Feb 11 2009
The UK Heads Into Deep Recession As FSA Chief Quits
Sir James Crosby, the man hand picked by Gordon Brown to act as one of the chief regulators of the City, has today resigned from his post at the Financial Services Authority after his previous judgement has seriously been brought into question. When he was the head of HBOS, Crosby was warned by his Head of Risk, Paul Moore, that the bank was taking unacceptable risks and growing too fast. Moore was effectively a whistleblower when he advised Crosby and his cronies that their policies would ultimately lead to the downfall of the bank and indeed it has. Moore alleges that he warned Crosby repeatedly and that, when they did not like what he had to say, they simply got rid of him. In fact, Moore was just trying to safeguard our best interests whilst Crosby was trying to safeguard his.
One question remains though - if Moore saw the crash coming then why did nobody else?
Following this news, David Cameron rightly accused Gordon Brown of being just as reckless with the taxpayer’s money as Crosby had been himself. After all, Brown was relying on Crosby for financial advice and expected him to regulate the bankers and their extortionate bonuses. He was trusting a man that sacked an advisor that dared to question the bankers’ greed and advise against it! If this does not point to corruption in the UK government and finance system then I don’t know what does! Unsurprisingly, Brown refused to comment and avoided Cameron’s questions
In other news, the head of the Bank Of England, Mervyn King, commented on the state of the UK’s financial state today and basically said that we’re heading into deep recession. The recession, according to Mr King, is far worse than the Bank of England initially anticipated to the point at which interest rate cuts will not be enough to drag us out of it. Batton down the hatches people because we’re going to be in for a rough few years!
