Anatole hearts Gordon. Not.

What the hell has Gordon Brown ever done to Anatole Kaletsky? The esteemed economic commentator went nuclear on El Gordo this morning, arguing that the Northern Rock plan - convert the debt into government bonds, then sell the thing off - represents a government cock-up on the scale of the ERM debacle or even the 1933 collapse of the Gold Standard (and we all remember that one, as Sir Marcus Browning MP might have said).

Kaletsky's rant - it's far too intemperate to be called "comment" - includes the following extraordinary statement:

Once people fully understood that the Government, far from receiving any repayment as part of this “rescue”, will be offering a long-term operating loan to Northern Rock for five years or beyond, the politically embarrassing questions will pour in. If this kind of money is available for a minor bank in Newcastle, what else could the Treasury have done with £55 billion? Here are a few ideas: it could have rescued MG-Rover and turned it into the worlds strongest car manufacturer after Toyota. It could have acquired control of the Airbus programme and shifted its headquarters to Bristol from Toulouse. And even after these industrial subventions there would have been plenty of change from £55 billion to set up a permanent endowment fund to finance Britain's universities, or build a new high-speed rail system covering much of Britain, or a new London airport in the Thames estuary to replace Heathrow or underwrite the entire economic risks of a new generation of nuclear power stations. And what about rescuing the pension funds wrecked by Mr Brown's previous excursions into high finance?

Riiiiiight. Guaranteeing the borrowing of a major lending institution is exactly analogous to nationalising MG-Rover or Airbus. We take his point to the "underwriting" of debt for nuclear power, but this is like saying asking your Dad to guarantee a house loan is the same as asking your Dad to buy you a house. And only economists think that's the same thing.

So what on earth has El Gordo done to Anatole? And is Anatole right to say "it seems fair to say that Mr Brown's career as a serious politician ended yesterday"? We thought Brown's career ended when he had his teeth done, but we accept that's a less serious-minded opinion...

Of course, there might be another explanation for Anatole's rant. Does the Times get diggbait all the sudden?

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 22 Jan 2008 12:37 PM. Permalink