Troika tightens stranglehold on Greece

The window for Greece to remove itself from the boot of EU oppression gets ever narrower and more remote as one group of corrupt politicians replaces another in that raped country's so-called "national government".

Pretty much the same thing as occurred in Britain yesterday, as Cameron and Clegg reshuffled their Cabinet that is supposedly in charge of running and determining the future course of the country - LOL! Much more on that in the coming last months or weeks of the now certainly doomed coalition. Zero attempt to confront the national crisis is anywhere evident in any of the changes made - these two men's absolute pride, blind ignorance and stupidity is truly quite astounding!

Apologies for that digression, the latest from the Trioka returning to Greece today is to impose a 17 hour day and six day week while enabling the asset and land grab finally to begin to take place, so that the finest islands and remaining Greek wealth can be distributed at bargain prices to the victorious industrials from the northern heartlands of the EU, as reported by City AM here and more emotively from Workers Liberty here.

Paul Ryan already brings Obama to address the issues.

Last weekend will be remembered for events in America, far from the Olympic stadia in London, with the appointment of Congressman Paul Ryan as Republican Vice Presidential candidate.

Fittingly it will be the obscene waste of most government spending in the West that must now come to be seen as the major issue of our age. Already incumbent President Obama has been brought up sharp to address that reality, read here.

The longer lesson of the London Olympics, fittingly illustrated by the garish and sometimes almost satanic nature of the closing ceremony, will perhaps come to reflect that such a display, is no way for the custodians of public funds, in a bankrupt state, to distribute taxpayers sequestered former wealth.

Heywood's never-ending cuts, Doctors discontent and braving Britain's bankruptcy.

Cruising in the Med some twenty odd years ago my step-son, then around 11 years old suffered a nasty collision between his face and an out of control winch handle. We put into Gibraltar and at the Royal Naval hospital he was x-rayed, treated and comforted and combined with the delights of the islands and coasts of our cruise, he suddenly professed a desire to join the RN as a career. I cautioned that holding joint US citizenship as he did, that should he wish to pursue a "seagoing" career, he had better aim at the US Navy.

Doctors and Consultants in the NHS and Mandarin Senior Civil Servants, ripping off Britain's taxpayers in a multitude of highly discreet ways as they do, may not have enjoyed similar options, but coming as they mainly do from the well-educated levels of the upper middle-classes they should have foreseen that the institution which they were joining for a lifelong career, was led by obviously dishonest manipulators - the politicians of the two main parties and was therefore heading for certain and early bankruptcy.

These powerful groups are now stuck with the results of their earlier career decisions, just as the middle and upper management of such companies as Enron, with no knowledge or culpability for the mispractises at the top, were stuck with their redundancy. Read what Britain's Senior Civil Servant now has to say on the nation's prospects for the coming years in the Daily Telegraph today from here.

Britain was a prosperous world trading country and its public servants enjoyed the benefits that such accrued. The upper middle classes, have supported our entry into the EU, the effects of which THEY are now suffering. In Asia, Australasia and elsewhere there are incredibly prosperous booming economies. Our upper class influential opinion formers have all along the way supported policies that have put trade with these areas beyond Britain's reach and bound us tightly to a sclerotic, cancerous and now barely living corpse that is the EU.

In the process thay have removed the democratic accoutrements that would have earlier allowed full debate on these issues and driven us to a sensible and soundly based national financial future which the country does not possess today.

I am afraid the senior civil servants of Britain, attract my extreme distaste while the doctors of the dreadful NHS get none of my sympathy. These are the people who have set our course towards the rocks, taking "industrial action" as we are about to hit, when we could be turning about, seems odd and ignores the long-coming realities!

Can France and Britain resume a role in Europe's politics?

That question is considered by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in his column in the Daily Telegraph this morning, linked here.

In France the columnist expresses hopes but has the following to say on next Sunday's likely Presidential victor:

The Latin Bloc might politely tell Berlin: acquiesce in the new landscape, or expect Latin Europe to take matters into its own hands and bring about the fiscal, monetary, and exchange conditions needed to safeguard its societies - entailing a very nasty shock for German banks and exporters.
No such showdown is about to happen of course. Mr Hollande is an Enarque at heart, easily bidable. He may be fobbed off with a bigger role for the European Investment Bank.

