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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
New Statesman interviews Vince Cable: “I can see another financial bomb going off”
May 27, 2011 11:55 AM
• [May 26] Jason Cowley writes: CONSENSUS is growing that interest rates have been kept too low for too long and that inflation, which stands at 4.5 per cent, is accelerating dangerously, just as inequality deepens, growth flatlines and incomes decline. Worse still, as we enter the age of austerity, is that near-zero interest rates are artificially supporting an already unstable housing market.
. . I [met] the Business Secretary, Vince Cable . . on a bright, breezy afternoon at his office, with its high windows and fine views of Westminster Abbey. Reclining in a large, soft chair and sipping from a mug of tea, Cable, who has shrewd eyes and a rumpled charm, is quick to point out that the greater danger is not inflation, but deflation.
. . Above all, Cable wants to continue in government and confirms that he wants to stand at the next election, in 2015. "I'd like to go on. Deng Xiaoping is a real model . . . who knows?" He chuckles. Working outside politics "for most of my adult life", he says, "I was a perfectly well adjusted human being, and I managed to live without it. I suppose at some point I shall get on and do other things. As you know, I have other interests - I like writing, I love literature, I love music [and] dancing."
" . . I think this is the thing that worries me more than anything else . . . We really haven't engaged with the real depths and seriousness of the financial crash. You've got bits and pieces of regulation being put in place, but it's very piecemeal. The structure of banks are being addressed in the UK but nowhere else. There is a bit happening in terms of complex derivatives, in terms of clearing house arrangements, though it's a bit limited. I was very impressed with that Warren Buffett metaphor that asset-backed mortgage lending was the atomic bomb, and that there are hydrogen bombs out there. I just don't think that collectively governments have got to grips with this at all."
So another huge bomb could go off, sooner rather than later?
"It's not imminent. But you can see this happening."
• "I can see another financial bomb going off" [New Statesman May 26]
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