"Notably, the man who personally implemented Thatcherite financial market reforms and deregulation during the era of Tony Blair in Britain was Gordon Brown, then Treasury Secretary."
That was for 10 years - 1997 to 2007. And then he became PM. A lot of the mess did happen during the past 12 years. To say he spent the 12 years trying to fix the previous 'mess' would be wrong.
For instance, here he is in 2005, with a description of what he likes about the financial markets in Britain:
Like you
I want a Britain that is a leader in the world's fastest growing, most wealth-creating sectors at the cutting edge of global advance – in capital markets and financial services; in science and innovation; in creativity and enterprise; in skills and education.
More than ever, as we have discovered, in one of the most challenging years for the global economy, the foundation for growth is economic stability. We know that in a global economy investment flows to the stable economies and away from the volatile. So when I present my Pre-Budget Report on Monday, I will show how Britain has taken long-term decisions on monetary and fiscal policy and moved from being one of the stop-go economies of the world to one of the most stable.
Under our monetary and fiscal regime we will maintain low inflation, low public debt and a long-term commitment to strong fiscal discipline. And nothing we do will endanger that position.
Upon our foundation of stability, Britain can become the location of choice and the place to do business. Take financial services and capital markets: today Britain exports twice as much in business services as we import and four times as much in financial services.
And I want to congratulate businesses here on their drive, global competitiveness and
innovation which have made the City of London alongside New York the leading financial centres of the world - London, the world’s largest foreign exchange market, the largest foreign equity market, the largest bond market - London's success born not out of serving a large domestic economy, but on winning the lion’s share of international business.
I want us to build on our advantages -
your talent for innovation, the critical mass of skills now in London, our openness to the world including our deepening links with China and India, a unique combination of language, time zone and a legal system that makes English law the law of choice for international contracts. And now
the determination of the financial services authority to extend their risk-based approach of financial regulation that is both a light touch and a limited touch.All strengths that we wish to develop so that we become the preferred international marketplace not just for European companies but also for growing Chinese, Indian and other companies and the multinational headquarters of choice.
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/speech_chex_... So in 2005 he was praising to the skies the 'innovation' in financial markets, that was increasing all the trade in the City of London. That's all those default swaps and debt bundles. And he wanted regulation with a lighter, more limited touch than there was in 2005. And as far as he was concerned. all that was 'wealth-creating'.
In prices adjusted for overall inflation,
the average UK house price in Q3 1997 was £82,590. 10 years later, that peaked at £191,490 (+132%; 8.8% growth
above inflation every year Brown was Chancellor); in the next 32 quarters that has dropped to £174,514 (down 8.9%; that's the latest figure, for Q2 2008, and they've continued dropping after that). In absolute terms, house prices more than tripled in that time. That was a huge bubble. He did nothing about it.
