2203 days ago
Celebrated fund manager John Hathaway feels that gold should be getting more of a bid, but investors remain lukewarm. In the near term, he is unsure of where gold is headed. John cautions that investors are going to become increasingly aware of the dangers of deficit spending and inflation which should cause gold to get more of a bid. A small pullback could still happen, but he doubts that there will be a retest of 2015 lows. Long-term he remains very bullish.
2613 days ago
On the Today programme this morning, overpaid presenter Michelle Hussein was at the Labour Party leaders rally, sorry I think it is called a party conference, in Brighton interviewing shadow minister John Ashcroft. It is not his platitudes that are of interest but one question she asked, from which I quote exactly:
2623 days ago
My pay has fallen by 14% thanks to austerity says another lardbucket public sector worker. The fake news channels report this as fact and pathetic Mrs May finds another money tree and prepares for public sector pay rises all round. So what if the deficit is £50 billion and going to rise? So what if the National Debt is already the largest Europe and rising? So what if inflation busting pay increases across the public sector will only fuel inflation so pushing up interest rates? Who cares? Well lets start with facts, the inconvenient truths that show how the lazy, overpaid bastards in the public sector who are lying to you about pay.
2695 days ago
A report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies suggests that the average student is now leaving colleague with debts of £51,000 a figure seized on by the left and the liberal media as a sign that everything should be handed out for free. The right insisted that it showed how the system was working. Everybody lied.
2718 days ago
The students flocked to Jeremy Corbyn after he promised to scrap tuition fees. It was a great bribe what was not to like? Vote Labour and save £9,000 a year. Fabbo. Of course it was based on money tree economics as were so many other Labour pledges and that is the inherent dishonesty at the heart of Labour. In the end they would run out of other people's money. But on this issue the Tories are even more dishonest.
2805 days ago
Joanna Cherry MP is the sort of pea-brained individual who seems to rise effortlessly to the top of the SNP. She speaks precisely and with an assurance that she must be correct. The only problem is that she talks almost complete nonsense. She starred on the BBC's Question time last week and served up such a total corker on the deficit that the hand picked audience of leftard had almost audible orgasms of delight.
2814 days ago
In the budget yesterday, hopeless Chancellor Hammond stated that he did not expect to be running a balanced budget until 2025 - his even more hopeless predecessor had - without much justification - predicted he'd be in balance a few years earlier. Channel 4 Fake New seized on this as a statement that the wicked Tories planned eight more years of austerity. Time and time again this mantra was repeated without challenge. It is, of course, just a fake news invention.
2957 days ago
Once again Nicola Sturgeon is insisting that if the evil right wing Tories take Britain out of the EU then she will do her utmost to get Scotland to leave the Union. Is her contempt for democracy more alarming than her delusional failure to grasp basic economics? It is hard to say.
2970 days ago
Yes I am beginning to miss George Osborne. No I lie, he really was useless. But so too is Hammond. I comment on him believing the boy who cried Euro Wolf (Nissan) and handing over taxpayers cash as a result but also on the way that he is set to allow the deficit to balloon again - this man is a danger to your wealth. At a company level I look at Inspirit (INSP), Cloudtag (CTAG), SKIL Ports and Logistics (SPL), Quantum Pharma (QP) and my pals the fraudsters as African Potash (AFPO) - Lord Peter Hain when will you blink and quit?
3010 days ago
I remember my daughter remarking how wonderful the poisonous midget Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP was a couple of years ago, for there was a time when on both sides of the border this silly woman appeared to be the darling of the left, of the liberal media and the metropolitan bien pensants. Since my daughter lives in Islington, I expect midget worshipping was almost compulsory for her. But how the Sturgeon devotees must be recanting for as every day goes by the Scottish leader seems sillier and more disingeneous.
3048 days ago
The issue of Britain's nuclear deterrent is a one that shows our political class at their most base and deceitful. For once, Comrade Corbyn is bang on the money in his opposition and, in what is becoming par for the course, Theresa May seems just incapable of telling the truth.
3053 days ago
BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg should surely have a grasp of the very basics of economics but the ghastly Scot is utterly economically illiterate. On the 10 O'Clock News, reviewing the achievements of Call Me Dave she claimed that he had paid off most not all of the deficit. A minute later she clarified that he had paid off two thirds of the deficit. This is so basic her gaffe is embarrassing.
3172 days ago
I am beginning to think that C4 News is targetted at those crazy folks out there who think that the BBC is a right wing monster controlled by the Tory party. You have to be pretty flaky to hold such a world view but C4 was always out there trying to reach out to minorities. And I guess paranoid Marxist fruitcakes are - across the Nation - a minority though on most liberal arts university campuses they are a dominant majority.