Britain's voters must be wary of falling into a similar trap. While the elections on Thursday are only for local government, in Britain's curious party system politics a complete rejection of the three main parties could bring central government politics to a shuddering halt.

Voters have three more days to look at the state of their country, in every area of life where politicians have a say, then look at what is underway in Europe, where their politicians have no say whatsoever and never will, and then take the necessary action with their vote - after all as a voter YOU are ultimately in charge AND fully repsonsible!

Other reading - Growth versus Austerity - A phony debate, by Pater Tenebrarum linked here.

George Osborne throws £10 Billion more at dying EU via the IMF

Osborne's statement on his latest atrocious waste of UK taxpayer's money concludes as follows:

"...Should these additional resources be used, they would support well designed IMF programs with appropriate conditionality and risk mitigating measures would apply. Australia will contribute $7 billion, Singapore $4 billion, Republic of Korea $15 billion and the United Kingdom $15 billion."

That is clearly untrue, as the funds will go to support member states of the Euro who are prevented from devaluing to thus return their economies to competitiveness (always a requirement of earlier IMF rescues)!

Britain's leaders are in the process of deliberately destroying the remaining assets of the people of Britain, after years of squandering the former wealth of the nation merely to rotate in power with other politicians for the personal gain, power, pensions and perks of them all!

A halt must be called.

This blog has tried to warn its readers of the consequences of their rulers greed, dishonesty and incompetence for years.

As I feel tonight, I cannot usefully type, think, say or protest any longer. This  may thus be my final posting. Of all the pointless ends I have envisaged down the years, nothing has been as bad as what I now foresee as about to unfold.

Good luck to all, except all those hundreds of thousands partly or fully involved in this dreadful EU conspiracy!

The fatal flaw of the NHS will destroy our country.

The Speaker of the House of Commons has today granted an emergency  debate under Standing Order 24 on the NHS Bill.

Fact Number One on the NHS

Medical science is advancing so fast with treatments so costly that the goal of free universal health care is now a total impossibility beyond utopia!

In pursuit of this impossible dream Britain's dwindling wealth is being squandered in a hopeless attempt to hide from this reality. Those benefiting from this "get out from austerity" so far provided by this coalition government, seem prepared to elude reality and sponsor a miriad other untruths to maintain their privileged positions in society by means of this sordid avoidance of the true facts. Many examples of such devious schemes have been evident during the passage of this disputed NHS Bill.

The debate today, coming as it does just before the budget statement, should address the above basic fact. The NHS Bill should be abandoned and the budget revised to impose swingeing cuts right across the NHS. Huge sacrifices in health care provision should always have been the obvious starting point for righting the nation's economy.

Britain is Broke - George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer!

“The British Government has run out of money because all the money was spent in the good years,” the Chancellor said. “The money and the investment and the jobs need to come from the private sector.” Daily Telegraph, 27/02/12

Link.

All well and good, clearly obvious facts, known by all sensible people for several years! So what is the job that should now be being done by the Government and all the other institutions and facilities of the State?

First; those responsible must be brought to account and punished with the full force of the law for both their criminal negligence and where it can be proven, outright fraud. They are of course spread out everywhere across British society, mainly within the public services and institutions, (but not exclusivey see T. Dan Smith and John Poulson).

Second; large areas of public expenditure are wasted. That waste is a function of public administration, it is most evident within the MOD and NHS, but exists across central and local government. The NHS reform has become a farce, not least because an individual's health should be that individual's own primary responsibility. Scrap the NHS.  Withdraw the major part of the cost of working adults' healthcare, from the state, and replace it upon the individual.

Both the above steps might bring home to the wider public the severity of the actual crisis the country today faces!

 It will be poltically difficult for both the Coalition parties, but the senior figures of the third, should initially be safely behind bars and unlikely to benefit until the economy has brilliantly improved, which with these two steps, it is practically guaranteed so to do!

USA loses its AAA from S& P, Britain must cut further NOW!

