2263 days ago
On September 11 (9/11) 17 years ago, Al Qaeda – an organisation we in the West had armed and funded when it was fighting the Russians in Afghanistan - showed its gratitude by slaughtering more than 3,000 of us by sending two planes into the Twin Towers in New York. Those Islamofascists sure know how to say “thanks”. Today we are told we must #NeverForget and that the UK and US must carry on standing shoulder to shoulder fighting terror. This is truly the stuff of 1984.
2298 days ago
As I am sure you can remember, the liberal media, spearheaded in the UK by the BBC’s repellent Jon Sopel and Beltway Kylie Morris and Matt Frei of Channel 4 Fake News, demonstrated, to their satisfaction, if not that of anyone else, that Donald Trump was a racist back during the Presidential campaign of 2016. The Democrats and Hillary paid a few visits to the ghettos and sung Kumbaya and all was well.
2332 days ago
The BBC and its sister publication the Guardian had a weekend wankfest as large crowds gathered to protest against policies Donald Trump had already rescinded to deal with illegal migration across the Mexican border. But their coverage failed to show what is really happening. They are in denial as they serve up non-stop fake news.
2451 days ago
For more than two decades the mad dog eating commies of North Korea have been trying to perfect missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to the USA. Us President after US President has said how cross he is and if the dog eaters don't stop being so naughty they will impose more sanctions for China and most other folks to ignore.
2462 days ago
The narrative of folks like the BBC, The Guardian, CNN in fact the whole of the liberal media elite is that Donald Trump should not have defeated crooked Hillary in 2016. Without admitting that their gal was useless they agree that next time around the Donald just cannot win, in fact many argue that he will not stand at all. But have they actually looked at the polls in detail? If they have, they ignore them as they churn out yet more fake news.
2496 days ago
For more than five years the West has been pusuing a policy of madness in Syria. The authors of this madness were crooked Hillary, Obama, Call Me Dave Cameron and Frau Merkel. Only Merkel is still in office but the madness continues.
2498 days ago
Members of Congress have been shown a 4 page memo which details FBI spying under the Obama adminstration in which crooked Hillary Clinton served. The memo has been described as "shocking" and "worse than Watergate." Now the pressure is on to #ReleasetheMemo.
2765 days ago
Following the first round of the French Elections the liberal press was quick to spin the line" the results are a a vote against the establishment, against the elites". The spin here was that both Marine Le Pen and Tony Blair clone Emmanuel Macron were outsiders, anti establishment candidates while the traditional parties of Government had been beaten badly. This was spin. It was fake news designed to assist Macron. Marine Le Pen's job before the second round is to demolish that idea and so far she is doing a fairly good job of doing just that.
2850 days ago
Since 1947 The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists have once a year recalibrated an imaginary Doomsday Clock tracking how close we are to midnight, the point at which man destroys the planet. To mark the election of Donald Trump the clock was pushed forward 30 seconds to two and a half minutes to midnight. How the Guardian, Channel 4 and the BBC loved it "He's going to kill us all". Did any of these screaming hysterical liberals watch the last episode of the current series of Endeavour?
2887 days ago
Here in Bristol we prayed for Christians around the world who were suffering for their faith and we prayed for peace in Syria. And on Christmas day I hope we all rejoiced as the cathedral of St Elijah in Aleppo held its first Christmas service in five years. What joy that must have brought to the 100,000 Christians still left in Aleppo.
The Western media reported this rather sheepishly. Because it exposes the folly and wickedness of the policies of our Government in Syria, policies that the Western media has lapped up and promoted with lies and bias throughout. Here are the facts.
2958 days ago
There were two polls out Sunday night - one shows Clinton 4 points up and the other shows her 11 points up. With Rasmussen showing Trump two points ahead that 11 point poll from the Wall Street Journal/NBC News looks very odd. Well here's the rub - its data is obviously flawed. Why the hell was it used at all and why has the media just not picked up on this?