Sometimes C4 News pretends to be impartial. Sometimes it lets its prejudices slip in. And at other times it is just up front and unfair. The fun is in spotting what game it is playing with each report.
In reporting on what today's UK Budget would have in store we got a sneak preview from Business Correspondent Helia Ebrahimi. Being a business correspondent on the BBC or C4 is a tough gig in that you must report on a system that you fundamentally disagree with, you have to be polite to a load of frigging evil capitalists and, worse still, totally innately evil Tories. But Helia is up to the challenge.
And thus
3485 days ago
At 7 AM it is clear that the Tories are going to be able to govern alone for five more years. As someone who runs a small business, who would like the economy to prosper, to see jobs created and the deficit cut and who wants us all to have a say on Europe I rejoice. My only regret is that I was not with her wife and her lefty pals at their election night party as they tried to work out how to but the corks back in the champagne bottle.
I noted in a podcast a couple of days ago that there could be a Dewey moment,
3582 days ago
As part of the dirty tricks campaign waged by the Labour party, the Mrs left me off the electoral register thereby denying me the opportunity to vote. I am sure that Ed Miliband is profoundly grateful to his one loyal supporter in this household for this act of electoral sabotage.
As luck would have it, the Mrs is away, and a letter from Bristol City Council has landed on the doormat. It stresses that “Your vote matters, make sure you’re in.” Keen to ensure that the sanctimonius eco-Nazis at Bristol City Council do not target me for disobeying them I have done as they urged and registered online to vote and applied for a postal vote at the same time. I have now filed the letter and envelope in the correct recycling bin.
But can Bristol prove that my vote matters? As far as I can see none of the main parties, and I include UKIP and the Greens to humour any fruitcakes or eco-smellies who are reading, are prepared to be honest with the electorate about the deficit and debt. None are prepared to fess up that with an ageing population we just have to extend the retirement and pension age by a decade and a half, to slash welfare spending and to accept that we cannot any more afford an NHS giving free healthcare on demand.
But no politician is honest about this. They all tinker
3937 days ago
I noted yesterday that if life on the Somerset Levels was not unpleasant enough right now, the poor bastards were faced not only with water up to their wastes but with a plague of politicians arriving to promise the earth and do nothing. The flood sound bites yesterday plunged new depths with Farage (UKIP) vs. Pickles (Con).
First up was the UKIP Fuhrer who demanded that the UK stop spending £11 billion a year on foreign aid and divert the cash to fighting the floods. One thing you may notice about UKIP is that whenever there is a problem that foreign aid cash is the answer. Want more hospitals? Axe foreign aid. Want more money for the armed forces? Axe foreign aid. Want to cut the deficit? Axe foreign aid. And so with floods in the news naturally UKIP thinks we should stop sending our cash off to Johnny Foreigner in Bongo Bongo land and look after folks back in Somerset.
As it happens I too would scrap foreign aid too
3951 days ago
Ed Balls has, this weekend, said that if Labour wins the Election then he will eliminate the budget deficit by 2020. From a man who played a leading role in ramping up the deficit to record levels when last in power this is an interesting pledge. Apparently Gary Glitter has said that he will be abolshing child abuse in Britain within five years as well.
4025 days ago
Brooks Newmark Is a Tory MP and even more embarrassingly a supporter of Newcastle United. And he is terribly excited that the Sun Newspaper is backing his “big idea” to cut employers NI contributions when a firm takes on someone under 25. Oh please. Brooks try to think this through logically. I know you are an MP but can you try?
You appear to accept that employers NI is a tax on jobs. That is a really good start. Albeit, not facing much competition, that marks you out as one of our smarter MPs.
But if you accept that principle
4079 days ago
I never cease to be amazed at the appalling coverage of basic economics by the national press but today’s shock exclusive from the Daily Mail really plumbs new depths. The headline reads: Government borrowing falls by £3.6billion as the recovery powers on. The sub heads read: Deficit cut from £14.2billion to £13.3billion in the space of a year and Borrowing falls from £50.4billion to £46.8billion. It concludes from this that George Osborne’s austerity policies are working.
Ok. Back in the real world. The statistic the Mail uses is that in the six months to August Government Borrowing was a mere £46.8 billion, down £3.6 billion from the prior six months. But that is not is not TOTAL borrowing just ADDITIONAL borrowing. Total borrowi9ngs are still increasing at almost £100 billion a year. The budget deficit in August was marginally down on a year ago but was still a disgraceful £13.3 billion.
So the correct headline should be: Government borrowing still increasing rapidly. The sub heads should read
4081 days ago
Oh worship the Money Tree, Bow down to the Great Money Tree. Nick Clegg you really are a prize git of the highest order. Your suggestions that all kids under 8 should get a free school meal might grub a few votes from the more innumerate members of the electorate but at every level it shows you for the fool and clown that you are and your party as an ideologically incoherent mess.
