A bad speech, from a bad orator. Absolutely hopeless.
Squiffy.
Tuesday 27 September 2011
Saturday 24 September 2011
Crunch time
As George Osborne says, we have 6 weeks to save the world economy. It's amazing how badly the world leaders are performing. David Cameron and the Chancellor are doing their best to gee the major economic powers up to do something, but to no avail.
Greece cannot be saved within the Euro. Fact. It will default. Accept it, let it happen in as orderly way as possible and shore up the other Eurozone economies. It will be awful, but the delaying tactics are making the day of reckoning look worse and worse.
Day by day, rating agencies are downgrading banks and countries. The Eurozone banks are in danger, they desperately need to be recapitalized, like the UK banks were in 2008. It is a fact that there has been no Eurozone bank to bank lending in the last 10 weeks. That is very unusual and shows that we are already in another credit crunch.
There needs to be some grasping of nettles, grabbing bulls by horns, and some leadership.
Angela Merkel needs to grow a pair, and stop worrying about her election prospects. If she can help turn the Eurozone around then she'll deserve re-election. As of now, she doesn't. The writing's on the wall for Greece and she needs to recognise that.
There needs to be another round of quantative easing in the US and UK. We need to move some money around to kick start capital projects without adding to the deficit.
Italy needs to have a firm plan for deficit reduction. Spain needs a new Government with a similar plan. France needs to desperately recapitalize their banks. A reduced Eurozone (without Greece and a few others) needs to issue Eurobonds. There needs to be closer fiscal consolidation in the Eurozone.
We can thank Gordon Brown for recapitalizing our banks, and for keeping us out of the Euro. But we can also curse him for flouting his own "golden rule", throwing lots of money down the drain and giving us a large structural deficit. we now have little room for manoeuvre.
Hopefully the G20, maybe inspired by David Cameron, will come to the worlds's aid. We can only hope.
Squiffy
Greece cannot be saved within the Euro. Fact. It will default. Accept it, let it happen in as orderly way as possible and shore up the other Eurozone economies. It will be awful, but the delaying tactics are making the day of reckoning look worse and worse.
Day by day, rating agencies are downgrading banks and countries. The Eurozone banks are in danger, they desperately need to be recapitalized, like the UK banks were in 2008. It is a fact that there has been no Eurozone bank to bank lending in the last 10 weeks. That is very unusual and shows that we are already in another credit crunch.
There needs to be some grasping of nettles, grabbing bulls by horns, and some leadership.
Angela Merkel needs to grow a pair, and stop worrying about her election prospects. If she can help turn the Eurozone around then she'll deserve re-election. As of now, she doesn't. The writing's on the wall for Greece and she needs to recognise that.
There needs to be another round of quantative easing in the US and UK. We need to move some money around to kick start capital projects without adding to the deficit.
Italy needs to have a firm plan for deficit reduction. Spain needs a new Government with a similar plan. France needs to desperately recapitalize their banks. A reduced Eurozone (without Greece and a few others) needs to issue Eurobonds. There needs to be closer fiscal consolidation in the Eurozone.
We can thank Gordon Brown for recapitalizing our banks, and for keeping us out of the Euro. But we can also curse him for flouting his own "golden rule", throwing lots of money down the drain and giving us a large structural deficit. we now have little room for manoeuvre.
Hopefully the G20, maybe inspired by David Cameron, will come to the worlds's aid. We can only hope.
Squiffy
Saturday 17 September 2011
Erm, Nigel Lawson?
Funny how Nigel Lawson has been on the radio talking about how the whole Euro project was a disaster from the get go.
I seem to remember that he was very keen on the ERM, the pre-cursor to full monetary union. It was partly the reason for his resignation, along with disagreeing with Margaret Thatcher's economics advisor, Alan Walters.
He had also run a policy of shadowing the Deutschmark, one reason for the "Lawson blip" or early Nineties recession. Bit rich to now be banging the anti-Euro drum now isn't it?
