Gap between rich and poor in Britain widest since the 60's

[Mint]

To say Thatcher caused the recession two decades our of power.... well....

The writing has been on the wall for a while. When you consciously try to reemulate pre-Great Depression economic patterns, it's just a matter of time. "Caused" may be too large a word - because New Labour, and the Schröder government, and and and continued on much the same track. (And because Thatcher is better replaced with Nixon, really.)

You would think that we would have learned something from 1987. Of course, while lack of transparency and relaxed regulation in some markets world wide contributed to our current predicament they're not really the catalyst. We would never have seen the sort of bubble we did if Greenspan hadn't kept interest rates so ridiculously low against the advice of so many. And it appears we're just trying to re-inflate the bubble again with similar policies. Not good.