Why Ireland Will Vote "Yes."

[LordLindsey]

I am simply being honest here as the complete destruction of Ireland is already underway, and it will only get much worse...unless Daddy Cowen makes a deal with the Devil.  IF this doesn't pass then you can be assured that all of these things that the controlled-media are telling you will happen, WILL happen.  I am including the comments because some of these people understand what is really happening, while others are still trapped in ignorance.  Noel, you had better do everything that you can to get the word out for you nation, but most importantly of all if that the politicians start telling the whole truth and doing a "Pure-Play" and let those people destroying YOUR nation understand that the Irish people know the truth, and will not take the destruction of their nation lying down.

LINDSEY

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... ckons.html



"Fiscal ruin of the Western world beckons
 
For a glimpse of what awaits Britain, Europe, and America as budget deficits spiral to war-time levels, look at what is happening to the Irish welfare state.
 
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Published: 5:40PM BST 18 Jul 2009

Comments 87

Events have already forced Premier Brian Cowen to carry out the harshest assault yet seen on the public services of a modern Western state. He has passed two emergency budgets to stop the deficit soaring to 15pc of GDP. They have not been enough. The expert An Bord Snip report said last week that Dublin must cut deeper, or risk a disastrous debt compound trap.

A further 17,000 state jobs must go (equal to 1.25m in the US), though unemployment is already 12pc and heading for 16pc next year.

 
Irish unemployment hits record levels
David Cameron promises Tories will not behave like 'turbo-charged accountants'
Britain's prized AAA rating under threat as S&P issues stark warningEducation must be cut 8pc. Scores of rural schools must close, and 6,900 teachers must go. "The attacks outlined in this report would represent an education disaster and light a short fuse on a social timebomb", said the Teachers Union of Ireland.

Nobody is spared. Social welfare payments must be cut 5pc, child benefit by 20pc. The Garda (police), already smarting from a 7pc pay cut, may have to buy their own uniforms. Hospital visits could cost £107 a day, etc, etc.

"Something has to give," said Professor Colm McCarthy, the report's author. "We're borrowing €400m (£345m) a week at a penalty interest."

No doubt Ireland has been the victim of a savagely tight monetary policy e_SEmD given its specific needs. But the deeper truth is that Britain, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, the US, and Japan are in varying states of fiscal ruin, and those tipping into demographic decline (unlike young Ireland) have an underlying cancer that is even more deadly. The West cannot support its gold-plated state structures from an aging workforce and depleted tax base.

As the International Monetary Fund made clear last week, Britain is lucky that markets have not yet imposed a "penalty interest" on British Gilts, given the trajectory of UK national debt – now vaulting towards 100pc of GDP – and the scandalous refusal of this Government to map out any path back to solvency.

"The UK has been getting the benefit of the doubt, both in the Government bond market and also the foreign exchange market. This benefit of the doubt is not going to last forever," said the Fund.

France and Italy have been less abject, but they began with higher borrowing needs. Italy's debt is expected to reach the danger level of 120pc next year, according to leaked Treasury documents. France's debt will near 90pc next year if President Nicolas Sarkozy goes ahead with his "Grand Emprunt", a fiscal blitz masquerading as investment.

There was a case for an emergency boost last winter to cushion the blow as global industry crashed. That moment has passed. While I agree with Nomura's Richard Koo that the US, Britain, and Europe risk a deflationary slump along the lines of Japan's Lost Decade (two decades really), I am ever more wary of his calls for Keynesian spending a l'outrance.

Such policies have crippled Japan. A string of make-work stimulus plans e_SEmD famously building bridges to nowhere in Hokkaido e_SEmD has ensured that the day of reckoning will be worse, when it comes. The IMF says Japan's gross public debt will reach 240pc of GDP by 2014 e_SEmD beyond the point of recovery for a nation with a contracting workforce. Sooner or later, Japan's bond market will blow up.

Error One was to permit a bubble in the 1980s. Error Two was to wait a decade before opting for monetary "shock and awe" through quantitative easing.

The US Federal Reserve has moved faster but already seems to think the job is done. "Quantitative tightening" has begun. Its balance sheet has contracted by almost $200bn (£122bn) from the peak. The M2 money supply has stagnated since January. The Fed is talking of "exit strategies".

Is this a replay of mid-2008 when the Fed lost its nerve, bristling over criticism that it had cut rates too low (then 2pc)? Remember what happened. Fed hawks in Dallas, St Louis, and Atlanta talked of rate rises. That had consequences. Markets tightened in anticipation, and arguably triggered the collapse of Lehman Brothers, AIG, Fannie and Freddie that Autumn.

The Fed's doctrine – New Keynesian Synthesis – has let it down time and again in this long saga, and there is scant evidence that Fed officials recognise the fact. As for the European Central Bank, it has let private loan growth contract this summer.

The imperative for the debt-bloated West is to cut spending systematically for year after year, off-setting the deflationary effect with monetary stimulus. This is the only mix that can save us.

My awful fear is that we will do exactly the opposite, incubating yet another crisis this autumn, to which we will respond with yet further spending. This is the road to ruin.

The final birth pangs of the New World Order. Global communism controlled by the international bankers.Ever wonder why the banks are getting the bail out money. What we need is the return of the Jedi.
Tim
on July 19, 2009
at 03:50 PM
Report this commentWho do the 'markets' think they are to tell sovereign nations what to do? If they don't like big government deficits financed if necessary by printing money, then let the money manipulatiors be arrested and jailed for economic sabotage.
Michael Petek
on July 19, 2009
at 03:49 PM
Report this commentWhat's very worrying to me is the shortage of scientists and engineers. Most people don't notice this but the majority of skilled engineers are approaching retirement. The educational system hasn't been developing these skills -- they cost relative to the short term return -- and our businesses have ducked the problem by importing foreign workers.

As for public debt, its been driving us since the system was changed from using tax rates to adjust the money supply to using interest rates some 40 years ago. Government needs revenue but we divert those revenue streams to private hands leaving government to grab what it can -- we get hit both ways. (Debt is just a form of private taxation...think about it....)
Martin
on July 19, 2009
at 03:40 PM
Report this commentMicko,
An important point you raise , I observed that public debt rose during the boom years but no one seemed at all concerned, because they were all convinced that boom and bust were over and that your house would increase miraculously as if by magic in value at 22% annum , even though there were no fundamentals to support it,EVER.(only a govt sponsored change in bank lending ratios and low interest rates-both artificially created). Or were they?
David
on July 19, 2009
at 03:39 PM
Report this commentWe will cut ourselves to death, as the Irish are doing, without a radical rethink of how state services can deliver more with less.
WELFARE - A new safety net for all, but set at a subsistence level, food and shelter only. Create a negative initial rate of income tax to pull people into the workforce in parallel with the "push" from the minimal amount of welfare support . Eliminate everything else and leave it to charities to cover niche deserving groups.
HOUSING - Eliminate the state funded of social housing and use the housing associations to lead a vibrant private sector of rented housing.
EDUCATION - Make an offer to pay a voucher of say 75% of what the state pays for a pupil to any child who enters private education. Prevent a windfall for existing private schools and pupils by eliminating charitable status. This would create an explosion of new good schools with parents happily contributing to the costs while substantially cutting the education budget. If 10% of parents will pay 100% of the cost of education TWICE, then think how many would pay if they were only paying one and a quarter times.
IAN SCOTT
on July 19, 2009
at 03:26 PM
Report this commentCountry economies seem to be dividing into three groups: 1) those who took action with partial effectiveness resulting in medium term survival and recovery (US, France, Germany and a few others), 2) China, Russia and Brazil who had their usual problems magnified but their own near-unexplainable method of stabilising, and 3) those who were unstable already and only needed a few events to tumble the cart (the UK and much of Eastern Europe) who believe many empty promises and plans and are continuing on the same path to worsening economic disarray, job losses and no true signs of recovery. Pretty grim now no matter what category a country fits into.

