By failing to properly regulate the banks and by keeping interest rates too low, Brown has been largely responsible for the huge property bubble over the last 10 years. This bubble has diverted funds from productive assets into piles of bricks and mortar that just sit there doing nothing. The bubble has also had the effect of pricing guys like Jamie out of the property market and saddling those who can afford a mortgage with stupidly high levels of debt.
The other effect of the bubble has been property owners borrowing on the increased "value" of their homes and chucking this money into the economy, increasing consumer spending.
The other effect of keeping interest rates too low has been the massive expansion in personal debt, again increasing consumer spending and driving economic growth.
At the same time as the above was happening, Brown's tax take increased hugely and the cash was thrown at the public sector.
We are now in the position of stagnant wages and rapidly increasing inflation (does anyone believe the 'official' rate as defined by the CPI?) yet consumer spending is falling fast as the housing market grinds to a halt and people find their disposable incomes squeezed by soaring energy, food and fuel prices. Recession is a very real possibility.
History will judge Brown as one of the most irresponsible Chancellors of modern times. His only stroke of genius was vacating the post just as the wheels started to come off his 'miracle' economy. He was happy to take the credit for the 'good times' yet now that everything is going tits up, it is all apparently due to global factors outside the government's control.
Economic rant over <breathes>
BTW I quite like the BBC. Radio 4 alone is not only worth the price of the licence fee but is one of the few reasons left to be proud to be British.
I agree MoS, to a point. But I have this uncanny ability to smell food that has gone a bit 'off', and to notice mould and stuff. So my cheese has a use by date, but as it is rotted milk, unless it is going green & mouldy (cut those bits off then), I eat it. Tomatoes going mouldy? Cut off the green fluffy bits & fry them up.
He was happy to take the credit for the 'good times' yet now that everything is going tits up, it is all apparently due to global factors outside the government's control.
Sure, but that's a comment that could apply to any chancellor you care to name. As for 'throwing cash at the public sector', if only - PFI projects and public/private 'partnerships' are among New Labour's most irresponsible legacies and bailing out the private sector is where a lot of the money goes, when they should have had the guts/desire to renationalise public transport. Then there's that 'war', and a ludicrous and unworkable ID-card system...
I'm a Radio 3 bear myself, and very happy that TV-owners continue to finance the station
Ooh, another vote for disliking food waste. But is it just me, or does bread go stale more quickly than it used to?
I've used 'mousetrap cheese' in cooking before, just cut the outside off.
I like to use fruit and veg when it's fresh as I know it has more nutritional value
I always feel a bit of a failure if I allow something to go mouldy but I think I'd rather waste it than risk a tummy upset.
It's personal choice what you eat but better to err on the side of caution when giving out advice on food safety, then it's up to the individual how they take it.
I agree on using smell as a check though. I've been caught out a couple of times when buying prepacked meat from the supermarket. The date was fine but it stunk when I opened it. The meat was either incorrectly labelled or it hadn't been stored properly.
Don't know if there's been a change, NNPB, I think some of the cheaper sliced bread is packed with preservatives to extend the shelf life. Keeping bread in the fridge makes it last longer, not ideal but it's ok for bread you're going to toast.
Oh and bread will go stale quicker in warmer weather.
"By failing to properly regulate the banks and by keeping interest rates too low, Brown has been largely responsible for the huge property bubble over the last 10 years. This bubble has diverted funds from productive assets into piles of bricks and mortar that just sit there doing nothing. The bubble has also had the effect of pricing guys like Jamie out of the property market and saddling those who can afford a mortgage with stupidly high levels of debt."
erm, the bank of england sets interest rates. as for the rest, do you mean just like what happened in the early 90's, late70's, the 60's etc.
energy prices go up, everything goes up. why is the price of a barrel of oil the government's fault?
interst rates, exchange rates, gdp, investment, exports etx are all likned. you can't mess about with one without affecting the others.
bugger use by dates - if it looks, smells and tastes edible it gets eaten - gives the immune system something to play with.
"Given her diminutive stature, surely Kylie's knickers are a fine example of good economy?" aye but I had a good smell of em last week and there definitely out of date! Don't worry I certainly won't be voting Tory just becasue Labour have let us down. As for the food going off thing, I do completely agree that we all waste too much food, we are often throwing things out we've left for too many days in the fridge. However as young people living in a hectic world it isn't easy planning meals ahead, I can go a whole week where I have no idea what I'll be doing from one night to the next. For example this week I am now going for a meal tonight which I wasn't until this afternoon, so the food I brought for tonight won't be used, tomorrow it turns out we are now out aswell. On Monday night when we bought this food for the week we planned on being in all those nights, plus I was supposed to be working today and tomorrow but not now, life ain't as simple as going shopping every week and buying lovely fresh fruit and veg and eating it unfortunately. But I do agree with anyone who says humans waste too much food, but I do think its about time our so called leader stopped pointing fingers at us and started asking Tesco why there prices have soared when they made billions last year!!
