the Institute's distinguished fellows, helped to set that reform agenda and continue to shape the debate.

Let me, on behalf of the UK, pay tribute to the role that the IMF has played over the past six years at the forefront of reforms to the international financial system. Michel Camdessus and Stanley Fischer shaped many of the reforms in the period after the Asian crisis of 1998. And I want, in particular, to pay tribute to the leadership of Horst Kohler, and to recognize the great contribution that IMF First Deputy Managing Director Anne Krueger has made with her work leading the debate on crisis resolution and through her strong and compelling arguments for a Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism (SDRM). We must and will make progress on crisis resolution at the Spring meetings—and I will return to that subject later.

But we must also make progress on crisis prevention. And this is my principal topic today. I want to look again at the lessons we learned from the 1997-98 global crisis and the effectiveness of the reforms we introduced. I will argue that the lessons we learned from the Mexican, Asian, and Russian crises were the right lessons—and that these lessons have been reinforced by recent crises such as in Argentina and Turkey, the recent IMF surveillance review and the first report from the new Independent Evaluation Office.

Our work so far has stressed the fundamental importance of strong, credible, and transparent macroeconomic frameworks to provide the foundation for stability and growth; the need for internationally agreed codes and standards for sound policymaking that can be implemented by all countries; the rewards from greater transparency at the national and international level; and the need for a stronger focus on key vulnerabilities and risks, particularly in the financial sector.

But there is more to do. We must implement fully and deeply the ideas we had back in the late 1990s. But learning the lessons from the past—including the more recent past—-demands that we go further and accept the need for a fundamental strengthening of IMF surveillance—making it more independent, authoritative, transparent, and accountable.

The international community has recognized that further reform of IMF surveillance is necessary. Last September's IMFC communiqué called for "ongoing work to ensure that surveillance in program countries reassesses economic developments and strategy from a fresh perspective." The challenge—as the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said last September—is to make the IMF as credible and independent from political influence in its surveillance of economies as an independent central bank should be in the operation of domestic monetary policy.

So today I want to set out how, in implementing this IMFC remit, the world community of nations can implement new reforms to build a new system of international economic governance and surveillance which can strengthen our ability to prevent crises and advance our shared objectives of stability, development, and prosperity.

This is from 6 years ago, continues at the link very long article.

[AteMoose]

rw42, on Jan 26 2009, 01:45 PM, said:

Just for the record, can he or anyone else link the speech which he claims to been making for the last 10 years, saying that a stronger international framework is needed?


Harvard speech = ?


For a decade would imply he has said it more than once.. in which case a few linkies wouldn't be hard to find?

2005

Quote

4. The FCO supports sustainability through our efforts to promote improved environmental governance and democracy, and sustainable natural resource management in priority countries, a stronger international framework for sustainable development and climate security, and sustainable tourism. We lead for the Government on promoting human rights, democracy and good governance which are critical for sustainable development, and we seek to embed sustainable development principles in all our activities. This includes leading by example by managing our estate and corporate activities sustainably.

31. The outcome from the 2005 UN World Summit called for much stronger, system-wide coherence across the various development-related agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations. In response, Kofi Annan launched the High Level Panel (HLP) on System Wide Coherence (SWC) to make recommendations on how the United Nations system could work more coherently and effectively in these areas. The Chancellor, Gordon Brown was the UK's representative on the Panel. The Panel's recommendations, launched in November 2005, called for reform to the development, humanitarian assistance and environmental system of the UN, including the UN Environment Programme and UN operations at country level.

[interestrateripoff]

http://archive.treas...98/p209_98.html

Quote

HM Treasury News Release
209/98 15 December 1998


REDISCOVERING PUBLIC PURPOSE IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY


Attached is the text of the lecture that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Gordon Brown, will deliver this evening at the
Kennedy School, Harvard University.

Tomorrow the Chancellor will be in Washington where he will
meet:

US Treasury Secretary - Robert Rubin;

Chairman of the Federal Reserve - Alan Greenspan;

Managing Director of the IMF - Michel Camdessus; and, on
Thursday,

President of the World Bank - Jim Wolfensohn.

The Chancellor is visiting the United States at the end of the
UK Presidency of the G7 to press forward the major reforms
needed to strengthen the international financial system.


