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Top economist warns UK should be seen in same category as Greece and Spain

Monday 8th February 2010

By Mike Jones

A leading economist has issued a stark warning about the state of the UK.

Britain should be seen in the same category of countries as debt-laden Greece and Spain, he said.

Ex-IMF chief economist Simon Johnson, also described the G7 group of leading economies as "fundamentally useless".

He told the BBC: "The financial markets are taking a long hard look at the fiscal accounts of all these countries and they don't like what they see.

"Now Greece is an an extreme example - there I think you can see that it's going to get very messy very quickly - but unfortunately the budget situation in these other countries is also weak.

"And I have to add the UK to this list. Unless you can persuade the markets that you're really going to bring the budget under control within the foreseeable future and you're going to have some credible actions - and you're going to have to do some persuading - you're going to have big trouble."

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Posted By halkynuk on Monday 8th February 2010 08:44:08
Well put NF. Why oh! why have so many countries & their inhabitants allowed themselves to be persuaded that EU rules is OK?

Posted By Niall Firinne on Monday 8th February 2010 03:45:57
All of this proves that the single currency strucure is fundamentally flawed. Pre Euro, Greece, Spain and Portugal would have been responsible for their fiscal situation and would have dealt with the crisis by way of a number of methods, including devaluation. This freedom to "devalue" ultimately will allow the UK to recover more quickly and sustainably than these other nations. Of course if the situation drags on or gets worse, the whole Euro edifice will be in danger. Time to bring back the Drachma, Escudo and Pesata!