We start with the Money Tree basics. The UK is running a vast budget deficit and is heavily in debt. It cannot afford another £600 million. We are going bust. What do the Lib Dem’s not understand about that? Wake up to bankrupt Britain folks.
Aaaaaaah but what about the starving kids?
4162 days ago
And so this week George Osborne laid out his plans for how the Government will spend money it does not have over the next few years. The reactions were sadly predictable and the truth is, my friends, that they are all lying.
On the right there was praise for canny George who so cleverly snookered New Labour with populist pledges about tackling welfare scroungers and who is clearly a safe pair of hands to act as custodian of the nation’s finances. Middle England and the Bond markets are meant to be reassured.
On the left the BBC, its sister paper The Guardian and other associated loons continued the post 2010 narrative of wicked Tory cuts, back to the 1930s, blah, blah, blah.
Both sides are lying although it seems that the BBC/Guardian agenda has won as most folks do actually think that Government spending is being cut. It is not.
4185 days ago
The pain in Spain falls mainly on….everybody. But right now it is investors in a range of solar schemes that are taking an almighty beating and there is a lesson and warning here for anyone considering backing any one of those numerous solar or wind schemes you see flagged as sure-fire winners across the globe.
If you are looking for a safe alternative investment
4266 days ago
Dear Mr Osborne.
You are in a mess. The left attacks you for wicked cuts. Those with half a brain know that you are not cutting at all. Your budget this week is your last chance and so I offer you a radical set of suggestions to sort out Britain’s ills once and for all. And unlike anything from Vince Cable my ideas stack up.
Your three priorities are:
1. To slash the £100 billion plus budget deficit
2. To encourage those on welfare to take low paid jobs
3. To encourage employers in the private sector to hire aggressively.
As such my first two proposals will initially increase the deficit. To deal with point two you should, at once, declare that all annual incomes under £20,000 should be tax free. Thereafter you pay the standard rate (30%) up to £30,000 and then a higher rate of 50%. National Insurance is not a hypothecated tax and should therefore be scrapped and included in income tax – let us make the system simple and open. This would be tax cuts for all, a huge admin saving by abolishing NI and the tax cuts would be targeted at the lowest paid.
4271 days ago
It is not just the British Government that pisses away cash. All Governments do it. If you are spending other folks (i.e. taxpayers) dosh you do not count the pennies as if it was your own dosh. That is why the State is always inherently wasteful. However much cash it is given it will never be enough. In this vein I bring you a little gem from the USA.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $1.5 million to study biological and social factors for why “three-quarters” of lesbians are obese and why gay males are not, calling it an issue of “high public-health significance." Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., has received two grants administered by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to study the relationship between sexual orientation and obesity.
I offer one explanation. Gay men have many more sexual encounters each year than gay women and many of these tend to be transitory – thus looking good is more important to them. That is a statement of fact. But do I really care? Whatever the reason what is the NIH going to do with the data? Round up the fat lesbians and send them off to health farms? Stick gay men on a diet of full fat ice cream?
The reality is that whatever results this survey comes up with there is sod all that the Government can do to alter the fact that there are more fat lesbians than gay men. It is thus an utterly pointless waste of taxpayer’s cash. No-one spending their own cash would come up with a survey where the answer is not worth knowing and where there is nothing that can be done even when the answer is known. Only Governments could possibly contemplate engaging in such folly.
And Obama reckons that he is doing all that he can do to tackle the ruinous US deficit?
4293 days ago
Every day another story emerges which show how the welfare state is just out of control. Heather Frost has 11 kids and no job. She currently lives in two council houses knocked into one. But her local council has managed to do a deal with a developer to sell it land cheaply so that it will build a new six bedroom eco mansion with a 355 square foot kitchen just for Heather. But the ungrateful bitch has today said “It’s being built especially for me. If I go there and I say to them I don’t like it or it’s too small, then they will just have to build me a bigger one, won’t they.”
Why the hell should they? This 36 year old woman opted to breed like a rabbit,
4336 days ago
Thanks to a reader for this which explains why “averting the Fiscal Cliff” has not actually happened. The finances of the US Government are in terms of GDP/Debt ratios pretty much where Greece was just a few years ago. And the trend is not good…
Lesson # 1:
U.S. Tax Revenue: £2,170,000,000,000
Federal Budget: £3,820,000,000,000
New Debt: £1,650,000,000,000
National Debt: £14,271,000,000,000
Recent Budget cuts: £38,500,000,000
Let’s now remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
Annual family income: £21,700
Money the family spent: £38,200
New debt on the credit card:£16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: £142,710
Total budget cuts so far: £385
Got it? Obama has not. But I reckon most folks can see that the sums do not add up.
