Monthly Archives: March 2009

Governments today can bask in the pleasure of the latest figures which show a sharp decline in the number of billionaires. Turn that round, and it means equality is rising at last. You may not be able to make the poor rich by making the rich poor, but you can create a greater equality of [...]

Today we are told the Bank of England will create £2,000,000,000 to buy government bonds back from the people and institutions who had bought them. The reason given by the Monetary Policy Committee is that they need to create more money. We need to ask why? If you take the last three months figures for [...]

A few readers have said, can we hear some good news occasionally? Yes, of course. I told you about an excellent play recently. Last night I watched the English bowlers and fielders show some real commitment, skill and hunger to win a game of cricket. The played brilliantly, bottling up the West Indies batsmen and [...]

It was another very expensive day for taxpayers in the Commons yesterday. First came a statement from a junior Treasury Minister committing taxpayers to back £260 billion of Lloyds toxic assets. This was the Ministerial spin on the real statement that we were taking a controlling interest in a £1 trillion bank. Then came the [...]

Yesterday’s Commons debate on the estimates – or more spending – was pathetic. The government fielded a clutch of junior Ministers to discuss the Business Department’s estimate, and the Transport Departments estimate. The Autumn and Spring Supplementary estimates are the way governments get Parliamentary approval to spend more than the budget figure for the year. [...]

The Credit Crunch has brought a rash of socialists and so-called Christians onto the media to condemn the immorality of bankers and capitalism. My advice to all who feel a strong urge to do so is to remember the Christian injunction, let he who is guiltless throw the first stone. The moralisers think the crisis [...]

It’s the politics, stupid. We seem to be in a real mess. So what does Mr Brown have in mind? He tells us that he need to take the banks into “temporary” public ownership. They can rebuild themselves with some public capital and assistance, and a rash of guarantees against past mistakes. Then they will [...]

In the distorted world of Westminster and its client media Mr Brown and Mr Cable are held up as economic and financial experts. After all, we are told, Mr Brown was Chancellor for many years, and Mr Cable was once an energy economist at Shell. Neither man has ever run a large private sector company [...]

Bigger losses. We now know that if you force a merger of a loss making bank with an OK bank you end up with a bigger bad bank. We are about to find out that if you own two big loss making banks, they own you. Hold onto your purses and wallets.

If buying one very large bank was careless, buying two is lunatic. When the government bought RBS instead of assisting it short term and at least cost it bet the farm. Now buying control of LLoyds/HBOS it is betting the farm, the shop, the factory and everything else of value in our overborrowed country. When [...]