We’re all doomed?
The prospect of global economic disaster has been keeping bloggers awake this week. A troubling Monday on Wall Street was followed on Tuesday by an admission from the US Treasury Secretary that the American economy is in “sharp decline.” Aware that when our cousins sneeze we all end up feeling distinctly sub-prime, British bloggers swung into action. Some interesting analysis was offered at the wittily named Dave’s Part. He wrote:
“A consensus seems to be emerging that we are about to witness a sharp downturn, and perhaps the nastiest since world war two.”
He went on to predict that:
“US interest rates below 3% will fuel inflation in places such as China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The resultant surging food prices could even fuel social unrest in these countries.”
By Wednesday the US Federal Reserve had cut its main interest rate by 75 basis points and the Dow Jones showed signs of rallying – though the global picture was mixed.
Guido Fawkes, a former wunderkind of the Asian markets, began the week by unleashing a trademark torrent of invective at the government:
“When Brown and Darling try to present themselves as the safe pairs of hands in this coming time of economic crisis, remember that Brown was the financial whizz who sold Britain’s gold reserves at the historic low for dollars.”
Here at the Best of the Politics Blogs HQ, austerity is now the order of the day. Out goes the wall of flatscreen monitors tracking the blogosphere night and day – in comes a Sinclair ZX80. The tea lady has been sacked.
Helping us with our Inquiries
While the broadcast media went all out to mark the fifth anniversary of the allied invasion of Iraq, bloggers seemed to be suffering war fatigue. Amongst the few mentioning it was Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads. Ahead of next week’s Tory push for a full Inquiry, he suggested broadening its scope:
“…the inquiry should – amongst other things – look into how, when and why Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition failed us before, during and after the invasion.”
What have we learned this week?
That poor David Prescott is not to follow in his father’s substantial footsteps, having failed in his bid to be selected as Labour candidate for Hull East. Jon Craig on Sky’s Boulton and Co blog took a look at the reasons why. The NS might be one of them…
Across the Pond
Barack Obama’s speech tackling footage of his controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright won serious praise across America’s Democrat-supporting blogs. Matthew Yglesias was among the impressed. He wrote:
“The Wright business had opened up a vague sliver of hope for Hillary Clinton’s campaign — if they could produce a result in Pennsylvania that looked like a Wright-induced collapse in Obama’s white support, maybe they could convince superdelegates that he’s unelectable. After this speech, I don’t see it happening.”
Video of the week
Enjoy Shadow Chancellor George Osborne as the Hypnotoad.
Quote of the week
“David Cameron has just spent his entire tranche of six questions to Gordon Brown without mentioning the credit crisis once. Indeed, the PM picked this failure up and tried a swipe at Cameron over it – albeit in rather leaden-footed fashion.”
Patrick Hennessy on Three Line Whip finds Cameron still afraid to talk economics at PMQs.
And a happy Easter to all New Statesman readers.
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