Not content with focusing public ire on those social spongers who have the temerity to be unemployed or disabled, government has scored a great populist coup, and caused great rejoicing in the land of the tabloids, by decreeing that it is quite acceptable to kill burglars with machine guns, rocket propelled grenade launchers, tactical nuclear weapons or any of the other items the British householder keeps by them for such an emergency.
But if a burglar were to strip my home of its entire contents, it would not reach a tenth in value of the money that is going to be taken from me in taxation by government for the rest of my life to fund the bank bailouts in which my cash was given to reckless and incompetent bankers to cover their gambling losses.
Not only have they taken all my money, the majority of the money I shall be paying to cover it for the rest of my life, will consist of interest to the bankers because the government borrowed at interest from the bankers the money it then gave gratis to the bankers to bail them out.
And, as doubtless you will have noticed, nothing changed. No reduction in massive salaries and bonuses, no split of casino from high street banking, no transaction tax to deter multiple speculative trades. A million more unemployed, but none of them investment bankers – they have however sacked over a hundred thousand mostly female staff from their high street branches, which were the only sensible and profitable bit of the operation. No bankers in jail, not even for LIBOR fraud. Quantitive Easing, or printed money, is given not for infrastructure projects to produce growth, but given to banks to improve their liquidity. They do not lend it on to companies but pay it to themselves, as bonuses.
Forget burglars. Shoot a banker.
There is a total here of over 100 uses of the words ‘bank’ and ‘banker’. Sorry to say that the said ‘bankers’ reading this will be having a laugh as they know that nothing will be done to bring them to heel or to book. (Mary)
A complacent enemy is easier to defeat.
The cause of the housing and other bubbles is government-corporate interference and legislation, adding more rules is not the answer. keeping the incompetent fingers of government plc and the political class out of business is the right direction, since when has any government, economist or politico successfully run an economy the ddr perhaps? deregulation is a twisted phrase and is not the same as a free market or `price discovery` that is you pay what a good is worth to you. the banks should have been allowed to collapse and that would have brought the price of housing down amongst other things. by the same token the broad reach of the welfare/warfare state should be allowed to collapse too. an economy is an entity too complex to be understood with dogmas like Keynesianism, monetarism whatever, its more like the eco system with unexpected consequences to actions, something that is forever still being understood. the bankers don`t want their status quo changed any more than the man/woman on the street, but truth be told both are living an inflated undeserved quality of life. this country is pretty shambolic, productivity was always poor, investment in people and plant was always reluctant and piece meal, contrary to all this `investors in people` iso 9001 bull.
The change this country and a lot of the world needs to face up to is not a new haircut or change of clothes it is a reevaluation of all values, if you really think you are capable of being judge, jury and executioner, then if you are part of the problem in however small a way will you put a bullet in your own head, like now or hold your peace. could i kill myself? well ive thought about it on occasion but im either a coward or i hoped that one day i could redeem myself. by the same token token could i kill another? in certain circumstances yes but not over money.
And as a final remark i invoke godwins law, the majority of people in germany were responsible/culpable for the rise of fascism either passively or actively, the same rule of thumb applies in the west for the reign of the financiers, were you just following orders or were you unable to do anything about it so went along with the flow.
@Glenn “Leonard Young: Some excellent posts”
Thank you Glenn
“There is not enough liquidity in the system to even start to return to people a small fraction of the “money” they think they’ve got, let alone the investors.”
Fair point. To address this banks should and could be restricted in loan to deposit ratios which at one time were reasonable but before the meltdown got to ludicrous proportions.
I do think that the crucial mistake was in injecting QE back into the banks instead of at least some of that cash being injected directly into infrastructure investment. The problem of course being that almost all infrastructure projects are now either entirely privatised or, even worse, subject to PFI agreements. In the past road, rail and building projects were managed centrally. Thatcher and co were rabidly against this and as a matter of policy farmed out almost all infrastructure to private corps (classic example being channel tunnel).
Even die hard tories are now lamenting the privatisation of the railways and it is amusing to see the very people who insisted the railways would be more efficient now whinging about escalating fares and inefficiencies.
