Much has been written in recent times about the supposed 'economic miracle' enjoyed by the Uk under the incredible super-chancellorship of Mr Gordon Brown. Under Mr Brown's careful and well thought out steering, the UK has enjoyed a near 'golden age' of prosperity, economic growth and fine weather. This 'boom' has seen:-
* Over 50 consecutive quarters of economic growth
* The ecomomy is still growing 1.7% still projected to grow in 2006.
* Interest rates at historically low levels and stable.
* Unemployment at historically low levels and low compared to our neighbours
However, a number of sources are starting to question the perceived wisdom of the boom times in the UK - namely how is it possible to have perpetual economic growth, a tripling of house prices in the last 6 years, and virtually full employment? The short answer is, of course, that it is not possible, and that what the UK population are actually doing is staring into the maw of a hypersized debt ridden economic meltdown, unwitnessed since the Great Crash of 1929.
While it is undeniable that we have indeed seen 50 consecutive quarters of economic growth according to 'official' figures, the question that should be asked is - where has the finance come from to pay for this expansion? From prudent re-investment of growing corporate profits into likely areas of future increasing demand? According to economic research at www.nodebtever.com , unfortunately not. The UK 'economic growth' over the past half decade has simply been a case of massive consumer spending on white goods and gadgets manufactured in the far east. Worse, that spending has been paid for with debt - the UK consumer has borrowed to the hilt of the hilt in order to grab yet another flat screen TV or a new 4x4 s.u.v.
Personal debt in the UK had risen to about half a trillion pounds when Gordon Brown took over. It had taken almost 600 years for debt to reach that level. By 2005, in other words in just 6 short years of 'prudent fiscal management', that debt had doubled to over a trillion pounds, in an era of historically low inflation. This reliance on debt has been engineered cynically in the following way.
Realizing upon taking the job that the UK was facing a downswing in the economic cycle (a natural state of affairs, and a necessary one, by the way), Mr Brown decided that he would like to go down in history as the 'Little chancellor who could'. How do you prevent a recession? Spend! Or at least that's what Mr Brown had read in his 'Economics 101' textbook, leant to him by an undergraduate intern from www.nodebtever.com. We should point out at this juncture that Gordon Brown has no relevant economic experience or education that would allow him to even run a corner shop, let alone an entire country - he just happens to be a buddy of Big Tony, and 'jobs for the boys' is almost a cachetism of the Nulabor mindset.
Hamstrung by Tony's promises not to increase taxes or borrow massively, Gordon found himself in a quandary - how to raise the finance to pay for such an outrageous attempt to hold back the tide. Simple. Get consumers to borrow it. This, of course raised other problems, such as how to persuade the canny UK public to take on 10 times the debt they were historically comfortable with. Answer? Easy. Convince them that their primary (and in fact in most cases ONLY) asset had risen massively in value, making everyone feel rich and therefore more likely to borrow.
This he did. While promising 'no more boom and bust' Mr Brown helped engineer the biggest house price bubble in world history, making the majority of UK homeowners feel rich. Many became almost instant millionaires thru this inflation, and yes, you guessed it, they went right out and refinanced their homes, spending the money on consumer goods, so propping up the economy.
Gordon Brown, of course, taxes all this spending, and uses the tax revenues so generated to create almost a million new jobs in the UK's already bloated public sector (note the UK is now approaching a level of public spending unseen since the old 'soviet' style centrally planned economies. In some parts of the UK, over 50% of all spending is government spending).
In other words GORDON BROWN, UNABLE TO RAISE TAXES, FOOLED THE UK PUBLIC INTO BELIEVING THEY WERE RICH. HE THEN TAXED THEIR BORROWING.
It is hard to see how the generally smart and educated UK public fell for this trick, until one remembers that bubbles tend to suck in even the cleverest people (Sir Isaac Newton himself got sucked into the South Sea Bubble!).
Will it continue? Will we eventually see '100 consecutive quarters of economic growth'? Of course not. The UK has already spent NEXT years income THIS year. In fact, they have spent THE YEAR AFTER as well. Debts need to start to be repaid at some point, and that point appears to have been reached last autumn, when the UK housing bubble, rather predictably, started to deflate, impinging negatively on the wider economy. Now generally referred to as 'Gordenron' Brown, or even 'Gordon Clown', the poor Fat Controller is between a rock and a hard place - recession looming, Tony refusing to stand down, and no one to pass the buck to. The worst, as always, is yet to come. Hang onto your hats, people, it's gonna be a bit bumpy for the next couple of years!

About the Author
P.G. Uru is widely regarded as the world's most intelligent estate agent, and writes occassionally for the Beano, the Oldie, The Radio Times, www.nodebtever.com and The Economiser.