2977 days ago
I am a Trump supporter and, as I planned to stay up late for the debate, when team Trump spun that The Donald had prepped by playing golf I hoped that this was just lowering expectations. Sadly I now believe that it was what Trump actually did as he was not good last night. He rambled, he did not force the agenda, as Hillary did, to key issues like how corrupt she is, and he dealt poorly with her points on his lack of a published tax return. But while liberal media commentators now say that it is game over they are very wrong.
Can they not remember how Obama was thrashed out of sight by Romney in their first debate or how John Kerry mastered Bush Senior and Gore walloped Bush junior. In all three cases the big winner of the first debate lost the election. There was a small blip in the polls afterwards but it soon unwound.
Little Matt Frei visibly creamed himself
2981 days ago
A few months ago beltway liberal Kylie Morris of Channel 4 News was still sure that Donald Trump would not even get the Republican nomination. But now she and her "Group Think" elite are running scared.l So all pretence of impartiality is out - quite simply Kylie now tells lies to smear Trump and aid Clinton. Her report last night opened with an assertion from Mat Frei back in the C4 studio that hispanic voters in Florida are overwhelmingly likely to support Clinton and retiree incomers to support Trump. Certainly the latter is true.
2981 days ago
You have to be a truly useless candidate for President not to win your home state. Even folks who got thrashed at the electoral college level, such as Walter Mondale, got his neighbours to vote for him in Minnesota. Of course Crooked Hillary has no real home state. When in Dixie she tries to put on a southern drawl but when back home with her liberal millionaire pals in New York her tones become more clipped. But one state knows the Clintons better than anyone, Arkansas.
2987 days ago
It seems that the BBCs Kuenssberg & Maitlis are not the only ones claiming bogus scoops this week. SkyTV pundit Sophy Ridge tops up her earnings with a column in the Metro in which, this week, she reported on a freebie visit to Abbey Road Studios to meet Ron Howard as he plugged his new Beatles movie. "He revealed for the first time that he would be supporting Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump: "You look at the resumes and you go with the person who has the degree. I think I would rather go to the doctor who has the degree on the wall."
3009 days ago
Of the four broad factions fighting in Syria the only grouping we might all agree to be "nice people" are the brave Kurds. President Assad (the least worst of the rest) and ISIS use chemical weapons. ISIS and the Free Syrian Army behead folks, deny women and gays all rights and are all round islamofascist bastards. The Kurds believe in democracy, liberty, don't commit war crimes and their liberated women fight with the men. What is not to like about the Kurds?
Well it seems a lot. At least that is what our leaders think. In our desperate desire to suck up to the gay
3139 days ago
Stephen Kinnock has never really had a proper job outside the political world apart from a few months with the British Council. Daddy led the Labour Party to defeat then became a European Commissioner. Mummy was an MEP. His Mrs was PM of Denmark stating that her whole family lived in high tax socialist Denmark. Only that Stephen actually paid (very low) taxes in Switzerland where he worked. The establishment investigated and the establishment said that its own had done nothing wrong. Jolly good show.
3155 days ago
You will remember how for the first two years of the War in Syria folks like Hilary Clinton, President Obama, David Cameron and the entire Western press corp told us that the really bad guy in Syria was President Assad. Okay his human rights record was actually among the least worst in the region but he had to go and so the West started arming and funding a coalition opposed to Assad, many of whom turned out to be Islamofascist supporters of Al-Qeada with a propensity for chopping folks heads off. But that did not matter because Assad was the bad guy. We are not at war with Al Qaeda, we have never been at War with Al Qaeda, pretened our leaders. George Orwell would have been proud of them.
I flagged up the fact that the folks we in the West werebacking were monsters several times - see HERE - but no-one cared and as the country descended into chaos the real Islamofascists of ISIS saw a vacuum and filled it.
The West and its allies such as Saudi Arabia - a Mid East Country which really does have an appalling human rights record - carried on funding and arming our own Islamofascists
3173 days ago
This morning, the BBC and the rest of the liberal media cannot get enough of Lt General Ben Hodges who has warned we Brits that we must not vote for Brexit as it could damage NATO. What on earth is a US Soldier doing intervening in a British Election rather defies belief, how would Obama feel if a British General made the equally factually innaccurate claim that Mrs Clinton was a lying, deceitful old dyke and so urged folks to back the GOP this November?
