Saturday 29 October 2011

The EU and the euro: it was always going to come to this

Christopher Booker,Telegraph
"We are not going to pull out, which would anyway be extraordinarily difficult now, because the way Britain is governed has become so inextricably enmeshed with “Europe”. Anyone who thinks we can “renegotiate” has no understanding of what this project is about, or its most sacred principle – that powers, once handed over, can never be given back. So we must stay in, dragged along by a process over which we have no control.

The one clear lesson of recent events, and the total insolubility of the crisis engulfing the euro, is that the project is slowly heading for very messy and prolonged disintegration. Everyone involved, it seems, is trapped, and the only way Britain will leave the EU is when it falls apart, around us and everyone else. Which is what it has, finally, begun to do."

Blair defends opening the door to mass migration and says it had a very positive impact on Britain

Daily Mail
"A defiant Mr Blair insisted his party’s policy on immigration was the right one. He said: 'It’s been a very positive thing and there is no way for a country like Britain to succeed in the future unless it is open to people of different colours, faiths and cultures.’ Under Labour, up to 5.5million people born outside the UK arrived as long-term migrants.Between 1997 and 2010, around 2.3million left the country, meaning the UK population increased by around 3.2million as a direct result of foreign migrants."
ED:Nobody voted for this

Thursday 27 October 2011

One TRILLION euro deal hammered out (with a 50% Greek debt 'haircut' for banks)... but will it be enough to calm the markets?

Daily Mail

"The Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Meryvn King, echoed that feeling by warning the deal would only give 'a year or two of breathing space' to sort out the crisis."

4,000 foreign criminals set free to fight deportation including murderers, rapists and child sex offenders

Daily Mail
"He revealed there were 3,775 criminals in May this year who had been released from immigration detention centres because there was ‘no prospect of them being deported in a reasonable time’. Of those, 3,259 had served sentences for low-level offences, another 429 for ‘more serious’ crimes, and 87 for the most serious offences – including murder, rape and paedophilia. Some are unable to be deported because it is thought ‘unsafe’ to send them back to their home countries, or because of difficulties in getting hold of a passport so they can be put on a plane. Last year, a total of 576 used the Human Rights Act to prevent them from being kicked out, the report found, with the vast majority citing Article 8, the controversial ‘right to a private and family life’.

Wednesday 26 October 2011

UK population will hit 70million by 2027 (and half of increase in next decade will be down to immigration)

Daily Mail

The country has had enough of deception. It's time to close the yawning gap between the ruling and the ruled

Daily Mail Comment
"The supreme irony of Monday’s debate is that it was called in answer to a mass public petition, in accordance with a pre-election Conservative pledge that was meant to prove the party’s determination to reconnect the political class with the people. In the event, the e-petition gimmick served only to highlight and deepen the yawning democratic deficit between the rulers and the ruled. ...So the Mail has a simple proposal: let there be a single-question referendum, asking the public if we wish to reclaim powers from Brussels, yes or no. True, it will not satisfy those who wish to withdraw altogether. But for them, better this than the nothing they will otherwise be offered.

As for the timing, let the referendum be called the moment a new treaty is drawn up. Or if it becomes clear that the new rules are to be introduced on the sly, without a treaty, then let it be held within 12 months from today. There can be no more lies, no more deceit, no more creeping federalism without consent. This time, those unequivocal manifesto promises must be honoured. Only then will our political class redeem the disgrace of Monday night — and begin to reconnect with the people they were elected to represent."

Tuesday 25 October 2011

The Hole in Europe’s Bucket

NYT,PAUL KRUGMAN
"It’s a vicious circle, with fears of default threatening to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. To save the euro, this threat must be contained. But how? The answer has to involve creating a fund that can, if necessary, lend Italy (and Spain, which is also under threat) enough money that it doesn’t need to borrow at those high rates. Such a fund probably wouldn’t have to be used, since its mere existence should put an end to the cycle of fear. But the potential for really large-scale lending, certainly more than a trillion euros’ worth, has to be there.

