Some really sobering financial news

[Alan Stubbs]

you can skirt around these issues all you want and continue to lay the blame at whoevers feet you want , however until theres work available that will support and finance the population of a country your fecked if you operate within the system being used. There is not the work because others will do it more cost effective than you are willing to. Until this is addressed you cant proceed. End of story.

 

However correct you may be in the long term, the problem you highlight was rooted back over 50 years and possibly more, when our manufacturing base was replaced by a financial base because it offered a faster return - and in the short-term better returns in purely monetary terms.

 

The human cost has been cyclical and this Government's commitment to 'the end of "Boom and Bust" economics' has been shown for what it always was - a sound bite not bearing close scrutiny.

 

Everyone has had a valid opioint to make in this thread, but that just goes to show how complex and disturbing the situation we're in really is.

[poledark]

You could of course go right back to the basics and blame all those greedy people that asked for, and got, an increase in their house price when sold. Asked for and got a second mortgage when the value went up (and spent it on holiays etc). Asked for, and got, more credit on their cards (and spent it on holidays etc).

 

None of it was real money.

 

This country has been living on credit/house values, for years and years, under successive govt's (Thatchers was the worst, she let the market loose)

 

I have to ask, would any of you have voted for restrictions on YOUR credit, or YOUR house value? Would you have voted for restrictions on YOUR wage increase?

 

"No way mate"

 

The pound is falling from an artificially high value (sustained by high interest rates) now that the bank rate is coming down to the same levels as other countries, and all the "investors/speculators" are selling it.

 

The "sort out" that is happening now would have happened at sometime, you cannot sustain any economy on borrowing and credit for ever.

 

Den

Edited January 23, 2009 by poledark

[corydoras]

you can skirt around these issues all you want and continue to lay the blame at whoevers feet you want , however until theres work available that will support and finance the population of a country your fecked if you operate within the system being used. There is not the work because others will do it more cost effective than you are willing to. Until this is addressed you cant proceed. End of story.

Too true Alan. People here laugh at the froggies and their two hour lunch breaks. What they don't understand is that most French workers are behind their desks at 7:30-08:00 in the morning and don't finish until 18:30 at night. And when you are at work you are expected to be PRODUCTIVE or you'll be out on your ear. When my ex-was working here as a Chartered Accountant she was a VAT specialist working for Coopers and getting paid £LOADS, when she went back to France she was on about £24,000, but you can live a good life on £24,000 in France.

[captain cojones]

UK £ | USA $ | Eurozone € | Travel money

 

£1 buys

 

USA 1.3066 Dollar

 

Eurozone 1.0163 Euro

 

just looked at the tourist rates, which are what most people are affected by(holidays etc)the pound is sliding again.

wouldnt suprise me if the pound drops below 1 to 1 soon.

its bad for business here,as we get so many uk tourists.last year was the worst in financial terms for ten years(on uk tourists only).

eurozone tourism was up slightly(in this area)which balanced things out a bit.

[yoxer]

"However correct you may be in the long term, the problem you highlight was rooted back over 50 years and possibly more, when our manufacturing base was replaced by a financial base because it offered a faster return - and in the short-term better returns in purely monetary terms.

 

Everyone has had a valid opioint to make in this thread, but that just goes to show how complex and disturbing the situation we're in really is. "

 

Yes it was highlighted 50 years ago, it was in fact highlighted at the dawn of capitalism as it was well understood that the system can not or could never work without coming to the conclusions we are seeing now. Poledark is spot on , if it wernt for credit being " freely " introduced years we would have found ourselves in the exact same situation as is now coming, as there is not the work for the life style we wish to obtain. Our manufacturing base was never replaced as such , we could not compete and still cant when there are people literaly working for bowls of rice etc, and the days of cries saying " Oh yeah but they are producing crap " is absolute nonsense. The situation is not complex at all, the solution remarkably simple.What is complex is how you maintain the standard of living you think your entitled to.

[yoxer]

"wouldnt suprise me if the pound drops below 1 to 1 soon."

 

The pound has all the worth of a string of plastic beads. There is no gold supporting the currency and the UK has no exports that are worth a mention. In short there is sweet feck all propping up Stirling. Kiss it goodbye

[Emma two]

'Capitalism has within it the seeds of it's own destruction'

 

Karl Marx

[captain cojones]

The pound has all the worth of a string of plastic beads. There is no gold supporting the currency and the UK has no exports that are worth a mention. In short there is sweet feck all propping up Stirling. Kiss it goodbye

 

LOL @yoxer..........i was being subtle, i didnt want barry to have a fit........(only joking barry)

[yoxer]

No need for subtly captain , its only the complete idiots that dont know it and are probably too daft to know what the hell your talking about anyway. The country and currency have only been treated with the contempt they deserve otherwise no right thinking person would have left Brown or this government in charge of the economy

[captain cojones]

i wouldnt call people idiots yoxer, but what i do know, is that having euros as a currency, has saved me thousands over the past 7 years.

i do feel that many in the uk, are not able to have an accurate picture,especially if they have the uk media, as a source of information.

in the end it matters not a bit,to me,what currency the uk has im sort of looking in from the outside.

as i said, i feel sorry for the ordanairy people.