A-list, B-list, C-list. Now the M-list – M is for Meltdown. The Guardian put together this list of the 25 people “at the heart of the meltdown.” Do you agree? And do you think history will be harsh on all of them?
Creative Class
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January 27th, 2009 at 10:09 am
I think there’s a case to include Thatcher, Major and Blair from the list, if Gordon Brown is going to be included.
As the latest in a succession of neo-liberal PMs in Britain there’s little difference in economic policy between Thatcher and Brown. If the case against Brown is that he has governed over deregulation and privatisation then why can’t the same case be made against Thatcher?
Then take a look at http://www.conservativehome.com and look at how the right wing takes pot shots at Labour for “causing” the current economic nightmare and tell me just how exactly the same charges that these trolls make against Labour don’t equally apply to Thatcher’s and Major’s governments.
It’s funny how short our collective memories are…
January 27th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Interesting list, well put together. Who is to say that these are the top 25 villains but the author makes a good case for the inclusion of each.
Of all those to fall from grace, perhaps no one has plunged further or more ignominiously than Greenspan. Once celebrated as one of the great economic minds of our time, “the maestro”, once revered, is now reviled. And to think it was only about a year ago that McCain promised to read his book in order to study-up on the economy. No one would have thought twice about the statement a year ago; today, it’s a punch line.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Interesting to get a British perspective, half of the people I’ve never heard of. If you’re going back as far as Thatcher, you may as well throw in Reagan who popularized tax-cuts as an end in themselves and Jimmy Carter who launched the modern deregulation era.
Greenspan served under four presidents and the economy only did well under one of them — as a local columnist put it “It turns out Alan Greenspan was only a genius when Bill Clinton was president.”