Category Archives: Blog

Dear colleague I am writing firstly to thank those colleagues who have been so vociferous and helpful in the debate we have had over the past few days over the work experience scheme. I also wanted to give you a bit more information about where we have got to with the scheme. One of the [...]

              You cannot ignore the government debt markets for long. They have a way of muscling into the economies and the political stories of western Europe.              We need to get up to date with the interest costs each country faces for borrowing money for ten years: Greece   29.02% Portugal   11.28% Ireland    8.2% Italy    [...]

               The statement yesterday from Mr Cameron that cutting deficits was difficult was taken by the media as a sure sign that the government will report slippage in its programme of getting the deficit down. The FT led with the view that it will now take well into the next Parliament to eliminate the [...]

                I read last week that City bonuses reached a peak of £11.6 billion in 2007-8. The forecast for this year is  £4.2 billion.                Many will welcome this collapse. Some will say the bonuses are still too large. It is a fall of almost two thirds from the high.                 The Treasury will have very [...]

  The  John Humphrys BBC welfare documentary on Thursday night was well made. It reminded us how Beveridge wished to slay the five dragons that included the dragon of Idleness. It told us that the public  overwhelmingly wants a safety net so no-one need be homeless or short of food. Voters  do not want a generous [...]

  Amidst all the talk of a Euro 1 trillion fund to bail out ailing Euro countries, it might help to look at what they done so far. They set up the European Financial Stabilisation Fund as a Luxembourg regulated Special Purpose Vehicle or company on 9 May 2010. It is  owned by the Euro [...]

1. The single currency The Euro is the Exchange Rate Mechnism you cannot get out of. A single currency needs a single country to love it and pay for it. Joining a single currency is like taking out a bank account with the neighbours. You inevitably fall out over the overdraft. A single currency starts as [...]

                Some today will heave a sigh of relief . They will say that Greece is saved. Now she has agreement to write off one quarter of her debt she can go off and borrow some more from the IMF and EU. Her debt burden is temporarily cut.              They will say the EU banks [...]

  In July we were told 440 billion Euros would fix it. More recently we were told 3 trillion would do the job and would be available last Sunday. Then we were told  2 trillion was enough, to be confirmed today. Now we are told there might be just 1 trillion along sometime soon. The [...]

                     This September Income Tax receipts were £9.5 billion.  In September 2010, a year ago, Income receipts were £10.3 billion.                   An 8% fall in Income Tax revenue is unusual. The government hopes there are special factors. Perhaps you should not read too much into one month’s figures.                    The problem is, there is [...]