Squiffy
I seem to remember that he was very keen on the ERM, the pre-cursor to full monetary union. It was partly the reason for his resignation, along with disagreeing with Margaret Thatcher's economics advisor, Alan Walters.
He had also run a policy of shadowing the Deutschmark, one reason for the "Lawson blip" or early Nineties recession. Bit rich to now be banging the anti-Euro drum now isn't it?
Squiffy
Monday 12 September 2011
Postscript to last Thursday's Question Time
Last week the latest series of Question Time started. It was a 'special' about 9/11.
What struck me most was the good points and reasonableness of David Miliband. It really struck me how much Labour messed up by electing his younger brother.
David Miliband has the stature to be statesman rather than an opportunist like his brother.
When will Labour realise, or have they already?
Squiffy.
What struck me most was the good points and reasonableness of David Miliband. It really struck me how much Labour messed up by electing his younger brother.
David Miliband has the stature to be statesman rather than an opportunist like his brother.
When will Labour realise, or have they already?
Squiffy.
Saturday 10 September 2011
Memories of 9/11
It will be 10 years tomorrow that the twin towers came down. I, like most people, have vivid memories of that day.
The day started normally, I had my lunch and was quietly working when my boss received a phone call from his American wife. She told him that a plane had hit the world trade centre. We all looked on the BBC news website, which was creaking under the strain.
We then heard of the second plane going into the South tower. We headed down to the main office. Our company was Venture capitalist funded, and one of the other companies they funded had really large TV screens.
We started watching in disbelief at the unfolding atrocity. I remember watching in horror that some people were leaping from the top, and I'm sire I saw one clinging to the side before falling. I thought how hellish it must have been for them to think throwing themselves to their death was a better fate.
And then it got worse. The South tower came down. Terribly weakened by the fire half way up, it collapsed. Apart from the death of thousands of people in there, including those trying to rescue such as brave firemen, that must have been absolutely terrifying for those in the North tower.
They may have been under the impression that the towers would survive and they could calmly descend to the bottom. The realisation that they were in a race against time must have been truly horrendous.
When the second tower came down, we continued to watch, hoping there would be no more atrocities but we heard of other hijacked planes. Thankfully there were no more images of the other crashes that day apart from a grainy picture if the Pentagon.
I left the office at 6 and watched more news at home, struck by the tragedy of it all. The enormity of it hit my emotions, and I remember crying for around 15 minutes.
I turned in early but didn't really sleep.
The world changed that day, and the stories we hear today reminds us of what we faced. It was the modern apocalypse. A vision of hell on earth.
Squiffy.
The day started normally, I had my lunch and was quietly working when my boss received a phone call from his American wife. She told him that a plane had hit the world trade centre. We all looked on the BBC news website, which was creaking under the strain.
We then heard of the second plane going into the South tower. We headed down to the main office. Our company was Venture capitalist funded, and one of the other companies they funded had really large TV screens.
We started watching in disbelief at the unfolding atrocity. I remember watching in horror that some people were leaping from the top, and I'm sire I saw one clinging to the side before falling. I thought how hellish it must have been for them to think throwing themselves to their death was a better fate.
And then it got worse. The South tower came down. Terribly weakened by the fire half way up, it collapsed. Apart from the death of thousands of people in there, including those trying to rescue such as brave firemen, that must have been absolutely terrifying for those in the North tower.
They may have been under the impression that the towers would survive and they could calmly descend to the bottom. The realisation that they were in a race against time must have been truly horrendous.
When the second tower came down, we continued to watch, hoping there would be no more atrocities but we heard of other hijacked planes. Thankfully there were no more images of the other crashes that day apart from a grainy picture if the Pentagon.
I left the office at 6 and watched more news at home, struck by the tragedy of it all. The enormity of it hit my emotions, and I remember crying for around 15 minutes.
I turned in early but didn't really sleep.
The world changed that day, and the stories we hear today reminds us of what we faced. It was the modern apocalypse. A vision of hell on earth.
Squiffy.
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