There is a first rate analysis on the events of last week affecting both the USA and the EU from John Redwood this morning, linked here. My comment to that, re-inforcing the point I made, yesterday morning, about the steps Britain must now take to protect itself, read here, was the following:

Posted August 6, 2011 at 7:05 am 

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

An important contribution at a critical moment. The poster makes this point in which we must surely all join "I would be happier if the UK was taking stronger action to control the government overhead and less desirable spending".
Now that the US has been stripped of its triple A status with Standard & Poors the moment to impress this obvious fact on the Coaltion Government is now, this very weekend.
Vince Cable last evening on TV was totally unconvicing in suggesting the Government was firmly in contol, while all more senior ministers, were vacationing, after fifteen months of idleness and missed opportunities.
This post is the first glimmer of hope for Britain, that at least somewhere on the government benches there is a grasp of what is necessary for Britain!

Britain, itself, could soon be placed in a similar position as the Obama Administration and the EU, in attacking the rating agencies themselves for applying the logical analysis and decisions they exist to make, read here.

Watching the events of yesterday, particularly the news conferences run by Olli Rehn, the monetary affairs Commissioner, and reading between the lines of the Italian ministerial statements, all as available from this blog set out below, it is crystal clear that unless Britain acts on its own, as entitled to do by having maintaioned its distance from the Euro currency, we too will be dragged into this swirling crisis. The opposition should be brought on side and the heavy guns of the Labour Party be brought to bear on the wild rantings of Ed Balls the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer!

Empty words and complete inaction are EU leaders' response to crisis! Redwood's blog.

A report, from a capital within the Euro Group, gives these remarks to yesterday's moves within the EMU currency zone, designed to counter the ever growing market turmoil:

Speaking during a parliamentary debate in Rome, Mr Berlusconi said “the government and parliament will act, I hope, with a large political and social consensus to fight every threat to our financial stability. Today more than ever, we need to act all together”.

He did not announce any new policy measures.

The moments when the television cameras were diverted to Berlusconi's listener among the Italian lawmakers spoke volumes. The Irish Times article continues:

Earlier in the day his finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, travelled to Luxembourg to meet euro group president, Jean-Claude Juncker. He also spoke to European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs Olli Rehn.

Details of the talks were not disclosed. No new measures were announced following either discussion.

The same report later continues:

The loss of investor confidence in Spain in recent weeks has triggered the sell-off of its government bonds, which pushes up the yield (the effective interest rate) on these bonds.

No new policy initiatives were announced in Madrid, but Mr Zapatero said his cabinet would meet in three weeks to discuss additional measures.

An auction of €3.5 billion of Spanish government bonds is scheduled to take place this morning.

Meantime in Britain, the specially created Office of Budget Responsibility has effectively committed patricide by pointing out that George Osborne's growth projections are products from fantasy land.

John Redwood, on his blog this morning, sets out some common sense steps that should now be taken by the Coalition Governement, to rectify this looming disaster for Britain's economy. These will of course be ignored, as likely to upset the Conservative's coalition partners, as I point out in my own comment to Mr Redwood's post which is still waiting moderation on that website:

Posted August 4, 2011 at 7:15 am | Permalink
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

(You write)"That requires more to go right, both in controlling spending and in faster growth of revenues".

Quite so, yet you yourself, and several others on your party’s backbenches continue to prop up this clearly left-leaning Coalition Government. I agree UKIP has no parliamentary voice as you pointed out in reply to my comment of yesterday, that is all the more reason that the tens of thousands of thoughtful and rational people in the country, who therefore eschew the frequent childishness of Farage & Co, are looking to you Mr Redwood, and similar Conservative colleagues, to push your own party the right way.

As with the EU, concessions will only be achieved when Westminster shows the resolve to contemplate withdrawal, similarly in the Coalition, your sane views, which offer the sole hope for economic survival, will only receive attention when you gather sufficient support to threaten the very survival of the coalition itself. Lib/Dem MPs have grasped this simple fact, hence, IMO, their undue influence on policy, taxation and spending.

Treasures from the threads - Number sixty

The four presently top rated Daily Mail comments on the shambles that is now Britain, linked here:

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The Hms Cumberland has soldiers and marines but wont dock in case its hostile. Is that a joke?. Our once feared military has become a laughing stock.