There are some serious differences in all categories among countries with the distinction in the third group being that Socialism or any other similar system whatever the name is associated with a horrendous life in the Eastern European countries including food shortages, secret police, little medical care and a terrible day-to- day life, whereas in the UK these forms of government mean wealth re-distribution, more public supports, shorter working hours with fewer job demands, lower educational standards and more television and drinking time... and a government that says "yes" regardless of the consequences to the country.

The people of the UK seem to adhere to the belief that the government can "just print more money" and hand it out to solve the problems and are unwilling to accept any explaination of the dammaging consequences of such an action including the "same economic pie being cut into smaller slices" and no substantive action to increase the size of the pie.

"Form over substance", massive people-pleasing, truth avoidance and "new for the sake of new not better" have been the rule in the UK for decades as has a great history over a current reality and objective honesty. It is these priorities that have now dug the UK's grave more than six feet deep with the body well down in its lowering to the soft dark soil below.
Henry Cave Devine
on July 19, 2009
at 03:04 PM
Report this commentInteresting comment Ambrose , everything I read, if its not being promoted by a vested interest, leads me to the conclusion , no person currently in power is doing anything but creating a fresh bubble on top of the last, thats waiting to burst . QE is important but its being abused by bankers and govts who are using it prop up asset bubbles and on balance sheets and pay themselves a fresh round of bonuses or gain favour ie. Goldman, it has not been used to stimulate the general economy. The underlying endebtedness of the entire Western world has not been tackled in any significant way. We had better start getting very tough on ourselves and curb rapidly the vested interests that will eventually bring us crashing to our knees unless we take appropriate action and see it through to conclusion.Put aside the political manifesto and think collectively until we can see the edge of the forest, there are no longer any excuses for not doing so .
david
on July 19, 2009
at 03:00 PM
Report this commentIt's ironic how the Bank of England, like the Federal Reserve (on record, run by the same people) have artificially low interest rates which gives the appearance of growth as banks make bad loans, and then when it collapses... we bail out the people who created the mess and the money goes right into the pockets. If there's no wealth left, it's because it's going into the hands of an ever-decreasing group of people behind the curtain, as planned.
Marianne H
on July 19, 2009
at 03:00 PM
Report this commentI found Astraea Shaw comments very interesting. How do we talk more about your ideas or am I only to read your comment and then have to do all the work myself?
Alex
on July 19, 2009
at 03:00 PM
Report this commentlisten mate, my grandfather worked 13 weeks in the fields to drink one bottle of chablis after reading about it in a well-worn novella.

I have just spent 13 days loafing around an NHS ward picking out tines on a baby-grand piano (yes).

we are RIcH in the west now, but enjow scary stories form the likes of you to put it all in perspective.

?
peter thorn
on July 19, 2009
at 03:00 PM
Report this commentBuy gold on credit. Declare bankruptcy. Laugh.
Davros
on July 19, 2009
at 02:15 PM
Report this commentSimplistic solution: total import ban and jobs at once start to be created at home on very modest wages indeed (which will be better than slashed benefits and have to be taken up by many who have been skiving for years) - making again the things we used to make but have lately been getting from places like China - at the rather higher prices in the shops than those for imports which have actually about us bleeding to death in both national wealth and home jobs terms.

We're getting poorer - there is no getting away from it - why don't we just make it happen faster and get the nasty part over? This way we get back jobs, we restart a whole range of sectors and skills and we face reality. No politician wants to spell this out - yet it is a fundamental truth.

190709-13:52

simon coulter
on July 19, 2009
at 02:15 PM
Report this commentRegarding the Uk's impending economic peril, in addition to our current woes:

Consider first the Education Crisis facing the Uk - since 1990 successive governments have been dumbing down exams to produce seemingly ever better results. As a result colleges and employers have almost no idea of the actual ability of people they are hiring/admitting. This will leave British companies unable to compete effectively with foreign competition (especially in terms of innovation - traditionally our Trump card) thus furthering economic peril.

Secondly consider that the UK is one of the most highly populated countries in the world but with limited resources - if our traditional (e.g. finance) industries fail or shrink we will have little to fall back on (South Africa has gold & diamonds. Russia has oil, gas, gold and diamonds). Perhaps we could re-open the tin mines?

Thirdly, consider the impending demographic crisis - authorities will come under pressure to reduce overall population, population density and immigration. Yet with an ever increasing older population requiring services and resources that will be difficult to resolve. Retirement age 75 anyone?

Cutting spending will be just the start.


Kevin Smith
on July 19, 2009
at 02:15 PM
Report this commentThere's nothing stopping you having money given to you at 21 and working and living as you wish except stupidity.
Rob O'Loughlin
on July 19, 2009
at 02:07 PM
Report this commentFor Astraea Shaw:

"Be rid of the Bank of England whihc is owned by the Rothschilds and their friends"

This is an old lie, often told by antisemites anxious to show that Jews control the financial world.
The Bank of England was nationalised in 1946 and is owned by the British people.
Charles Lee
on July 19, 2009
at 02:06 PM
Report this commentFiscal ruin is caused by overspending / borrowing.

The only things you should borrow money for are:

1. A roof, as otherwise you will have to rent.

2. Something that guarantees you can make money from it.


If you borrow for any other purpose you are daft.

Even if you are government.

Too much daft.


That's why we are here.
Sparky
on July 19, 2009
at 02:03 PM
Report this commentIf only Mr Brown had admitted that he got it wrong and had started trying to put it right, rather than dishing out more of the same, maybe the country might have been in with a chance.

