No debt without credit
Sir: Liam Halligan and William Galston set out, convincingly, all the causes and effects of the 2008 crash, painting a doom-laden picture of the future of the world (‘The world the crash made’, 8 September). Not once do they mention China, which has to be the beneficiary of the consequential increase in global debt. Neither mentions that for every debtor there is a creditor.
When I first worked in the financial world many years ago, the US was the world’s biggest creditor, Glass Steagall reigned supreme and, with growth slow but steady, everything seemed under control. But the Big Bang and Clinton’s repeal of GS opened the floodgates, allowing personal greed to determine the operation of the financial system. As a result of all this, certainly the rich in the West have grown even richer and the poor even poorer — but much more significantly, China has been allowed to acquire global hegemony without even firing a shot.
Donald R. Clarke,
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Commons problems
Sir: Isabel Hardman blames ‘damaging parliamentary life’ for the high incidence of marital breakdown and alcoholism that she claims are manifest among MPs (‘Bleak House’, 8 September).
The main reason for these ills is not so much the pressures and stresses of parliamentary life but that the personality types who seek politics as a career are often emotionally needy, desire constant reassurance of admiration and affection, and have addictive personalities, who are therefore drawn like moths to a light to serial adultery and drinking.
Tom Benyon, MP Abingdon 1979-83 (Con)
Bladon, Oxfordshire
Professorial politics
Sir: Toby Young is concerned about ‘post-modern neo-Marxist professors’ corrupting the minds of their student flock (No sacred cows, 8 September). It is true that criticism of Corbyn in the common room is met by an uneasy silence, and it is impossible to have a rational discussion of Trump or Brexit on a university campus.
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