UK's Balls: We're Sliding Into Worst Global Recession In 100 Years
The Hard Right in the United Kingdom seized on comments made as Education Secretary Ed Balls shot more than a little discomfort into Gordon Brown's administration.
Call this BANANA whatever you want, but it's becoming increasingly difficult for many in parts of the United States, parts of Europe, parts of Asia and other developing nations, not to see firsthand what appears to be very real writing on the wall of a peeling economic BANANA that the rest of the globe is apparently also now sliding on.
Mirror.co.UK Depression is worse than the 1930s says Ed Balls
Britain is heading for an economic depression worse than the 30s, a senior cabinet minister admitted yesterday in a major embarrassment for the Government.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls admitted the downturn was "the most serious global recession for more than 100 years".
And he warned the financial crisis could hammer Britain for up to 15 years leading to a rise of the hard right in politics. The off-the-cuff remarks will be seen as a major gaffe as Gordon Brown fears "talking down" the economy will make matters worse.
Mr Balls, husband of Treasury Secretary Yvette Cooper, told Labour's Yorkshire conference on Saturday: "These are seismic events. I think this is a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 30s and we all remember how the politics of that era were shaped by the economy...
MailOnline: I pray Ed Balls is wrong but fear he's right:
This could be worse than the Great Depression
Most Labour politicians possess only the cloudiest and most naive understanding of how the British economy really works.
This charge cannot, however, be levelled at the Education Secretary Ed Balls, a former Financial Times journalist who worked at the Treasury for ten years.
So Balls's terrifying warning that the world has entered its worst recession for over a century needs to be taken very seriously indeed - and all the more so because he is the closest confidant of the Prime Minister and therefore privy to all the latest inside information.
The first thing to be said about Balls's apocalyptic warning is that it shows that the Government is a complete and utter shambles.
It is fewer than three months since Chancellor Alistair Darling used his autumn financial statement to forecast a slight recession with a soft landing...
But Ed Balls had a very different view this week. 'The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for 100 years,' he said.
This means we are potentially facing conditions worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s, with all that entails in terms of mass unemployment, poverty, starvation and - equally potentially - the rise to power of the Far Right.
Everyone must pray this is not the case. But as things stand, Balls's analysis looks far more acute than that of any other Government minister, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose training as a provincial solicitor is hardly the best background for playing the role of national finance chief in a crisis.
Indeed - as Ed Balls has spotted - the parallels between the events of the past six months and the start of the Great Depression of the 1930s are so close they border on the uncanny...
Telegraph UK: So, just how bad will the recession be?
Ed Balls says Britain faces its worst recession for 100 years,
and Edmund Conway finds it hard to disagree.
You say depression, I say recession. Depression, recession, depression, recession - what difference does it make? Given that everyone from the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and his former adviser Ed Balls to the head of the International Monetary Fund have admitted that the scale of the economic slump now justifies talk of the "d-word" it is time to tackle the question: what constitutes a depression as opposed to a common-or-garden recession and, more importantly, is that where we are headed?
...My own definition of a depression is a deep, long recession that permanently alters the fabric of society and economic life, and leaves a lasting mark on popular culture. We are not there yet, but with every day that passes it looks likelier that this is our eventual destination. I doubt that Brown and Balls are attempting, as some suspect, to soften up the public ahead of a further torrent of bad news; more likely it is finally dawning on them that this is no ordinary recession.
This will not be like the early 1990s, or even the early 1980s; it will be a far more protracted and painful experience. It won't merely alter the topics of conversation at dinner parties away from house prices and buy-to-let - that has already happened. It will mean that the very foundations of our economy will have to change. Many people will discover not only that the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed is unsustainable, but that the career they had been plugging away at simply no longer exists...
By the way, just in case you are thinking that this sounds like the worst-case scenario is actually unfolding, here's this little gem if you missed it:
Call this BANANA whatever you want, but it's becoming increasingly difficult for many in parts of the United States, parts of Europe, parts of Asia and other developing nations, not to see firsthand what appears to be very real writing on the wall of a peeling economic BANANA that the rest of the globe is apparently also now sliding on.
Mirror.co.UK Depression is worse than the 1930s says Ed Balls
Britain is heading for an economic depression worse than the 30s, a senior cabinet minister admitted yesterday in a major embarrassment for the Government.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls admitted the downturn was "the most serious global recession for more than 100 years".
And he warned the financial crisis could hammer Britain for up to 15 years leading to a rise of the hard right in politics. The off-the-cuff remarks will be seen as a major gaffe as Gordon Brown fears "talking down" the economy will make matters worse.
Mr Balls, husband of Treasury Secretary Yvette Cooper, told Labour's Yorkshire conference on Saturday: "These are seismic events. I think this is a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 30s and we all remember how the politics of that era were shaped by the economy...
MailOnline: I pray Ed Balls is wrong but fear he's right:
This could be worse than the Great Depression
Most Labour politicians possess only the cloudiest and most naive understanding of how the British economy really works.
This charge cannot, however, be levelled at the Education Secretary Ed Balls, a former Financial Times journalist who worked at the Treasury for ten years.
So Balls's terrifying warning that the world has entered its worst recession for over a century needs to be taken very seriously indeed - and all the more so because he is the closest confidant of the Prime Minister and therefore privy to all the latest inside information.
The first thing to be said about Balls's apocalyptic warning is that it shows that the Government is a complete and utter shambles.
It is fewer than three months since Chancellor Alistair Darling used his autumn financial statement to forecast a slight recession with a soft landing...
But Ed Balls had a very different view this week. 'The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for 100 years,' he said.
This means we are potentially facing conditions worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s, with all that entails in terms of mass unemployment, poverty, starvation and - equally potentially - the rise to power of the Far Right.
Everyone must pray this is not the case. But as things stand, Balls's analysis looks far more acute than that of any other Government minister, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose training as a provincial solicitor is hardly the best background for playing the role of national finance chief in a crisis.
Indeed - as Ed Balls has spotted - the parallels between the events of the past six months and the start of the Great Depression of the 1930s are so close they border on the uncanny...
Telegraph UK: So, just how bad will the recession be?
Ed Balls says Britain faces its worst recession for 100 years,
and Edmund Conway finds it hard to disagree.
You say depression, I say recession. Depression, recession, depression, recession - what difference does it make? Given that everyone from the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and his former adviser Ed Balls to the head of the International Monetary Fund have admitted that the scale of the economic slump now justifies talk of the "d-word" it is time to tackle the question: what constitutes a depression as opposed to a common-or-garden recession and, more importantly, is that where we are headed?
...My own definition of a depression is a deep, long recession that permanently alters the fabric of society and economic life, and leaves a lasting mark on popular culture. We are not there yet, but with every day that passes it looks likelier that this is our eventual destination. I doubt that Brown and Balls are attempting, as some suspect, to soften up the public ahead of a further torrent of bad news; more likely it is finally dawning on them that this is no ordinary recession.
This will not be like the early 1990s, or even the early 1980s; it will be a far more protracted and painful experience. It won't merely alter the topics of conversation at dinner parties away from house prices and buy-to-let - that has already happened. It will mean that the very foundations of our economy will have to change. Many people will discover not only that the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed is unsustainable, but that the career they had been plugging away at simply no longer exists...
By the way, just in case you are thinking that this sounds like the worst-case scenario is actually unfolding, here's this little gem if you missed it:
Click to view