However, when the shops start running out of stock, and power cuts become commonplace as the world refuses to accept sterling, then perhaps the British people will begin to understand the mess the country's in.
Perry
on July 19, 2009
at 02:03 PM
Report this commentKarl, It is not Ambrose who is obsessed with Keynes. Listen to Brown. Or Obama. Or Krugman ! They are obsessed with Keynes. By the way, Keynes said that his theory would only work if states repaid all their debts in moments of prosperity. Something that has not yet happened...anywhere.
Micko
on July 19, 2009
at 02:03 PM
Report this commentIf only Mr Brown had admitted that he got it wrong and had started trying to put it right, rather than dishing out more of the same, maybe the country might have been in with a chance.

However, when the shops start running out of stock, and power cuts become commonplace as the world refuses to accept sterling, then perhaps the British people will begin to understand the mess the country's in.
Perry
on July 19, 2009
at 02:03 PM
Report this commentIt is really satisfying in a way to see what has happened in Ireland. For years the EU dumped billions into that country and everyone celebrated it for being a "tiger" economy. An on par country like Haiti would would be able to make similar claims if a benefactor like the U.S. equally poured billions into their economy. The result would be the same - it would all vanish into a black hole.

Still, the economic collapse of Ireland hasn't stopped its overly nostalgic and ill informed diaspora of several generations removed in America for commenting that the U.S. should model its economy after Ireland's because they still have a vague recollection of Ireland doing well at some point in its recent history. Fools.
Liz Windsor
on July 19, 2009
at 02:03 PM
Report this commentThe fiscal deficit is the death of the welfare state as we have known it.

Today the Social Market Foundation recommends charging �20 for each visit to the doctor.

An excellent idea. This will put the bloated NHS on a much needed diet. It has become excessively obese and is in need of a good work out. This 20 stone monster has been gorging itself on taxpayers money in recent years and needs slimming down to a healthy 10 stones. It needs a fat free diet and no cigarettes and alcohol, or the fiscal equivalent. And to sack the whole of hospital management lock, stock and barrel and leave hospitals be to run by doctors and nurses.

Rather than shrinking the welfare state or its universal provision in the post war years of growth, governments have expanded its provision exponentially and unsustainably.

The link between a national insurance fund with contributions and welfare provision paid for with these contributions was broken years ago. The welfare state would have collapsed years ago were it not for tax contributions making up the deficit.

Did Beveridge envisage providing housing and benefits for single mothers with illegitimate children? Thus encouraging a generation of single mothers. Or a completely unfunded provision for the asylum seekers of the world and the feckless.

It is the undemocratic nature of our political system and its lack of public accountability that allows politicians to plunder the taxpayer for their pet schemes and enrich themselves into the bargain.

There is no Robin Hood to call them to account.

It is time to re-learn the virtues of Samuel Smiles Self Help.





Chelyabinsk
on July 19, 2009
at 01:58 PM
Report this commentJust to add one extra thing to the Goldman-Sachs story - only last week we saw that company bragging about the vast profits it had made from its dodgy dealings, and, of course, outlining the billions in bonuses it was dishing out to its henchmen.
Charles Lee
on July 19, 2009
at 01:56 PM
Report this commentFor John:

Thank you very much for that link to the horrifying Goldman-Sachs story in Rolling Stone.
Every last one of the senior managers of that disgusting company should be rounded up and jailed for securities fraud.
Goldman Sachs is the financial equivalent of the Anti-Christ.
Charles Lee
on July 19, 2009
at 01:56 PM
Report this commentIndeed article recommended by Quentin:

http://gregpytel.blogspot.com/2009/04/l ... story.html

is very insightful. But read also this:

http://gregpytel.blogspot.com/2009/06/c ... ncial.html

this explains clearly why things got out of hand and the role in the crisis of instruments such as CDS

Andrew T
on July 19, 2009
at 12:35 PM
Report this commentIt takes years (for most of us) to save up for something worth having.

It takes minutes to buy it.

If you can get a fool to lend you the cost you can have it without waiting.

But then:


YOU WILL SPEND YEARS PAYING FOR IT.


So simple.


Pity they don't teach it to labour politicians.

But it doesn't matter a jot to them - they won't be paying will they?
Sparky
on July 19, 2009
at 12:30 PM
Report this commentThe acronym has potential. PIGS became PIGIS. If the UK goes next, we get PIGISUK. We cannot let France go down or we will have:
PIGI*UKS.
(Why is it that PIGI conjures up a mental image of beady-eyed, fat, pink bankers?)
Buy gold. Love Big Brother.
David S
on July 19, 2009
at 12:07 PM
Report this commentPeter Cooper.
Weren't you the one who, both on here and in your blog, was pleading with us to buy into the Dubai property market just before its collapse? Tssk.
Michael Anthony
on July 19, 2009
at 12:07 PM
Report this commentGood post David Wilson.

If you have not you should all look at The International Forecaster, Editor Bob Chapman.

http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com

Why in the name of Heaven do we live like this, giving our real wealth to the privately owned, FOR PROFIT banks?

W
There is nothing at all to stop us taking over the whole of our money system - print it, distribute it to our own community banks which will make it available free of interest, or at very, very little interest, to any citizen who needs credit.

Be rid of the Bank of England whihc is owned by the Rothschilds and their friends - but they are the biggest shareholders, be rid of the "Federal" "Reserve" "Bank" and close down the Bank of International Settlements asap.

This is all nothing but usury. They create phantom money out of NOTHING - pretend to "lend" it to us, AND charge us interest, huge compound interest for what cost them NOTHING whatsoever!

In other words, they take our actual, our real wealth from us by a trick, a slight of hand.

THAT is what HAS to stop - or we are doomed to slavery, real grinding poverty and slavery - and Death.

Look into www.webofdebt.com and into www.globalresearch.ca

And WAKE UP/
Astraea Shaw
on July 19, 2009
at 12:07 PM
Report this commentAmbrose � you need to clarify just how monetary policy is supposed to clear this mess.
Look at the figures from Bank of Englands Asset Purchase Facility - http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/apf/results.htm
The program has spent (created) 117 billion �. 114 billion � of this QE attempt has been spent buying old gilts in the market. This leaves it up to the sellers of these old gilts how to deal with the created money. What can banks, hedge funds, mutual market funds, pension funds do with this money in a deflationary spiral? Lend it to � whom? No lending on a sufficient scale can take place as long as securitization is dead because the lender has to keep the loan on his balance sheet which is already suffering from �toxic assets�. And securitization (leading to mispricing of risk) is what caused this mess.
Banks sit on the cash because it backstops it�s toxic assets. Banks play with any additional funds buying shares (and new gilts �), creating an unsustainable rally in shares and keeping the gilts rate artificially low.
No matter how loose the monetary policy might get at this junction, you cannot force lenders to put money into businesses on the brink of bankruptcy. You cannot force lenders to lend money to new business initiatives in a world where 40% of output capacity is sitting idle. No matter how much QE you attempt, this excess capacity has to be reduced.
It would be interesting to know your thoughts on exactly how QE is a viable path to recovery. GDP on a global scale has been bloated with debt � almost all increase in GDP this century is due to debt, that is demand being pulled forward by debt � and this cannot be done again. Therefore GDP simply has to shrink. You can calculate how must it must shrink by comparing increase in GDP pr capita and increase in GDP in aggregate. You will find that overall GDP has risen substantially more than GDP per capita. This % shows you how much demand has been pulled forward, that is to say how much debt has been taken on by individuals to fuel GDP growth. When overall GDP and GDP per capity is at par, the contraction will come to an end. But how does QE prevent or make this contraction unnessecary? You tell me.

