IF ONLY IT WERE THAT SIMPLE.

In listening to the deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Paul Tucker, currently flitting from one TV studio to the next in fairly rapid sequence, I'm not sure what his message is, apart from jockeying to become the next Governor of the BoE. In the writer's humble opinion, he needs to brush up on his history. During one session, he suggested that it only takes one person in authority to stave off the kind of disaster from which we are currently endeavouring to extricate the economy. Well, Mr.Tucker is overlooking the example set at the period leading to the Wall Street crash of 1929; when another Paul (Warburg) had been warning of the certain calamity to which the US economy was heading; being encouraged by the so called 'sure-fire' certainty of the stock market continuing upwards and onwards. Warburg, one of the instigators of the Federal reserve system in the States, was both castigated and ostracized by his fellow bankers, who wanted the good times to keep rolling.

Paul Warburg, as history records, was correct. His argument, no doubt, was his opposition to borrowing in order to create wealth. Such borrowing is only advisable to a limited degree, although it remains difficult to show an example of where Maynard Keynes was 'on the money'. Paul Tucker, we would suggest, when push comes to shove, would turn out to be a Keynes disciple, sticking with a borrowing philosophy (deferred taxes).


WE'RE PETER, AND HE IS PAUL (TUCKER).