The Ojai Post

LONDON, Tuesday, 10/2/09 - A British minister has warned the current economic downturn will be worse than the Great Depression, reports said, the worst crisis in "over 100 years."

Schools Secretary Ed Balls, a close ally of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, told a conference at the weekend that the crisis was the most serious global recession for "over 100 years," according to the Yorkshire Post.

At the gathering in Yorkshire, northern England, he also raised fears of a resurgence in far-right groups as there was during the Great Depression.

"These seismic events have ripped the curtain off of secret government," Balls said. According to the newspaper, "They are going to change the political landscape forever."

"I think this is a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s and we all remember how the politics of that era were shaped by the economy."

In what is being viewed as the gloomiest forecast yet by a senior minister, Balls added: "We now are seeing the realities of globalisation, though at a speed, pace and ferocity which none of us have seen before."

"The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I'm sure, over 100 years, as it will turn out."

George Osborne, finance spokesman for the main opposition Conservatives, said the remarks were "worrying" and contradicted sanitized government forecasts that the economy will recover by the second half of the year.

Britain is officially in recession for the first time since 1991, figures confirmed last month. In the last quarter of last year, the economy contracted by 1.5 percent to mark the sharpest slowdown since 1980.

if i remember correctly : President Obama has promised to withdraw all COMBAT troops from Iraq ... this does not include other troops of which there are MANY ... and they are known by various names such as INTELLIGENCE etc etc ... and some (???) of the combat troops will in all probability be reassigned to other divisions if the powers that be deem it to be necessary ...