John Henriksen
on July 19, 2009
at 11:10 AM
Report this commentI am a great fan of yours, Ambrose, but you are like an ancient Greek oracle who accurately tells us that an earthquake is coming but doesn't tell us which way to run or what to take with us.
The problem is, Ambrose, we all know that we are totally stuffed but what we also want to know is whether we should buy gold, take our cash out of the bank and bury it safely in the garden or buy a caravan and a piece of remote Scottish land and fill it with canned goods, sacks of rice and pasta and kerosene for our lamps (oh yes, and a shotgun to protect ourselves from starving gangs of marauding urban survivors).
Charles Lee
on July 19, 2009
at 11:10 AM
Report this commentThe Great American Bubble Machine.
From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression - and they're about to do it again.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/st ... le_machine
John
on July 19, 2009
at 11:10 AM
Report this commentSecession of regions from states (UDI), followed by the privatisation of all property in the seceded region, is the answer. This will be done - the only question is when, how quickly, in how orderly a fashion. And where it will begin. The reckoning for the nation-state is at hand.
Advocatus diaboli
on July 19, 2009
at 11:08 AM
Report this commentD Rumsfeld
Obamie is another disaster. I have told my left wing acquantances as much, and they are shocked. Obama is above critique. This is the type of nonsense that gets us into this sort of mess. Obama is not an economist. Obama is a lawyer. Bush II was a lawyer, so was Clinton 1.0, Nixon, LBJ, etc.. I think you will detect a trend here - Lawyer becomes President, and a whole series of economic policy mistakes follow.

The US is another country where the lawyers are in control. Is it any wonder that the economy ends up in a mess ?

India have an economist in charge of the Indian Federal government. In the early 1990s, Singh was minister for Finance, and the IMF told him that they were going to have to take over the Indian national bond market, and regulate the Ruppee. To which Singh replied ' if you control the Ruppee, 900 Million Indians will use gold and silver as their currency'. That was the last thing the IMF wanted to see. And that was also the end of the IMF wanting to regulate in the Indian economy. Interestingly enough, with India is less affected by the credit crunch, and seems more concerned about the late Monsoon.
Micko
on July 19, 2009
at 11:02 AM
Report this commentHarbinger of doom and fear-monger-in-chief Ambrose Evans-Pritchard strikes again.

Except that his previous announcements of impending financial collapse - the inevitable fiscal downfall of Central Europe due to its over-exposure in Eastern Europe and the general implosion of any kind of market activity in emerging markets - all failed to even remotely materialise.
Ben Mueller
on July 19, 2009
at 10:58 AM
Report this commentIreland is doing it right. They are trying to borrow as little as possible and they are making huge cuts. Over 6000 teachers will be sacked.

Why doesn't Gordon Brown realise that things have to be cut?

The UK Government has said it will have to borrow �175 billion this year and the Budget 2009 said that �28 billion of tax payers money will have to pay interest payments.

This is absolutely ridiculous
Luke Hutchison
on July 19, 2009
at 10:58 AM
Report this commentAt least Ireland is trying to save itself.

Gordon Brown would rather we went to hell in a handcart than admit any kind of failure.
James, Balham
on July 19, 2009
at 10:58 AM
Report this commentEverybody and his dog knows you have to cut down on spending when things are tight,everybody except Comrade Brownski that is,Immigrants are piling in daily,our jails are stuffed with them,we are spending billions every year on them,and now the great man has earmarked NINE BILLION for overseas aid in 2010,we are in a war that cant be won in Afganistan which is costing us billions,no one in the Country wants this man as PM but will he go? we cant get rid of this unelected moron,the saying goes,A fool and his money are soon parted,we have both, this man knows nothing about finance whatsoever,he is bluffing his way through like Politicians are all over the World,we are letting a handful of idiots destroy us.
Lord Barnett
on July 19, 2009
at 10:26 AM
Report this commentWhich is the most lethal? -

Our incompetent politicians handling of the swine flu pandemic or our incompetent politicians handling of the financial global meltdown.

It's hard to figure out which is more scarier!

Is there anbody out there who can save us?
albany dubeque
on July 19, 2009
at 10:26 AM
Report this commentI am the regular reader of Mr. AEP commentaries, however I have no idea what "e_SEmD" means.

Stan
on July 19, 2009
at 10:26 AM
Report this commentHMG has three pressure points...after spending 10 billion POUNDS in Iraq (foolish venture) another extended war looms in Afghanistan needing another 5 billion POUNDS with new helicopters and a force of 10,000 soldiers under fire...pensions for civil servants are a constant drain as more retire like BBC executives.....finally with 4 million out of work by next year the economy will be in ratcheting-up huge debts needing foreign inflows at higher interest rates as the POUND is in decline as predicted by the IMF.
PM Brown is trapped...he is flying with no uplift....standby for heavy landing!
rathbone
on July 19, 2009
at 10:26 AM
Report this commentFascinating article. The type of discussion that is banned in Ireland for the next few months. (There has been a precedent for this-the Irish Economics Reporting Institute, the ESRI - refused to declar that Ireland was in recession, until two days after Lisbon, Part One. In fact I have submitted comments to Irish newspapers and they never appear. (An interesting side note is that French left wing media blamed Ireland's no vote on the influence of the British media - I am Irish, and we have learned that we cannot trust the Irish media. The Irish media are heavily reliant on the banking sector and the government for advertising revenue. Or the BBC/Guardian/Observer, London Indo, etc. for that matter, either.

The Irish have to reform because the Irish banking system is insolvent withount support from the ECB, because the Irish state has become grossly inefficient and expensive, and because small economies always run out of cash faster than large ones. Ireland is one of the PIGIS. And the Euro-PIGIS are all in trouble. Especially Spain.

The Germans have reformed their state system, and have responded to deflation. Now the Germans will have to do all that again. But Germany will manage. The Irish fixed the economy twenty years ago, and will adapt to the challenge again. The low probability of Basically the Irish are capable of getting the work done, even if the Irish success rate at any form of institutional reform is abysmal.

The problem is not the Welfare state as it was originally envisaged in the 1940s. That was a very efficient welfare state compared to what exists post 1967. The problem is that the Welfare state itself grew into a monstrosity as it became an untameable parasite on the rest of society. "Institutional aggrandisement" took over as an overwhelming objective. This resulted in uncontrolled growth and expansion of the wlefare system, as it sought to do things that were never originally in the plan. A cadre of left wing politicians took up "the cause" and did everything to justify the existence of the state, in reaction to Thatcher and Reagan. In the process they turned the Welfare state loose.

