Mervyn King : "Inflation may not fall back as strong as expected"

FATBALLZ

Only took him a couple of years to come to the same conclusion as everybody else. Glad he's earning his money.

Thrugelmir

kabayiri wrote: »

The concept of privatised energy companies which was supposed to keep prices competitive seems very limited if not ineffective.

We sold the family silver for a short term boost. Which unfortunately is the British way. A complete lack of long term planning and retaining something for the benefit of all. This applies to many industries not just utilities.

shortchanged_2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

We sold the family silver for a short term boost. Which unfortunately is the [STRIKE]British[/STRIKE] Tory way. A complete lack of long term planning and retaining something for the benefit of all. This applies to many industries not just utilities.

Just altered your quote for you Thrugelmir.

FATBALLZ

shortchanged wrote: »

Just altered your quote for you Thrugelmir.

The Labour way is to sell the family gold for peanuts instead:)

Jimmy_31

chucky wrote: »

you'll probably find that pensioners don't make decisions on Bank of England interest rate policy.

Thats why they are being shafted.

Thrugelmir

shortchanged wrote: »

Just altered your quote for you Thrugelmir.

My point was actually non political.

Cadburys being a prime example of where we fail.

[Deleted User]

No sense in putting rates up until we get some growth in the economy.
Inflation isn't all bad in our current predicament - at least it is eroding the value of the nation's debts at a faster rate than we could pay it off. It will also help with the financial sector's dodgy assets which caused this mess in the first place.

michaels

I have to disagree with you - if the companies had not been privatised we would still have millions of utility staff to pay as the efficiency savings would not have been made so although there would not have been any profit to pay prices would not have been lower unless subsidised by taxpayers.

I do agree tho there there has been no sensible long-term planning with strategy driven by short term profitability rather than long term energy security implications but I'm not sure ownership is the driver for this - the infrastructure that remains in state ownership like the roads has hardly seen massive investment after all.

Thrugelmir wrote: »

We sold the family silver for a short term boost. Which unfortunately is the British way. A complete lack of long term planning and retaining something for the benefit of all. This applies to many industries not just utilities.

Thrugelmir

michaels wrote: »

I have to disagree with you - if the companies had not been privatised we would still have millions of utility staff to pay as the efficiency savings would not have been made so although there would not have been any profit to pay prices would not have been lower unless subsidised by taxpayers.

Out of the box 6 power companies. Four are now foreign owned.

E.ON – Germany
EDF (Électricit! de France) – French
NPower – Germany - power giant RWE
Scottish Power – Controlled by Iberdola, a huge Spanish Utilities company

So the generated profit is flowing abroad.

ILW

Were the utilities not showing a loss when in public ownership?