20 October 2008

People Predicted The Credit Crunch

We don't have enough nuclear safety inspectors. Naturally, this leads the government to want more nuclear power.

Bill Rammell, a Foreign Office minister, knew about the Abu Ghraib torture seven months before it became public.

The Home Office and GCHQ are disagreeing over a new mega-database which would further threaten our civil liberties.

Green Party councillors, around the country, have been trying to get youth engaged with democracy this past week.

Terry Mancour, in the Guardian: "A pickup truck of early 1990s era was in the carpark, and scrawled across the side of it in big, carefully-lettered permanent marker were the words "Southern White Hard-Working Beer-Drinking Gun-Owning White Man In His 50s FOR OBAMA!"

Finally, at least 10 people predicted the "credit crunch":

Aka Dr Doom, Dr Roubini is an economics professor at New York University. On September 7, 2006, at an International Monetary Fund meeting, he announced that a crisis was brewing. He said that the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence and, ultimately, a deep recession.

Homeowners would default on mortgages, trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities would unravel worldwide and the global financial system would shudder to a halt. These developments, he said, would cripple major financial institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

As Mr Roubini stepped down, his host said: “I think perhaps we will need a stiff drink after that.”

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