And here’s the problem: All the various proposals for creating such a fund ultimately require backing from major European governments, whose promises to investors must be credible for the plan to work. Yet Italy is one of those major governments; it can’t achieve a rescue by lending money to itself. And France, the euro area’s second-biggest economy, has been looking shaky lately, raising fears that creation of a large rescue fund, by in effect adding to French debt, could simply have the effect of adding France to the list of crisis countries. There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza. "

Irish prime minister 'ruled country from a bar stool' as Celtic Tiger turned into euro basket case (and left the British taxpayer with a £7.5bn bill)

Daily Mail
#Taoiseach Brian Cowen 'would drink all evening in Irish Parliament pub'
#Late Finance Minister hampered in attempts to prevent bail-out 'because he wasn't part of drinking circle'
#'Everybody thought that when he became Taoiseach he’d stop drinking, but he actually didn’t'

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Inflation: an undemocratic stealth tax

City Am,EDITOR’S LETTER
"Had the government passed a law in Parliament to take money from one group and give it to another – to grab cash from people’s bank accounts to help pay down their neighbours’ mortgages, overdrafts and credit card bills – there would have been outrage. Had the government decreed a partial default on the national debt (most of which is not indexed to inflation), the markets would have panicked. Yet because this process is happening on the sly, without discussion, and with the Bank of England telling us that this is merely a short-term blip, hardly anybody is batting an eyelid – even though, once again, the prudent are being mugged to bail out the imprudent. Inflation is not just taxation without legislation and undemocratic: it is also the stealthiest of all taxes. " (H/T Guido Fawkes)

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Obama: The first thousand days

Daily Mail
"On the home front the situation seems grim, the economy is stalled and people are very nervous. Here are some hard stats: The U.S. debt has increased by 4.2 TRILLION since Mr. Obama took office. The government spends over 4.2 billion dollars per day more than it takes in. Over $787 billion was spent on a shovel ready stimulus programme that, in the president’s own words, 'wasn’t so shovel ready after all.' Instead of creating or 'saving' 900,000-2.3 million jobs, 2.2 million jobs have been lost on his watch; According to a report by CBS News last month, unemployment stands around 8-9% even higher among African Americans; The U.S. Labor Department said unemployment rate among African-Americans was 16.7 percent in August, while the overall unemployment rate was 9.1 percent. Among black youth, the unemployment rate was 46.5 percent in August. Meanwhile the government payroll has increased by 140,000 jobs.Three million more Americans live in poverty and there have been 4 million bankruptcies. .......In a thousand days he has played a lot more golf than George W. Bush did in eight years. In a thousand days the economy is in more dire shape than after four years of Jimmy Carter. His foreign policy of apologising abroad to our enemies has weakened our presence on the world stage and ability to project power, liberty and democracy. We are actually respected less than we were under the alleged dummy and Texas cowboy, George W. Bush.

The billions of government funds wasted on crony-capitalistic deals to his campaign supporters, such as the 535 million loan guarantee to George Kaiser at Solyndra; the government throwing millions at a venture simply because of its 'green credentials' and not its balance sheet.But it is not the past one thousand days I worry about. What more damage can he wreak in the remaining 460 days, 19 hours, 32 minutes and 56 seconds until someone competent takes the oath of office in January 2013?"

Sunday 16 October 2011

Printing money like a drunken sailor

The Adam Smith Institute
"The other reason is that inflation is eating into what pay rises people are getting, leaving them generally worse off. And (Friedman again) you can put that down to monetary policy. Like anything else, creating too much of the stuff just makes it worthless, and the MPC has created too much of the stuff. If overseas investors come to the same conclusion and sterling becomes devalued even further, the prices of many essential imports like food and fuel will rise even more, and UK consumers will feel themselves even worse off.

The solution? Hayek this time: inflation must be stopped dead. It is corrosive, and it stops markets from working properly. And if you want to get out of a recession, you need your markets to work as well as you can possibly make them. On that front, high taxes and bad regulations are bad enough, but inflation is a disaster. Present policies may just make things worse, rather than better."

Occupy the Bank of England

Guido Fawkes
"The “Occupy the London Stock Exchange” and “Occupy Wall Street” crowd have got the wrong target. Living standards are being deliberately and systematically undermined by central bankers not stockbrokers. The London protestors should head over to the Bank of England and their friends in NYC should head for DC. Inflation at 5% is robbing rich and poor alike of our earning power.

In consistently predicting this inflationary mess Guido would happily claim sagacity, but it is pretty basic economics that if the supply of something rises, unless demand increases, the value of it goes down. If you print more money, you get inflation. Simples."

ED:Must Read

Saturday 15 October 2011

Lost in administration: Scandal over criminal immigrants hidden among 37,000 files of foreigners appealing to stay in Britain

Daily Mail
"Last year, 37,300 cases were launched by immigrants appealing to stay in Britain after the Home Office ruled they were not entitled to remain here. Of course, this figure accounts only for those tracked down by officials — leaving tens of thousands who have avoided detection free to stay. A significant number of those foreigners fighting to remain in Britain are small-time criminals, terrorists or fraudsters, although the vast majority originally simply slipped into Britain illegally or deliberately overstayed their visas."

