Content about Economy

Why do our politicians go straight to the private bankers, who simply create money completely out of thin air ... just figures on a computer screen ... and when this ‘money’, or more accurately this ‘nothingness’, is received by our government, we, as taxpayers, start paying the exorbitant interest which is currently costing the British people in real money at least £125,000,000 a day, or more than £44,000,000,000 a year?

The answer, of course, is very simple and to the point. 

There is no doubt that China is suffering as a result of the global economic downturn. Electricity generation levels collapsed in April; up only 0.7% in the last 12 months. China's shipyards have received almost no orders this year. Housing sales are collapsing. Manufacturing outputs are falling.

These are all indicators that the Chinese economy is faltering, and, of course, the inevitable rhetoric from the world's financiers to the Chinese government is "we must have easing!"

The cost of borrowing money from the markets has been yo-yoing around the 6% mark as so-called market sentiment passes judgement on Spain's outlook.

Yesterday the markets seemed to believe that Spain was a better bet than it has been, with the interest rates charged on its debt falling to 5.89 percent. Spain had planned to raise 3 billion euros in their bond auction, but managed to exceed expectations by raising 3.2 billion euros.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development if predicting that Britain will fall back into recession this quarter.

George Osborne on the other hand, says we won't. Commenting on the OECD forecast, he said:

This is a forecast... Our own forecast from our own independent body, which we published last week, says we are going to avoid a recession.

Our own independent body?

What planet is this man on? How can any body be "our own" and "independent" at the same time?

Speaking at an event last night at the London School of Economics, Kraemer said he believed that this time round, Greece would have to involve bailout partners such as the International Monetary Fund. Commenting on the likelyhood of a further restructuring, he siad:

I’m not predicting today when ... At that time maybe the official creditors need to come into the boat.

Perhaps he was alluding to the Titanic.

The Economist's blogger Bagehot writes that his:

print column this week looks at the British debate about high pay, and suggests that the row is about more than bonuses and banks. Somewhere in amongst the public rage, I think the British are losing faith in the idea that they live in a meritocracy.

Bagehot expresses views which are typical of the oligarchical mind, which whines when the unwashed masses demand limits are placed on bankers salaries.

The EU intends to use the European courts to enforce its new "fiscal compact". It is expected that the courts will be able to impose fines of up to 0.1% of GDP on countries failing to meet the demands of the new compact. Just what already suffering nations need.

Resolving the issue of the Greek debt swap is considered key to keeping the Euro going for another few weeks. Under the terms of the deal, private investors will swap their current, unrepayable, Greek government bonds for some equally unrepayable bonds of lesser value. Private investors are expected to take a so-called "haircut" of between sixty and seventy percent.

Launched at the Royal Society, thirteen industry participants, three government departments and the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to share knowledge and expertise in an effort to evaluate the potential for hydrogen as a fuel for so-called "Ultra Low Carbon Vehicles" in the UK before developing an action plan for an anticipated roll-out to consumers in 2014/15.

It's there.

It's there in the half trillion Euros pumped into an already dead European financial system at Christmas by the European Central Bank. It's there in the half trillion Euros that the ECB is going to pump in next month. It's there in the trillions upon trillions of dollars pumped into the system by the Fed, and the hundreds of billions of pounds pumped into system by the Bank of England.

In the case of supermarket cartels like Tesco, whose aggressive commercial behaviour is throttling the life out of what remains of the independent UK retail sector, not to mention our farmers and producers, and have recently courted controversy with their decision to rescind their charity contributions to Cancer UK in favour of funding disgusting spectacles of our national moral decline like Gay Pride, we can only rejoice at the news that £4 billion was wiped off their share price yesterday, following “disappointing” Christmas sales figures.

Ireland, Spain, Italy, Greece or Hungary are each quite capable of lighting the fuse that sets off the Euro bomb any time now.

Today, "officials" from the "Troika" - the IMF, European Central Bank, and EU - are visiting Dublin to review its loan programme to Ireland.

As part of the visit the delegation will peruse Irelands books, to see how the country has performed against the Troika's demands for austerity. They will also outline which hoops Ireland will have to jump through in the coming three months.