Hodges, who is the top yankee soldier in Europe, seems to think that without Britain the EU could unravel. And if that happens NATO will unravel. Frankly it does not make much of a case for staying in the EU if we are told that if one of its 28 members quits it will fall apart.
Moreover do you need the EU for NATO? The latter was formed in 1949. A small common market did not get going until 1957 but the vast majority of NATO members were not part of that. The Evil Empire itself
3175 days ago
Things are getting desperate for the political establishment. The polls suggest that after the Florida and Ohio primaries on Tuesday, The Donald will be a slam dunk cert to get the GOP nomination. Then - with the Democrat contest rigged by establishment super-delegates, proof once again that the left doesn't trust the little people to handle democracy by themselves - we are all set for Trump vs Clinton in the General Election.
Right now polls show Clinton winning but it is within the margin or error. And with all sorts of skeletons in Clinton's closet, some of which
3965 days ago
I just spotted that my profile still describes me as, among other things, as Clinton loathing. I wonder, is it time to move on. Old Billy is now out of politics allowing to spend all his time raking in the cash a la Blair, groping interns or whatever turns him on the most. That would be a hard call I suspect. Surely I should move on to loathing Obama for his economic recklessness, love of the Big State and of illegal wars and crushing basic principles of civil liberty?
Hmmmm. I thought about this for a few seconds. Clinton covers not just old Bill but his loathsome Mrs as well and she spouts more than her fair share of total hogwash on issues like women’s rights and global warming (oops I meant climate change). She is even more into involving the US in illegal, unafordable and in the end disastrous Middle East military ventures than her old man and I have not heard her speak up much about the Big Brother tendencies of the Obama regime.
And Old Bill still pops up now and again to rouse the faithful to go vote for folks who love trees more than unborn kids, argue that every welfare programme is a way to create jobs and who think that Big Government is the solution not the problem.
I rather hope that after his second term ends in shambles Obama will head off into the sunset. I rather fear that the Clinton’s will be around for a while to come.
No need to change my profile then.
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?
4272 days ago
The results of the Falklands Island Referendum are out. Turnout was 90%. 1,513 good folks voted to stay British. 3 electors voted to become Argies. To President Obama of the United States and President Cristina Fernandez of the bankrupt State of Argentina, I say: "your grasp of economics suggests that you are innumerate but even you can see that the message is loud and clear Piss off Argentina
Now please respect the principle of self-determination which throughout this world has, for a century, been universally accepted and just piss off and leave the Falklands alone. And British."
My only surprise is that there were three people on these British islands who wished to become Argies. But I guess after years of in-breeding you are going to get the odd person who ticks the wrong box by mistake.
You can, off course, show where you stand by buying your very own Piss off Argentina mug, T-shirt or hoodie in my online store HERE
4279 days ago
The answer to the 1998 financial crisis was to slash borrowing costs across the globe so that we all over-leverages and misallocated our capital. On that occasion it was junk dotcom investments and property. In 2008 another crises and the same solution. The fact is that the world has been misallocating capital for decades, led by Governments freed from prudence by the abandonment of the gold standard in 1971.
With each crisis that crops up, the solution is simply to print more money and to get folks to take on even more debt. You owe too much – heck borrow some more. And so capital is misallocated and bubbles grow ever bigger. But at some stage the party ends. It will. The current set up is simply unsustainable.
And so what will be the black swan event that causes the mother of all reality checks? If offer four runners and riders. Inevitably if one occurs it will trigger the others. And it will probably be a fifth black swan that no-one has thought much about that starts the party. But here goes.
1. The Chinese property bubble. I have written before on numerous occassions about just how mammoth this is and how it really can knock the Chinese (and thus the worlds) economy for six. The answer of the authorities to the slowdown in the PRC in 2012 was to pump more hot air into this bubble. It has to be my top black swan bet. Read this piece out yesterday on Zero Hedge if you doubt me.
