Thanks.....believe me I could have gone on......and on! Juncker as the EU’s Sepp Blatter, that the EU and Europe are not the same so the Little Englander gibe does not stick, the monstrous impact of the Euro on most countries other than Germany, currency manipulation, mercantilism, corruption, EU accounts, etc, etc! One of my favourite stories is that at one stage Italy was claiming more in maize subsidy grants than false colour infrared satellite photos showed it had total land under cultivation...... This IS the rant thread, is it not?
Oh b****r it......while I am ranting...... Economics for Eejits The Money Tree. Where do Governments get their money? From us. It is called tax. It is also only the tax culled from the productive, private sector. Government employees may do valuable work but they do not create new wealth. There is no such thing as ‘public money’ - it is all ultimately taxpayers’ money; income tax, national insurance, VAT, corporation tax, stamp duty, road fund licence, insurance tax, airport tax, new car tax (itself calculated on the VAT as well) and the rest all go into the same big Treasury bucket. For every pound you nominally earn you will spend just over 50p in tax, nearer 70p for higher rate tax payers - not on actually ‘getting what you want’. However, most governments (especially ‘socialist or progressive’ parties that like to give us gifts with our own money) are greedy and driven by an electoral timetable so they borrow - but it is we taxpayers who ultimately pay. The two main ways are ‘bonds’ a government guaranteed loan from a merchant bank or private finance initiatives which are like an enormous mortgage with generous interest paid to the provider of facilities and services that would otherwise need to be found from up front tax receipts. This creates a National Debt. Governments that run a current account deficit are, in effect, bribing us with our own money that they are successfully managing the national accounts. The Submarine. Much as politicians like to tell you the economy is flying it seldom does. The UK has a submarine. Like her or loathe her Margaret Thatcher was an effective finance skipper. On her watch the submarine was surfacing strongly and within weeks of assuming command Blair briefly broke the surface before his Chancellor Brown initiated a crash dive with a variety of schemes that were the polar opposite of ‘prudence’ and ‘investment’ he claimed. The numbers do not lie. We were sinking fast. Submarines have a safe diving limit at which point the credit reference agencies sound the alarm. We went through that when nudged deeper by the banking crisis. Crush depth was delayed by Osborne slowing the sink rate by ‘austerity’ but it was not as austere as he claimed or as tough as his opponents whinged. So, when politicians deliberately confuse the deficit and the debt you should know that the debt is how deep we are but the word ‘deficit’ (sinking!) is merely the rate at which we continue into the abyss. The point at which we will begin our long return to the surface has now been put off until the 2020s........ Government. Government is about choice. If economics is the allocation of finite resources to infinite wants then government is about choosing what we do fund and to what degree while having a national debate about why. Inflation. ‘Inflation is taxation without legislation’ said the economist Milton Friedman. He meant that you lose purchasing power but the government erodes the vale of its debts. Heads they win, tails you lose. The natural tendency of money to lose value (inflation) is really only offset by an increase in production. Sound government balances fiscal policy (interest rates/money supply and tax and spend) with a business friendly approach (planning etc.,) to facilitate that productivity improvement. Remember the uncomfortable truth you will only get a job from a rich man able to provide it. By that measure the SNP are probably the most innumerate political party in the UK. Productivity. All taxation is ultimately regressive i.e. a disincentive to economic activity as it confiscates part of the reward. ‘Progressive’ taxation is code for higher taxes on higher earners. It seems superficially ‘fair’ but higher earners i.e. the top 50% already pay 90% of UK income tax - fact. And then there is the phenomenon known as the Laffer Curve albeit unknown to Scotland’s Finance Minister. It is simply this; there is a crossover point in increased taxation (beyond that at which productivity has already started to fall away) where total tax receipts fall because businesses fail or relocate to lower tax areas. Economics. The father of global economics Adam Smith from Fife, Scotland never set out to be anything of the kind. He thought he was a moral philosopher but he was curious about how wealth came about. His insights came about through a process of observation. His observation of 18C Glasgow merchants and others was that their pursuit of personal profit did not benefit themselves alone. Their wealth radiated by enriching those with whom they in turn traded their profits. Conversely he observed how government taxation and tariffs crushed wealth creation while governments were uniquely wasteful in their application of other people’s money. Nothing has changed in the intervening 240 years.