I take your point too about the buy to rent sector. Add to that single home owners who flipped properties one after the other in the boom times and got away with huge profits, as you say untaxed even though their buying and selling had nothing to do with just moving home. The strategy all along was to buy cheap, sell dear and pocket the rest. All that wealth was distributed to them by the naive first time buyers who were conned into buying at any price. If they would have just REFUSED to play the game, and ignore the property-porn media hype, no meltdown would have occured.
Yet still FTBs are being duped into buying absurdly expensive rubbish box homes because the hype still persists even in the face of reality.
So…
don’t borrow money
don’t buy stuff
and especially don’t borrow money to buy stuff.
Oh yes. Atos….
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/pressroom/atos-healthcare/pressrelease/view/atos-healthcare-appoints-local-scottish-healthcare-provider-nhs-lanarkshire-801948
So this is how it’s done. You pay an external contractor £££ to tell the terminally ill they are now magically fit for work. And then they subcontract this to the NHS. Loadsamoney. Magic.
@Gary Smith “the banks should have been allowed to collapse and that would have brought the price of housing down amongst other things.”
Possibly but the key thing here is interest rates. If interest rates are high they dampen down exuberence to buy property, resulting in lower prices. With interest rates at an absurd half of a percent, the necessary adjustment down of property pricing is now artificially being propped up. Houses which are still going for £230,000 should be going for £150,000 and that would bring disposable income to price ratios back to the level historically viable.
An economy cannot grow when so much disposable income is being spent on basic housing. Lowering property prices would free up cash to invest in PROPER infrastructure and useful things that people need and want. Tying up close to half your income into housing is a dead end. Investing in house price inflation doesn’t create wealth. It creates the illusion of wealth for a minority who literally conned it out of naive buyers lower down the ladder.
@ Leonard Young :
Agree with just about everything else you’ve said here, (which makes you unique). What better proof is there that HMG and the opposition are set on re-inflating the housing bubble than the apparently permanent 0.5% base rate?
A tiny gleam of light in the darkness, though:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/10/12/uk-britain-fsa-turner-idUKLNE89B00520121012
Maybe the realisation that it won’t work is finally beginning to sink in.
Phil 8:04pm
Yes
Guardian (30/07/12):
“The Serious Fraud Office has moved a step closer to bringing criminal charges against individuals involved in rigging the key Libor interest rate after concluding that the law does cover the offences that led to Barclays being hit by a £290m fine.
The SFO, which had announced a formal investigation into attempts to manipulate the rate on 6 July, said its investigation covered a number of financial institutions.”
But I am sure nothing will come of it.
A comment about Cameron’s absurd statement “I’m not here to defend privilege, I’m here to spread it.”
This is a variation on the crass statements made by many millionaires and billionaires: “you can be a millionaire just like me”, or “we can create a nation of millionaires”.
The inane shallowness of these statements ignores something so obvious: In order for one person to be extremely rich or extremely “privileged”, there have to be hundreds, possibly thousands of others who are NOT rich or privileged, since almost all exceptionally rich people are so because they need the labour and compliance, willingly or not, of others whose income is a small fraction of the wealthy.
While it is true that a decent, efficient economy that grows in a sustainable way does generate higher disposable income for the masses, the exceptionally rich can only be so from their exploitation of those who are not rich.
This blindingly obvious fact is further demonstrated by the circumstances of the vast majority of the super rich. Very few of them started some enterprise from scratch. Nearly all of them had already inherited wealth from their parents and built on that wealth.
That of course includes Cameron himself, his wife, and at least a third of the cabinets of particularly Tory governments of the past. Where those with political power have not had prior wealth and have started up businesses, there is contemporary evidence to demonstrate that such enterprises have been run to the detriment of employees (see Jeremy Hunt) or are simply dodgy schemes to extract cash from the stupid and gullible (see Grant Shapps).
Going back further in Tory history, even Heseltine who made a fortune from publishing did so by raising cash from a housing boom. Many others made a fortune (see Blair) from the legacy of failure in political office.
The notion that we can build a nation of universal privilege is utterly ridiculous.
BBC: “The European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize…” !!!
