Yesterday the Governor of the Bank of England issued another doom laden forecast warning of the "extraordinarily serious and threatening" economic situation.
He joins a growing band of Doomsayers made up of high profile members of the international Banking world and senior politicians who seem oblivious to the fact that the problems we now face were created on “their watch”.
It is the ultimate irony that politicians with the so called “light touch” and institutions such as the Bank of England/ US Fed were all too willing not to look too closely into the ways that the markets and sovereign economies were being structured for fear of rocking the boat.
There is a certain black humour that these very architects of disaster now turn round and pontificate about the dangers that the world faces.
These were the same people who were lauding and applauding the likes of Sir Fred Goodwin the former boss of RBS. There was further irony that his successor at Royal Bank of Scotland, the bank now majority-owned by the UK government, said recently that strict regulation meant investors saw UK banks as a "dumb" place to invest, and that it limited banks' ability to lend.
As the crisis in the Euro zone unfolds it is also worth noting the number of high profile cheer leaders for the Euro who are now conspicuous by their silence on the matter.
The reality is the man in the street is told to prepare for more belt tightening whilst businesses find themselves desperate for funding as Banks are reluctant lenders as they look to repair their damaged balance sheets.
Plus ça change.
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