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Austerity
Comments
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grizzly1911 wrote: »Not sure any government in the last 30+ years has started a sovereign wealth fund ready for the rainy day they have all been too busy fighting debt.
There's many who approach finance with a different view to the British. Who do you think buys all our Government issued debt?OSLO — A seven-story office building in Oslo, landscaped with topiary and statues of acrobats, has become a magnet for economic policy makers from Beijing to Moscow.
They come to the headquarters of Norges Bank, the Norwegian central bank, to learn the secrets of the country's success in investing oil revenue without disrupting its own economy or foreign markets.
What makes the advice from Oslo valuable is Norway's record of managing $356 billion and earning returns that exceed its own goals while publishing regular reports on its holdings and performance. Persuading Russia and China to do the same would help allay concerns among Group of 7 policy makers, who are meeting this week to draft global guidelines as government-controlled funds proliferate.
"There is a strong case for sovereign wealth funds to adopt the best practice of open funds like Norway," said Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank in London. Otherwise, he said, "there is a serious likelihood of Western governments and funds clashing over what they can buy and where."
Morgan Stanley calculates that such funds may control $12 trillion within a decade as Russia, China and smaller economies like Iraq and Bolivia invest earnings from energy and other exports. The big fear in the United States and Western Europe is that secretive management under government sponsorship may allow funds to seek out strategic industries or roil markets with unexpected gluts of cash. Such concerns could, in turn, prompt a spiral of tit-for-tat protectionist measures.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/business/worldbusiness/17iht-fund.4.7931109.html?_r=00 -
The_White_Horse wrote: »Osbourne went to Oxford. Rich parents or not, you have to meet the required academic standard to get in.
Where did he go to school?"If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
Kennyboy66 wrote: »Clearly not, but he (and PIMCO) are normally cited on this board as "bond vigilantes"
Naaa, that's these guys.
http://www.bondvigilantes.com/When even the bond vigilantes are questioning austerity, perhaps it time to dust off plan B
The main question they ask is when austerity is going to start. Currently HMG makes noises about doing it, the inevitable tabloid outcry occurs, but HMG then carry on spending as much as ever. However, because they make the right noises, our yields remain low.
This will not keep on working. The ratings agencies are reacting and QE is running out of steam. Either we actually start austerity or we accept that our spending is out of control.I am not a financial adviser and neither do I play one on television. I might occasionally give bad advice but at least it's free.
Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.0 -
No doubt the tory lovers are trumpeting the so-called drop in the defecit as a triumph for their plan.
Hmmm. Except for the fact that such an arguement is built on a lie:
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/04/revealed-why-deficit-actually-rose-todayStrip out all special factors (including the reclassification of Northern Rock Asset Management and Bradford & Bingley as central government bodies) and total borrowing actually rose in 2012-13. As p. 7 of the ONS release states, "on this measure Public Sector Borrowing (PSNB ex) for the year to date is £0.4billion higher than for the same period last year." These figures are of almost no economic significance. Whether borrowing marginally rose or marginally fell makes little difference to the parlous state of the British economy. But they are of immense political significance, which is why Osborne went to such extraordinary lengths to ensure the headline figures would show a fall. As I noted following the Budget, the Treasury forced government departments to underspend by a remarkable £10.9bn in the final months of this year and delayed payments to some international institutions such as the UN and the World Bank. Noting that the £10.9bn was around double the average underspend of the previous five years, IFS head Paul Johnson said:There is every indication that the numbers have been carefully managed with a close eye on the headline borrowing figures for this year. It is unlikely that this has led either to an economically optimal allocation of spending across years or to a good use of time by officials and ministers.That Osborne is forced to resort to ever more creative accounting is evidence of how badly off track his deficit reduction plan is. The government is currently forecast to borrow £245bn more than expected in 2010, a figure that means, as Labour's Chris Leslie noted today, that it will take "400 years to balance the books". To all of this, of course, Osborne's reply is "but you would borrow even more!" Finding a succinct response to that claim remains one of the greatest challenges facing Ed Balls and Ed Miliband.It's getting harder & harder to keep the government in the manner to which they have become accustomed.0 -
Finding their backsides using both hands and a mirror is challenge enough for them.Finding a succinct response to that claim remains one of the greatest challenges facing Ed Balls and Ed MilibandI am not a financial adviser and neither do I play one on television. I might occasionally give bad advice but at least it's free.
Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.0 -
I do worry that we have a country where it appears over half the households are not capable of living without some form of benefit handouts. How did that happen?0
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I do worry that we have a country where it appears over half the households are not capable of living without some form of benefit handouts. How did that happen?
The middle classes were bribed to vote with borrowed money.
Wouldn't you take the money if offered?
Wasn't a welfare system but a handout system.0 -
The_White_Horse wrote: »Osbourne went to Oxford. Rich parents or not, you have to meet the required academic standard to get in.
Comedians Stephen Fry, John Cleese, Eric Idle and Rowan Atkinson also went to Oxford and have made a success of their lives in their chosen field of entertainment. I don't think it's the education at fault, just that Osbourne has chosen to do something he's completely unsuitable to do and is now out of his depth. Just being friends of the boss (PM in this case) in any field is rarely the best qualification for doing a job.[FONT="]“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~ Maya Angelou[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]0 -
I don't think it's the education at fault, just that Osbourne has chosen to do something he's completely unsuitable to do and is now out of his depth. Just being friends of the boss (PM in this case) in any field is rarely the best qualification for doing a job.
The Treasury department employs around 1,200 people. So the Chancellor of the Exchequer (of the day) is not alone.
Then there's also guidance from BOE and FCA.0 -
Precisely. The chances of young Gideon not going to Oxford were pretty small when he was still nobbut a twinkle.grizzly1911 wrote: »Where did he go to school?"It will take, five, 10, 15 years to get back to where we need to be. But it's no longer the individual banks that are in the wrong, it's the banking industry as a whole." - Steven Cooper, head of personal and business banking at Barclays, talking to Martin Lewis0
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