What has failed is the absurdly illogical version of the welfare state that emerged in the 1990s as a result of a generation of fools taking control of the political system. This is best exemplified by that dothering idiot Gordon Brown in "Number 11, Dowling Street" in the UK, and the policies of Bill Clinton and the Dumbocrats-which created the subprime mentality in the US.

Western Europe has effectively stagnated since 1990. There were more people employed in Western Europe in 1989 than there are now. [And cynically enough there was full employment in Eastern Europe, even if it was bordering on absurdity in East Germany and Czechoslovakia]. This is something very few people know, but is is a fact. "Europe" has been in decline, for two decades. In spite of this, volumes could be written to contain the arrogance that comes from Brussels, as the 'institutional aggrandisement' that is talking place in Brussels gathers pace. In the midst of the continuing decline and malaise, Brussels has responded with one program of centralisation upon another. The worse things get, the more Brussels will try to make things worse. The French voted Non, and the left wing French media decided that they were ashamed of the people, and that there was something inherently inadequate in the French people. The Dutch voted Neij, and the Dutch media had the good sense to declare that something had gone wrong with the European project. The Dutch politicians nevertheless betrayed the people anyway. The Irish voted no, and the Irish media then prepared the Irish people for a guilt ridden path to redemption that belongs in a 1950s novel about obedience to the Vatican.

Ambrose is correct. The problem is the state. The state as it has evolved has become one big Rooseveltian monstrosity with jobs for insiders, seeking excuses to justify it's expansion at every available opportunity. This is exemplified by the Nu Lab response to the financial crisis. No British bank has been allowed to fail. Instead the state takes them over, and starts rehabiliting them like as if they were drug addicts or repeat offenders. Then the authorities get involved in a mishmash of supervision which makes nobody responsible for any wrong doing, and allows everybody to pronounce that things are getting better.

The Western model of the state is failing. It is not failing as fast as the Soviet failure in the 1980s, because the state is not as powerful as occurred in the Communist system. The failure of the liberal-marxist lite state is just as inevitable, even if it is on a slower trajectory. And like the Russians in the 1980s, denial of this is rampant in the institutional framework of society. For the second time, with absolutely devastating consequences, Karl Marx has been proven completely wrong. Magna Carta is the protector of the Common Man, not institutional aggrandisement. New Labour have turned their back on Magna Carta and opted for the Institutional state. New Labour have turned their back on the legacy of Nelson and Wellington and the British way of life.

Only the Irish can stick a spanner in the works. And the media in Ireland are obsessed with their own sectoral financial short term predicament, to the point that they will not look at the real crisis.

Of course Lisbon might get passed, the ECB might continue bailing out the PIGIS, the Germans might continue to run up debts, the British pound might descend to the point that it is as useful as a Nu Labour economic policy docement. And when this happens,the neo-Marxists in the European institutions will respond with another program of centralization to make it even worse.

Thank you Ambrose for standing up and saying something that urgently needed to be said. The entire Western lifestyle is unsustainable. And the state institutional framework is even more unsustainable.
Micko
on July 19, 2009
at 10:20 AM
Report this commentStrange how people seems to catch on so late in the day.

America was broke years ago.

The FED has been printing money for Russia and China to buy back US Debt.

The game is up. When the FED audit happens, you will see.
Paul C
on July 19, 2009
at 10:20 AM
Report this commentJR @7.14 a really good post!
Quote:-
"However,these days money is nothing but a medium of exchange with all other functions of money having ( been)willfully destroyed by governments." (I have inserted "been")

Spot on! We are beguiled into thinking that money is a simple tool and that we understand it. It's not, and most of us don't. I would love to read more about the wilful destruction of these other functions of money, as I am sure this has happened. An explanation of how, when, why and who benefits would be very revealing!

Also, another stimulating article by AEP-thanks!


nemo
on July 19, 2009
at 10:15 AM
Report this commentRobert Browne (IE).
{ Mr. Cowen is one of the most anal retentive leaders we have ever had. }
Are you sure ? I mean CJH was bad and corrupted the entire political syste, in Dublin and nationally. Lemass was not all he was cracked up to be, with his belief in national champions who operated like monopolists. Fitzgerald was fiscally challenged, and appointed idiots to key ministries. And finally we had Ditherer(Ahern) who in my estimation was the very worst liar we ever had to endure. Ditherer was obsessed with leaving the Irish with legacy, for which the Irish would not be able to forget him. And sure enough, this is exactly what has happened.

In Ireland we have 800 quangos. A quango is a state funded body with official responsibility of supervision of the governments policy in some area. This is usually staffed with junior members of political parties, who are unemployable in the private sector. Often the people in these organisations have degrees in dead languages, or masters in irrelevant nonsense. They tend to have spent most of the university time in the college bar, involved in student politics, and just generally drifting around. It is effectively opting out. n when They reach the age of 26, and they realise they need a job. The political contacts get them into a quangoed. I have been told that this is very common in the other PIGIS countries also.

Perhaps some of the other reader could tell me if this also happens in Britain.

Anyway, we need to dissolve the quangos. And if you have quangos in your country, you need to do the same. In Ireland, we had the situation of quango officials flying around in helicopters to see if the farmers were spreading cowdung on wet grass, whilst the builders were flying banking executives to Old Trafford to soften them up, and help them provide hundred million Euro loans for property schemes. This was justified by an overzealous approach to the implementation of EU directives.

Now, both sets of helicopters are grounded. In a brief moment, at the height of a boom, when BMWs were becomming common, it was the ultimate status symbol.

Have you (as a taxpayer) been quango'ed ? I bet you all have. McCarthy's report wants to de-quango Ireland, and overturn a generation of absurd institutional aggrandisement. Other countries need to do the same. But denial and deceit are widespread, at the behest of those who have no economic utility, thanks to their own irresponsibility.

{With apologies to the company who used the Tango ads ))}
Micko
on July 19, 2009
at 10:15 AM
Report this commentThe solution?

1) Bring about sound money whatever the pain.

2) Reduce taxes and let the people make the economic decisions They will bring prosperity again, not government

There will be massive pain, huge reaction from the masses. Anything else, though, will merely postpone the inevitable.
John Laycock
on July 19, 2009
at 10:15 AM
Report this commentWhilst I broadly agree with Ambrose, I do not think his piece reflects the real gravity of the problem. It is like that but much, much worse.

