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| Britain | ||
| Brown urges action to prevent "decline of the west" | ||
| 2010-12-07 | ||
| (KUNA) -- The coming decade could witness "the decline of the West" if Britain and other western powers fail to respond to the rise of Asian economies like China, former UK prime minister Gordon Brown ... the hapless former British PM ... warned Monday. Brown said that the harsh public spending cuts being imposed in the UK and elsewhere could rob western governments of the firepower they need to develop the skills and technology needed to win business in China and India. He warned that the deficit-slashing policies being pursued by the coalition Government will be viewed by later generations as one of the "great misjudgments of history". Brown was speaking to The Guardian newspaper today ahead of the publication of his book "Beyond The Crash, looking at the global financial crisis of the last few years and the policy response needed in the years to come". The book calls for a global compact between the G20 nations - which include both the historical powers of Europe and North America and the rising economic giants in Asia and South America - to spur growth and create 30-50 million jobs worldwide. He said "On current trends, Europe and America face high unemployment for a decade and worsening youth unemployment to come. "If the story of the coming decade is not to become 'the decline of the west', then Europe and America have to change tack, rise to the biggest challenge of all - restructuring the world economy - and equip themselves to benefit from the next great global challenge - the dramatic rise in the consumer spending power of Asia." Despite winning accolades for persuading world leading to join a co-ordinated response to the financial crash at the G20 summits in London and Pittsburgh in 2009, Brown has come under relentless attack from the coalition Government here, who blame him for allowing Britain's state deficit to swell to record levels. He today acknowledged his views were no longer fashionable, but compared the coalition's package of deep spending cuts to the fiscal retrenchment which tipped the world into lengthy depression following the Wall Street Crash of 1929. "As the 1930s showed, the economic orthodoxies for which people are feted today will quickly come to be seen as the great misjudgments of history," he said.
In another interview published last Saturday, he said he had no interest in writing an instant memoir like his New Labour sparring partners Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson, whose books he said he had not read. "I am not interested in gossip. I am not saying 'never' but I am better concentrating on the things I am doing," he said. | ||
| Posted by:Fred |
#4 Brown said that the harsh public spending cuts being imposed in the UK and elsewhere could rob western governments of the firepower they need to develop the skills and technology needed to win business in China and India. Brown is right. How can we expect to compete with the BRIC countries if we don't have more lawyers, English Lit professors and Left-handed Lesbian Midget Studies majors? Oh, the humanity. |
| Posted by: charger 2010-12-07 12:22 |
| #3 I think someone put it best when they said that, "As a young man, Gordon Brown watched Monty Python, yet did not discern that it was either surreal or a comedy." |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-12-07 06:49 |
| #2 ION DAILY TIMES.PK > MEDVEDEV: NATO MUST INCLUDE RUSSIA IN MISSLE DEFENSE. ARTIC. Iff not, come YEAR 2020 the concept of a NATO-ONLY MISSLE DEFENSE SHIELD may become a SERIOUS DESTABILIZING FACTOR between NATO-RUSS as far as Moscow is concerned + ultimately induce a NEW ARMS RACE between same. and * PEOPLES DAILY FORUM > NATO HAS A SECRET PLAN TO DEFEND THE BALTICS [agz Russia]. ARTIC > Nine NATO Divisions, Key Ports allegedly identified + earmarked for BALTIC SECURITY. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-12-07 01:30 |
| #1 Meanwhile POTUS BAMMER > says AMERICA is in a defining, NEW "SPUTNIK" MOMENT, ala the OWG = expanding Global Econ + doubts being raised oer America's ability to effec lead + respond to International Ideo, Geopol Challengers. ONE WORLD ECON = O-W-E = Wehell, America = Amerika at 83-93% Debt-to-GDP ratio most certainly does OWE its Creditors, espec CHINA. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-12-07 01:23 |