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October 20, 2008
Credit crunch
The forcasts don't look good, in fact the latest suggestion is that, contrary to Whitehall's rose tinted visions from the Treasury, the UK economy is already in recession. This will be the second one I have had to survive in the last twenty years and it is probably all the more annoying because, if anything, the Whitehall w*nkers and their political chums in the Cabinet have ably helped to plunge us into it. Interestingly they now are crying that MORE regulations are required, when I am convinced that at least one of the reasons so much of our manufacturing capacity, not to mention almost all of our mainstay commercial activity, is now based "offshore" is precisely because the "regulation" in the EU has reached stupid proportions.
Yes, the financial sector probably does need a bit more commonsense applied in their dealings, after all most of the "trading" in the finance markets (as on the Stock Market) is little better than what one can find in any betting shop on the High Street. The stakes are higher and the odds longer, but its still no more than gambling on a monumental scale - and best of all, the traders win regardless of whether they lose the lot or not. Never bock the "House Percentage" is the maxim they need reminding of, but now that Mister Darling has Nationalised two of our biggest banks on the excuse that they have "borrowed" Public Money, I do not hold out a great deal of hope for anything more than financial stagnation of the worst kind. I know they haven't put Civil Servants on the Boards (Yet!) but the directors they have installed will be having their strings pulled by politicians. In short, the banks will not be allowed to respond to market demand, and everything will grind to a halt. And watch the Red Tape that will now erupt out of Brussels and the Whitehall back rooms.
I do not believe that "Public Ownership" is a solution to the spread of wealth, if anything the Century of Socialist/Communist Command econmics demonstrated by the former USSR and even our own dear Labour Party machinations in the 1950's and 60's should have proved that. But it seems that Whitehall is still in loive with the idea and the very last people who should have any say in the management of anything at all, especially something as important as the national economy, are the Civil Servants who are now being given control of it. If you want something to die on its feet, put some Civil Servants in charge of it. It may take a while, but they will kill it as surely as poison will kill a fit human being. Take a look at the record of Civil Service management of any nationalised industry anywhere, or any major project managed by civil servants in the last half century. I rest my case!
What is worse, the gullible among the voting public are falling for the line that the present PM is "the best man for the job os steering us through this crisis" - a ridiculous assumption precisely because HE has created the mess we are in. He inherited a recovering and sound economy from the Tories in 1997 and has squandered it. Under his Chancellorship our taxes have risen by the Treasury's own admission by 51% and our National Debt is now the highest it has ever been in all of our history. He has embarked on a policy of raising taxes to spend, spend, spend and when he couldn't get it from the tax pool he borrowed and borrowed. This is as bad as the Pre-Thatcher Labour Government whose solution to needing more money was to simply let the printing presses print as much as they wanted. That got this country into a financial crisis that put us under IMF management!
Yes, the Credit Crunch is the result of stupidty and greed in the Finacial Markets and among our top bankers, but they are not solely to blame, some of it must rest with the politicans who have created the climate in which that could happen. And you can be very sure that they won't be reducing their salaries or pension benefits anytime soon.
Snouts in the trough! We're alright Jack, we're inboard!
Posted by The Gray Monk at October 20, 2008 01:30 PM
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Comments
I think that you will love this letter from a hedge manager to his customers. http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com/2008/10/andrew-lahde-hedge-fund-closure-letter.html
Posted by: skipjack at October 21, 2008 01:31 AM
Fascinating, but he's wrong on the marijuana front - it is a trigger for schizophrenia and clinical depression (Bi-polar) illnesses.
Posted by: The Gray Monk at October 21, 2008 08:12 AM
I can believe that, but he's right about the rich being in bed with the government.
Posted by: skipjack at October 21, 2008 12:37 PM
No argument there - they featherbed each other beautifully. But then, that is the history of government since it was invented 5,000 years ago!
Posted by: The Gray Monk at October 21, 2008 09:11 PM