The bike is fine - just SORN’d for the winter months. The snow has only just melted here and the local road crew are outside filling in potholes like crazy. Me? Coughing like a chain smoker and projectile snot - both utterly incompatible with a full face lid with no wiper on the visor interior. That is why I vented a little spleen on the venal, political incompetents of the Realm. I cannot lay claim to the same level of cleverality as DD. Who could?
Wow well put sir and your earlier post Ever thought of standing for Parliament ?! BTW Mother Teresa Saint Jeremy and the rest should be forced to go and see The Darkest Hour (which could be titled how to stand up against European bullies even when most of your MPs say give in)
Modesty forbids but in a former life I had a grandee try to cultivate my interest. Then I remembered Montgomery ‘I thought war was a dirty business until I got involved in politics.’
Wow I enjoyed that .Please dont think of this as a reply more of a interested questioning on a very interesing and stimulating essay -; The money tree How do you feel about private business manipulating government to is own ends? Why didnt the government let the banks fail? Bribing us with our own money or encouraging a spring to come early , like Thatcher and council house sales.that worked cos so many tenents existed to spread the wealth, they tried again with care-in-the-community, and it failed because the few private companies is spawned were more savey with there money than the tenants The submarine Why arent we loosing some ballast ( standard of living) {with the rest of the world rising out of poverty we have to drop down because we cant all live this well] and floating back up, and why isint some party advocating this? Governments They only work when allowed to, and not wrested with by the press, big business, dodgers, skivers, and nae sayers,If a spokesman cant speak to a audience without constant correction buffeting buffering haranguing its grinds to a halt. The message is precise, exact ,and takes a lot of explanation anyway with the best will,never mind opposition agendas fouling the gears. Inflation Must be controlled by the impartial, without being influenced by profiteering games men Thank goodness we own our own money unlike America. Produdtivity More damage is done to productivity by Usury than by Tax. If the top 50% pay 90% of the tax then where can you get it from. if not them, we need tax, there are only so many people, Q.E.D. no? Economics Wealth radiation only happens in conjunction with hoarding, No one spends all their profits.Without Government we are left with being either rich or relying on Philanthropy ( the law of diminishing return) for hospitals and schools.Wealth creation is hindered more by usury again, than by tax And by the wealthy pulling up the ladder with the help of Government Business must be governed ,sounds in places like you would see them with a free rain or are you speaking with in the confines of of a National structure?
Are you sure? Are you really sure? An invitation to rant!? The money tree How do you feel about private business manipulating government to is own ends? Why didnt the government let the banks fail? Bribing us with our own money or encouraging a spring to come early , like Thatcher and council house sales.that worked cos so many tenents existed to spread the wealth, they tried again with care-in-the-community, and it failed because the few private companies is spawned were more savey with there money than the tenants Ok.......well in my view governments should govern and concentrate on what only a government alone can. That boils down to defence of the realm, maintenance of national infrastructure (probably roads only) maintenance of a judicial system so criminals pay and contracts can be enforced (without which trade cannot flourish - the bit Russia consistently gets wrong with its endemic poverty inducing corruption) and not much more! Now plainly government does far more than that and my opinion - and it is only an opinion - is that government is too big because it gets involved where it should not. Ronnie Reagan used to have a line about the scariest words in the English language being ‘I am from the government and I am here to help you.’ Business (only big ones can) tries to get rules bent in their favour. Generally speaking when it comes to government contracts they also add noughts. Part of the responsibility is government systems and ethos. Civil servants are inadequately trained and experienced to be smart customers and the fear of low level fraud ties everyone in red tape but the headline cost gets overlooked. Besides, it is someone else’s money. The public system is penny wise, pound foolish and attempted reforms have drowned in civil service culture that hates change or personal accountability. The whole theory of ministerial responsibility encourages it but they seldom resign any more.... So, Northern Rock should have gone to the wall and its depositors protected to the £50k limit. RBS likewise but carved up to protect the profitable arms. We need more aggressive legislation for executive malfeasance and loss of pension rights etc. for those convicted. Shareholders should suffer the loss, not the taxpayer. Politics gets in the way with banks because unlike Carrilion that