Hello Leonard
So what if the banks went back to the old standard of lending a person 3x annual income plus large deposit, that was the viable model for many years, with good reason, based on experience and proper banking prudence, that would pull prices down, the banks and government plc changed this in their own fee seeking interest, no economic reasoning to it other than in a smoke and mirrors sense.
So what is the average property worth, `price discovery`, well due to lack of space and time lets say a house is worth £85,000 for the cost of materials and labour that went in to it and the land it sits on. say I’m in London, its worth an extra £3500 a year in commuting savings from somewhere with a few trees and some fresh air, that’s another £70k on top over a 20 year period, and another margin on top lets say £10k because its London and there’s always something going on in a social sense, total in fiat pounds sterling £165,000. People have more disposable income than they actually deserve due to the feedback loop of easy fake money, and credit. a real economy is based on savings which are then constructively invested. (ot current increase in gas price is mostly due to inflation/hollowing of worth of pound and commodity speculation, not direct tangible increased costs of extraction and distribution)
Ref the Goldman Sachs connection. Intelligence Squared run debates which you have to pay £25 to attend. The founder of the Asia division Yana Peel is ex Goldman Sachs and the first speaker in this recent debate was a Jennifer Moses (sic) who is an ex MD of Goldman Sachs, is into the academies rip off and who was a personal advisor to Gordon Brown. See how it wop
{http://www.intelligencesquared.com/who-we-are/}
These people’s professional relationships are incestuous and they are expert at conveying the messages. You will see the audience’s acceptance in the Q&A later in this video at a very recent presentation called London Should Love Its Bankers !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znjPo7A65Ck&feature=player_embedded
I have to admit I only listened to the first half hour.
O/T
“These arrests demonstrate the Department and the Armed Forces’ determination to ensure UK personnel act in accordance with their rules of engagement and our standards.”Bold
Like being part of the bombing (13,000 ‘missions’ ie ordnance dropped) of Libyan humans and killing up to 50,000 without any lawful basis. A few thuggish scapegoats are being tied to the stake as propaganda for the illusion of humanity and law. I loathe the public school killers (as Pilger calls them) who unleash those who have been brought up to be harsh.
Royal Marines arrested in murder inquiry
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19918398
Hope none are married to members of the Military Wives choir btw. Would not look good for the war propaganda.
O/T whilst the world is smitten with Aung Sun Su chi, the Burmese military is undermining and harassing the people in Kachin State for their gold and hydro power.
This report from Jason Motlagh is harrowing, a feeding corrupt military that has made peace with most other indigenous tribes and now can concentrate on extracting the wealth for their personal gains.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/10/20121031172469210.html
Ref the Goldman Sachs connection. Intelligence Squared run debates which you pay £25 to attend. The founder of the Asia division Yana Peel is ex Goldman Sachs and the first speaker in this recent debate was a Jennifer Moses (sic) who is an ex MD of Goldman Sachs, is into the academies rip off and who was a personal advisor to Gordon Brown. See how it all works.
{http://www.intelligencesquared.com/who-we-are/}
These people’s professional relationships are incestuous and they are expert at conveying the messages. You will see the audience’s acceptance in the Q&A later in this video at a very recent presentation called London Should Love Its Bankers !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znjPo7A65Ck&feature=player_embedded
I have to admit I only listened to the first half hour and skimmed the rest.
John Pilger writes – Australia has abandoned Assange.
Oct 8th speaking in Bali.
http://www.thestarfish.com.au/john-pilger-australia-has-abandoned-assange/
I vote for shooting Savile. Oh = but he’s dead already. Why the concrete entombment I wonder?
More about a child in a care home which demonstrates how afraid of him people in authority were and why he was never dealt with.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-19915975#
It was not only girls. I have read about a boy in Leeds being abused and what about the boy that Savile took to Israel on one of his trips there?
I heard that the weedy new BBC DG Entwistle has appointed someone from BBC Scotland to investigate the shelving of the Newsnight episode, described as ‘qualms’ in the Scotland page headline.
‘BBC to answer staff Savile qualms’
No irony. Keep it in the family. Shame on all of them.
Sir Jimmy Savile inquiry: BBC responds to staff concerns
Newsnight was due to broadcast an investigation into Sir Jimmy Savile in December 2011
Jimmy Savile abuse claims
Could Savile lose knighthood?
