September 23, 2007 (LPAC)--Sounding for all the world like the "working-class heroes" portrayed by Peter Sellers in the 1950s and 60s, the British government continues to assure the world that the depositor-run on the bank Northern Rock PLC, and the Bank of England's guarantee of the bank's deposits, was not emblematic of any real problem. An op-ed in today's New York Times reports that in his testimony to a parliamentary committee last week, BOE Governor Mervyn King (who otherwise attributed the seriousness of the Northern Rock crisis to problems in EU rules and British law) said that there would be "no lasting damage to the British banking system" from the Northern Rock problem.

Not to be outdone, Prime Minister Gordon Brown today told BBC that he maintained full confidence in King, who he called "a brilliant governor of the Bank of England." Furthermore, the P.M. asserted, the economic overhang of mortgage debt was a positive development, since it signifies that a large number of people "have been able to take on mortgages and buy houses for the first time." Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling chimed in; in a speech at the Labour Party's annual conference, blaming the whole problem on Northern Rock executives' bad decisions.

The financial speculators' approach, in a nutshell: first you create the graveyard, then you whistle past it.