My major work from September 2012 on China, the misallocation, fraud an inevitably of a crash is HERE
2. A market refusal to buy US T Bonds in an auction. The US Government is three years away from having a balance sheet like that of Greece just before the crisis. An economically illiterate President and, to show balance, a spineless Republican party in Congress just cannot get to grips with what is happening. The US today is like sick Britain at the end of WW1. But it will take the US far less time than we took to see its currency tank. At some stage folks will refuse to stump up cash for a debt that yields sod all and is clearly unrepayable and unsupportable.
3. Sovereign default across Europe accompanied by widespread Civil unrest. The only folks buying Spanish debt right now are the Spanish state pension funds. Oooh lucky Spanish state pensioners. But those funds are tapped out. Spain is bust and its economy is enjoying an EU austerity driven spanking session which Max Mosley could only dream of. It is not just Spain. Italy, Greece, Portugal are in the same mess. The Irish economy and society has been beaten to a pulp in the name of fiscal responsibility and yet could still collapse. France is heading the wrong way fast as is the UK. The collapse of the Euro as we know it has to be an odds on bet it is a matter of how it occurs.
4. The Arab spring moving to Saudi Arabia. A regime with no legitimacy is kleptocratic, autocratic and barbaric. It bribes the people with a fraction of the nation’s wealth and panders to radical Islam in a most unhealthy sort of way but it is unloved. One day it will fall. Revolution in the world’s largest oil producer could perhaps trigger unforeseen events elsewhere.
Hey, maybe we can all carry on spending beyond our means, leveraging up as individuals and as States for a good while yet. We have been kicking this can down the road for decades so maybe we can carry on for another few decades. Or maybe not. One day something will happen and we will find our noses against the wall at the end of the Cul-de-sac. That day may be sooner than we think.
For more thoughts from Tom Winnifrith follow him on twitter @tomwinnifrith
4281 days ago
Given Obama’s determination to bankrupt America ref his recent cuts package it is time to remind you of the great Dominic Frisbey Debt Bomb Video. The same message applies to the UK befire we laugh too much.
Dominic is not only a comedian he is also an expert on gold which is why he is one of the keynote speakers at UKInvestor Show on April 13th. He is bound to be entertaining. More details on that event and on the 24 other speakers HERE.
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.
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?
4395 days ago
So much in the news, if not yet in the newspapers, this week I am spoiled for choice. Surely a few cheap Obama/Romney jokes, Greek strike jokes, Angela Merkel jokes, EU diktats on children’s gender neutral TV jokes or just David Cameron again spring to mind? I am spoiled for choice.
So, to win a Piss off Argentina T-shirt I offer you this picture and ask you to post your non entries in the comments section below
For what it is worth my entry is:
4397 days ago
Okay I admit it, I tried to watch a bit of the Biased BBC coverage. Three minutes of Newsnight was enough for me. This organisation gets taxpayer’s money to offer balance. And so I sat through a discussion with a stuffed British shirt ( who turned out to be novelist Martin Amiss), a horrible hag from Newsweek in the US who made Amiss look like a neocon and some third rate Republican ex Governor who was occasionally allowed a word or two for “balance”.
The bon mot from Amiss was that Ronald Reagan would be rejected by today’s Republican Party for being far too left wing. Paxman looked bored and did not bother to challenge this obvious lie which was part of the night long deluded leftie luvvy agenda of portraying everyone in the GOP as racist, sexist, homophobes who want to shoot all poor people. And so for some balance he turned to the old hag from Newsweek
4397 days ago
Well I told you so. My heart in the end went, marginally, for Romney and as I see deluded lefties across the media world delighting in another four years of hopey change I feel Romney’s pain. But my head told me Obama would win and so I have called it as an Obama victory from the moment it became clear he was going to face Mitt. I never flinched in that – whilst other conservative writers claimed Mitt had momentum and would inch it, this pundit got it 100% right. I shall cover the political and coverage aspects later but starting with the economy. Obama’s victory is not very good news for the USA.
4398 days ago
Okay, I really am now decided. If you are in any doubt as to why you should hope for a Romney win please watch this video. You may be physically sick as you watch Democrat luvvies associating Republicans with racism, sexism, misogony, hating the poor and Obama with saving everyone. Just nasty smear after nasty smear from a bunch of pampered, deluded liberal luvvies from one of the Coasts.