Media enquiries:
Charles Keseru - 0171 270 5188
Charlie Whelan - 0468 003425 (in the US)




CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER'S LECTURE AT THE KENNEDY SCHOOL,
HARVARD UNIVERSITY ON 15TH DECEMBER 1998

"REDISCOVERING PUBLIC PURPOSE IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY"

INTRODUCTION

THERE CAN BE NO MORE APPROPRIATE COUNTRY TO DISCUSS THE
CHALLENGES FACING THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMY THAN THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA: THE PRE-EMINENT ARCHITECT OF THE POST-WAR GLOBAL
SYSTEM.

THERE CAN BE NO FORUM MORE APPROPRIATE THAN THE KENNEDY SCHOOL,
NAMED AFTER THE PRESIDENT, WHO ON JULY 4th MORE THAN A THIRD OF A
CENTURY AGO, MATCHED THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF 1776 WITH
A NEW DECLARATION OF ECONOMIC INTERDEPENDENCE FOR OUR TIME.

AND THERE CAN BE NO MORE APPROPRIATE INSTITUTION THAN HARVARD
WHERE 50 YEARS AGO, THE MARSHALL PLAN, THE MOST AMBITIOUS
MULTI-NATIONAL EFFORT FOR ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION THE WORLD HAS
SEEN, WAS FIRST LAUNCHED.

MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY AGO, LEADERS WHO WERE STILL ENGAGED IN
WAR TOOK THE TIME TO PREPARE FOR PEACE. IN A BREATHTAKING LEAP
INTO A NEW ERA, THE WORLD CREATED NOT JUST NEW INTERNATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS - THE IMF, THE WORLD BANK, THE GATT AS WELL AS THE
UN - AND A WHOLE SET OF NEW RULES FOR A NEW INTERNATIONAL
ECONOMY, BUT GAVE EXPRESSION TO A NEW PUBLIC PURPOSE BASED ON
HIGH IDEALS.

A GENERATION OF LEADERS WHO HAD KNOWN THE GREATEST OF DEPRESSIONS
AND THE GREATEST OF WARS KNEW ALSO THAT JUST AS PEACE COULD NOT
BE PRESERVED IN ISOLATION, PROSPERITY COULD NOT BE MAXIMIZED IN
ISOLATION.

WHAT THEY DID FOR THEIR DAY AND GENERATION WAS SO DRAMATIC THAT
DEAN ACHESON SPOKE OF THAT PERIOD AS AKIN TO BEING PRESENT AT THE
CREATION.

Continues at the link, all in caps so it appears a bit shouty.

I think this is what's being referred to.

[deflation]

Give them a chance.

In the 'on-line world' all the papers, including the Torygraph, are rushing to be first to get a précy of his speech onto the web.

I expect the editorial comment and so-called columnist 'experts' will come later. At least, I hope so!

[Concrete Jungle]

Gordon Brown's Mansion House speech

Quote

advance with light touch regulation, a competitive tax environment

Quote

stability through a predictable and light touch regulatory environment

Quote

And just as two years ago we promoted the action plan for liberalising financial services across Europe, I can tell you that the Treasury is now working with Charles McCreevy and with you to ensure that the forthcoming European financial services white paper signals a new wave of liberalisation.

Quote

To meet the challenge of global markets we created a single unified FSA.

Quote

In 2003, just at the time of a previous Mansion House speech, the Worldcom accounting scandal broke. And I will be honest with you, many who advised me including not a few newspapers, favoured a regulatory crackdown.

I believe that we were right not to go down that road which in the United States led to Sarbannes-Oxley, and we were right to build upon our light touch system through the leadership of Sir Callum McCarthy - fair, proportionate, predictable and increasingly risk based. I know Sir Callum is committed to reducing regulatory administrative burdens and the National Audit Office will now look at the efficiency and value for money of our system.

Quote

Let me say I see no case for a European single regulator and will continue to reject such a proposal, just as we will resist the new and unnecessary proposals to harmonisation corporate taxation in Europe.

This post has been edited by Concrete Jungle: 26 January 2009 - 02:02 PM

[Nicholas Cage]

http://www.forbes.co...afx3100683.html

UK's Brown meets with City businessmen, aims to cut back on regulation UPDATE
10.18.2006, 11:08 AM

LONDON (AFX) - Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, and the Economic Secretary, Ed Balls, today met with top city businessmen aiming to enhance London's competitiveness mainly by cutting back on regulation, the Treasury confirmed.

The government has set out proposals to reduce the burden of regulation and will push for a more de-regulatory stance in the European Union under the German presidency.

The government will examine, along with the Financial Services Authority, whether the regulations may be lightened for insurance services with low consumer detriment or systemic risk.

