Gary Gibbon
Denis Healey and the man behind Britain’s IMF bail-out
Interviewing Denis Healey and former IMF chief Johannes Witteveen about the day Britain had to be bailed out by the IMF.
Search results for ‘alistair darling’
211 items found
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Gary Gibbon
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Faisal Islam
Cameron commits to cuts even if Britain’s economy relapses
Economics correspondent Faisal Islam describes interviewing Conservative leader David Cameron, who says his party would start cutting the deficit this year, even if Britain relapses into recession.
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Gary Gibbon
Balls on the attempted leadership coup
(UPDATED: now with video of Ed Balls interview.) To the QE2 centre in Westminster where Gordon Brown sat on a platform flanked by Ed Balls and Peter Mandelson, a lecturn either side of them. I thought the PM might be about to chair a debate between the two consorts, but alas not. It was an international education conference (which…
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Gary Gibbon
Meetings add intrigue to the Labour plot
Channel 4 News Political Editor Gary Gibbon reveals what happened in the hours between the publication of Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt’s letter and senior Cabinet figures making their first statements.
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Jon Snow
Time to call a halt to ratings agencies?
What a strange world we live in. The economics team I work with – Faisal and his backroom wizard, Neil Macdonald, tell me, and you, that today’s UK pre-budget report will stand or fall on the whims of a handful of economists across the world. Not any old economist but largely those who work for…
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Gary Gibbon
Spending promises from Brown
Gordon Brown is trying to show us the chasm between Labour and the Conservatives by showing a bit of ankle on the Pre-Budget Report.
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Gary Gibbon
Will Brown’s talk of ‘cuts’ leave unions baying for blood?
Gordon Brown prepares to talk about “cuts” in his speech to the TUC Conference – but will the unions bay for blood?
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Faisal Islam
Chicago defends itself against Keynesian attacks
So in the battle for the soul of economics, Nobel prize-winner Paul Krugman declares victory for the New Keynesians. In a 6,700 word article for the New York Times magazine, Krugman uses the experience of the last two crisis-ridden years not just to pin some of the blame on the Chicago school of free market…
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Faisal Islam
How Britain could have saved Lehman Brothers
Lehman’s bankruptcy changed the world. It sent world economy into a precipitous decline that’s matched the Great Depression. It arguably changed the course of the US election. It was a violent economic event that will be debated for decades. Much of the mystery surrounds the events of the weekend of the 13th/ 14th September 2008,…
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Gary Gibbon
The government hung by a cashmere thread
So Gordon Brown is through this storm. And he has Peter Mandelson to thank for it. For one moment on Thursday night, the government hung by a cashmere thread. But Peter Mandelson rallied David Miliband, the moment of maximum danger passed. The Prime Minister is a weakened figure sitting in the Cabinet this morning. He…
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Jon Snow
Purnell breaks from the pack to plunge the knife
To answer my own initial question: Purnell has broken from the pack. He has done what David Miliband, conceivably Andy Burnham, and maybe John Hutton (of whom more in a moment), might have done and must have been thinking of doing. Purnell has plunged a knife that has been waiting for such an exercise for…
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Gary Gibbon
It was Mandelson who Balls it up for Ed
New rumour is that Gordon Brown didn’t actually decide to keep Alistair Darling in place until this morning and that an early morning conversation with Peter Mandelson swung it. That won’t do much for Mandelson/Balls relations, which had been patched up since Lord Mandelson’s return to government. Ed Balls will be feeling frustrated that his…
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Gary Gibbon
Balls! How Gordon’s dream ended
Alistair Darling saw the Prime Minister last night for a long conversation and made it plain he didn’t think he should be thrown out of the Chancellorship. The chancellor was offered a number of jobs but turned them all down. I believe Mr Darling left still not entirely clear whether he had won his right…
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Jon Snow
A spectacle we have never seen before
A political crisis This is a political spectacle none of us has ever seen before. The government is reshuffling itself. Hazel Blears has just shuffled herself out of the Cabinet. She’d have been fired anyway over her second homery and non-payment of capital gains tax. Two other ministers, one of them another woman, are expected…
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The government to the rescue?
The UK financial system was bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of £500bn in 2008. Economics Editor Faisal Islam analyses the government’s response as it pumped billions of pounds into the city.