- jake, Reading, 24/2/2011 3:02

Click to rate     Rating   435

Makes you proud to be British does'nt it ? The navy running scared the MOD dithering Call me Dave sucking up to the Egyptians Cleggy on holiday somewhere, what a bloody shambles and the foreign office as is usual, not fit for purpose. What a pathetic little country

- Steve Print , Thailand, 24/2/2011 3:01

Click to rate     Rating   418

The British government are a total disgrace. In a moment of real need, British nationals have been deserted. They are more interested in protecting oil and gas future revenue over human welfare. The MOD treat their own soldiers in the same way. Where is your Queen in all this? What is the point to her and her family? British people waken up!

- Gerry, London, 24/2/2011 2:13

Click to rate     Rating   350

In Thailand, the British are held in high regard. Why ? The Thais don't read the British press and stories like this, or where a man is hounded to death in his home, or how your hospitals use office workers to control the running of hospitals, where immigrants are given the freedom of the country regardless of whatever they may have done, how the police on the streets are no more, how ordinary people are hounded for tax arrears, because of the Government tax office mistakes, of incompetence right across the board and Greed with a capital G emanating from the pores of government managers and tax avoiding big businesses. Then a foreign rescue farce // Why am I here ?

- mick blair, thailand, 24/2/2011 2:18

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Prepare for the next banking bail-out NOW!

The IMF warns in its Global Financial Stability Report, linked here, that the banks will soon come knocking for another four trillion dollars (four followed by twelve noughts). In a Telegraph article the following is noted:

Although the IMF does not mention individual countries, it is clear it has concerns about the UK. According to the Bank of England, British banks need to refinance £750bn-£800bn of funding by the end of 2012, £285bn of which is emergency support that expires in the same period.

The IMF adds: “Without further bolstering of balance sheets, banking systems remain susceptible to funding shocks that could intensify deleveraging pressures and place a further drag on public finances and the recovery.”

As the UK has now bankrupted itself in a failed attempt to rescue the spivs and charlatans who created this mess it seems sensible to adopt a more rational solution for the next round of banking bail-outs of which the IMF has so kindly now provided timely notice.

Money held by private individuals and small private companies with commercial banks allowed to proceed to liquidation should be honoured by a state owned bank duplicating the current account balance on production of 12 months statements from the failed bank. If crossover of accounts to the Government backed venture were accomplished in advance, individuals and companies would be saved much anguish and all taxpayer funds dispersed could be certain to be going to where they are most needed.

Why Britain is worst place to live in Europe!

The question raised in the headline to this post does not need asking to the millions of Britons who now live overseas. The findings in a report issued this morning, full details here, will be no surprise to those of us forced into exile by the incompetent and self-serving governance inflicted on the UK over recent decades. Regular readers of this blog will likely similarly be unsurprised. The residents of Britain, with ancestors from our islands, are the ones who are the victims of this conspiracy, and similarly are also the ones partly at fault as election after election they renew the mandates of the corrupted low-lives who have chosen a career in British politics or its public services as an easy option to enrich themselves with an idle lifestyle entirely at the long suffering taxpayers expense. The middles classes upon whose shoulders this burden now sits need to find ways of demonstrating their disgust and use their taxpaying leverage to enforce change.

Britain's debt in July - £3.68 trillion to £4.84 trillion

Over many years this blog has tried to unearth an estimate of Britain's total debts including pension liabilities, private finance initiatives and the recent huge amounts of money thrown at the still failing banks. At last, from this July the Office of National Statistics is to start publishing such estimates, read details from the Daily Telegraph, linked here. A quote: The ONS has already begun to assemble the data, publishing the full list of Britain's debts and liabilities for the first time in July, which came to a total of between £3.68 trillion and £4.84 trillion. Two questions now arise, the first is to define the trillion unit being used. It appears to have become the recent custom to use the US definition of a billion (namely one followed by nine noughts, rather than the previous British, French and German norm of one followed by twelve noughts). Can we now assume that the trillion being used by the OSN is similalry the US trillion giving our debt as one followed by twelve noughts as follows: £3,680,000,000,000 to £4,840,000,000,000 or is it the larger number implied by the usul British definition giving the even larger and even more unpayable, one followed by eighteen noughts/ £3,680,000,000,000,000,000 to £4,840,000,000,000,000,000 In any event the figures in full, contrived by politicians who have also sold off our sovereignty, utilities and independence, apparently for nought, must bring home to the British public the far-reaching corruption and decadence of our entire political class!