Quote

='Concrete Jungle' date='Jan 26 2009, 01:58 PM' post='1617599']
Gordon Brown's Mansion House speech
stability through a predictable and light touch regulatory environmentTo meet the challenge of global markets we created a single unified FSA.Let me say I see no case for a European single regulator and will continue to reject such a proposal, just as we will resist the new and unnecessary proposals to harmonisation corporate taxation in Europe.

He just keeps on openly lying, and it works.

This post has been edited by Mr. Parry: 26 January 2009 - 02:03 PM

[AteMoose]

rw42, on Jan 26 2009, 01:45 PM, said:

Just for the record, can he or anyone else link the speech which he claims to been making for the last 10 years, saying that a stronger international framework is needed?


Harvard speech = ?


For a decade would imply he has said it more than once.. in which case a few linkies wouldn't be hard to find?

2001, washington speech on globalisation
http://www.hm-treasu...ress_146_01.htm

Quote

Our capacity to prevent crises is enhanced not just by the operation of codes and standards - and the offer of proportionate help to countries who adopt them - but also by rigorous surveillance, effective international early warning procedures and a more consistent engagement by the private sector.

The new architecture must therefore involve an enhanced role and authority for the IMF, monitoring and reporting on the operation of codes and standards, and my proposal is that we make the IMF's surveillance and monitoring functions independent of the inter-governmental decisions about financial support for crisis resolution.

Alongside greater independence for the IMF, the capacity to prevent crises would be improved by expanding the work of the financial stability forum - which brings together the combined expertise of the IMF and key regulatory authorities - as an international early warning system to tackle national financial sector problems which have international repercussions.

In the same speech GB quoted George Marshalls 'Harvard speech'

Quote

This is what George Marshall meant when, in his great Harvard speech, he articulated his great, unifying vision for a global fight, not against one country or one ideology, but against "hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos".

The speech was outward looking and aimed at the poor countries of the world...

This post has been edited by moosetea: 26 January 2009 - 02:04 PM

[billybong]

"As I said in Harvard ten years ago, we need an early warning system so that international financial flows are properly monitored," Mr Brown said in a speech this morning.

"We must create a framework for the international governance that we currently lack. We must consider at a global level the regulatory deficit. For a decade I have said that the current patchwork arrangement is inadequate."
+++++++++++++=

Most people in the UK would just have been content if regulation in the UK had been satisfactory.

The UK is where he had the power and authority to improve "regulatory deficit" if he thought there were problems but no instead he started featherweight regulation.

If he had solved the UK regulatory deficit then when all the global problems emerged he could have said "Look! We in the UK have improved our regulatory deficit why didn't you around the world do the same and you wouldn't all have been in the trouble you are in now".

[rw42]

Thanks interestrateripoff.

Quote

The challenge—as the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said last September—is to make the IMF as credible and independent from political influence in its surveillance of economies as an independent central bank should be in the operation of domestic monetary policy.

Will look up the various warnings the IMF made on UK debt levels and GB's responses - surely if he wants the IMF to be credible and free from political influence then he should take their warnings seriously?

Quote

First, on its comprehensiveness and focus, a common feature of all the crises since late the 1990s is that they started from weaknesses in their domestic economic policy framework in the fiscal or financial systems
...........
In each country—Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, and Russia—large and rapid capital outflows exposed inappropriate macro-frameworks and fragile banking sectors, with massive costs for budgets and economies and ultimately their people.

QFT.

Does anyone have a link to the 1998 harvard speech? Quick googling at work isn't finding it!

[edit] thanks for harvard speech - big blocks of text look work related so reading through

This post has been edited by rw42: 26 January 2009 - 02:14 PM

[interestrateripoff]

rw42, on Jan 26 2009, 02:12 PM, said:

Does anyone have a link to the 1998 harvard speech? Quick googling at work isn't finding it!

http://archive.treas...98/p209_98.html

As I said above I think this is it.

Scrolling down too fast?

[Moo]

billybong, on Jan 26 2009, 02:07 PM, said:

Most people in the UK would just have been content if regulation in the UK had been satisfactory.

The UK is where he had the power and authority to improve "regulatory deficit" if he thought there were problems but no instead he started featherweight regulation.

If he had solved the UK regulatory deficit then when all the global problems emerged he could have said "Look! We in the UK have improved our regulatory deficit why didn't you around the world do the same and you wouldn't all have been in the trouble you are in now".

Exactly Billybong. In my opinion, by making his current claims, he's actually making himself look worse, as it moves his position from one of "Whoops, I ******ed up!" to "Saw this coming, didn't do anything about it though, hey-ho".

"Controlled flight into terrain in conditions of perfect visibility", as the CAA might say.