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Money v Making Stuff-Should Britain bid farewell to the golden egg of banking.
Moylando
Posted: 05 September 2011 11:39:51(UTC)

Joined: 08/09/2010(UTC)
Posts: 28

It means the pie stayed the same size but the good guys got smaller sizes
Jeremy Bosk
Posted: 05 September 2011 13:00:05(UTC)

Joined: 09/06/2010(UTC)
Posts: 1,316

Moylando and Robert

But the pie can grow or shrink in line with the economy. It is possible for everyone to get bigger slices even if their share of the total changes for the worse. New capital, new invention, new discoveries: in short growth and progress.

I am extremely dissatisfied with the attempt to differentiate risk from uncertainty. There may be a genuine distinction, I am not yet persuaded.
Robert Court
Posted: 05 September 2011 14:28:20(UTC)

Joined: 22/08/2011(UTC)
Posts: 606

Jeremy

I'd rather have 1% of £1,000,000 than 100% of £1,000 if that's what you're getting at.

Buth then I'm growing in my stupid belief that infinite growth is an infinitely horrible thought.

I'd rather have 10% of a very, very nice pie than 100% of a really shitty pie.

'Quality rather than quantity' and sometimes 'less is more'

I have three PC's, one laptop and one notebook.

I rarely use more than one at a time.

My favourites are the PC with the large screen with a very good specification and the cheapest (i.e. the notebook) which is functional and goes for an exceptionally long time before the battery screams 'Charge me up now or die!'

The problem is 'too many human beings'

Human beings are horrible critters and should be mostly emasculated at birth.

Is this the rioting thread again? :)
Jeremy Bosk
Posted: 05 September 2011 15:09:32(UTC)

Joined: 09/06/2010(UTC)
Posts: 1,316

Robert

Yes and yes.

The trouble with emasculation is that it only solves one half of the problem Solomon had several hundred wives and was doubtless able to service all of them in time. In this age of artificial insemination and the turkey baster...
Anonymous Post
Posted: 05 September 2011 23:44:59(UTC)
Anonymous 1 needed this 'Off the Record'

Jeremy Bosk at 426
Been busy, but will try to catch up.
Wholeasle deposits. Not quite sure why they need to dry up, on ring fencing. In some respects they would be safer places for wholesale deposits to earn interest.
I have not read the full proposal, but If this was a big issue, banks would have ensured that this would have been made known and more than fully considered.
Instead we have accusations that regulation is going to stiffle and disrupt their business.
They obviously have very short memories, remember soft touch regulation, and where it got us?
Look for example to Canada and their banks. They did not get themselves into the same mess. Because of regulation?
Secondly, on many occasions you stated you did not mind where the jobs came from. So what is the problem? Seems to me that these people would be engaged on doing something useful in the short and long term.
Your final comment
'Your neighbours do not have the money on deposit to fund your and their lifestyles.'
I will have you know Jeremy that I am very much the old type. My parents always tought me to save and live within my means.
Only when I took mortgages (through a buiding society not a bank) did this not fully apply, For example I moved for work in the 80's, bought a very average two bedroom house for the four of us, only to be hammered by Mrs T's interest rate increases. Could never work out what I was supposed to have done wrong, and never voted for her again.
Now I am 68 and retired but working, sometimes 24/7, helping to run a B&B. Proud to have people from all over the world stop with us, but an idiot of a workaholic. Many a time people cannot help but wonder why I do this. But I am fiercely independent, and do not want any handoputs form anybody. Your comments about deposit money funding my lifestyle are a total irrelevence.

Prof Eman
Jeremy Bosk
Posted: 06 September 2011 01:30:08(UTC)

Joined: 09/06/2010(UTC)
Posts: 1,316

Prof

If the retail banks are ring fenced they have to borrow wholesale from no longer allied investment banks at commercial rates. This puts up their costs which will be passed on to consumer borrowers.

Which people are you talking about? Short of seriously anti-social activities such as selling torture equipment, I don't care where jobs come from. I think ring fencing retail banks will do more harm than good and lead to increased unemployment.