Bankrupt USA now faces an army revolt!

It is now three years since the world realised that the credit crunch had arrived, although the general public generally only twigged somewhat later as Northern Rock faced collapse. Yet today our ruling elites clearly remain blissfully unaware of the depths of the disaster they have wrought. An economics Professor from Boston University has now spelt out the facts in the starkest terms for Bloomberg, as may be read in full from here, while the following quote carries the essence:

Herb Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under U.S. President Richard Nixon, coined an oft-repeated phrase: “Something that can’t go on, will stop.” True enough. Uncle Sam’s Ponzi scheme will stop. But it will stop too late.

And it will stop in a very nasty manner. The first possibility is massive benefit cuts visited on the baby boomers in retirement. The second is astronomical tax increases that leave the young with little incentive to work and save. And the third is the government simply printing vast quantities of money to cover its bills.

Worse Than Greece

Most likely we will see a combination of all three responses with dramatic increases in poverty, tax, interest rates and consumer prices. This is an awful, downhill road to follow, but it’s the one we are on. And bond traders will kick us miles down our road once they wake up and realize the U.S. is in worse fiscal shape than Greece.

The scenario for the UK remains almost identical to that which the Professor cites for the USA, yet no action is forthcoming from the Coalition Government and none is proposed bar an announcement in October of reported severe spending cuts. Meantime the next downward plunge in the property price collapse looms in the wings. On 30th August 2007 in this blog in a posting titled "Britain's economic abyss" I concluded with the following: .... An Australian hedge fund went under yesterday and even the usually cheerful local SW news 'Spotlight' had a gloomy item on the looming house price bust. Not much of any of this in the morning press, but Camilla Cavendish in The Times has a good column, , from which comes this quote: Which just goes to show, I suppose, that idiocy is no more a bar to promotion in the City than anywhere else. People who complimented themselves on their brilliance at inventing ever more complex financial instruments with which to spread risk had started to act as though risk had been abolished. The problem is that the actions of the US Federal Reserve and Britain's Treasury under Gordon Brown, effectively achieved just that- indicating they would always underpin the fantasy world which they themselves had created. Until some major casualties are allowed to reap the consequences of their profligacy the final crunch will just be that much worse. A recent gushing report on the record price of 222 million dollars for a flat in London, also reported in the US as the most expensive real estate deal ever, indicates the opposite to that being reported, namely as a sign of house price strength; rather I would suggest it is a sign of amazing dollar weakness, and as goes the dollar so too will follow the pound, the euro, the yen and even the RMB! If 222 million dollars today, why not 222 billion in three years time, everything else seems to be going that way. Surely the fact that an individual can spend such a sum on a six bedroomed flat in the middle of a city bodes ill for the value of the dollar in the ordinary worker's billfold? What price a loaf of bread in Mayfair or within a stone's throw of Central Park in New York in such a world? Indeed will there then be loaves of bread in our cities for such individuals to buy and will these elites still retain the connection between mouth and stomach to make such consumption even necessary let alone worthwhile? This blog has frequently put forward suggestions (eg here and here) as to one way to avoid the continuing house price collapse where all the misplaced wealth of the nation now rests. As ever such advice is ignored and the crazyiness continues. In March 2009 this blog suggested to avoid the depression Bernanke be dropped from a helicopter, last week he unnerved the markets where junior traders with their bosses presumably on vacation sensed the looming chaos, by dedicating virtually non-existing mortgage assets assumed from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase long term US Treasury debt thus further depleting interest yields. Is worthless money worth paying interest on at all? Perhaps as long as fools exist to barter flats for hundreds of millions of dollars I guess the answer to that still remains (but IMO not for very much longer) yes! One small exception to this refusal to face up to facts and realities, I choose to presume, came from Britain's Defence Minister last week when he reportedly insisted that the battle over who will pay for Trident was an ongoing discussion. He said: "Ultimately, all our defence capabilities have to be paid for. Which bits are paid, over what timescale, is part of the discussions we are having and I'm not going to entertain them in public. I have enough time entertaining them in private." I will take that as all the reply I am likely to get to my open letter to Dr. Liam Fox posted on this blog last week. The complete silence on any matter of significance to the future security of the nation from the co-addressee of that latter, Foreign Secretary William Hague, can be assumed to continue to be the case unless I post to the contrary on this blog. While the economic disaster in the USA and Britain seem very similar on Defence and Afghanistan at least Cameron's stand-in mannequin Nick Clegg will not have an army revolt to face over the next couple of weeks. The gauntlet thrown down by General Petraeus to his Commander in Chief on the influential Meet the Press TV programme yesterday, portends a deeper crisis to come. Britain's depleted, under-resourced and ongoingly uselessly sacrificed service personnel regrettably seem in no state to challenge the utter dross who for so long have been negligently governing what was once the United Kingdom.

