Free Republic

The worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made disaster in which we all played a part.In the second part of a week-long series looking behind the slump,Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who have led us into the current crisis Alan Greenspan, chairman of US Federal Reserve 1987- 2006Only a couple of years ago the long-serving chairman of the Fed, a committed free marketeer who had steered the US economy through crises ranging from the 1987 stockmarket collapse through to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, was lauded with...

The appointment of Mervyn King as the next governor of the Bank of England will be seen as a further sign that the Treasury is cooling on the prospect of early membership of the European single currency. Mr King, the Bank's deputy governor, who will succeed Sir Edward George next July, is a noted sceptic on the euro. Three years ago, Mr King told a Commons select committee "you would probably need 200 or 300 years of data" to be sure it was safe to join the euro. Although Mr King had been the favourite to succeed Sir Edward, the...