Sorry Britain, You Can't Blame Economic Meltdown on Snow

[Joanne98]

Why did the British economy--to the surprise of many--shrink by 0.5 percent in the last quarter of 2010? According to the U.K.'s Office for National Statistics, gross domestic product would have stayed flat had it not been for the snow and ice that descended on Britain in December, forcing people to stay home in the days before Christmas and battering the services industry.


Responding to concerns about the economy's unexpected contraction, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne refused to back off the austerity program he and Prime Minister David Cameron are pursuing. "We will not be blown off course by bad weather," he declared.


But Ilargi at The Automatic Earth, hardened by his years living in snowy Montreal, is incredulous that the U.K. is blaming its economic woes on mere inches of precipitation in the final weeks of 2010. During the first two months of the fourth quarter, he explains, "there was nothing that even the Brits could name 'extreme weather'. Ergo, the UK economy is simply in real bad shape, rain or shine."


He points to a statement by Bank of England chief Mervyn King that British households are experiencing the greatest decline in their living standards since the 1920s, and that plummeting disposable incomes are the "inevitable price” of the financial crisis. The real issue in the U.K., as in the U.S., is that the government is prioritizing Wall Street over Main Street, Ilargi argues:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/features/view/feature/Sorry-Britain-You-Cant-Blame-Economic-Meltdown-on-Snow-3073/

[xchrom]

1. let's say it again:

'The real issue in the U.K., as in the U.S., is that the government is prioritizing Wall Street over Main Street, Ilargi argues:'

[Angry Dragon]

2. After all the people at the bottom are destroyed

the top will start eating themselves
that is something that they either forget
or do not think it will happen