Bank of England's complacency does nothing to dispell bubble worries

London's financial community is concerned that warning signs are being ignored and mistakes of the past are being repeated
By William Keegan
THE GUARDIAN
Tuesday, Nov 18, 2003,Page 9

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown may like to preach to the rest of Europe about how to run an economy, but, as the latest British overseas trade figures show, the UK's own performance leaves a lot to be desired.

It appears that Britain ran a trade deficit of ?4.8 billion with the rest of the world in September, equivalent to 4.3 percent of GDP, and the largest since records began.

Some reports note that, since records began more than 300 years ago, this is the biggest deficit for 300 years, but then you would expect it to be bigger than in, say, the year 1703. What is interesting is that for all the boasting about the UK's strong economy, Britain has now, as Bank of England Governor Mervyn King pointed out at a press conference yesterday, experienced seven years in succession when the growth of imports has exceeded the growth of exports. That means, in the official jargon of economists, "net trade has made a negative contribution" to the growth of GDP. And, yes, the deficit grows bigger every year.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2003/11/18/2003076330

I like The Poddle because he speaks to my level!

'The Bubble' is what the UK cops are calling the security cordon that is being thrown around Bush.

Why should the Bank of England be worried? It has been subjected to repeated pressure by Tony Blair for the last 6 years to withhold key evidence in the forthcoming BCCI creditors' class action that starts in the UK High Court in January 2004. A few months ago the Court of Appeal finally threw out the Blair-imposed gagging orders because it agreed with the plaintiffs who said that just because UK and US politicians' asses were in a sling about massive money laundering, fraud, deception and corruption, this did not amount to a 'national security issue'.

Shrub is coming to town to see if he can suborn any more witnesses and do a dirty deal to stop the lawsuit.

Luckily the main expert witnesses who have handed over files to those suing the B of E also testified before Bob Morgenthau and provided evidence that led to him closing down BCCI in NY.

Gordon Brown is one of those named in the suit as perverting the course of justice.