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Trade deficit widens..

24

Comments

  • chewmylegoff
    chewmylegoff Posts: 11,469 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 7 September 2013 at 11:16AM
    So we can agree that is trending upwards (i.e. closer to 0) in the last couple of years then? Difficult to draw any other conclusion on the basis of that graph.
  • Loughton_Monkey
    Loughton_Monkey Posts: 8,913 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker Hung up my suit!
    The only real 'trend' I can see is [generally speaking] 25 years of loss, loss, loss.... Governments tend to concentrate on GDP rather than trade balance.

    GDP merely measures the swishing about of cash - mainly in the uk. The government tends to get a small rake off at every turn, and that's their main angle. Same as if you had a patent and earned 0.25% of Microsoft's sales, you'd only be interested in their sales. Not their profit.

    I have no feel for the degree of attrition to our national wealth. We were once quite rich, and qualify for G7. Depends on how long I live, but maybe I might see the day when we struggle to retain a place at G20.

    Put another way, if there were shares in UK Plc. I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.
  • Thrugelmir
    Thrugelmir Posts: 89,546 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    chewmylegoff wrote: »
    So we can agree that is trending upwards in the last couple of years then? Difficult to draw any other conclusion on the basis of that graph.

    The UK continues to get poorer that's one conclusion. What will be sold next to fund the party, Vodafone perhaps.
  • grizzly1911
    grizzly1911 Posts: 9,965 Forumite
    Thrugelmir wrote: »
    The UK continues to get poorer that's one conclusion. What will be sold next to fund the party, Vodafone perhaps.

    Do the government hold any shares in Vodafone? How much is actually held by foreign investors? What benefit would accrue within and stay for any length of time in the UK?
    "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 Muruganantham
  • CLAPTON
    CLAPTON Posts: 41,865 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    we need a very positive pro-profit making business culture in the UK

    sadly we have too many opinion forming media people basically trashing the idea that running profitable businesses is somehow unpleasant and at best a necessary evil.


    until that changes we will indeed decline
  • grizzly1911
    grizzly1911 Posts: 9,965 Forumite
    http://www.usdebtclock.org/
    "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 Muruganantham
  • wotsthat
    wotsthat Posts: 11,325 Forumite
    Thrugelmir wrote: »
    The UK continues to get poorer that's one conclusion. What will be sold next to fund the party, Vodafone perhaps.

    You keep mentioning this party that's been going on for years.

    I'm starting to get a complex. How come I didn't get an invite?
  • Thrugelmir
    Thrugelmir Posts: 89,546 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    wotsthat wrote: »
    How come I didn't get an invite?

    Living in the UK you are in the party. :beer:
  • Thrugelmir
    Thrugelmir Posts: 89,546 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    grizzly1911 wrote: »
    Do the government hold any shares in Vodafone? How much is actually held by foreign investors? What benefit would accrue within and stay for any length of time in the UK?

    Vodafone is the UK's second largest company by market capitalisation currently. Another Cadbury's is the last thing we need. Foreign earnings form part of the balance of trade figures. Selling off the family silver isn't going to help to close the deficit.
  • CLAPTON
    CLAPTON Posts: 41,865 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thrugelmir wrote: »
    Vodafone is the UK's second largest company by market capitalisation currently. Another Cadbury's is the last thing we need. Foreign earnings form part of the balance of trade figures. Selling off the family silver isn't going to help to close the deficit.

    vodaphone is owned by it's shareholder and not the government and they are entitled to sell their shares to whom they like

    vodaphone grew to its present size by buying assets overseas

    do you think it equally wrong for UK companies to buy overseas asssets as you seem to think it wrong for foreigners to buy UK asset?
This discussion has been closed.
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