Saw this tweet yesterday. Made me chuckle.
"Does anybody know the long term exit strategy for the clapping thing?"
Saw this tweet yesterday. Made me chuckle.
"Does anybody know the long term exit strategy for the clapping thing?"
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
You could be right, it could be with us for a long time.
However, I'm fascinated by what's going on in London right now. They've had exactly the same lockdown as everywhere else in the UK but unlike elsewhere, they are getting hardly any new infections. What can be the explanation for that?
It could be wishful thinking, but perhaps the virus has run it's course there. As London, initially had far more infections than the rest of the UK, could an element of herd immunity be kicking in? The Liverpool School of tropical medicine believes herd community kicks in at much less than the 60% figure that is conventionally quoted. This is based on the theory that people's susceptibility to the virus varies. So that as the epidemic progresses, the pool of easily infected people starts to dry up.
Certainly this would explain the situation in Sweden where there has been no lockdown. Although it has had more infections and deaths than its neighbours, the pandemic is still broadly having the same trajectory as elsewhere.
It's a hope anyway.
QE is a foolhardy response to problems caused by money at too low cost.
It is prescribing more heroin to an addict, more of the poison that made the economy sick pre 2008.
Even bernanke admitted eventually that fed monetary policy lately copied by Blair and brown caused the bubble and the crash, also destroying savings. It destroyed return and so pensions for all but public sector.
But ALL QE is , is more capacity to lend. It is not “ free money”, there is still a counter party to expiring bonds that have to be paid eventually.
The idea of QE is demand or stimulus to economy is encouraged by lending cheaply.
The practical fact is there is a limit to how much an individual can borrow and pay back, in lifetime. So stimulus is a one hit now exhausted, and with very low economic return there is little motivation for massive industrial investment either. It is now trying to push on the end of a rope.
So the prime beneficiary of QE was the government able to borrow more cheaply once central banks bought up existing bonds from financial institutions at market rate , thereby giving banks the opportunity to buy more of the same. It funded primarily government debt at market value by putting buyers into the system for existing debt, But thereby is the problem. It hands debt and interest on to kids. It is this generation stealing from its grandchildren.
So who is left to borrow more? Speculators, ( who are in large proportion joe public ) which is why housing bubbles happened. Gordon brown was so fixated on spending the illusory income, from a fake housing boom, he turned a blind eye to the bubble. Even in early 2008 he said there would be no boom and bust.
QE is also the reason for the longest Dow bull run in history.
Be careful who you read with their politically motivated tripe.
The list of those who missed the 2008 bubble visible easily in 2006 include Gordon brown of course, stiglitz , IMF, OECD, FT, spectator, mervyn king, need I go on? I read all sorts of tripe in the FT.
Most of the same said we should join the euro or die.
My criterion for Listening to economists is those who saw 2008 in 2005. The list is short.
You - personally - are responsible for wage levels. Every time you buy cheapest or when that isn’t cheap enough you buy from abroad.
Employers can only pay what their customers will pay. If you think business can pay more - try starting one.
Public sector pensions are not “ better value” they are an uneconomic greedy scam in present economic climate.
Even worse when the system is gamed.
I expect employees to retire on a pension based Broadly on what they have saved. Topped up by a small amount from universal NI.
Public sector are getting double or triple that, and since the economy is a zero sum game, they are stealing it from private sector.
This attack on so called billionaires will put tens more thousands onto the unemployed queues. And far more into food banks.
Socialists do not have a monopoly on caring.Indeed, they don’t care at all: they are like a parent who buys all the toys in a shop on a credit card then can’t pay the electricity bill at the end of the month. Ask James Callahan, or the Greeks. The caring parent limits spend to income. If someone wants to spend more, they need to find NEW revenue, not more deadweights on enterprise killing the golden goose.
Latest crazy statement from NUE.
Teachers won’t mark homework in the list of 100 demands.
They could act responsibly instead: leave it unopened for 72 hours. Mark it then.
Last edited by Oracle; 22-05-2020 at 12:21 PM.
Last Saturday I self-administered a Covid 19 test as part of a random DoHSE/ Imperial College/ Ipsos MORI survey to see how many people actually have the virus.
It was all very professionally done - comprehensive instructions/ youtube video/ lengthy questionnaire about health/contacts etc, time - slot courier collection of sample.
I got my result (negative) on Wednesday by text, email and a letter - so no delay there and I look forward to the findings.
Last edited by Graham Breeze; 22-05-2020 at 12:28 PM.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
Should be fairly safe at work apart for the elderly staff.
Oh
Keep em out of supermarkets and off golf courses.