Lord Byron
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« Reply #375 on: 12:15:49, 24-10-2008 » |
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Met someone down the job centre who said her and 17 others had been laid off from conveyancing work and someone down the pub at a skeptics meetup told me his firm had laid off 20 recruitment consultants.
Something is going on..........
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ahinton
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« Reply #377 on: 12:29:42, 24-10-2008 » |
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Thanks Anty. Interesting. Alastair Darling says he wants to put more money in our pockets. Presumably to spend. However he then says "We have also got to make sure in the medium term we live within our means." That will mean cutting down on spending obviously and that will hit the retailers and down we go.
But doesn't that just typify the sheer inconsistency and meaninglessness of these kinds of declaration? Who should "live within" whose "means" and how? You and I? The local corner shop or farm? The local authority? The government? All of the above (and more)? Who decides in any case what such "means" are at any given time? Try giving that kind of advice to a graduate who emerges from university with a double first and a five-figure debt and who, even if he/she can land a decentish job in the present economic climate, will have little if any hope of being able to afford to service it as well as a mortgage even at a reduced interest rate on a lower priced property than might have been the case until recently! Hardly anyone, or any business (including local authorities) or any country anywhere in the world (apart, perhaps, from Norway) literally "lives within its means" - a fact has been made not just possible but almost compulsory by the massive international injections of cash into the monetary system that have consistently been made over many years that have ensured that most people, businesses and countries can never hope to earmark money that has little real value to service the debts that they thereby continue to accrue by default. Alistair Darling's avowed desire to put "more money into our pockets" (which seems to run rather wryly counter to his and his predecessor's diligent tax-raising activities over the past 11½ years) is surely just another example of a hopeless attempt to wriggle out of a global financial crisis by printing more money (unless I have fundamentally misunderstood his motive here)...
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Lord Byron
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« Reply #378 on: 12:47:43, 24-10-2008 » |
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It all works on confidence, that has been lost, so printing money and nationalising banks can help restore it, you can always burn money and de-nationalise banks later.
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Milly Jones
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« Reply #379 on: 13:34:11, 24-10-2008 » |
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I've just been discussing finances with a very wealthy friend and for those who are in any position to do so, investing in Gilts seems to be the safest option at the moment.
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We pass this way but once. This is not a rehearsal!
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thompson1780
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« Reply #380 on: 14:08:18, 24-10-2008 » |
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Gilts,....? ah yes..... The government borrows money off us just after they have effectively loaned £650bn to the banks (excluding the money spent on nationalising Northern Rock et al). So we're effectively loaning to the banks. (Yeah yeah, I know its more complicated than that, what with guarantees and so on....) Tommo
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Made by Thompson & son, at the Violin & c. the West end of St. Paul's Churchyard, LONDON
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Baziron
Gender:
Posts: 88
May the Force be with you.
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« Reply #381 on: 14:26:41, 24-10-2008 » |
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It all works on confidence, that has been lost, so printing money and nationalising banks can help restore it, you can always burn money and de-nationalise banks later.
It's not so easy just to "burn" money once it is in circulation and then "belongs" to somebody else! Neither is it that easy to "de-nationalise" banks unless you can find some private person/organisation who wants to buy them. By the time banks have become seriously investable commodities (i.e. whose share values are increasing) why should any government want to sell them? Should it not (at that moment) want to hang on to them in order to maximise its return on the investment? Baziron
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Antheil
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« Reply #382 on: 16:13:09, 24-10-2008 » |
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My office is in the High Street of a small town. Over the past few months it has become quieter and quieter. Today (Friday) is Market day, a day on which people come into town, particularly from the outlying villages, hamlets and farms. It is dry and bright and sunny and the town should be bustling - but it's not - and there are empty parking spaces. Talking to the local shopkeepers that I know they say trade is down, and has been for a while, and the majority of the clothes retailers have some sort of sale in progress, even though it is their new Autumn/Winter stock. One National multiple (an off-shoot of Burtons) has today put up Closing Down posters.
