The editorial pages of the "quality press" are virtually unanimous in the view that the current credit crunch/economic slowdown is an inevitable consequence of the excesses in borrowing and consumption that defined the past decade. No argument from this quarter, though I don't remember too many warnings of impending doom from the same wise men before the crisis hit, which would have been nice.
Many of the columnists in the same papers are going further, saying that the crunch is actually a salutary and welcome development. Here, for example, is a paean to the slowdown by India Knight.
I have a problem with this born-again asceticism. It's all very well to see things this way this if you're a comfortably middle-class scribbler, and your idea of a tough adjustment is to delay your next purchase from Hermes for a month or two, or to eat at Gordon Ramsay only once a month instead of every two weeks. It's a different matter if you're a young couple wondering if you'll be able to renew the mortgage when it comes due, or a back-office worker in the City about to lose your job, or a public servant getting only a 2% pay rise, or a senior citizen worrying about how to pay for the heating this winter. I haven't seen many people from these groups saying how welcome the economic downturn is, but then again, not many of them get to expound their views in the media.
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