Sunday 18 January 2009

Times have changed

Mandy on how the crisis will affect the UK going forward, from the Beeb:
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson told the conference Britain was likely to see the economy move away from a dependence on financial services.
He said problems in the financial sector were going to take more time and ingenuity to resolve.
"We've got to identify... what specialist businesses we are going to invest in, where are we going to make our contribution to the global economy," he said.
"We are going to have to find new competitive advantages in Europe. That's going to require both innovation and activism on the part of government."
Lord Mandelson also said there were "important questions" over massive bonuses in the financial services.
"Why have so many incentives for individuals in the financial services sector ended up destroying value rather than creating it?
"What does it mean for the valuable concept of earning your wage in society?"
But he added: "We shouldn't have a problem with high pay for high performance. I see nothing wrong at all in giving rewards for those where you are rewarding excellent performance."

1 comment:

Charlie Marks said...

But then, times haven't changed that much...

Mandy's dead set on flogging Royal Mail off to Dutch Murdoch partner TNT, claiming that there's not the management talent here (and any excuse he can think of)

There's no sign the govt will nationalise the banking system, which will be the only way to get the economy moving again.

And this whole "contribution to the global economy" shtick is tiresome. Do we not need food security and a rebuilding of the manufacturing base? The need to replace imported goods with goods we make ourselves - with less transport costs (to us and to the environment) and secure decently paid jobs in manufacturing. In short, more local production.