There was a lesson #2 attached involving sewerage but I think the point is well enough made already.
Another analogy is with a 20 a day smoker. The budget cuts agreed to date equate to him cutting out one cigarette….a year.
4340 days ago
Equities have got off to a flying start to 2013 but do I believe that the surge will continue? Sort of Yes and sort on No. It is complicated. I certainly do not assume that buying any old stock and expecting it to surge will be a way to make money this year. It never is and 2013 will be tough in many ways.
Part of the early January surge is a relief rally thanks to the US not falling off the Fiscal Cliff. Well not yet anyway. Tough decisions with regard to spending have not been taken, merely postponed. The fundamental issue of America’s deficit and its ever growing debt has not been addressed; Ron Paul puts it thus:
Under the sequestration plan, government spending will increase by 1.6 trillion over the next eight years. Congress calls this a cut because without sequestration spending will increase by 1.7 trillion over the same time frame. Either way it is an increase in spending.
Yet even these minuscule cuts in the “projected rate of spending” were too much for Washington politicians to bear. The last minute “deal” was the worst of both worlds: higher taxes on nearly all Americans now and a promise to revisit these modest reductions in spending growth two months down the road. We were here before, when in 2011 Republicans demanded these automatic modest decreases in government spending down the road in exchange for a massive increase in the debt ceiling. As the time drew closer, both parties clamored to avoid even these modest moves. Make no mistake: the spending addiction is a bipartisan problem.
4354 days ago
This article first appeared in my Tomogrraph Newsletter a couple of weeks ago but prompted my an angry response or two to my article of yesterday (Being on Welfare is NOT a Job) I am goaded into republishing the piece to a wider audience. One chap thinks I am “ bitter and twisted” and a “sad man” for arguing that taxpayers have no obligation to support a life of Sky, fags and booze on welfare. Whatever…folks need to face up to the problem.
This piece deals with those deficit deniers who cannot accept that Britain is heading for bankruptcy and offers up a 13 point plan to deal with the issue – needless to say I do not expect the cowardly Conservatives to adopt even one of my suggestions.
The Autumn statement came and went. George Osborne laughed and smiled. Ed Balls stammered. The left bleated on about wicked Tories and even more wicked cuts. The Tories claimed to be satisfied with the job being in hand. But we are as a nation kidding ourselves. We are all deficit deniers.
Two and a half years into this Parliament, Osborne has missed his forecasts again. Government spending has, in absolute terms risen year on year since the election.
4394 days ago
I think I got the sound and the video right this time. I have been thinking in the New Year that I might start doing two short daily audio reports on a) the markets and b) life in general – the world, the evil State and the Evil Empire. I am investigating the technology. Whaddya think?
4398 days ago
After 6 billion dollars and what seems like an eternity of evasion and unfulfillable promises America must decide today whether to re-elect President Obama or to replace him with Mitt Romney. What a god awful choice. It is just like Manchester United versus Chelski, you want both teams to lose. But after another evening with deluded lefties I think I have now decided who I want to lose less.
Rating the two men on a number of issues is a pretty thankless task but here goes on what matters to me.
4405 days ago
It is just over a week until the General Election in the US. I wrote here a month ago that I thought Obama would win and I still believe that he will – not that I am celebrating. But the result does not make any difference at all from an investment perspective. The USA is still a short.
Most polls suggest that Romney has a slight lead. However the two things the polls cannot tell you are how many folks voted early and how many of those answering polls will actually vote. Both those factors will, I fear, favour President Obama.
4427 days ago
The leader of the Scottish Tories, the feisty Ruth Davidson, has set the cat among the pigeons with a claim today that 88% of Scots are net takers from the State. The reaction is predictable. But this is not a Scottish issue. She articulates THE defining issue for the whole of the West, not just for the crackpot Socialist economic basket case North of Hadrian’s wall. How we react determines our fate. I fear for the worst.
4502 days ago
Today’s UK GDP numbers are disastrous for George Osborne. Folks do not expect to like Tory chancellors (except perhaps Ken Clarke in his fat, cigar smoking and whisky drinking pomp) but they expect them to be competent. Osborne is now going to be the chancellor who sees the UK lose its AAA rating and it is going to happen soon.
That we still have this rating is a joke. Somehow Osborne has managed to persuade us all that he is curbing Government spending ( he is not it is rising in actual terms, in real terms and per head of population) and that he is tackling the deficit ( he is not) and so getting national debt under control ( he is not). His claims were based on assumptions for growth which were, shall we say, optimistic.