Read below. It is clearly, intelligently and well written, and really scary as there seems to be no end to this mess.

http://gregpytel.blogspot.com/2009/04/l ... story.html
Quentin
on July 19, 2009
at 08:55 AM
Report this commentGo back to a 100% gold-backed currency, outlaw fractional-reserve lending, allow interest rates to equilibrate without artifical edicts in a truly free capital market, and force government to stop deficit spending and balance its budget. These are honest statements of economic thinking----not Keynesian nonsense promoted by statists who can't get enough of state intervention.
acudoc
on July 19, 2009
at 08:54 AM
Report this commentWhere do I put my money?
Tim Miller
on July 19, 2009
at 08:54 AM
Report this commentThis is what we call pressure on the citizens to have them begging on their hands and knnes for admission into the EU/NWO, plain and simple.

Any nation not prepared to submit to the NWO will also find themselves in such a predicament.
The Ice Man
on July 19, 2009
at 08:54 AM
Report this comment"This is more than the road to ruin - it is the road of high treason along which our politicians tread."

I think this is correct. Quite regardless of other solutions, evryone agrees that UK government deficits must be reduced if the government's ability to borrow is to be preserved. It is treason under these circumstances to delay (i) levelling with the people; (ii) setting out how it will be done and (iii) starting to do it.

The current circumstances are threatening the country's future; why are our politicians hiding until the next election? How can they sleep at night, or are they just so delusional they cannot see it?
greg
on July 19, 2009
at 08:49 AM
Report this commentI do not understand your continued obsession with keynes who was a bankers stooge and to be quite frank a complete idiot.
The Austrian theory was supposedly debunked after the GD1
. I say now that they have been proved right. More stimulus is ok if you can afford it but we can't so trying to solve a problem of debt with more is utter nonsense. How you can believe this is beyond me.
You cannot be that stupid.
The only way out of this is to reduce debt, both public and private. This can be done in two ways letting companies and people default or by paying it back or deleveraging. Sure it will be painful but ti will be a lot less painful in the long run than trying to print our way out of it and rescuing bankrupt banks so the debt is not cleared.
Printing will only devalue your currency and nothing more.
Brown , king atc should all be in jail for treason and have help for being quite abviously morally and mentally retarded.
The only stimulus we need is a good dose of common sense and reality. Instead we have allowed banks to rob us along with retarded politicians but we all just take it.
I suppose as long as eastenders and american Idol is on we are all happy.
What a pathetic nation we have become
karl
on July 19, 2009
at 07:30 AM
Report this commentDemographics is the only issue that matters as time moves forward.
China will experience hyper aging and the US will be more and more important.

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/d ... mographics

http://tinyurl.com/depopulationreality
fred
on July 19, 2009
at 07:30 AM
Report this commentSo I'm supposed to believe that, after years of paying top rate tax, my NHS treatment and my state pension will be cut whilst the money that I have paid is given to your mates in the city. And now you want more money to "restore confidence" to borrow too much again. And you people deride socialism!
clockslinger
on July 19, 2009
at 07:26 AM
Report this commentThis is more than the road to ruin - it is the road of high treason along which our politicians tread. They are in large measure 'corporate sponsored anti democracy Globalists'. There is more at stake than even our financial system which has been deliberatly totally debauched - our very liberties and national identities are being destroyed by a very real conspiracy..... This is the United Kingdom in its death throws.... Is there not one good man left in British politics that is willing to be a champion of the people of this United Kingdom?
R McAuley
on July 19, 2009
at 07:26 AM
Report this commentYou don't really mind contradicting yourself now do you? Wasn't it just in the spring that you were complaining that the EU fiscal stimulus wasn't big enough? Some air! We are now on our way to fiscal ruin thanks to Dr Krugman's prescription and short-sighted hyperbolophiles like you.
Christian
on July 19, 2009
at 07:23 AM
Report this commentSo Ambrose. Incisive again.

But is blaming the Fed misplaced? Standard policy works through the banking system. This mechanism died back in November, and won't be back in the immediate future. The other option, the Treasury market, refuses to be a rigged game. QEasing is a bit scary to boldly try. Just look at yield movements to see why.

The Fed strategy has settled for "control". No 6-sigma events anywhere, because they risk meltdown.

This is hubris. The bond market remains a last line of defense against fiscal madness, and I am very grateful for it.

Regarding exit strategies, the US urgently needs one from socialized finance.
Jeff
on July 19, 2009
at 07:23 AM
Report this commentWhenever others get too exhuberent, it is a pleasure to read AEP bringing us back down to earth. I fear we are living in the calm before the storm, the house of cards has been shaken and it may soon fall - from credit bubble to fiscal & monetary stimuli bubble, neither is sustainable. Sadly much of what has happened is double or quits strategy, I have gambled far too long to have faith in such,
mikel
on July 19, 2009
at 07:23 AM
Report this commentWho the bloody murder is printing money for you?

In USA, we have Federal Reserve Corporation owned by bankers residing in City of London, they print paper for us to use and charge us interest, because we are stupid and no more free or brave.

Who enslaved you?
MJ
on July 19, 2009
at 07:21 AM
Report this commentWho the bloody murder is printing money for you?

In USA, we have Federal Reserve Corporation owned by bankers residing in City of London, they print paper for us to use and charge us interest, because we are stupid and no more free or brave.

Who enslaved you?
Jack Smith
on July 19, 2009
at 07:21 AM
Report this commentI don't know about the rest of the world but, from what I see in my own back (USA) yard, all of this was done on purpose.
m
on July 19, 2009
at 07:21 AM
Report this commentEvan as a long time admirer of Ambrose, I am sometimes at a loss of what to make of his more apcolyptical visions. Is one suppose to dig an underground bunker, reach for a revolver, or eat drink and be merry for tomorrow -- well, you know the rest.
Perhaps we should keep in mind that so far Ambrose has been more right, more often, than anyone else. We ignore him at our peril.
Charles Langley
Charles Langley
on July 19, 2009
at 07:21 AM
Report this commentOur government, in Ireland is sub-prime. They have already made it crystal clear that this report will not be implemented until after the Lisbon Treaty, as we have been paid in advance by the ECB for that. Then implementation will probably be delayed still further until after the opposition have taken over!

Mr. Cowen is one of the most anal retentive leaders we have ever had. Unfortunately, even when staring national bankruptcy and ruin he just puts his head in the sand. As minister for finance he was one of the prime architects of where we are today. We have a sub-prime government and a sub-prime leader. Any country lending to us must not have done their risk analysis or maybe the CDF's were just too cheap!
Bottom line in Ireland is that we desperately need political reform before we can begin to have economic reforms. As the former is not going to happen, until we are bankrupt it precludes the latter i.e. economic reform, so the likelihood is for bankruptcy, sorry to have to say.
Robert Browne
on July 19, 2009
at 07:21 AM
Report this commentAmbrose, very well documented scenario.

Decision makers need to familiarize themselves with the Austrian School of Economics. Ludwig von Mises www.mises.org in order to understand how things need to be run.
People also need to understand the function of money,which most people are totally clueless about.

