Newsnight: Quantitative Easing

Pal

There are a few problems with the website link provided by SGE.

- It doesn't take account of National Insurance Contributions, which quite clearly is a tax.
- The omission of fuel, stamp and capital gains taxes from the table make the comparison meaningless as these vary enormously between countries

The key issue is that the table doesn't give an idea of the amount of tax being paid by the average person, just a range of possible taxes.

Stating the UK tax range as being 0 to 40% and then comparing it to Sweden (0-55%) is meaningless, as the average UK taxpayer could be paying 30% while the average swedish payer could be paying 25%.

I would also argue that looking at figures as a percentage of GDP makes little sense either, as we cannot tell how much of the tax came from individuals or corporate profits. We also don't know the relative levels of GDP i.e. you are comparing percentages of unknown figures with other percentages of unknown figures.

Taking it further, how do we know the starting point for any of the other countries, Perhaps they have all raised their taxes even further than ours over recent years (in particular indirect taxes).

And has anyone defined the "hilt" that we are being taxed to? Surely this is all relative.

To summarise: Please stop bickering.

dopester

I see the price of oil is being tipped to hyper-inflate out of sight. :rolleyes:

Flirting with $42 a barrel at the moment.

Oil to hit $25 a barrel as global recession deepens, Merrill Lynch predicts

Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/3564383/Oil-to-hit-25-a-barrel-as-global-recession-deepens-Merrill-Lynch-predicts.html

Really2

dopester wrote: »

I see the price of oil is being tipped to hyper-inflate out of sight. :rolleyes:

Flirting with $42 a barrel at the moment.

Oil to hit $25 a barrel as global recession deepens, Merrill Lynch predicts

Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/3564383/Oil-to-hit-25-a-barrel-as-global-recession-deepens-Merrill-Lynch-predicts.html

I would take any prediction on oil with a pinch of salt this year.
I think it will come down more (but opec want it at $70-$80) but with predictions of $200 middle of the year I gave up after that.

I suppose it will depend on what they do with production.

Conrad

SGE1 wrote: »

1) It's "embarrass", not "embarress"
/quote]


There's nowt more emborasang than a finger wagging spell check nazi:T

WTF?_2

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Whilst we import more than we export, it is certainly not "vastly" more.

Balance of trade is circa four billion pounds a month, every month.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=199



Still, with figures of tens or hundreds of billions of quid in bailouts now being thrown around with abandon by the government, maybe an ongoing trade deficit of four billion pounds a month is nothing to worry about.

Some people would have you believe we export nothing & import everything.

Got any example of these mythical people - I haven't seen anyone posting in this MSE group saying that "we export nothing & import everything".

Of course 'Some people' on MSE like to attribute made-up opinions to other people and then make sly comments on that basis :rolleyes:

WTF?_2

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Thanks for posting the translation, I was wondering what it meant
It does sound like some scientific way, of working out how to adjust your underpants.

Yes my savings are getting less interest. Trouble is I don't want to buy anything, I have everything I need!
I'm obviously ecstatic that they might well become worth even less.

Luckily, the only thing I really want to buy at the moment is a house (ok, maybe a decent car too) and house prices are still very much headed in the right direction. They will only reverse once the banks begin loony lending again - and that won't happen until the government print up a load of bonds to wipe out their bad debt.

However, once the money starts being printed it won't make a lot of sense to hold any savings beyond what you might need as 'emergency ready cash'.

I think if you have savings not earmarked for a house, now might be a good time to start following energy, mining, agriculture, food retail stocks with a view to buying in should they show signs of a rise. Any hard asset that will generate ongoing income, basically. They will be jumped on once the printing begins.

Deflation may have the upper hand at the moment but print enough money and price inflation is guaranteed ... and they will print enough money however much that is.

kennyboy66_2

!!!!!!? wrote: »

Got any example of these mythical people - I haven't seen anyone posting in this MSE group saying that "we export nothing & import everything".

Of course 'Some people' on MSE like to attribute made-up opinions to other people and then make sly comments on that basis :rolleyes:

I refer you to your post number #5 ("we import almost everything")

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1211231

I refer to your post # 7 ("if your'e importing almost everything")

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1219181

Damm, fancy missing out that all important 'almost'.
Who needs to 'make up quotes' by poeple.

Oh dear.

WTF?_2

dopester wrote: »

I see the price of oil is being tipped to hyper-inflate out of sight. :rolleyes:

Flirting with $42 a barrel at the moment.

Oil to hit $25 a barrel as global recession deepens, Merrill Lynch predicts

Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/3564383/Oil-to-hit-25-a-barrel-as-global-recession-deepens-Merrill-Lynch-predicts.html

And only six months ago it was being tipped for up to $200 a barrel by Goldman Sachs, that other shining Wall Street success story.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=ayxRKcAZi630

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil may rise to between $150 and $200 a barrel within two years as growth in supply fails to keep pace with increased demand from developing nations, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts led by Arjun N. Murti said in a report.

So I'd take anything coming out of Wall Street with a pinch of salt, frankly.


This market moves at a lightening pace. It follows current trends .. the moment that it becomes clear that money is being magicked out of thin air and trade is picking up, you can expect to see oil rocket.

StevieJ

!!!!!!? wrote: »

Balance of trade is circa four billion pounds a month, every month.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=199



Still, with figures of tens or hundreds of billions of quid in bailouts now being thrown around with abandon by the government, maybe an ongoing trade deficit of four billion pounds a month is nothing to worry about.




Got any example of these mythical people - I haven't seen anyone posting in this MSE group saying that "we export nothing & import everything".

excourse 'Some people' on MSE like to attribute made-up opinions to other people and then make sly comments on that basis :rolleyes:

He is obviously using hyperbole to make a point, but I have read many opinions on these boards that suggest that a falling exchange rate will not benefit the UK because 'we do not export much these days' and import a lot.

WTF?_2

kennyboy66 wrote: »

I refer you to your post number #5 ("we import almost everything")

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1211231

I refer to your post # 7 ("if your'e importing almost everything")

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1219181

Damm, fancy missing out that all important 'almost'.
Who needs to 'make up quotes' by poeple.

Oh dear.

Don't get rattled Kennyboy - these days I always make sure to explicitly qualify anything I post here because I know it will get picked to bits by the 'anti-bear' brigade such as yourself, out on their pointless crusade to balance the universal karmic balance of bad news by slagging off those discussing it.


Now - who are those people that claim

"we export nothing & import everything"

as you said?

My comments that:

"Prices of anything imported will shoot up however - and we import almost everything these days"

most certainly do not equate to your typically exaggerated claim.