Ukip

[morphix]

Only for the moment. It's just that old enemy boom and bust again. This bust is a big one and we haven't reached bottom yet, but as sure as day follows night, we'll forget all about this when the next boom is in full flush.

Until the next bust when once again we'll all be predicting disaster (having once again elected a disaster!).

That is very true flecc, it's the same in some markets, you have periods of rapid and extreme growth, but it cannot continue indefinitely, the cycle has a peak and then it declines, sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly.. even products in markets have life cycles.. It shouldn't shock or surprise people really but people panic and think it's end of the world etc.

The dot com market boom was a classic example at the end of the 90's when many businesses grew rapidly and floated many on the stockmarket.. people rushed to buy shares thinking these companies would keep growing.. but as more and more competition entered the market growth slowed down rapidly and many found they couldn't compete and folded.

I think it's no different with the broader economy..and the cycles of boom and bust are usually driven by property speculation or high levels of consumer spending/debt.. I think the government should have seen this coming and managed the property market better to prevent too much speculation and bad lending.. during the Thatchers years deregulation went too far and these are the consequences...and the Blair and Brown governments didn't learn the lesson either. Other countries like Germany and France haven't had nearly as bad a problem where there's less home ownership.

I find it surprising that the governments solution is just to build more cheap houses and give money to banks to encourage more cheap lending which could start the whole process all over again.

 

[gray198]

I don't think that this government or the previous one have any idea how to get us out of the mess they have created. They seem to be totally lacking in imagination and their only solution to any situation seems to be to increase taxes. They talk about wanting to get the economy moving again ie get people spending, but what do they expect people to spend. I don't think you need to be an economist to know that if you keep taking more money from people and wages are stagnant there is nothing to spend. Every time the energy companies or councils take an extra pound from me that is a pound that will not be spent in the local shop or buying goods that I may previously have considered. Instead it is taken out of the economy and goes into government coffers or to rich foreign companies etc. While they keep taxes high and keep fleecing us in other ways the economy will never recover

 

[Ptarmigan]

and yield tangible benefits for all of us.

Except for the poor Canadians who have now been denied this paragon !

and people will share their new found surplus wealth those who are less fortunate.

The poor, soon to be impoverished, Canadians ?

The country is going to be in far better shape once that Lord Twatty Twatwhistle takes over from Sir Twatty Twatlestone.

d'y'know it seems only a moment ago that bigEddieG was chiefie-in-charge, can it be a whole decade of sir merve, dear me, how time flies

my prediction for the future.

Alister Darling for chief banker in Canada ? !

 

[indalo]

To my ex-Marxist* mind there is an inclination towards the dignity of work. For able-bodied but unemployed people I would agree the payment of some form of benefit but expect in return an element of regular work. So, if the JSA (Job Seekers Allowance) is £71 per week, and the minimum wage rate is £6.19 per hour, I would expect the recipients to do ten or eleven hours of work a week. For some this would hopefully lead to a return to full-time employment. Unemployed people have a vast range of skills which at present fade and are lost.
*To each according to his need, from each according to his ability.

That sounds not very far removed from an idea of a charismatic little Austrian chap in the 1930s. It demonstrably worked!

Indalo

 

[mike killay]

I was in Bulgaria in 1961. Every time the train stopped, a gang of men and women came forward and washed the numbers painted on the sides of the coaches.
I asked why they did this and was told that there was no unemployment in Bulgaria. Nor was there any dole. If you lost your job you went on the public payroll, washing things.