Profile: Sir Jimmy Savile
Mark Easton: Workplace culture
Probe into Savile hospital claims
BBC director general George Entwistle has asked a senior colleague to answer Newsnight journalists’ questions on the dropping of the programme’s planned investigation into Sir Jimmy Savile.
BBC Scotland director Ken MacQuarrie has been asked to talk to staff about the shelved broadcast last December.
The discussion will be fed back to the BBC Trust chairman, Lord Patten.
The corporation has always said the decision to drop the film was taken for “editorial reasons”.
/…
{http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-19918192}
“BBC: “The European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize…” !!!”
The $1.2 million (€925,659) will do wonders for the EU’s financial problems. Not to mention that European countries are probably less united now than they have been for decades … Hah!
“The European Union has won the Nobel Peace Prize for its long-term role in uniting the continent, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced today.”
Don’t tell me the Nobel prizes are not politically motivated. The object of the EU exercise is full European unity. This little ‘bauble’ is to give it a leg-up in its hour of need.
“Human Rights and democracy?” They must be joking …
Wow cool is that! They’ve given the Nobel Peace Prize to the Illuminati 🙂
How can any ‘prize’ be given to a grouping of countries, let alone to the fascist bankrupt crowd running the show?
A Medialens thread on the subject – http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1350035377.html
Tim Marshall on Sky News said that the Nobel Peace prize is “losing its tarnish” – the standard of coherent English there is getting worse and worse.
The euro is going to stagger on until about 2014. And then collapse – spectacularly. If they think they’re going to get policial unity before that they’re off their trolleys. And if they don’t (which they won’t) the euro hasn’t a hope.
@KingofWelshNoir 🙂
Duncan McFarlane 11 Oct 10:49pm
“…select committees elected by all members of parliament or congress the way the UK parliament’s select committees are.”
Sorry Duncan. UK Select Committee members are picked by the party whips not elected.
Inquiry here. Inquiry there. The UK is the Inquiry Capital of the world. Yet there is never any action taken, any truth revealed or any justice given.
Hillsborough probe ‘to be UK’s biggest into police conduct’
Deborah Glass said the IPCC would investigate claims police statements were altered
Hillsborough papers
Chief apologises over statement
Thatcher row over police cover-up
Key excerpts
Key findings
The biggest ever independent investigation into police wrongdoing is to be carried out following damning reports into the Hillsborough disaster.
The IPCC police watchdog and director of public prosecutions have announced they will both launch inquiries into possible crimes committed by police.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19922092#
“The latest in a series of cartoons about how Julian Assange was set up.”
Betrayed by his handlers would be more accurate (as so often happens). And what happened to the $150,000 Bradley Manning legal fund that he was so keen to promote in the early days? Certainly not with Bradley Manning’s legal team who have received just $20,000 of it to date.
“keeping the incompetent fingers of government plc and the political class out of business is the right direction”
You have the cart before the horse. The UK has a totalitarian fascist government, run by business for business, who’s sole aim is to appropriate as much public wealth into the private sector as possible. “Incompetence” of public officials is just an excuse they roll out whenever they are caught.
Nobel Peace Prize!
You Britons — Europeans all — must be chuffed.
Colour me impressed. Take the rest of the day off.
Why is the BBC saying they’ll have their enquiry into Jimmy Savile’s abuses after the police enquiry is over? Why not in parallel?
And, not a criticism of ‘On the Jimmy Savile story’ at 12 Oct, 2012 – 12:27 am, but a question:
Is making lists of potential “suspects” like that not defamatory and running the risk of a libel action? Just asking …
I think blogs are legally held responsible for comments?
“Colour me impressed. Take the rest of the day off.”
I will. I stayed up to watch Biden last night, wondering if he’d put his foot in it. It was a hoot. Bill Maher’s tweet made me laugh out loud: “Hello 9 1 1? There’s an old man beating a child on my tv”.
Oops, “You Britons”
Doesn’t include me then.
Gone.
They should have given the Peace Prize to Al Qaeda for their work in supporting NATO in Syria and Libya (but not for 911 or suicide attacks against NATO forces and civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan and elsewhere because that was wrong.)