My comment on funding lifestyles was intended to be light hearted. I meant that the retail deposits of all UK citizens, whether they live responsibly or not, are insufficient to fund even necessary spending.

Yes, I suffered under Thatcher but was slightly consoled by never having voted for her in the first place!

Please be assured of my respect for an honest and hard working fellow citizen such as yourself.






Anonymous Post
Posted: 06 September 2011 11:07:56(UTC)
Anonymous 1 needed this 'Off the Record'

Jeremy Bosk
Thank you for your response, and your kind comments.
On banks, I note your comments but am still not convinced.
It does appear that regulated banks did not get themselves into the mess, (and the resulting world recession), that not so much regulated banks did.
Even if there is a cost involved in regulation/ring fencing, in my opinion it would be worthwhile in order to avoid a repeat of the recession as we now have.

Prof Eman
PS There are people calling for an increase in base rate, however on my past experience, I am not so keen. Sqeezing ordinary people to hell, for banks and others sins, does not appear to me to be fair and reasonabvle.
Jeremy Bosk
Posted: 06 September 2011 11:55:35(UTC)

Joined: 09/06/2010(UTC)
Posts: 1,316

Prof

Besides adding to costs, ring fencing would not stop the rest of the banking system from going wrong again and on such a large scale that governments would have to intervene to protect the whole economy.

They might even have to raid the piggy banks of the ring fenced retail banking sector to do so. No amount of legal ring fencing can protect anyone from government changing what passes for its mind.

I agree that increasing base rates in recessionary economies such as ours would be insane. King is right to say that inflation is due to temporary factors which will drop out of the equation. Our real problem is actually deflation. Governments and consumers need to do some spending, preferably the long term investment sort, but even consumption spending does eventually produce more investment.

A survey by ComRes of London businesses found strong support for infrastructure spending, business tax cuts and easier recruitment of overseas graduates.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/...-a42b-00144feab49a.html

The CBI and BCC have issued similar calls. The Tories in business have finally realised what a disastrous mistake they made in 2010. They will not get Cameron and Osborne to change without themselves spending serious money on brainwashing the rabble. When the House of Commons lobby fodder start to worry about keeping their seats. Expect a takeover bid for the Mail any time now.
chazza
Posted: 06 September 2011 12:24:23(UTC)

Joined: 13/08/2010(UTC)
Posts: 606

Whatever happened to the 'Green New Deal' we were promised?
In times like these we need public spending on useful infrastructure projects to kick start economic recovery. As well as large-scale projects such as off-shore windfarms and renovation of the National Grid, rebuilding of over-used railway lines (forget High Speed) and some road improvements, there are still many schools, colleges and community halls overdue for rebuilding. Investing in these will produce more benefits than any direct stimulus to consumption (such as a VAT cut), and will help get some of our own unemployed graduates into work (forget about the overseas graduates until we've solved the problems for our own).
And if George Osborne really believes that by borrowing to fund infrastructure projects the UK would be in the same basket as Greece, he is unfit for purpose...
Jeremy Bosk
Posted: 06 September 2011 13:10:10(UTC)

Joined: 09/06/2010(UTC)
Posts: 1,316

The London businessmen surveyed believed that they needed foreign graduates because the British educated could neither read, write nor add up. I feel that this is an exaggeration.

In any case, the answer to our sometimes appalling education system is to outsource it to the foreigners (preferably Scandinavians). Import foreign graduates to teach.

What George Osborne and his colleagues actually believe is unknowable. We can only judge them by their professed beliefs and by their actions. They appear to wish to reduce this country to the economic level of a Zimbabwe without its mineral wealth or agricultural potential.

Outsourcing is a wonderful thing. We have already outsourced foreign policy to Uncle Sam, why not go the whole way and outsource the rest of government and elections? Preferably not to Uncle Sam, Robert Mugabe, Silvio Berlusconi, Hugo Chavez, the Ayatollahs... Hey! There are countries worse governed than ours!

I think we are back to those nice Scandinavians. They do have a masochistic streak, look at those saunas!

Please, please come and sort us out.
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