Monday, Mar 26, 2007
Flashback: 1977 in the UK
Time Magazine: Time to Be Bullish on Britain?
The money is beginning to roll in at just the right time; after three nightmarish years, Britain is finally getting its economy in order. Much of the credit goes to the International Monetary Fund, which a year ago made available $3.9 billion in loan money to Britain in return for a severe austerity program. The IMF loan prevented a collapse of sterling. A long period of voluntary wage restraint, accepted by Britain's powerful trade unions at the Labor government's prompting, has reduced inflation from a Latin American annual rate of almost 27% in August 1975 to a still high 13% now.
Posted by lvmreader @ 04:14 PM (178 views) Add Comment
6 Comments
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1. Whiteknight said...
Great stuff. People don;t realise that Britain was essentially bankrupt and bailed out as recently as that.
This time however, didn't the IMF just sell all its gold reserves into USD (or its intention to) and is pretty much an empty vehicle.
No gas left in the tank.
If everything starts to fail together - there is no bailout - because "there is no more money."
2. lvmreader said...
Painful medicine proved financial cure Records just released show how crisis struck in 1976, write Chris Giles and Cathy Newman.(NATIONAL NEWS)
Byline: CHRIS GILES and CATHY NEWMAN
At the end of 1976, the economy was on its knees.
Inflation was still running at 14.7 per cent, even though it had fallen from its peak of 25.9 per cent a year earlier. Endemic trade and current account deficits threatened to send the pound into freefall as foreign capital was increasingly unwilling to finance Britain's international debts.
The public finances were in a terrible mess, with the public borrowing over 9 per cent of gross domestic product in 1975-76 and total government spending accounting for 49.9 per cent of gross domestic product.
Political leaders could not and did not attempt to hide the problems from the public and...
3. enuii said...
How soon we all forget and outside the economic memory for anyone under the age of 45 at least!
4. Surfgatinho said...
I almost fell off my chair when I read this - then I spotted the date!
5. Desertorchid said...
"niggardly attitude toward investment "
Could you write that these days?
6. Mlj said...
Could you write that these days?
Well, you could, but then you'd get ranted at by people who thought it sounded like a racist word. Then they'd be ranted back at by people who point out that 'niggardly' has no derivation from the Latin word for 'black' - instead, it comes from Norse: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niggardly
But such is society these days...