Money has several functions they must provide and they are:

A medium of exchange
A measure of value
A standard of value
A store of value

�As a common medium of exchange and measure of value, Money transfers value through space. Money as a standard of value transfers value through time. Money as a store of value transfers value over time. These are all important functions of money�

However,these days money is nothing but a medium of exchange with all other functions of money having willfully destroyed by governments.

People laugh about Zimbabwe not realizing that the entire West is a mega Zimbabwe style economy.

Ambrose, keep up the good work by getting the truth to the people.
JR
on July 19, 2009
at 07:14 AM
Report this commentRevolt, idiots, revolt if you have a bit of selfrespect left. You are nothing in the eyes of your slavemasters.
Warren
on July 19, 2009
at 07:14 AM
Report this commentThe world bankster's plan is to ruin the dollar and the pound, steal all pension funds and then all private property owned by the goyim. Then they will be begged by the robbed to save them by bringing in the new world order. Problem (caused by them ie; world financial collapse) Reaction (by us as we bleed to death:please save us) Solution (what they intended in the first place except we now think they are saving us) Simple and too easy for them because you lot can't see the writing in plain sight.

The demographic problem is to be solved by mass extermination of useless eaters (unemployed and over 45s + a few children and pregnant women).Those about to die will be frightened into begging for the deadly flu jab or will suffer lower respiratory illness falling from the sky.
You might laugh you might scoff, why not do some investigation yourself. Remember that stupidity is condemnation prior to investigation. Switch the tv off and go find out what the nazion have in store for you.
david wilson
on July 19, 2009
at 07:13 AM
Report this commentWell this doesn't sound very encouraging at all!!

Mr. Pritchard, can you tell me if my country of Canada is somewhat better off then other Western nations???

Thanks

Devon
Devon
on July 19, 2009
at 07:10 AM
Report this commentNothing-can-save-you,puny-humans!

Tom
on July 19, 2009
at 07:10 AM
Report this commentFrom all indicators it looks as if the West is going bankrupt, with the real problems beginning around the Fall of this year. The situation has deteriorated far beyond repair.

Rather than concerning themselves with creative accounting tricks, I think both Europe and the US better begin preparing for large scale civil upheaval on a scale beyond what can be controlled by the authorities.

In the US we have 16 states right now with unemployment over 10%. The reality, however, is that unemployment is over 10% in almost every single state with at least 16 of them at 20% right now, set to get worse next year and the year after. I think everybody knows by now that California is issuing IOU's and is on the verge of total collapse.

Europe is facing the same high jobless figures as the US, yet UK elitists have been pushing for more immigration, and the US is set to grant amnesty to 15 million Hispanics who can also bring their families in, making the total inflow about 35 million people in the next three years.

Since immigrants draw from the public dole, where is the money going to come from to pay them? And, they are usually unskilled, so where are they going to work? Also, I'm wondering if the elites are so silly as to expect they won't have job riots from them, while their push for more taxes will bring out the natives in tax riots.

Sorry to have to say so, but it looks like the game is over. We're going to have some large scale conflicts going on and many Western governments will fall in the next 1 to 4 years.




Robert
on July 19, 2009
at 07:10 AM
Report this commentWhy does Ireland, or indeed any country, have to borrow money, why can't it just print it's own?
suraci
on July 19, 2009
at 07:10 AM
Report this commentSpot on Ambrose!

Step 1 - QE (if appied properly) in an attempt to maintain the stable domestic purchasing power of the pound in your pocket - this is to combat the clear risk of deflation.

Step 2 - QE coupled to a significant reduction in public expenditure to reduce public and then private debt.

Only then can private consumption (voluntary transactions in the economy as opposed to coercive taxbased transactions) begin to recover and create our future wealth.

Ambrose's policy recommendations are absolutely correct.

Will QE be managed correctly by the Treasury? Will the client state be cut down to a sustainable level with regard to private consumption (Less coercive taxbased transactions in relation to voluntary transactions)?

Under Brown neither QE or fiscal policies have any chance of being properly managed.

Let us hope Mr King (backed by the Queen) can keep the lid on the toxic economic mixture Brown has been brewing for the last 12 years until the next General Election
Dr Jonathan Wilson
on July 19, 2009
at 07:10 AM
Report this commentWe the people are to blame for buying into debt in the first place. All we had to do is say no.
Not only that, we have killed hundreds of millions of people/customers in the the abortion/war businesses. So now production has been way to high for far too few customers.
Would it not be refreshing if we threw the crooks in jail for theft and hung the ones who start these phony wars? Romans 13 says we should have done it long ago. Now we are paying for letting those wicked people run the show and getting away with it. You can never give freedom to people who want to take yours.
Ross Thomas Whetson
on July 19, 2009
at 07:10 AM
Report this commentWhy are we allowing the financial system to hold the real economy hostage? The social contract is violated and therefore null and void. If the governments will not cancel all debt and spare the world a demise on behalf of rich bankers, then we should overrun them and hang the traitors.
james
on July 19, 2009
at 07:10 AM
Report this commentNotice how in Amerikkka one never mentions the ridiculous military spending and spiralling economy in the same sentence.
No money for health care but trillions for war and empire.

DJ BALL
on July 19, 2009
at 07:10 AM
Report this commentThe article is right except inflation is already well under way and will not be reined in by the current generation of political cancer worldwide dominated by the BIS agenda.
anthony innes
on July 19, 2009
at 07:09 AM
Report this commentTime for a holiday and/or to short the S&P as this rally peaks, see: http://arabianmoney.net/2009/07/16/the- ... ket-rally/
Ambrose remains a unique commentator, and spot-on-the-money.
Peter Cooper
on July 19, 2009
at 07:07 AM
Report this commentI have given up reading Ambrose as his long running negativity is now completely over the top. I hope he finds some joy and hope in life somewhere.
Peter
on July 19, 2009
at 07:07 AM
Report this commentA good article which I think is basically correct. However, the problem is that Goverments are caught between a rock and a hard place. If they cut spending it will probably contract GDP, it they do not they may get a budget/currency meltdown.

In January Obamie said that with the stimulus package unemployment would peak at 7%, now it is 9.5% according U3 stats and 16.5% according to U6 stats. It is likely, even with BLS manipulation that U3 will reach between 13 and 15%. Real unemployment will probably be over 25%. Remember that the stress tests for banks was 9.2%!

Obamie also forcast GDP as follows:-
2010 at 3.2%
2011 at 4.0%
2012 at 4.6%
2013 at 4.2%
These will not be met and growth at 1% for 2010-2011 is more likely. This has huge implications for the budget and the ability to fund it. In addition there are the problems of Medicare and the baby boomers/ Social Security situations. Do you really think they can cut spending? Default, currency collapse and deflation and eventual inflation are likely.

Although some people do not take it seriously, the issue of currency and Special Drawing Rights seems to be real to me. I think that the Dollar is in serious trouble as are other currencies. However, will the world carry on buying the Dollar to fund the world's largest war machine?