Get the sick bag ready, watch the video and any lingering doubts you may have had will disappear in an instant.
Go for it Mitt. All sentient people across the planet must surely wish you well.
One Term More – With Subtitles from One Term More on Vimeo.
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.
4407 days ago
Once again both the sound and picture are all okay. A pity about the window occasionally banging in the background but almost there for the latest video postcard which is fairly wide ranging.
Back in London on the first train Tuesday I plan to record my first CEO Videocast this week. Hopefully no banging windows there. And I cannot say where it will appear. But it will.
The video lasts 12 minutes
4409 days ago
So the Olympics cost the UK £15 billion or whatever but didn’t the politicians tell you that there would be a golden legacy? They were, of course, correct. Today it has emerged that Chime Communications (generated £30 million from doing PR for various aspects of the Games) is to buy a firm largely owned by Lord Seb Coe (organiser of the Games) for up to £12 million. Lovely, there is your golden legacy for you.
Move along nicely Sir. Don’t ask questions. The Olympics were a huge success for all concerned and have left a golden legacy for Britain. No buts. No ifs. Do not create a T-shirt protesting about this. You will note that Willy Hague MP has a shareholding in Lord Coe’s company. You should not question the State with naughty T-shirts or tweets, you never know where you will end up.
In honour of this golden legacy today’s photo is:
4416 days ago
And so President Obama apparently won the second Presidential debate. The polls look close. My money is still on Obama winning and Mitt Romney getting to spend more time with his $77,000 a year taxpayer subsidised horse. But all will become clear on November 6th.
The great issue should be the US economy. It is the economy stupid. Read my lips. As far as I can see President Obama wishes to bankrupt America within four years while Mitt’s policies will leave him needing at least two terms to achieve the same goal. Slow death or quick death – it’s America’s call.
And so, part one of this week’s caption contest is in honour of hopeychange himself
4432 days ago
Tonight was the first Presidential debate in the US. “Hopey change” Obama versus “Don’t ask my horse about its tax rebate” Romney. It seems clear that Romney won. Will that change the result on 6th November? I doubt it. I am still calling it for Obama by a clear margin. Most of the debate was so dull that only political anoraks will have stayed awake until the end.
But the closing line from Mitt really defines what an appalling choice America faces.
4433 days ago
The US election looms – on November 6th America will choose whether it wants another four years of Obama or a switch to the Republican Mitt Romney. As someone who supported the only fiscal conservative in the race (unsuccessful Republican presidential contender Ron Paul) I am dismayed by the choice and – like most Americans – really do not care about the result. Turnout will not be high. But Obama will win. It is not a matter of if, but of by how much. Just look at the betting on the poll. If Romney wins from here it will be the biggest upset in decades. I hate to write him off completely but I do.
4483 days ago
Mitt Romney has selected his choice for Vice President, his running mate. But picking Congressman Paul Ryan will not save him from electoral defeat in November. Obama is 7 points ahead in the polls and will win. At one level I say this with sadness as I think Obama is awful. At another with disinterest as I also think Romney is pretty dreadful.
Let’s start with Paul Ryan. He is young and photogenic and best known for his plan to balance the budget. He describes himself as a devotee of libertarian goddess Ayn Rand in a desperate attempt to pick up the Ron Paul constituency. But this is desperate stuff. It will not work.
Those of us who think Ron Paul is the answer to America’s problems do so because he ( as a true Ayn Rand devotee) would repeal legislation which has suppressed civil liberties (notably the Patriot Act), would end foreign wars and by cutting defence spending (20% of Government spending) as well as spending elsewhere really could balance the budget.
I have read Karl Marx. That does not make me a Marxist.
4496 days ago
I am biased. I want the Republicans to pick Ron Paul as their Presidential nominee and for him to thrash Obama, who I despise, in November. Paul will stop all the wars, bring US troops back home, slash Government spending and repeal fascist measures like the Patriot Act. So I would love the current presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney to come a cropper before he is formerly selected at the GOP convention in Tampa as – in policy terms – I see him as pretty much 100% aligned with Obama.