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #383 on: 13:00:14, 28-10-2008 » |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Ruby2
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« Reply #384 on: 13:45:02, 28-10-2008 » |
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Don't get me started on that. I have to take valium after that sort of news story.
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"Two wrongs don't make a right. But three rights do make a left." - Rohan Candappa
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #385 on: 13:47:16, 28-10-2008 » |
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Take a Steve Bell instead.
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Turfan Fragment
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« Reply #386 on: 07:24:13, 30-10-2008 » |
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Please help. Tell me whether the following letter (sent to all employees at my university) has any content at all: Dear Colleagues, You have recently received a message from President White on the economic outlook for all of the campuses of the University of Illinois. He has charged leadership of each campus with the task of designing contingency plans to cover whatever financial realities we ultimately face in light of the declining state and national economies. I write to you today to assure you that thoughtful planning is under way with our campus administrators including the vice chancellors, the Chancellor's Cabinet, the Council of Deans, and directors and department heads. Representatives of the faculty, staff, and students will also be involved through the Senate and other advisory bodies. I have personally experienced this situation twice before - once here, once elsewhere - and on each occasion I saw a stronger institution emerge. This is possible again if the answers to the financial questions we face are grounded in sound institutional principles and values. We must (and will) find ways to respond to our financial circumstances that build on our accomplishments of recent years, allow us to continue our forward movement, and protect our missions of teaching, research, economic development, and public engagement. Should we face this challenge, we will have to make prudent, focused decisions. We must examine anew what is most important to our missions and our aspirations, what must be protected, and where investments must still be made. Guided by the campus' strategic plan we developed a shared vision for this institution which requires us to: o assure student access to a quality education across all income levels; o safeguard the quality of our faculty and the education we offer; o secure the base of excellence for which we are justly known-our research activities and related engagement with the public; and o preserve our capacity to selectively invest in high potential endeavors. The means by which we implement these principles will need to be devised through careful collaboration under our shared governance model. One thing is clear: we will need to engage our collective entrepreneurial energies to seek additional sources of funding. Hence greater efforts to raise resources from individuals, the private sector, foundations and agencies, must be encouraged. And to that end, we must continue to argue that public higher education is a social good and an essential investment in meeting society's critical needs. This is not a time for retrenchment or scaling back our aspirations for the future. The next several years will be challenging ones for all of us, but if we manage our way wisely through this challenging time we will emerge on the other side positioned to move ahead rapidly as new funds become available. I am asking each of you to be sensitive to others in this trying time and recognize that there may be members of our community who are experiencing a particularly stressful period. Please look at how work is accomplished within your unit and share your suggestions as to how to work smarter, with greater economies. Mindful that personnel, equipment and utilities comprise the largest components of our expenses, I ask that, where possible, you delay creating new jobs, filling vacancies, or making equipment purchases and to redouble our efforts to conserve resources on campus. Your excellence and dedication are our most valuable resources for addressing the challenges that this period brings. The campus has for a long time been a wonderful place to make a career. The larger economic downturn will not, and cannot, be allowed to change that. Very truly yours,
Chanc311or H____
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thompson1780
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« Reply #387 on: 08:12:01, 30-10-2008 » |
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Turfers,
I could have stayed at home and read your chancellor's letter instead of going to my Divisional conference in Manchester. Thank you for a surfeit of w***words.
Tommo
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Made by Thompson & son, at the Violin & c. the West end of St. Paul's Churchyard, LONDON
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strinasacchi
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« Reply #388 on: 10:29:43, 30-10-2008 » |
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There's a tiny bit buried in the penultimate paragraph which could be interpreted as:
DON'T SPEND ANY MONEY OR WE'RE ALL DOOMED!!!
Or possibly:
IF YOU SPEND ANY MONEY YOU'RE DOOMED!!!
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martle
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« Reply #389 on: 11:03:35, 30-10-2008 » |
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Turfers, it means 'freeze expenditure and prepare for redundancies'. I've read similar letters many times before.
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Green. Always green.
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