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Boss Radio

The last of the funk powered trains...

Posts tagged with "recession"

Why is Britain still in recession? Ooh er... Let me think.

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It's official. The UK is still in recession. 'Why is this?' demand the papers (Oh, and her majesty's opposition).

Let me hazard a theory or three.

1/ Britain went into recession later than most of the rest of the world, so it's coming out later.
2/ Other countries had deeper recessions than ours, so ours is just as bad as theirs. But shallower.
3/ As the CBI has been reassuring us ever since Thatcher demolished our manufacturing base, what Britain does best is to add value to the work of other, less well paid, artisans. So we have to wait for them to come out of recession and start manufacturing and shipping stuff over here again for us to add value to. We also need to hope that 'they' haven't noticed what value we're adding and started adding it themselves.

I'm guessing it's 1% option one, 1% option 2, and 142% option 3.

We're stuffed.

"Quantitative engineering"?

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Someone just said it on TV. I think they meant 'Quantitative easing'.

It means 'Inventing money'.

I think.

It's money, Jim, but not as we know it.

It's electronic money and doesn't really exist in the real world, it's just there for the banks to use to start them lending money to each other again. I do find myself worrying though, that they might get it mixed up with the real money. What if they then lend it to me? Will I get into trouble for spending money that isn't really there?

The real danger with this scheme - and it's one which the-powers-that-be are hoping that the-people-who-watch-out-for-this-kinda-stuff are not going to notice (But I suspect that they will) - is that other nation's financiers will think that this money is a bit real, they will imagine it in terms of suitcases full of money, and they will realise that this means that the pound is now worth less because there are more of them to divide into the total wealth of the United Kingdom, and they will devalue it.

This of course gives me an idea that I would really like to see as an experiment, seeing as how everything which is being done to fix this crisis is experimental anyway. It goes like this.

Bring forward next year's Domesday Book (You probaby know it as 'The Census'). Give everyone of post-school age who is mentioned therein a million quid of real, freshly minted notes. The pound will immediately devalue, but that won't matter because it will, at worst, only half in value, meaning that everyone will now have the equivalent of half a million quid.

If we are to believe the statistics... :rolleyes: ...then 90% of our wealth is owned by 10% of the population, so 90% of the population will be much better off, and the richest 10% won't be, but they'll still be stinking rich beyond the realms of anything that can be ethically justified so we really don't care much about them, do we?

The important thing is that 90% of us will start spending money. Some will be sensible and will remain fairly solvent, others will simply hand the lot over to the top 10% who will rapidly become every bit as rich as they were in the first place.

Most important of all. I will be better off, and so, incidentally will you in all probability.

Will you tell Gordon or shall I? :knight:
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December 2009
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