But the British reaction to his London “gaffes” makes me embarrassed to be British and not embarrassed for Mitt but rather sympathetic. However, there is another matter though where I think (and hope) he does come unstuck – his personal tax position. That is now looking serious enough to potentially derail his Presidential ambitions altogether. That is the real Romney story of the last 2 weeks
Before he arrived in London, Romney said that he wondered if the City was ready for the Games, what with the Border Security threatening to go on strike and G4S not appearing to have security under control. As it happens those are very legitimate points which the UK press had themselves had a field day with. But when Romney makes the same points it is a gaffe, twitter trends with #Romneyshambles and Fleet Street goes on the attack. It is said it is not “Diplomatic.” Maybe but it is fair comment. Is it that outrageous for a politician to tell the truth?
4510 days ago
This year all eyes have been on Europe. In a recent poll even most Guardian readers now accept that the EU is not good for Britain and that joining the Euro would be a disaster. “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” I cannot put it better than the gospel of Luke (King James version natch). Even the most deluded of Euro loon (Charles Kennedy, after lunchtime?) must now accept that Greece, Spain and Portugal are bust and that Italy and France are heading that way. Not surprisingly the Euro is tanking, the dollar looks strong and the world seems to think that the Old World has a monopoly on insurmountable problems. It does not. The USA is in the same boat as Europe and that boat is called the Titanic.
Now I accept that Europe has its own particular issues. A fixed currency for uncompetitive economies is a killer (for them). A genetic aversion to hard work, addiction to welfare-ism and the need for regular fixes of industrial action ( i.e. inaction) across swathes of the Southern part of the continent post challenges that, in the current set-up, are insurmountable.
But the US also faces challenges. Some of those it has in common with Europe. I no more believe the stated NAV of most of the big American banks than I do that of Barclays.
4513 days ago
I gather that ADVFN has a large presence in France and a growing readership in a country I adore. So before I offend all you froggies out there may I wish you a very happy Bastille Day. Now for the offending. There is always stiff competition for the title of the worst and maddest leader in the EU. Like Eurovision, the Greeks traditionally make a strong showing as do those chaps from the former Yugoslav Republics. However, before your recent Presidential poll, I sensed that Francois Hollande would be a very strong contender indeed for this title and since his election he has not disappointed me. As each week has gone by he has shown himself to be even madder and stupider than anyone could have dreamed of. His reaction to news that Peugeot is to fire 8,000 employees was a master-class in self delusion.
Here are the facts. Peugeot is loss making. If it carries on as it has been then it will go bust. Its problem is that its cars are not very good and as such they are over-priced for what they offer. But Peugeot cannot afford to cut its prices because its cost base is too high. And its cost base is too high because it builds cars in France where it must pay high wages to staff who put in s short working week, demand long holidays, have a propensity to go on strike and overall do not have a great work ethic.
4522 days ago
The reasons Obama deserves not to be re-elected are legion. Sadly he is running against Mitt Romney who offers no real hope for change (change – why does that ring a non liberty bell?) and so America’s worst President since Coolidge will probably get another term. Ongoing illegal wars, continuing suppression of civil liberties via the Patriot Act; a ballooning deficit, crackpot healthcare plans…do I need to go on? But hoisting hopey change by his own petard, we turn to the issue of jobs, or rather the lack of them.
As we all know, Obama has a grandiose 5 year plan to create jobs. So far the only jobs created are for beltway insiders and otherwise unemployable liberal arts graduates.
4523 days ago
I am a big fan of the USA. I love visiting friends in New York. I believe that over the past 50 years she has acted generally as a force for good (a few recent illegal wars notwithstanding) in fighting the cold war and acting as a responsible global military and economic policeman.
The principles behind the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution are generally inspiring. And so congratulations to, Britain’s friend, the US on her Independence Day celebrations. But on this day I can also reflect on the 10 Americans I am most glad do not potentially reside in the UK as a result of the divorce of 1776. Sadly bankster Bob Diamond cannot make the list as he is already over here. In no particular order.
