WTF is happening in the UK?

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Undried Plum
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4881 Post by Undried Plum » Mon Oct 03, 2022 6:55 pm

The fundamental problem is one of a lack of understanding of the E bit of a PPE degree.

Inflation is caused by the creation of too much debt, ie money'printing'.

Wossername, and her low albedo chum with the lemonaidbottlebottom spectacles, seems to have lost sight of the basics.

Her insane idea is to borrow our way out of debt. That's nuts! She's flushing what's left of the Pound down the toilet.

She, and her bonkers Chancellor, truly believes that with a one or two year kickstart to the economy by slashing taxes while giving away hundreds of Billions is going to lead to growth of the UK economy. That's spectacularly ignorant of reality.

Look at China. Thirty years ago they dumped communism and went for growth. Deng Zhou Ping said it's cool to get rich, so the Chinee did exactly that. They've already got more millionaires than the UK and US and Russia combined and soon they will have more billionaires too. How did they do that? With a one or two year spell of Reaganomics? Trickledown? No.

They created an environment for economic growth by a twenty year programme of investment in Education and the infrastructure of the country. They built new schools and new universities and new libraries and new roads and new railways and bridges and airports and petrochem plants and modern electricity generation and distribution networks and a nationwide ultrasuperduperhighspeed telecomms network.

Then, with a well educated and tech-savvy young workforce, they built factories to make things. Y'know, the sort of things that you can buy from that riparian bookshop and from FleaBay. Stuff that people want and want to pay for, eventually, and can make use of, for a while before it goes into landfill.

We in the UK, and to an extent in the US too, no longer make much stuff. Thatcher converted the UK economy from a manufacturing economy to a service industry. We've become a nation of hairdressers and nailpainters and estate agents and insurance salesmen. Those twats don't create wealth. They merely acquire wealth. Wealth trickles up the tree, not down. "Making money" is a very misleading expression of the English language.

Before I get kicked off the forum again for months on some pathetic pretext by the malicious one, let me post here some actual realworld numbers which quantify the awful extent of Inflation within my own economically active lifetime.

In 1971 I earned a Pound or two in a blue-dressed flying club. In those day a Pound was worth $2.40 and real money, ie gold, was $35 per Troy Ounce.

A Pound was worth 1/15th of an ounce of gold.

Today a Pound is worth $1.1169 and an ounce of gold is $1,671.75.

A Pound is now worth 1/1,500th of an ounce of gold.

In those 51 years of my adult life they've inflated away 99% of the value of the Pound.

How long will it take the barstewards to inflate away the other 1%?

I'm hacked off about Inflation. Can you tell?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4882 Post by FD2 » Mon Oct 03, 2022 6:57 pm

Boac wrote:
Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:48 pm
I know, but there are still some dear blue rinses who think the Conservatives are wonderful and pure.
Reluctant as I am to interrupt the pink rinsed cabal's diatribe - against a government which has led the country to this pathetic position under the greased piglet Johnson - and now has a very difficult hill to climb under an untested leader as a result.

Does the cabal think the country will do better under the leader of His Majesty's Opposition and his team? What about the Lib Dumbs? What about support from the porcine leader of the SNP? Their support might lead to the break up of the UK. Maybe Dorries is right and they should just call a general election to see what falls out from this mess so the people can get the government they really deserve.

Any suggestions for the way forward chaps?

UP's comments +1

I thought the BOE's job was to keep inflation under control (presumably with prompts from the Chancellor if required)?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4883 Post by Undried Plum » Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:09 pm

Any suggestions for the way forward chaps?
Just shake yer shoulders up and down a bit and ye'll be just like Ted Heath.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4884 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:12 pm

There is no way forward.
The leaders get less capable, honest, and intelligent every time.
Genuinely competent candidates hardly ever get nominated, and never get to senior government positions, simply because they would show every else up.
The BoE's last 5 forecasts for inflation (I posted this a while back) have all followed the same pattern, and have all mirrored the Fed forecasts...and have all been horribly wrong.
Their models are either nothing to do with reality, and they are therefore clueless, or they do know what's going on and have fudged the figures to show what the government wants.
I suspect the latter, because they haven't been sacked by the government, but it could also be because the government are equally clueless and daren't change the BoE's remit or staff.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4885 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:15 pm

Undried Plum wrote:
Mon Oct 03, 2022 6:55 pm

Before I get kicked off the forum again for months on some pathetic pretext by the malicious one, let me post here some actual realworld numbers which quantify the awful extent of Inflation within my own economically active lifetime.
Plum:
Try your best to stick around for a while. :-ss
I know it is tough to bite your tongue fingers in this case, but please try. :-s

PP

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4886 Post by Undried Plum » Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:27 pm

I'll do my best Ph, but you know what I'm up against.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4887 Post by OFSO » Mon Oct 03, 2022 8:33 pm

Welcome back!

