Keynote note presentation entitled ‘Does Bursting One Bubble Lead to Another?’ delivered by the Rt Hon John Redwood MP to the Long Finance Autumn Conference on 4 November 2011.
The event was sponsored and hosted by HSBC. Supported by the City of London Corporation, Gresham College, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, Tomorrow’s Company, UKSIF – the Sustainable Investment and Finance Association and Z/Yen Group. The video is hosted by Gresham College.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College, and has a DPhil from All Souls, Oxford. A businessman by background, he has been a director of NM Rothschild merchant bank and chairman of a quoted industrial PLC.
3 Comments
Good presentation hitting with some powerful points around the EU’s lack of effective sovereign power to pay its debts. It is raised often on the blog but I think that this has been one of the key elements in the current crisis leaving the Eurozone wide open to attack/speculation as opposed to us.
Thank God that we are not in that position. Whilst the sovereign’s ability to pay debtors does not solve economic fundamentals such as a lack of competitiveness, it buys time and that, I feel, is what is protecting us at the moment from the shrill winds of austerity and some keen deflation which is occurring/will occur in Europe.
zorro
I find it difficult to thank Mr Blair or Mr Brown for much….
zorro
So, to avoid future bubbles it would seem we would do best to get rid of the speculators. To introduce legislation and powers to prevent those who do not make a living in the production or consumption of a product to be banned from trading it.
Would such a move cause more damage than it prevents? I guess my question is whether speculators ever do any good, and if so, what good would that be.
Really interesting speech, found myself agreeing pretty much entirely with John. If anyone could help me with answers to my question I’d very much appreciate it. Right now I’m very tempted to think that half our services sector is built on a structure of lies and deceit, increasing risk in the system and draining away resources from worthwhile production…