has trashed mere hundreds of honest suppliers, banks impact thosands upon thousands with the collapsing pack of cards. In almost all cases it has been investment banks that screwed up, not the high street operations. The banks absolutely should be split up to ensure they are not too big to fail and both Labour and Tories have chickened out of real reform. Donors anyone? Council house sales do not affect the total housing stock. They just change the private/public balance. In fact councils were supposed to use the receipts to build more but Labour councils had political motives to see that the policy failed....socialists like grateful tenants to keep voting for the people who give them things. Tories like mini capitalists. I like a mixed economy that gives people affordable choices. Which nudges me to health and social care. I have no philosophical objection to private care. I have a major objection to the profit motive in some parts of it. Competition is fine for supply of diagnostic services but not running a care home. We have commercial outfits who bought up care homes, mortgaged their property portfolios and pocketed the loot leaving care fees to pick up the mortgage repayments. All the hazard of failure is dumped on the public purse while the directors waltz into the sunset. Check out the Chancellor’s background..... I would have not for profit companies and charities running care homes and hospitals under local boards of trustees. They would re-invest any profits made and not exist to enrich shareholders. Funnily enough, just what public schools do. The fees at Eton may be steep but per capita are pretty much the same as your local comp when you add in all the bureaucracy from Town Halls to the Dept of Education.......and there are plenty of other affordable fee paying schools emerging all of which alleviate the public purse from the cost of educating those pupils. Tax credits for those parents? Health, education and housing are all under massive pressure from population growth caused primarily through immigration. I take no issue with race, creed or colour but the political establishment likes to gloss over the cause because they might then have to do something about it. I suspect history will condemn both the EU and Blair for setting the ball rolling but technology also is part of the problem. Rural Africans and Afghans can draw comparisons of their own experience with what is visible on their phones. What’s not to like about solid buildings with electricity and clean water? Conversely I do not believe we are under any moral obligation to admit anyone unless we choose democratically to do so. It’s our money and our country. Regret asking?
The submarine metaphor is simply about the national debt. Economics is not just about how you slice up the cake but about baking bigger cakes. You may have a smaller slice but it is still bigger than a big slice of a small cake. We can all win. Probably enough for now!
And no I don’t believe in giving markets a totally free rein. They get it right eventually but only by over and under shooting- sometimes wildly. I suppose my basic philosophy is that I am more interested in what actually works as opposed to what makes me feel virtuous. Hollywood take note! You get the behaviour you incentivise so be careful it is what you intend when you create rules. Not sure what you mean by hoarding and usury. Hoarding under the bed loses value due to inflation - basically what stalled Japan’s economy when they had a crisis of confidence in their banks. Savings are what banks lend to others to grow their businesses and for which they charge interest. The banks are the middlemen. Usury - or interest - rewards savers and enables entrepreneurs so getting the balance right matters. Low returns discourages savers and dries up the loan pool while high interest rates makes borrowing unaffordable or unprofitable. Real usury is excessively high interest rates. It is competition as much as inflationarty policy that keeps them keen.
A future bequeathed to them by a bunch of dead old feckers who had a misguided 'rose tinted' notion that Britannia could once again 'Rule the Waves' if only we could free ourselves from the yoke of the biggest trade club in the world. Sorry for living so long! As for immigration, as Sprinter says, whose going to fund our pensions when young immigrants stop bolstering the workforce and thus the Treasury? Most immigrants I have worked with in my industry are self employed on a limited company basis, so they pay "feck all" into the economy. Still take the benefits tho' Already farmers are complaining about crops rotting in the fields cos seasonal immigration has fallen, and as a result we're importing more fresh produce at higher costs. Maybe if they paid realistic wages, homegrown workers would pick the fruit? And without foreign trained doctors and nurses. Can never understand what the say anyway, bit like the wife (she is a nurse)! So, declining real value of pensions. Costlier food. Even worse NHS. And none of us are getting any younger. Pretty much the same if we stayed in anyway! And aren't you going to love it when you find yourself in the long Non-EU queue when you travel over there. Just like going to any destination outside the EU..... not a problem! "Chillin" Be lucky.... no offense meant guys!