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Obama Loses Big on Jobs Bill

Yahoo News
"Nothing quite illustrates the depth of Barack Obama's weakness in Washington better than the painfully public defeat the Senate handed him Tuesday by blocking his signature American Jobs Act. ......The defeat was a sharp rebuke for Obama that amounted to a vote of no confidence on the economic policies of recovery spending that he’s championed for years, namely his idea that flooding the economy with public money will jump-start the private sector. But even Obama’s fellow Democrats seem to have developed sufficient spending fatigue to put the brakes on new outlays, while the most moderate Democrats say the economy will never recover as long as the deficit continues to spiral out of control."

Monday 10 October 2011

'We must control how many people come to this country': Cameron announces major crackdown on immigrant numbers

Daily Mail
"David Cameron today announced a major overhaul of the UK's immigration rules as he said numbers had got out of control under Labour. He pledged to reduce the number of people coming into the country to 1980s levels - and said the 'door was left permanently open' under the last Government. Launching his crackdown, he said: 'We must control how many people come into the country'. He added: 'We have to be much better at finding illegal immigrants and getting them out'.

51% Don't Want Second Term For President Obama

IBD
"A majority of Americans now oppose giving President Obama a second term, reflecting the country's continued weak economic performance, according to the latest IBD/TIPP survey released Monday.

By 51%-41%, respondents in October picked "someone new deserves a chance" over Obama "deserves to be re-elected." Among independents, it was 54%-36%. Back in September, the readings were 50%-44% and 53%-38%, respectively.

Americans are frustrated over the continued sluggish economy, says Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, which conducted the poll. As Vice President Joe Biden recently admitted, after nearly three years in power, the Obama administration owns the economy."

Saturday 8 October 2011

What could we do with £75 billion?

John Redwood
"How silly of me not to realise we could simply create £75 billion to sort out our problems. Now we are told we can, maybe we should ask what we should do with the new money? ......We could, for example, give every man, woman and child in the country £1250 each to spend as they like. They could use it to pay off the credit card debt, or meet the tax bills on their petrol. It would help with the Council Tax and the VAT. As the main problem over the last year has been the drop in consumer spending, this would offer a way of boosting it. Funny how the authorities never want the punters to have any of the new money. ......We are owed a proper explanation from the Bank of why they think printing money when inflation is already 5.2% is a good idea. Just telling us yet again that inflation will fall and that we are in the midst of the worst crisis ever is not a sufficient argument for actions that savers will fear."

Inflation: Printing Error

Guido Fawkes
"Those dangerous radicals at SAGA, the retirees organisation, are describing QE as a “Titanic Disaster“,

“QE2 will damage pensions, impoverish pensioners and ultimately risk another crash. Inflation depletes spending power. It does not create growth. This inflation has undermined confidence and caused consumers to retrench, which has actually weakened the economy. The authorities must take heed of these dangers before it’s too late.”

The Monetary Policy Committee is simply no longer even trying to contain inflation, the Federal Reserve in Washington and the Bank of England in London are, in concert with their respective treasuries, deliberately letting inflation go to solve the government debt crisis on the backs of pensioners and prudent savers. ......In government and at the Chancellor’s behest we are seeing the printing of money on a scale never seen before, inflation is uncontrolled, spending is rising, debt is being encouraged to rise. The Chancellor plans to facilitate more private borrowing from the Treasury by poor corporate credit risks and the Bank of England now holds on its books a third of all the government debt outstanding with no credible plan to unwind the hundreds of billions in QE driven government gilt purchases. Sound money? What a joke."

Friday 7 October 2011

People too lazy to register being denied the vote? Why, it's simply outrageous!

Telegraph
"All the Government is asking is that citizens go to the trouble of filling in a piece of paper. Is that really too much to ask? A citizen has obligations towards his country, something I would have thought all those citizenship classes would have impressed on people. If he or she cannot even be bothered to carry out such a meagre obligation, should he expect to vote?

Harriet Harman has pointed out that the proposal is "going to push people off the electoral register – deny them their vote, deny them their voice. The numbers are going to be huge.”

But no one is denying anyone’s right to vote – they are only asking the very minimum of civic participation.

