Darling will spend his way out of recession

moanymoany

There have been posts on other boards where people have talked about job losses to come in Government departments. I suspect that there is a lot of cuts going on all over the place - they might have kept them a secret in the past, but with the internet it's not so easy.

A very good and dear friend of mine was involved in working out redundancy packages for NHS workers when Thatcher was making secret and massive cuts. She was told that if she or her colleagues leaked the truth they could find themselves in prison.

Thatcher was telling everyone that there were no redundancies in the NHS - that the NHS was safe with her. My friend ended up having a nervous breakdown with all the pressures. There were several people in her department who had long periods of time off sick with stress at the same time.

The human cost can be high whatever way the Government decides to play it. The best thing about now is that this kind of thing could not be kept secret. There are advantages and disadvantages to the speed of today's communications - but overall the advantages win out.

neverdespairgirl

baby_boomer wrote: »

I assume it's terrified emerging market investors pulling out their money and putting it into the $ as a relatively safe haven.

I agree - with all the speculation about S Korea / E Europe etc, etc going bust, people see the dollar as the least worst option.

lostinrates

Its interesting because I was smoozing again this weekend and more than a few people were saying they were buying sterling with their us dollars now.

We have a substantial Euro payment on its way in November. Trying to decide what to do with that and I just don't know.

Generali

lostinrates wrote: »

Its interesting because I was smoozing again this weekend and more than a few people were saying they were buying sterling with their us dollars now.

We have a substantial Euro payment on its way in November. Trying to decide what to do with that and I just don't know.

Personally, I'd lock in current prices today so once you've decided what to do with it, use a foward or future to lock in the price if you can. Things are so volitile at the moment a price can move 20% in a week easily.

The choice is yours of course and using some sort of forward or future won't be free.

hethmar

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

No, don't worry, the last payment to America was December 2006, I think. Originally it was £1,000 million or so.

Oh money to spare then if the loans paid up:rotfl:

ruggedtoast

Labour in Stable Door Closing After Horse Has Bolted Shocker!

Sir_Humphrey

moanymoany wrote: »

There have been posts on other boards where people have talked about job losses to come in Government departments. I suspect that there is a lot of cuts going on all over the place - they might have kept them a secret in the past, but with the internet it's not so easy.
t.

Contrary to what one may read in the Daily Mail, there have been lots of job cuts in the civil service since 2004. These cuts tend to be achieved by natural wastage and voluntary redundancy. Another trick is to relocate non-ministerial departments to the sticks, where few post-holders choose to follow, eg the ONS.

I have no concrete information on other parts of the public sector. Local govt might be vulnerable.

baby_boomer

Do you have any idea how impossible it is, with that photo and that name, to take you the least bit seriously when you talk about civil service cuts :rotfl: ?

Generali

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

Contrary to what one may read in the Daily Mail, there have been lots of job cuts in the civil service since 2004. These cuts tend to be achieved by natural wastage and voluntary redundancy. Another trick is to relocate non-ministerial departments to the sticks, where few post-holders choose to follow, eg the ONS.

I have no concrete information on other parts of the public sector. Local govt might be vulnerable.

The Times had a piece on the courts cutting a lot of jobs and the budget being cut.

Link

I agree that local government is vulnerable as they spend so much more than they collect in taxes. Also it's better politically for a council run by one of the other parties to be cutting services. If the current unpopularity of Labour continues that is going to give the Treasury a lot more targets!

I guess the other obvious target is the welfare budget. It's massive.

There also seem to be some anti-immigrant noises coming out of Govt right now. Cuts in spending on translation services and that sort of thing to follow? It's an easy target.

iltisman

I just watched Brown explaining how he was going to spend his way out of the problem,he uses err a lot when speaking usually a sign of lying, anyway you can count the errs per minute and perhaps a errs to truth ratio could be established.