The Weekend Papers

Paul Ormerod wrote a superb piece in the News Review in yesterday’s Sunday times, although a fairly hefty article it is worth sitting down and having a read. The piece gives you a potted history of the financial crisies that hit during the 20th Century and draws comparisons and links to the current global financial shock:

As the worsening financial crisis evokes the Great Depression, this economist explains how ‘lunatic’ risk-taking got us into this mess – and why the guilty will get away with it

Ormerod writes:

Big recessions really hurt. In the Anglo-Saxon world, we have forgotten what they look like. Between 1930 and 1933, annual output of the American economy fell by nearly 30%. This dry statistic disguises what big recessions feel like. A similar one in Britain today would destroy 8m jobs. More than one in four employees would be thrown out of work.

Following the credit crunch theme, also an excellent set of articles in The Observer yesterday:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/creditcrunch