Yes, Labour will lose out, but if they rely on people who have no civic sense of responsibility, or who cannot understand English, or who don’t exist, then one has to question their mandate. Besides which, it’s strange that the party of women’s liberation is so keen for heads of households, the vast majority men, to fill in these forms – I wonder why that is?"

QE is a disaster

Douglas Carswell
"Yesterday the Bank of England announced plans to "inject £75 billion into the economy".

Today the sort of "experts" who tanked the banks and landed us in this mess speak of the need for a further £500 billion. Indeed, many of the bankers cheering on this next round of QE stand to gain directly from it.This is a disaster. People will look back at this approach one day and wonder how on earth it was ever seen as a good idea.Printing more money will not create wealth.It will erode savings, punish those who do the right thing and seriously harm the productive sectors of the economy. It will disincentive savings - and not allow the increase in savings ratios needed to build up real credit.The bill for printing this extra £75 billion will be paid by my constituents through higher shopping bills, the diminished purchasing power of their pensions, and reduced savings. So much of this strategy - printing money, low interest rates, rationing credit - is a continuation of the kind of Treasury policy we had under Alistair Darling. We need a different approach.

FACT CHECK: Obama claims miss some evidence

Yahoo News /AP
"WASHINGTON (AP) — Are President Barack Obama's ideas for job creation really bipartisan as he claims? Not when the means for paying for them are put in the equation. The president dodged various facts and and left some evidence in the dust in his latest challenge to Republicans to get behind his jobs program or offer a real alternative. A look at some of the claims in his fast-paced news conference and how they compare with the facts:......"

Confidence in UK banking system rocked as agency downgrades 12 bank and building society credit ratings

Daily Mail
Decision will make it harder for banks to borrow and loan
Doubts over Government support behind move
Fears state-controlled RBS requires new bailout
Osborne says Government has 'credible plan' to weather 'growing global debt storm'

A triple blow to squeezed middle: As Bank chief warns of worst-ever crisis, he pumps £75bn into economy

Daily Mail
Move seen as last-ditch bid to stave off new recession
Interest rates held at record low of 0.5%
Bank considered shock drop in interest rates to 0.25%
Household expenditure falls rapidly

So is this Plan B? £75billion round of money printing is right weapon to shore up our economy, says Osborne

Daily Mail
"The Bank said the latest bout of money printing will take four months to complete but added that ‘the scale of the programme will be kept under review’ – a hint that it may do even more next year. It is thought that as much as £300billion could be printed this time around – taking the total to an eventual £500billion.

Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan said: ‘Nothing new will be manufactured, invented or developed as the result of this monetary splurge, no services offered, no businesses founded. ‘Rather, the money already in circulation – the money in your bank account, in your purse, under your mattress – will be worth less.

Thursday 6 October 2011

Bank of England surprises with stimulus

Herald Sun (Australia)
"THE Bank of England has surprised markets by announcing that it will spend another $120 billion in an attempt to stimulate a struggling British economy, moving a month earlier than many in the markets expected. .......The pound slumped following the statement. Soon after, it was trading 1.1 per cent lower at $US1.5293."

Mervyn King on quantitative easing: why this time will be different

Telegraph: Video
"The Governor of the Bank of England says the challenge facing the world economy is greater now than during the credit crunch."

ED: So we are going to devalue the pound even more and rob any savers?

Bank of England Launch Another £75bn QE Splurge

Guido Fawkes
"Though interest rates stay at 0.5%, the Bank of England is to print further £1,000 of unsound money for every man woman and child in Britain. On top of the £200bn they have already thrown up into the wind, the Quantitative Easing total is now £4,500 each."

Sunday 2 October 2011

Freedom of speech is dead in Australia

Telegraph,James Delingpole
"For my money probably the best political blogger in the world is Australia's Andrew Bolt. He was one of the first journalists onto Climategate (he got there before me) and his takedown earlier this year on his radio show of an EU Climate Commissioner spouting nonsense was magisterial. But he's by no means a single issue commentator: he has strength in depth. His war, like mine, is against those who would constrain our liberty by imposing on us more tax, more regulation, more control. He's firm but fair: one of the good guys.

This is why we should all worry greatly about the latest bizarre ruling from the Australian federal court, which has found Bolt in breach of the Racial Discrimination Act."

Saturday 1 October 2011

The EU dream has turned into a nightmare

Christopher Booker,Telegraph
"The truth about the euro project is that it was always based on a colossal act of make-believe, launched in defiance of all economic and political reality. And as history and storytelling have shown us again and again, when human beings, individually or collectively, attempt to act out a fantasy, there is a very clear and identifiable pattern to what follows. "