http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5891366.ece


Britain's chief financial regulator blamed Gordon Brown yesterday for contributing to the economic crisis, coming close to accusing him of stoking the credit-fuelled housing boom and bust.

Hector Sants, chief executive of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), said that the pro-debt view of government ministers was one of the structural failures that led to the crisis. He said that one problem was “a prevailing mindset of Government and society promoting the benefits of credit and asset inflation, notably in housing”.

The comments appear to be the first time that the FSA has directly criticised the Government for its role in creating some of the imbalances that led to the banking catastrophe of the past two years.