LSE Chairman insists that irresponsible governments to blame for global financial crisis

In a Guardian article, the London Stock Exchange chairman lays the blame for the global financial crisis squarely on governments and the regulators for their failure to rein in the financial sector.

Regular readers know that this was also one of the central conclusions of the Nyberg Report on the causes of the Irish financial crisis.

The chairman of the London Stock Exchange has urged the Occupy movement to blame irresponsible governments rather than City institutions for the global financial crisis. 

The LSE is the target of the Occupy the London Stock Exchange protest, but Chris Gibson-Smith believes the inhabitants of the impromptu tent city in the capital are blaming the wrong people. 

He said they should target the politicians who allowed banks to run up huge debts. 

"There are unintended consequences of free markets," he added. "It's not capitalism that has been the problem, but irresponsible governments and politicians who have allowed the financial system to explode by permitting the build-up of ludicrous amounts of debt and leverage. 

"No one ever said that free markets could or would be self-regulating. That's where people over the past few decades have got it wrong, and many are still in denial – look at Alan Greenspan, [the former chairman of the Federal Reserve], who is still defending free markets."
In an interview with the Independent on Sunday, Gibson-Smith said the protesters' argument was misguided....

Following the eurozone deal struck in an attempt to shore up market faith in sovereign debt, Gibson-Smith said voters should ask how countries such as Greece were able to build up unsustainable borrowings. 

"How on earth did governments – here and in Europe – get away with spending so much?...

"Politicians, and the civil service, lost control of the system. Where has all the money gone?"