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4888 Post by FD2 » Mon Oct 03, 2022 8:44 pm

Fox3WheresMyBanana wrote:
Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:12 pm
There is no way forward.
The leaders get less capable, honest, and intelligent every time.
Genuinely competent candidates hardly ever get nominated, and never get to senior government positions, simply because they would show every else up.
The BoE's last 5 forecasts for inflation (I posted this a while back) have all followed the same pattern, and have all mirrored the Fed forecasts...and have all been horribly wrong.
Their models are either nothing to do with reality, and they are therefore clueless, or they do know what's going on and have fudged the figures to show what the government wants.
I suspect the latter, because they haven't been sacked by the government, but it could also be because the government are equally clueless and daren't change the BoE's remit or staff.
Agree - it's pretty depressing isn't it?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4889 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Mon Oct 03, 2022 9:07 pm

I'm quite upbeat.
The government bureaucracy here is now so inefficient that out in the sticks we can do what we like.
I do not need to rely on the government or a major corporation for anything.
My expenses for a comfortable life are half the minimum pension.
I am surrounded by local people who have the means to provide every service I might need, and I am occasionally useful to them too.
I am not, of course, in the UK, where none of the above would be possible.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4890 Post by Undried Plum » Tue Oct 04, 2022 4:37 am

Image

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4891 Post by Undried Plum » Tue Oct 04, 2022 5:21 am

FD2 wrote:
Mon Oct 03, 2022 6:57 pm
I thought the BOE's job was to keep inflation under control (presumably with prompts from the Chancellor if required)?
The prime responsibility of any central bank is to protect the currency.

The Bank of England is a bit special. It was set up by a Scotsman, William Paterson. He was the guy who invented the concept of a National Debt. Previously, it had been the King's Debt. Usually to fund wars. Ho hum!

The king was delighted, of course. He became the biggest shareholder and Paterson, as a leading shareholder, became rich too.

He went on to bankrupt Scotland in the crazy Darien Scheme which led to the "estates of Scotland" dissolving itself and finalising what is now known as The United Kingdom.

The estates of Scotland were the landed gentry of the day and most of them went bust by investing in Paterson's crazy scheme. They were paid off with a £400,000 "emolument". A bank was set up, called The Royal Bank of Scotland, to disburse and administer that dosh. In 2008 it went bust and was bailed out by a Scottish Prime Minister and a Scottish Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Funny how that works, innit.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4892 Post by ricardian » Tue Oct 04, 2022 9:19 am

Ricardian, Stronsay, Orkney UK
www.stronsaylimpet.co.uk
visitstronsay.com
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/EGER

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4893 Post by FD2 » Tue Oct 04, 2022 10:01 pm

It is funny 'peculiar'. I've been a customer of the RBS for 45 years and my late in-laws for many years before that. Formerly a standard of dour integrity but let down by that weasel and temporary knight Fred Goodwin who was keen on buying into the junk mortgages market in the States, the bank has struggled to regain its standing. It was caught up along with several other UK banks in Russian money laundering enterprises. I haven't checked for a while but I wonder how much of the taxpayers' money has been paid back.

After the Kiwi CEO Ross McEwan left we now have a female CEO and with diligence she will hopefully be able to restore a sense of pride in the bank.

Goodwin is a good example of the often quoted incorrect adage 'if you want the right person you have to pay them the going (very high of course) rate' . He took mountains of dosh but ruined the bank and it took Brown's huge injection of funds to keep it afloat.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4894 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Tue Oct 04, 2022 10:09 pm

There's nothing wrong with the adage.
The problem was that Goodwin wasn't the right person.
Neither are the vast majority of the others pulling in these high salaries these days.
It's also a true adage right the way through the labour market at the moment. Good people will not work for the derisory wages offered for the people who are actually productive.
And companies and governments could afford these good wages for the productive if they sacked all the high salaried non-productive.
Such as the entire HR profession worldwide. The good ones (about 2% in my experience) can go back to being Personnel on half the wages.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4895 Post by FD2 » Tue Oct 04, 2022 10:23 pm

I've thought for a long time that the highest HR position in any company should be 'clerk' or very junior 'manager'. There have been many instances of HR people failing to do the simplest background checks on potential employees which resulted in charlatans, rogues and criminals being employed in (even) government positions. Line managers and directors have foolishly taken HR departments' assessments that such and such a person is 'the right one'.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4896 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Tue Oct 04, 2022 10:35 pm

I should add that I found the Admin Sec branch in the RAF about 98% very good; officers, NCOs, and other ranks. My only real hassles came with about half the civvy admin, though the other half were very good.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4897 Post by FD2 » Tue Oct 04, 2022 11:09 pm

Agree about service people - it's civilians - I should have made clear. The only service one I got annoyed with was at Culdrose. The chief wren in the clothing store who insisted on me returning my holey, worn out, eight year old service issue underpants with my flying clothing when I left the Navy! Fortunately (or unfortunately) they were recently washed as I had been warned about her.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4898 Post by G-CPTN » Wed Oct 05, 2022 1:08 am

So did you leave 'necked'?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4899 Post by FD2 » Wed Oct 05, 2022 1:26 am

I just asked if she would be re-issuing the shreddies. She didn't think that was funny. "I'm just doing my job."

Apologies for the downward drift...

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#4900 Post by Undried Plum » Wed Oct 05, 2022 6:10 am

The incompetent former head of the FCA is now the incompetent head of the BoE.




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