Osborne's Budget Misses the Target

Britain's borrowed billions are secreted in property prices. These should have been the target today as described in detail many times on this blog! Over this Parliament and with Osborne's tax/spending plans the national debt seems set to rise to one and one half trillion pounds........ How many noughts is that? More than Gideon can count methinks!

Recession overture is over - Dubai Act One Depression begins?

Rod Liddle writing in The Sunday Times this morning, linked here, comments as follows: We are dragged down because our bankers — the ones who dropped us in it last year — bought into this bizarre fiction too. Dubai has a £48 billion debt default and this has a knock-on effect for our own RBS, which was Dubai’s biggest loan arranger to the tune of some £1.4 billion, and HSBC, which has some £10 billion tied up in the state, and Barclays, which has an estimated £3 billion investment there.

Bank of Englan Governor finally admits insanity of Banking Bailout - Osborne must GO!

As proposals for a 7p rise in basic income tax, VAT hikes and extensions emerge this morning and Mervyn King finally pushing the alarm button last evening, is sanity about to appear in Britain? Year after year and month after month this blog has warned of the certain disaster heading the country's way. Finally some of the incompetent madmen who have created this mess are about to face reality, will we see the Prime Minister now crack-up in public? Will the simpleton in charge of the main opposition party's economic policies now stand aside to allow a man of stature with economic experience and gravitas prepare the policies essential for effective governance? Complete and utter financial ruin is now the best way to describe the nation's economic plight, one question is, of course, how those who caused this mess can continue in power for yet one more week - another perhaps of even greater significance for the future - is how can the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose main task has been to effectively oppose those policies during the past few years, be allowed to retain his position for yet one more day? George Osborne should stand down or be fired today!

Brussels confirms Britain's cow is milked dry!

The Daily Mail reports what readers of this blog have known for years - Britain is bankrupt! Unable to pay their pensioners the EU alarmingly foretells ignoring the fact that Britain's pensioners have long received a mere pittance upon which it is quite impossible to survive within (let alone outside) their own country. All this while the EU blows millions on a pointless Parliament and confused Commission. The article is linked here, the comments contain some amusing suggestions for the EU.

Public asset fire sales starts tomorrow

The profligate UK Government will start selling everything it can lay its grubby fingers upon from tomorrow, starting, according to the BBC, linked here, with the Student Loan Book, The Tote and even more incredibly the Dartford crossing. Even with all that and much, much more, there will be no way that they can quickly raise even the first years extra fees due to the EU as a result of Tony Blair's Presidential purchase fee. As I stated at the end of last week, only two items appear large enough to yield the amounts Britain now needs; the first of course is the NHS; the second the annual dues payable to the EU - which will come first with an election looming? Front line public service cuts anyone? Family silver? Fat Chance! Brown is now about to deliver his BUST!

BNP Paribas Rights Issue

The Wall Street Journal, link, reports this evening:

What a difference six weeks makes.

Back in August, BNP Paribas said it wouldn't repay the French government's €5.1 billion ($8.1 billion) stake in the bank until at least early 2010. Now it is launching a €4.3 billion rights issue to do just that -- in the process leapfrogging a clutch of other European banks, including Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, mulling similar efforts to repay government aid, and Unicredit, which announced a rights issue later Tuesday.

Watch for developments in the Lloyds HBOS and RBS Asset Protection Scheme saga as the next stage of the credit crunch looks set to hit removing the world from the relative calm of the phony recession.

Read John Redwood on Quantitative Easing from here.

Returning value to money is the only cure, everything attempted over the past 25 months has been working in exactly the wrong direction.