The ludicrous thing was that Britain had a AAA rating in the first place.
It is four years since I started pointing out the blindlingly obvious, that quantitive easing would cause inflation and devaluation. Four years ago this blog had far fewer readers than it does now, and I am quite proud of that piece, so do read it.
At the time it was a deeply unfashionable view – in part because it was New Labour doing it, so all the BBC and Guardianista media were backing quantitive easing. Even when I wrote this two years ago:
Inflation as measured by the retail price index remains stubbornly at 5.2%, despite all the obvious deflationary pressures on the economy and continuing weak consumer demand. Strangely, the attempts to explain this being offered by media pundits all miss out quantitive easing, or to use a more old-fashioned term, printing money.
It is deeply unfashionable to hold to the view that simply to create more money reduces the value of the money already in circulation in relation to the supply of available goods; but that is what all history tells us (the benchmark example being the rampant inflation after Spanish opening up of the New World greatly increased the amount of gold coinage in circulation). Common sense tells us that too. Otherwise we could simply solve many of our problems by printing another couple of trillion pounds.
A couple of years ago, I suggested “Enough quantitive easing and we can eventually get back to stagflation”. We are just about there. Why have none of the experts noticed?
nobody much agreed.
Fashion in economics is fascinating. Now every financial pundit on the BBC and Sky has noticed that quantitive easing causes devaluation and inflation. Suddenly they have remembered that if you create a lot of something, it decreases its unit value.
Hey, but the banks have the money that was created, and bank bonuses are back to normal. So all is fine.
in My humble opinion, the you tube video of George Galloway spanking ( No Em Pun intended ) the Senate over Iraq – is one of the best youtube videos Ever,
But here is Another of G.G Having his Blood pressure Go through the roof, as he tries educate a silly Zionist Type…Both Funny and yet sad
OOOPS… Forgot the Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82svQGBlY08
Thanks for that link, Brian. I have tears of laughter running down my face.
“You’ll give me a heart attack, Andy. I’d better go on to another caller”.
Des Res
Sorry the cork in your pop gun was on a short piece of string. You’ll have to reload and get closer to your aim. My point was that the facial characteristics of Mr Galloway’s debating opponent are, apart from the dangly curls in front of the ears, exactly the features of modern Israel youth.
When I went to Israel a long time ago I was struck by the similarity as you say between the appearance of young Palestinians and young Israelis, both of whom at that time shaved their beards. But Mr Aslan-Levy has that anaemic look of a young Jew, while the most of the Muslim youth now support beards.
I sometimes change coaches at Golders Green, and I also recently encountered a troop of ringleted students on a cliff walk in Dorset. Apart from being politely insistent on their right to occupy the Holy Land, they were also all of similar face to Mr Aslan-Levy. The debate was a set up to make Galloway look a fool, which he isn’t.
Des Res
“Aslan-Levy, who was born and brought up in Britain, said he is keen for the Palestinian conflict to be settled diplomatically and disagrees with the settler movement and its representatives, such as Dani Dayan, who spoke at the union last Friday”
Those of us who have had dealings in our personal lives with Jewish people have learned not to take their statements at face value. That is learned from bitter experience. Zionists always lie and you will be a lot closer to the truth if you reverse their statements.
“Aslan-Levy, who was born and brought up in Britain, said he is keen for the Palestinian conflict to be settled by Zionist deceit and believes the settler movement and its representatives have the right policies.” Deceit is extremely irritating, especially on the lips of people you trust like women and students.
George Galloway seems to have been through a similar learning curve to my own. there is nothing you can do with Zionist deceit. Walk away and leave them with the egg on their face.
@ Doug Scorgie re. The Gorgeous One / Derek Hatton :
Absolutely right, Dougie, I was a decade out, but that doesn’t of course invalidate my basic point.
Don’t you know a sharp dresser when you see one? Of course you do, there was another (extreme left-wing) example quite near to you, the famous “Tommy Sheridan”…remember him?
Do you happen to know if The Georgeous One smokes Havanas (no reason why he shouldn’t, of course!). Just to build up a more complete picture, you understand!
@ Doug Scorgie (19h30) :
“You’re at it again Mr Habbabkuk; expressing ypur point of view in the form of a question”
You’re a hawk-eyed observer indeed, Mr Doug, and you’re quite right, I do have recourse to that rhetorical device from time to time. But it’s quite a common rhetorical device and I shouldn’t fret about it if I were you; just focus on substance and answer the question(s). *
“Is it because someone might out-argue you”
The possibility that I could be out-argued cxertainly exists, but on the evidence so far it certainly won’t be you who’ll do it.
* reminder : your learned explanation for the unemployment/employment figures? Still waiting with bated breath!
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La vita è bella, life is good!
‘Those of us who have had dealings in our personal lives with Jewish people have learned not to take their statements at face value. That is learned from bitter experience. Zionists always lie and you will be a lot closer to the truth if you reverse their statements.’ – Gunao
Moderators?
Okay, I think we have seen enough, this Guano character is obviously an insane, out and out bigot, who has invested a great deal of his life in make-believe.
I would encourage anyone of sane mind not to debate with him.
CE
You are not a troll, you are trash.
@ CE :
I must urge you not to be too hard with young Guano. Everything in creation has a function, although that function may not be immediately obvious to the untrained eye. On this blog characters like Guano, English Knight and Mark Golding, for example, provide rich comic relief : to condemn them as merely insane, although understandable, is ungenerous and smacks of Saint Mary-style negativism.
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La vita è bella, life is good!
CE, today’s Gatekeeper decreed:
“Okay, I think we have seen enough, this Guano character is obviously an insane, out and out bigot, who has invested a great deal of his life in make-believe.
I would encourage anyone of sane mind not to debate with him.”
CE. Zionism is a political ideology. Not all Zionists are Jewish. Not all Jews are Zionists. Opposing a political ideology is not bigotry.
Meanwhile in Israel
A film of an Israeli settler trying to convince Palestinians to hand over their fram land to him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tEgKT0cIOZk
Turn on captions to enjoy the full glory of the religious nutjob.
“Now, you listen to me. Soon the Messiah will come. He’ll be here any minute. You understand this well. It’s also written in the Koran. When the Messiah comes, you’ll be our slaves.”
Can’t agree here Craig. After all that quantitative easing inflation has fallen from 5.2% to 2.7% -i.e almost halved. Stagflation is a difficult thing to explain, but my guess is it’s caused by rises in fuel and energy prices. It began in the 1970s after the 1973 OPEC oil price rise and fuel and energy costs have been rising in the last decade too.
Printing money certainly devalues existing money – but it also devalues debts denominated in the same currency that’s being printed; and our main problem is not inflation, but unemployment and lack of credit. South Korean economist Ha Joon Chang has pointed out that even IMF analyses estimate that inflation doesn’t impact on growth until it reaches 8%, while less conservative studies suggest 20%.
Banks issue money as debt all the time, out of thin air. There’s no reason governments can’t print money and instead of giving it to the banks to pad their reserves, give it to ordinary people or as low or zero interest loans to small and medium businesses which actually pay their taxes and aren’t likely to move abroad the moment higher profits are available in another country.