Thursday, October 09, 2008

Kudos to Alistair Darling

Unlike Hank Paulson's rescue package, which was universally derided (and will probably not work), Alistair Darling's rescue package was universally acclaimed as well-designed. Indeed, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Denmark have said they will be copying it. And Paulson in the USA now says he might change his plan and adopt ours after all. Markets are rallying on the hope that now a credible plan is on the table, every government affected will copy it.

It's actually very hard to produce a sane and comprehensive resuce package under pressure (as we have seen from responses in the USA, Ireland and Germany), so Alistair Darling turns out to be the man of the moment. It also turns out that Alistair Darling was speaking straight when he told the Guardian some months ago that we might be seeing the worst global storm for 60 years. Many, including myself, thought he was being hasty. Actually, he was merely a man completely on top of his brief and making preparations for the worst - and his plan is well-designed because he understood before others what was at stake and took the time to start preparations in the summer.

I'm glad he is chancellor.

3 comments:

Hughes Views said...

He seems to be a jolly nice, calm, unassuming chap as well. I met him once and we had an amiable chat. He didn't seem remotely bothered that I hadn't quite been able to remember his name or which department he was at (he was "only" Secretary of State for Transport then)...

Anonymous said...

Come back to bed Miss Snowflake, the Doctor has your medication ready...

We wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for Brown and Darling!

merrsh1

snowflake5 said...

anonymous - you apparently think Brown and Darling so all powerful that they control the entire globe's financial system all by themselves? You clearly hold them in much awe to ascribe such power to them...