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One of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's advisers is in full-blown panic mode over China's Black Monday
Mike BirdAug 24, 2015, 19:09 IST
Damian McBride, a former special adviser to Gordon Brown, is not at all happy with the news that stocks are falling around the world this morning.
McBride resigned in 2009 after a scandal involving emails that suggested smearing senior members of the Conservative party. He was formerly head of communications at the British Treasury, and was one of the Prime Minister's inner circle at the time of the 2008 financial crisis.
He's seriously worried about China's stock market crash, and has some bizarre prepper-style advice for people to protect themselves.
Here are some of his tweets on Monday:
It doesn't seem to be an isolated thought on McBride's part. A string of previous tweets, including a positive endorsement of a Zero Hedge link, suggests this is an entirely genuine view on his part.For what it's worth, analysts at Capital Economics took a much less fretful view of China's impact on the British economy in a recent note. Here's what they say:The UK's direct export exposure to China is fairly small. Granted, import prices may be pushed down, increasing the risk that deflation becomes ingrained. However, time lags mean we are unlikely to see the recent exchange rate moves reflected in consumer prices until next year. Given this limited impact, the slowdown in China is unlikely to be serious enough to influence the timing of the first rise in UK interest rates or the subsequent pace of tightening. Please enable Javascript to watch this video