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Labour clearly had no hand in the de-rgulation of the S&L or the rgulatory relaxation that lead to NINJA loans in the US and the subsequent 'boom and bust' .

That said Gordon Brown was personally responsible for the reform (against very good civil service advice) of the regulatory system in the UK and this more than merely contributed to our own property bubble.

This combined with a misunderstanding of basic Keynesian economics (loose trans. running a deficient in the good times) meant that when there was the inevitable cyclic correction there was little that could be done. this made what would have been a 'standard' recession into the worst recession of modern times.

The competence of the current Labour front bench makes the last lot look like demi-gods.