Vince Cable's recently published "The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What It Means" (see http://www.libdemvoice.org/commentislinkedldv-vince-cable-the-storm-how-to-survive-it-and-how-to-prevent-its-return-12883.html) is highly readable.Amol Rajan in yesterday's 'Independent' called it "marvellously lucid" and compared the insight of Cable to the performance of George Osborne, the sixth-former the Tories try to pass off as a Shadow Chancellor. Anyway, you can read Rajan's comments by clicking on the headline above.
It is worth remembering that the Liberal Democrats have consistently been ahead of the game on economic issues.
Here are just 10 examples of things we called for first, and which have since either been implemented or taken on board by at least one of the other two main parties:
* Northern Rock nationalisation - it was clear to us that this was unavoidable in November 2007. It took the Government until February 2008 to act.
* Independence of the Bank of England - longstanding Lib Dem policy. First Labour implemented it, over Tory opposition. Now even the Tories support it. Recapitalisation of the banks - Vince Cable was the first politician to call for this. Three days later the Chancellor announced that this would be going ahead.
* Tackling the bonus culture - in May 2008 we were the first party to put forward proposals for tackling the harmful bonus culture in the financial sector. By autumn 2008, ministers and the Tory leadership had realised the situation was indefensible and changed their tune.
* Regulation of 'sale and rent back' agreements - this was part of our '7 point plan' for dealing with personal debt, launched in September 2003. The Government announced on 22nd October that they were finally looking into this.
* New court guidance to make repossession a 'last resort', obliging lenders to exhaust all alternatives first - another measure announced by the Government in October that the Lib Dems had been calling for for more than six months. (Though they have been slow and ineffective at implementing it.)
* Changes to capital adequacy laws to require banks to hold more capital in periods of boom and less in recession - we called for this back in January 2003. It was called for by the Conservatives in 2008 and appeared in the G20 Communiqué in April 2009.
* Ban on short selling of financial stocks - Vince Cable urged this on September 16th (having also raised the issue in July). The Government did not act until three days later, once the Americans had announced restrictions.
* National network of financial advice centres - since 2003 we have been calling for a network of local and generic financial advice, particularly for those on lower incomes, funded by a levy on the financial services industry. In 2008 the Tories announced their support for this too, using almost exactly the same language.
* Curbs on irresponsible lending - a commonplace sentiment now, but we called for "the publication by the Government of strict measures for responsible lending, which lenders must be required to observe" back in September 2003.
* Northern Rock nationalisation - it was clear to us that this was unavoidable in November 2007. It took the Government until February 2008 to act.
* Independence of the Bank of England - longstanding Lib Dem policy. First Labour implemented it, over Tory opposition. Now even the Tories support it. Recapitalisation of the banks - Vince Cable was the first politician to call for this. Three days later the Chancellor announced that this would be going ahead.
* Tackling the bonus culture - in May 2008 we were the first party to put forward proposals for tackling the harmful bonus culture in the financial sector. By autumn 2008, ministers and the Tory leadership had realised the situation was indefensible and changed their tune.
* Regulation of 'sale and rent back' agreements - this was part of our '7 point plan' for dealing with personal debt, launched in September 2003. The Government announced on 22nd October that they were finally looking into this.
* New court guidance to make repossession a 'last resort', obliging lenders to exhaust all alternatives first - another measure announced by the Government in October that the Lib Dems had been calling for for more than six months. (Though they have been slow and ineffective at implementing it.)
* Changes to capital adequacy laws to require banks to hold more capital in periods of boom and less in recession - we called for this back in January 2003. It was called for by the Conservatives in 2008 and appeared in the G20 Communiqué in April 2009.
* Ban on short selling of financial stocks - Vince Cable urged this on September 16th (having also raised the issue in July). The Government did not act until three days later, once the Americans had announced restrictions.
* National network of financial advice centres - since 2003 we have been calling for a network of local and generic financial advice, particularly for those on lower incomes, funded by a levy on the financial services industry. In 2008 the Tories announced their support for this too, using almost exactly the same language.
* Curbs on irresponsible lending - a commonplace sentiment now, but we called for "the publication by the Government of strict measures for responsible lending, which lenders must be required to observe" back in September 2003.