We’re all looking forward to Gordon Brown’s lecture speech to the joint session of Congress on Wednesday. This is his big chance to tell America’s lawmakers that they were responsible for the global financial crisis. His regularly repeated thesis, after all, is that the economic catastrophe started in the US (because of lax national regulation) and infected other economies (because of lax global regulation). He’ll surely take this opportunity to tell Congress how it is, to their face – won’t he?
There are plenty of past sound bites for his speech writers to choose from. Here’s a selection.
“It started in America, there was a lot of irresponsible lending taking place, a lot of it was completely unknown to the authorities, and people were passing the risks on from one person to another and a lot of them ended up in Europe. So it’s a problem of the banking system that has started with the tragedy of the sub-prime housing market in America.” BBC Politics Show, October 2008
“This problem started in America. They have got to sort it out. The Americans have a responsibility to the rest of the world.” Sky News, October 2008
“What caused it was not something that happened in Britain….I think everybody understands, even the Americans now say, this is a global problem that started in America…” BBC, November 2008
“I think everybody recognises that this problem started in America.” Downing Street press conference, January 2009
“What I regret is that we have been unable to remain unaffected by a global downturn and the.. events that started in America.” Downing Street press conference, December 2008
“I’ve been angry about the behavior of banks, starting with the sub prime market in America.” BBC, November 2008
“But what I do say to you is, this is an international crisis, it’s global, it started in America. We’ve had very little control over…” BBC, November 2008
“That is why, when threatened by the global financial turmoil that started in America and has now spread across the world, we in Britain took action to secure our banks and financial system…” Times, October 10
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey
