Sadly, it is time once again for this blog to go quiet for a week or two. Blobfish is otherwise engaged so I'm putting my special collector's edition action figurine of ace Northern Rock CEO Adam J. Applegarth on guard duty in Blobfish's place
and it's going to be kind of interesting to see if Adam and his chums at NR manage to wangle more in loans and guarantees out of HM Treasury than was actually at risk in the way of depositors' money when all this nonsense started...
Let me see, they're up to £16,000,0000,000 already and they're borrowing £3,000,000,0000 a week and the amount of money on deposit when the crisis started was reported as being about £24,000,000,000. So, what's that? Two, three weeks to go?
but, hey, the BBC isn't talking very much about Northern Rock these days so everything must be peachy
and in case anyone missed it, here's a handy video analysis (ripped from Wolfie's blog) of the fundamental causes of that credit crisis which not many people seem to be talking about anymore and which therefore has presumably gone away...
The Credit Crunch - it's made of credit and it's crunchy
And sadly, it's unlikely that I will be able to participate in and report on Islamo-Fascism awareness week, in particular the march scheduled for this coming Friday. There's nothing I would enjoy more than spending the day demonstrating my solidarity with people who believe that the Western World is just a short step away from COMPLETE!! and UTTER!! Muslim domination.
Maybe after the march we could have all gone off hunting for Snarks and fighting Jabberwockies as well
It could have been fun
The Chimes of Freedom blog has been keeping an eye on the planned Islamo-Fascism march and posting some interesting links lately, so it's worth having peek there to see what's going on in the exciting world Islamic Hatred in the run up to this week's festivities
Other links worth clicking onto in the interim include; Lord Patel (though his extensive and handsomely remunerated staff appear to be on some kind of wildcat strike at the moment), LWTC247 and its detailed, and I mean detailed, coverage of the Jean Charles de Menezes court case...
...then there's the ever accurate, ever reliable Daily Mash and, of course, Conspiraloon™ Central - they know what's really going on (wink wink)
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31 comments:
20.6 bn to date
Regarding this awareness week thingy:
If I wasn't Muslim...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WP5XPRk5wg
Highly recommendable:
http://www.damirniksic.com/
Darling beginning to smell the coffee?
It doesn't make sense; he's painted himself into a corner. How's he supposed to get out of the mess that Northern Rock (and his stupidity) have got him into?
Lord Patel is NOT on strike, nor the minions - go slow maybe.
Your guardian has stepped down from his non executive directorship of persimmon plc, though no mention regarding his chairmanship of the 'remuneration' committee of said housebuilder, so he will have ample time to guard your blog as well as he has guarded the northern rock
I hope he still has time for his governership of the Royal Grammar School which demonstrates that its not all that grim up north, if you can afford the nugatory £2973 a term.
All pupils should have a complete Bible. We strongly recommend the "Good News" version, but any modern version (of the complete Bible, not just of the New Testament) will do. If, for whatever reason, there are difficulties about this, they can be sorted out at the beginning of term.
Not like those horrible madrassas I keep reading about!
HOLY ROCK!
Last Updated: Thursday, 1 November 2007, 17:55 GMT
Bank 'lends Northern Rock £23bn'
Northern Rock saw a run on the bank in September
Northern Rock has borrowed almost £23bn in emergency funding from the Bank of England, the latest figures from the central bank indicate.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7073556.stm
The SMELL of something rotten has lapped the scale!!!
Warning Will Robinson. Danger danger.
for those lazy to click, another extract from that BBC article...
"So we are talking about total public-sector exposure to the Rock of £40bn - equivalent to around 3% of our entire economy!!!!!!
"And that exposure could become much bigger, as other loans to the Rock fall due for repayment. "
P.s. emphasis "!!!!!!" added - not entirely unjustified.
- lw
Stef,
Check the latest about Maddie. I ma sure you will love it.
The Bank of England lent Northern Rock £13bn under its agreement with the mortgage lender before freezing the facility last month. The funding now comes from the Treasury, with the Bank acting as an agent, giving the Government a greater say in Northern Rock's fate.
source
If they're borrowing 2bn a week,it'll only take about 6 months to swallow up the entire annual vat receipts.
Think how many wars we could have paid for with all that loot?
Adam and his 'team' will have to opt out of the working time directive to make all that back
Shocking news! Diana was alive before she died!
Barclays on the wobble now too! as is Citicorp. Subprime is still a hoax. Somone's in for a fortune.
If I was Apple head, I'd be borrowing like crazy from Japan, where get this...
"Oct 31st, 2007 - 07:05:12
Bank of Japan keeps key interest rate at 0.5%"
source: http://tinyurl.com/24auwr
And Gold is over $800 - and is actualyl still GREAT value for money!
The Governor Speaks - Radio4 interview tonight. Basically, we're being softened up for more bad news.
Oh, and another thing, has anyone else realised that fiat currency is incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998?
Particularly, "Article 1 Protection of property
Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall be deprived of his possessions except in the public interest and subject to the conditions provided for by law and by the general principles of international law.
The preceding provisions shall not, however, in any way impair the right of a State to enforce such laws as it deems necessary to control the use of property in accordance with the general interest or to secure the payment of taxes or other contributions or penalties."
Maybe I should post the above on the BBC comments section advertising the governor's Radio show? (It'll just get censored though ...).
Stef, you might like this simplified map of London - that is, in case the flying saucer that has taken you brings you back to this planet.
The author of Tax Research UK explains why he doesn't accept comments: he's wrong.
Tax Research UK (TRU) came to the fore via My Lord Postman Patel who circulated, the excellent research and analysis he produced with regared to Northern Rock's 'Granite SIV'. TRU has written many other pieces but he seems to be shy to accepts comments. I commented on one of his articles which he subsequently censored (fair enough, it's his site) but it really detracts from his site, it makes the host appear to be small minded. Shame.
I commented on one of his articles which he subsequently censored (fair enough, it's his site) but it really detracts from his site, it makes the host appear to be small minded. Shame.
As well as appearing small-minded matey also has a bee in his bonnet about inheritance tax and has written extensively and spoken on Radio 4 about how great it is because (sic.) it helps irons out economic inequalities in our society
?!
The last time I looked the brunt of IHT was born by the middle classes and, contrary to the widely circulated myth of an impoverished aristocracy crushed by the impact of IHT, really rich people pay fuck all
IHT is actually part of a system that ensures capital is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands
Murphy's one of those guys who hits the mark occasionally but who suffers from a failure to understand that the system is fundamentally, and deliberately, corrupted across the board...
I don't think that's quite fair on richard murphy, he (and some fellow accountancy experts like prem sikka) seem quite clear that that shift of taxation completely away from unearned income to earned income i.e. neo feudalism, is one of the main bunker busters in this class war we live in.
If he's a bit bloody minded, but his info is good, I can live with that
"In the 'Weblog Awards Best Science Blog Contest' a psuedoscience web site denying the effect humans have on global warming is currently in the lead over real science blogs. Apparently conservative political sites have been directing their readers to vote for it, whether they read it or not."
And what is the first thing I read there?
"However, I would like to ask you do one thing for us in the name of promoting good science on the internet. Vote for Bad Astronomy in the Weblog Awards Best Science Blog Contest. You can vote as often as once a day, and I encourage you to take advantage of that option."
Me thinks that I need to subscribe this.
@paul
Yes, his information is often good but some of the stuff he came out with on the subject of IHT really did tit me off. Not because I'm particularly bothered about IHT but because Murphy...
- barely mentioned the fact that the truly rich are effectively exempt from IHT and other forms of taxation
- is one of those muppets who seems to think that increasing the national tax take/ government spending will somehow magically reduce economic inequality, when any c*nt can see that the exact opposite has happened in this country over the last ten years.
Taxation/ government spending has increasingly become an engine for robbing lower/ middle income earners and then spunking the loot on corporate welfare. Maybe I am being a little hard on Murphy but I do believe he doesn't understand just how fundamentally bent the system is
@stef
I think that the tax justice network is trying to point out out that the increase in taxation is a product of of the uber parasites'
(you missed an ear burningly embarassing/vapid/timid performance by j paxman vs ronald cohen of apax partners this week)
unilateral withdrawal from any social involvement.
to paraphrase the spiderman films:
with great wealth, comes complete lack of responsibility
Taxation/ government spending has increasingly become an engine for robbing lower/ middle income earners and then spunking the loot on corporate welfare.
I see it in the completely different direction, robbing those who earn their income and then, leisurely, spunking it all over them selves.
A rather more unappealing version of the trickle doen theory
I see it in the completely different direction, robbing those who earn their income and then, leisurely, spunking it all over them selves.
well quite - when I use a term like corporate welfare (or the warfare state) I'm suggesting that, perish the thought, corporations and the shady fuckers who control them are the beneficiaries as well the administrators
definitely a case of hitting yourself in the chin rather than letting things trickle down...
see my forthcoming monograph 'What masturbation can teach us about economics' for further details
@paul
Not like those horrible madrassas I keep reading about!
or even those Marva camps we don't keep reading about...
mpacuk.org/content/view/4120/34/
see my forthcoming monograph 'What masturbation can teach us about economics' for further details
Can't wait, have you sold the accompanying DVD rights yet?
@tony
thanks for the links (as always) - I've tucked the pictures away somewhere safe for later use
"Murphy's one of those guys who hits the mark occasionally but who suffers from a failure to understand that the system is fundamentally, and deliberately, corrupted across the board..."
Steph/Paul - my censored email was in response to a note that Murphy had posted where he'd calculated the shortfall of taxes as a consequence of the existence of some off-shore tax haven (from memory, Jersey). It was billions of GBP and he made condemnatory noises. I pointed out that, his condemnatory noises were predicated on the assumption that the cash was either doing nothing; or somehow not being used in a productive manner. I expressed the opinion that this money would most probably be employing people and putting bread on peoples' plates etc. Further, by collecting it as tax would cause deprivation and the money would only be used to fund some pretend war eg Iraq. (Of course it's a pretend war, it isn't even about oil; the invasion was simply a means of transferring wealth from dollar holders to the US military combine. I mean, how else could the get USD 8 billion per month?). Anyway, that's what got me censored by him: he most probably thinks I'm a right-wing bigot; or rather, in lieu of effort of argument he pretends to himself I'm a rightwing bigot.
Welcome back from yer hols Steph. You'll be relieved that the authorities have managed to jail a terror poet (former checkout girl).
anon
Hmmmm....I'd never thought of the use of tax havens was an ingenious and unsung anti-war strategy...but as they are so darned secretive I don't feel able to speculate on their selflessness or otherwise. If they are interested in creating jobs, then monaco, aruba and barbados don't look like unemployment blackspots to me
@lwtc247
If I was Apple head, I'd be borrowing like crazy from Japan, where get this...
"Oct 31st, 2007 - 07:05:12
Bank of Japan keeps key interest rate at 0.5%"
The only problem with that strategy would be, of course, that there's only one direction for Japanese interest rates (and the Yen/ £ exchange rate) to go...
@paul/ anon
re. offshore havens
The European Tax Savings Directive will effectively stuff anyone trying to dodge paying tax by sticking their hard earned capital gains into places like IoM or the Channel Islands...
http://tinyurl.com/2m5kfp
You could of course hold your loot somewhere further afield but that's an altogether riskier proposition for your average middle class punter clutching onto a windfall profit from the sale of their dear old dead granny's house.
Carousel VAT fraud scammers, drug dealers and the like have access to considerably more resources and will have no such concerns about stashing their loot in some of the even shadier havens not covered by the ETSD
Alternatively, you can forget all that offshore nonsense and just tell the Treasury/ Gordon Brwno that, for the sake of the nation's economy, you decided that you won't be paying any tax at all and they'll say 'fine'...
http://tinyurl.com/37nttu
re. the morality of not paying tax/ job creation/ war funding and all that jazz...
there are an awful lot of middle income people out there who have been tacitly supporting what's been going on in this country and the world, economically and socially, because they've been labouring under the impression that they've made money off the back of it
I personally believe that the bulk of those gains will shortly disappear in a puff of smoke or be clawed back through taxation and inflation
that's one of the reasons why contempt for the Middle Classes is such a popular passtime - people lower down the economic pecking order dislike them for supporting those at the top of the pyramid and the people at the top of that pyramid look down upon them as easily manipulated dupes...
@sophia
thanks for the link - I've only just round to clicking it
and, yes, I did
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