I still think that the chances of a major war are high. I also think that riots and social unrest will grow. The coming unemployment crises coupled to high personal and Governemnt debt will lead to massive consequences. The banks paying high bonuses is a big mistake.
D Rumsfeld
on July 19, 2009
at 07:06 AM
Report this commentAmbrose,

Interesting as always and I agree with your view on the fiscal side. However, I do think you overdo the concerns around monetary contraction, at least as usually measured. Play around with the Fed's FRED2 database @ http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/ I you will see:

(1) the monetary base bouncing back by nearly $100 billion in the last couple of weeks. The reality is since end December it has fluctuated between $1.6 and $1.8 trillion. Given that it was just $800 billion in October I think you can hardly say that the Fed is being timid;

(2) M2 money is growing at a very healthy rate of 8% per annum.
bsanchez
on July 18, 2009
at 11:59 PM
Report this commentFor the last 40 years, politicians, especially liberals, having been buying votes, by promising benefits that they knew the country could never afford. Eventually the bill had to come due. That is what is happening now. The politicians don't want to face angry voters and the voters are rightfully angry that they have based their financial futures on government promises which will now not be kept. This will not be pretty.
DH
on July 18, 2009
at 11:48 PM
Report this commentMaybe they should have started with a cull of public sector non-jobs (look in any copy of Wednesday's Guardian for a real eye opener). I'm convinced that would probably give a good 10% cut for starters.
monty99
on July 18, 2009
at 11:38 PM
Report this commentTime for a vacation Ambrose.

"The end of the world is nigh?"

Business as usual more like
Mark Barber
on July 18, 2009
at 11:34 PM
Report this commentRichard, monetary stimulus is not more debt. AEP is warning against more debt.
peterwalsh
on July 18, 2009
at 11:29 PM
Report this commentAEP: The imperative for the debt-bloated West is to cut spending systematically for year after year, off-setting the deflationary effect with monetary stimulus. This is the only mix that can save us.

I don't seem to understand how this combination of spending cuts and stimulus is going to do the job of saving us.
If we (the government and the taxpayers) cut our spending for years on end, our economy must shrink, as would our GDP. In a shrinking economy, when debts are paid down, the quantity of money also will shrink (not to speak of its velocity).
Where will the money to stimulate come from? Thin air, again, to dampen the rise of the currency? And exactly what is there still to be stimulated? Nobody is buying, so who's to invest?
I'm wondering what such a policy will end in.
Ronald
on July 18, 2009
at 11:04 PM
Report this commentAmbrose, Ambrose please be calm. Here in Amerika the previous administration assured us "deficits don't matter" and the current administration is hell bent on proving that. Also our diligent Federal Reserve reminds us WE have the worlds reserve currency AND the printing presses!!! So rather than wind up like Ireland I suspect we will end up like Weimer Germany and then watch out for Amerika because we also have the worlds largest millitary. TT

Brilliant, incisive and correct.

In country after country and most of all in the UK the post 1960's model of socialist/capitalism is dead.

The UK especially cannot continue to have its cake and eat it. Deep, draconian cuts in public spending will be needed.

The bond markets will see to that.

The UK above all has lived beyond its means and punched above its weight for too long.

 What�s the problem? The difference between tax, or "fiscality", and theft is that the thief does not come back periodically, nor does the thief pretend to be stealing in the public interest.

Welfare State? Me, thalidomide monster, had to flee the Welfare State of Belgium to third-world country for mere survival. Welfare is not for monsters.
"The imperative for the debt-bloated West is to cut spending systematically for year after year, off-setting the deflationary effect with monetary stimulus. This is the only mix that can save us. "

So a debt-fuelled depression can be averted by monetary stimulus (more debt)?

I think not."

[veritasvincit]

some of these readers are bang on  with their comments:

Report this commentFiscal ruin is caused by overspending / borrowing.

The only things you should borrow money for are:

1. A roof, as otherwise you will have to rent.

2. Something that guarantees you can make money from it.


If you borrow for any other purpose you are daft.

Even if you are government.

Too much daft.


That's why we are here.
Sparky
on July 19, 2009
at 02:03 PM

Report this commentJust to add one extra thing to the Goldman-Sachs story - only last week we saw that company bragging about the vast profits it had made from its dodgy dealings, and, of course, outlining the billions in bonuses it was dishing out to its henchmen.
Charles Lee
on July 19, 2009
at 01:56 PM
Report this commentFor John:

Thank you very much for that link to the horrifying Goldman-Sachs story in Rolling Stone.
Every last one of the senior managers of that disgusting company should be rounded up and jailed for securities fraud.
Goldman Sachs is the financial equivalent of the Anti-Christ.
Charles Lee
on July 19, 2009
at 01:56 PM
If you have not you should all look at The International Forecaster, Editor Bob Chapman.

http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com

Why in the name of Heaven do we live like this, giving our real wealth to the privately owned, FOR PROFIT banks?

W
There is nothing at all to stop us taking over the whole of our money system - print it, distribute it to our own community banks which will make it available free of interest, or at very, very little interest, to any citizen who needs credit.

Be rid of the Bank of England whihc is owned by the Rothschilds and their friends - but they are the biggest shareholders, be rid of the "Federal" "Reserve" "Bank" and close down the Bank of International Settlements asap.

This is all nothing but usury. They create phantom money out of NOTHING - pretend to "lend" it to us, AND charge us interest, huge compound interest for what cost them NOTHING whatsoever!

In other words, they take our actual, our real wealth from us by a trick, a slight of hand.

THAT is what HAS to stop - or we are doomed to slavery, real grinding poverty and slavery - and Death.

Look into http://www.webofdebt.com and into http://www.globalresearch.ca

And WAKE UP/
Astraea Shaw
on July 19, 2009
at 12:07 PM

[LordLindsey]

These people see it, but the point is just as Noel and Daryl said last night--when these people become desperate and see that everything is gone, and as long as they go along with the EU they will be OK...what do you expect these people to do?  It is sickening what is happening because we all know exactly what the deal is, but we are not living in Ireland which has gone from a rich nation to a poor nation in literally one year's time.  The people as a whole would accept any kind of promise of "normalcy," and unless they are told DIRECTLY what is really going on, I have the worst feeling that this is going to pass.

This is precisely why I have told Noel that he needs to go on mainstream Irish stations and tell the whole story--or as much as he believes he should.  Policians like that guy who totally danced-around Noel's direct question regarding 911 and who is really doing this are precisely why Ireland needs people like Ognir more than ever.  GO NOEL!!!!!!  

LINDSEY

[sullivan]

These people see it, but the point is just as Noel and Daryl said last night--when these people become desperate and see that everything is gone, and as long as they go along with the EU they will be OK...what do you expect these people to do?

Who says that is what the people are thinking? The meeja presstitutes? Any phone-in/text-in debate on the news-talk radio stations I've heard had a significant majority against, and even some who swung from yes to no purely because it is being forced to referendum again.