Posted by seumasach on January 14, 2012
Leaving aside the question of why Britain’s bankruptcy would be the fault of the eurozone, this is a significant and ominous development for the British economy, barely afloat only due to low interest rates on mortgages
14th January, 2012
Homeowners face a fresh rise in mortgage costs as lenders respond to the eurozone crisis by raising loan rates, brokers have warned.
Posted in UK economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 11, 2012
To view Britain’s crisis from the point of view of controlling expenditure alone is very one-sided: Britain’s problems lie, above all, in the lack of a productive base. Still, Halligan provides some useful insights into the real state of Britain’s finances.
Liam Halligan
11th January, 2012
Ten-year sovereign yields dipped below 2pc during the last week of 2011. As Chancellor George Osborne often points out, UK state borrowing costs are now similar to those of Germany. In fact, they are at their lowest since the late 19th century.
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: QE2 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on December 12, 2011
Global systemic crisis: 30,000 billion US dollars in ghost assets will disappear by early 2013 / The crisis enters a phase of widespread discounting of Western public debt
16th November, 2011
As we come to the end of the second half of 2011, it is evident that 15,000 billion in ghost assets have gone up in smoke since last July, just as was anticipated by LEAP/E2020 (GEAB N°56 ). And, according to our team, this process figures to continue at the same rate throughout the year to come. Indeed we estimate that, with the introduction of a 50% discount on Greek government debt, the global systemic crisis has entered a new phase: that of the generalized discount on Western public debt and its corollary, the fragmentation of the global financial markets. Our team believes that 2012 will bring an average discount of 30% of total Western public debt (1), plus an equivalent amount in loss of assets from the balance sheets of worldwide financial institutions. Specifically, LEAP/E2020 anticipates the loss of 30,000 billion ghost assets by early 2013 (2), with an acceleration in 2012 of the partitioning process of the global financial market (3) into three increasingly disconnected currency areas: Dollar, Euro, and Yuan. These two phenomena feed into each other. They will also be the cause of a sharp decline of 30% on the part of US currency in 2012 (4), as we announced last April (GEAB N°54 ), which will occur amidst a sharp reduction in demand for the US dollar and the worsening of the US governmental debt crisis. The end of 2011 will therefore see, as anticipated, the trigger of the European debt crisis detonating a US bomb.
Posted in Battle for Europe, Financial crisis, UK economy | Tagged: Laboratoire européen d’anticipation politique LEAP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on November 24, 2011
Bank of England warns risk of calamitous outcome to eurozone debt crisis is rising
The risk of a calamitous outcome to the eurozone debt crisis is rising, according to a stark warning from the Bank of England.
Minutes from this month’s meeting of the monetary policy committee, published yesterday, showed growing concern about the impact on the UK of the financial storm.
‘Concerns over the sustainability of the debt positions of some euro area countries had led to increases in the cost of borrowing for those countries and widespread falls in confidence,’ the report said.
While the worst risks had not so far crystallised, the threat of their doing so had increased, exacerbating the already severe strains in bank funding markets and financial markets more generally.’
The minutes showed the MPC voted unanimously in favour of leaving interest rates at a rock bottom 0.5 per cent and continuing with its programme of quantitative easing.
The Bank launched so-called QE2 last month when it agreed to pump another £75bn of newly created money into the economy, on top of the £200bn already printed.
The minutes suggested another round of QE will follow – but not until early next year once the latest £75bn has been exhausted.
The report showed some members of the nine-strong MPC thought another round ‘might well become warranted in due course’ to support the faltering recovery.
It warned the economy was likely to stagnate in the current fourth quarter of the year – leaving it perilously close to recession – having grown by 0.5 per cent in the third quarter.
Nida Ali, economic advisor to the Ernst & Young Item Club, said more QE was ‘practically a foregone conclusion’.
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: QE2 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on November 10, 2011
10th November, 2011
THE gap between goods imported and exported in the UK hit a record high in September, official figures revealed yesterday.