Oh what short memories people have, like 15% mortgage rates, selling off council houses for nothing then restricting council building, selling of the basics of life, water, fuel, railways and not looking in to the darker corners of some political partys to see who is realy pulling the strings. Well I havent forgotten the back door deals that were done in the past and I would sooner trust Brown to be huis own man than either of the leadersof the other two partys who ever they realy are. As for Kylie's Knickers PMT smells the same what ever the size and lust ignores it all.
Whilst I'm no believer in GB's 'economic miracle' (based on huge public and private borrowing), I don't think the 'credit crunch' can be laid at his door.
More to do with greed, fecklessness and lack of probity among the lending instututions (worldwide). US banks lending money to people they knew didn't have a cat's chance in hell of ever paying back, so that the salesmen got their nice fat commissions. Sub-prime mortgages; what an innocuous phrase. Then these banks parcelling the bad loans up into packages and selling them to gullible banks worldwide (by offering them at what seemed to be bargain rates). These banks failed to use due probity to look at the loans they were taking on, or to ask themselves "this seems a very good deal, I wonder why that is...?".
Now we're in the situation where we have a knee-jerk reaction, and the banks have suddenly gone OTT with excessive probity, and aren't handing out loans sensibly; they're erring far too rigidly on the side of caution.
This has significant knock-on effects on the economy, and is leading to a serious slowing of the economy.
Neither can the food and fuel price issues be blamed on him.
He does seem to be lacking in any clue as to what to do, and is thrashing around like the liquid metal Terminator, popping off shots at random targets. No vision of what he wants to achieve.
erm, the bank of england sets interest rates. as for the rest, do you mean just like what happened in the early 90's, late70's, the 60's etc.
energy prices go up, everything goes up. why is the price of a barrel of oil the government's fault?
That would be the 'independent' Bank of England that has 4 of its 9 MPC members directly appointed by the Government (which, of course, has no influence over the other 5 members)? The same 'independent' BoE that has its targets, particularly inflation, defined by the Government? The BoE's independence is a political fiction designed to distance the Government from unpopular decisions.
"Just like what happened in the early 90's etc" - the difference this time was a specific promise from Brown that there would be no return to boom and bust.
"Everything goes up?" No, it doesn't. Manufactured goods have been falling in price as manufacturing operations move to low-cost countries like China. I know that the Govt can't control the cost of a barrel of oil. It can, however, affect the end-user price by limiting fuel duty. Part of the reason for soaring food costs is the displacement of food crops with bio-fuel crops, encouraged by Govt incentives. Even the Greens are belatedly realising that this was a bad idea.
Anyway, enough politics for now. Back to Kylie's pants. Perhaps the Govt could claim that gold hotpants worn by gay icons has increased in real terms by over 12% since the last Tory Govt or something
Oh no - I get in the car at 0530 and have to listen to the depressing business news cos it's all that's on, do a day's work, depressed by the news all the way home - recession, credit-crunch - and then what - OM is debating it.
I can't muster the energy to join in, not even if the Black Shadow says something outrageous
must be difficult to know what to aim at and hit it though capt with so much turmoil going through so many different things.
the banks (along with insurance companies the most inefficient, incompetent organisations on the planet) are being extremely cagey because they really don't know how much they're going to be hit by the sub-prime fiasco - another example of it's not feckin rocket science. these got bundled and shipped around all over the place.
cush, the 15% mortgage rates were a result of world influences not domestic, if your reference is to a certain lady. if it is then indeed a short memory forgetting what the rates were earlier under a different government.
it is frustrating that many references to "she who would be obeyed or else" show a determined set of blinkers to events of previous governments of whatever hue, global affairs and global economic trends. such insularity of thought. much continues to be made of the miners but what about the docks, the gasworks, steelworks, cnc machines, computers; the list goes on.
... It can, however, affect the end-user price by limiting fuel duty.
Not really. The proposal has been to reduce fuel duty as prices rise so as to keep the price steady, and increase duty as prices fall. Prices are unlikely to fall. So prices carry on going up & revenue to the Exchequer goes down. So where do we raise taxes to provide for the shortfall?
, not even if the Black Shadow says something outrageous