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: UK trade deficit | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on November 9, 2011
16th October, 2011
Click on above link to view charts and diagrams
As anticipated by LEAP/E2020, the second half of 2011 is seeing the world continuing its unstoppable descent into global geopolitical dislocation characterized by the convergence of monetary, financial, economic, social, political and strategic crises. After 2010 and early 2011 which has seen the myth of a recovery and exit from the crisis shattered, it’s now uncertainty that dominates the States’ decision-making processes just like businesses and individuals, inevitably generating increasing apprehension for the future. The context singularly lends itself: social explosions, political paralysis and / or instability, return to the global recession, fear over banks, currency war, the disappearance of more than ten trillion USD in ghost-assets in three months, widespread lasting and rising unemployment…
Posted in Battle for Europe, Financial crisis, UK economy | Tagged: Leap2020 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on October 26, 2011
This is quite amusing: Mervyn King’s claim of declining inflation is obviously based on anticipated deflationary pressures i.e. collapsing consumption. This fails to take into account the effect of QE on the value of the pound. It is likely to fall substantially especially once the rescue package for the Euro has gone through with the help of China. Our prosperity over the last 20 or 30 years has been dependent on the high value of the pound and its acceptability as a means of payment to cover permanent trade deficit, as well as the desirability of UK gilts. QE, or the bailout of the banks by any other name, must undermine these fragile foundations of our well-being. It will provoke an inflationary surge whilst doing nothing to enhance growth since none of it is being directed into rebuilding our productive base. The higher interest rates when they come will devastate the middle-class overnight.
25th October, 2011
The governor of the Bank of England has explained in detail his forecast that inflation to fall back to target levels over the next two years.
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: QE2 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on October 6, 2011
The TUC’s general secretary, Brendan Barber, said the decision to expand QE was the right one, but added: “While it is better than not doing anything, quantitative easing is no economic magic wand.
“We worry that it does more to help the finance sector than the rest of the economy and could fuel further inflation at a time when living standards are already being squeezed.”
That’s very perceptive of Barber to spot that QE aims to bail out the City whilst continuing the impoverishment of everyone else- yet he supports it!
Britain in grip of worst ever financial crisis, Bank of England governor fears
6th October, 2011
Sir Mervyn King expressed fears that Britain is in the grip of the world’s worst ever financial crisis after the Bank of England announced it was injecting £75bn into the ailing economy.
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: QE2 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 22, 2011
Cailean Bochanan
22nd September, 2011
NATO have been bombing Libya relentlessly for six months and have now announced a 90 day extension to their bombing campaign. On whose authority you may ask? NATO don’t ask for authority, they bomb their way to it. Anyway, having declared victory, they have pledged to continue the war. If you are happy with the logic of that, you won’t be interested in joining our anti-NATO protest. If NATO step up the bombiing when they have won, what will they do when they’re losing. The truth, of course, is that they haven’t won and must continue the campaign until all resistance to the puppet government, which they haven’t yet been able to install, is crushed. That is probably impossible since the Libyan people and the Libyan army are maintaining fierce resistance under the leadership of the dictator they are supposed to hate so much. At this moment, there is no functioning government in Libya and there isn’t likely to be until NATO and its “rebel’ allies enter into negotiations with Gaddafi or are definitively chased out of Libya.
Posted in Libya, UK economy | Tagged: glasgow libya protests, libya protests, NATO war crimes in Libya, Stop the bombing of Libya | 1 Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 22, 2011
The inevitable will happen: here comes the next bailout of the banks, euphemistically described as “quantitative easing”. Prepare for further falls in the value of the pound with attendant inflation leading eventually to a raise in interest rates and mortgage rates. Attempts to offload the crisis onto the euro zone will probably fail given emerging economies support for euro. The disastrous and reckless war against Libya only adds to our disarray. The British people can only save themselves by moving to stop the wars and stop the bailouts which finance them.
Bank of England minutes indicate more quantitative easing on the cards
22nd September, 2011
The Bank of England appears almost certain to expand its economic stimulus programme before Christmas, in an attempt to prevent the UK economy worsening.
Posted in Currency Wars, UK economy | Tagged: bailouts, no more wars!-no more bailouts!, QE2 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 19, 2011
Posted in Battle for Europe, Currency Wars, UK economy | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 