大象传媒

LOOKING FOR THE EXIT AGAIN

J Gordon Brown in on a mission to close the "AGE OF IRRESPONSIBILITY". I can only assume his plan is to hearald in the AGE OF BANALITY in it's stead. Is there no limit to this man's third rate, ersatz statesmanship?
His conference speech juxtaposed his wife and his nobly eschewed kids; it also took a swipe at sound bites and Blair Celebrity, yet now he clearly 'feels the hand of Destiny on his shoulder'.
We saw how resistant Blair was to slow hand-clap and hospital-entrance-truth, but he had an inkling of his duplicity (it showed occasionally). Brown is so manifestly split, in the psychological sense, he is unassailably the pure, white and straight (Tony was only ever PRETTY straight) Son of the Manse. How can we ever make this man realise he is need-driven and fame-hungry, and will pull any stunt to beat Tony at his own game? Truly he is that other sort of Son, of American genesis!

THE TOWN-LEAVING LIST

So Senator Charles Schumer has requested that McCain be asked to leave town. Surely Irresponsibility Brown (as in 'Age of') should take a hike also, for all the good his 10p comprehension of matters monetary will contribute.
It is plainly obvious that Brown (a little boy envious to the point of helpless rage at Blair's adulation and 'triumph') is only in the USA to be 'Great' like Tony. He will already have rehearsed, in his head, a speech of acceptance of the Congressional Medal (as the applause goes: ta-pucket, ta-pucket).
Move over Walter Mitty, there's a new child on the block.

I have frequently alerted Peter Barron and colleagues to what I have always thought was the "missing story" on otherwise excellent Newsnight programmes, and that was the absence of coverage of the underlying fault line in the financial system - derivatives. Options, swaps, forwards and futures represent the core of the issues faced by financial institutions, not helped by the IAS39, the international accounting standard on Financial Instruments that requires disclosure of their approximated fair value. Newsnight needs to get to the root of this.

MORE ON DYSGENICS

I'd like to see a breakdown of where the toxic debt is presumed to be. I appreciate this is difficult given the unreliable XXX ratings and the way it has been 'diced and sliced' before the bad parcel has been sold on, but is $600 billion, one fifth of the total US home load market. But there are also sub-prime credit cards, and all sorts of other risky loans too. So why has so much of the focus just been on mortgages? Is this a political smokescreen?

This is surely down to relaxation of usury laws in the 1990s, but changes in the USA demographics (ethnic differences in TFRs and increase in immigration) surely also explains the rise to 21% in sub-prime mortgages from 9% less than a decade ago, and whilst I've already covered why this demographic bulge is such a problem in terms of lower mean cognitive ability and the predatory nature of lenders coupled with a prima facie obsession with political correctness, it isn't just the lenders' fault, as the other side of the coin is that criminal stats indicate that this sector of borrowers is more prone to fraudulent behaviour, hence higher de facto risk.

Political correctness has a lot to answer for.
Many of us have been warning about this for years.

In any free trading environment you do not get anything for nothing. If taxpayers are to bail out banks to the tune of $700 billion then they are entitled to all of that - plus some profit on top, just as speculators have expected in the good times.

Question: Why was Mark Urban (no disprespect Mark, your presentation of the efficacy of 'the surge' was very persuasive) presenting the latest on the economics of the USA 'discredit crunch', rather than Paul Mason?

Was this editorial decision why Gavin
seemed a little jaded, or am I truly ?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

CAN FELLOW POSTERS HELP.
Your Newsnight coverage is hopeless at genuinely explaining what the hell is going on - the language is, as usual on all 大象传媒 news, just inaccessible. We 'average' joe listeners/viewers need plain speaking on this subject (and on all issues in fact) of the kind that only Vince Cable can do! Give that guy a job on Newsnight - we need him. Meanwhile can other posters please help me:
1 What i understand is that there is fraud going on a a huge scale dressed up in fancy terms and language - but 'legalised' fraud nevertheless.
and why does not 大象传媒 news coverage ever cover in closeup detail as to what those evicted from their sub prime homes do the next morning - i.e. do they go to hostels, or live in their cars? Who gets to use their repossed empty home? are they squatted? In the Uk are evictees being housed by councils?
2 I understand that bankers and dealers etc are allowed to do what they like with investors money and take what they like in fees. So who is stupid enough to give them their money? Everyone else in all other walks of life is subjected to rules and regulation - because of bad consequences. This is a sign of civilised society.
3 Why would anyone invest in stocks and shares, why not just have an easier life, work less, earn what you need and bury any surplus somewhere for later needs? and why should we ordinary joes pay tax if it is to be wasted on bailing out fraudsters? That was not 'the deal'. The trust is now broken. So let's all go self employed and avoid tax. and/or keep all payments for services Sur le table!!! and in cash only!
4 How come most Europeans do not in fact use credit cards - so they have little debt as such? Blair and Brown (socialists my a**) promoted consumer debt - following the American way so cravenly. For what? Newsnight please make them answer that.
5 Where is the money that banks won't lend? has it been sent off the planet?
6 If the banks won't lend - then let's discuss alternative ways i.e. Credit Unions, Barter, House-self-building co -ops - straight forward house swappin for those who want to move. and any other ideas for bypassing the fraudalent mortgage system? I am sick of the Bla Bla coverage that not even you guys in the 大象传媒 probably can follow - why not test out your programme Bla Bla on a room full of colleagues before transmission - just to see how incomprehensible your coverage is?

COME IN NUMBER EIGHT (ivegotanasbo)

You have stepped 'outside the lie' Ivegotan. Your queries risk raising fundamental issues like: 'perhaps the Emperor really IS naked' and such conduct interferes with the immediacy of 'news' presentation.

If wisdom and philosophical enquiry ever emerge (perhaps spontaneously, like the purported Big Bang) from the deep vacuum of British Culture, your frustration may find a home and your queries answers.

Till then - join the club . . .

The US effort to save the world has now degenerated into the most juvenile of political games. The media鈥檚 focus is on the race against time. Nobody, it seems, is interested in debating the seismic shift in global politics which the crisis is bringing to its conclusion. It is difficult to argue against the claim that the American Empire has died; or, perhaps even more controversially, has been killed by its own right-wing (neocon?) politicians. As your the comments of bloggers show, even 大象传媒 Newsnight has come to focus on the excitement of the life and death cliff-hanger.

What surely is needed is a series on programmes which focus in depth on the outcome of the Western equivalent of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Such a debate is poorly served by the recent switch to sound-bite news programmes. Only Andrew Neil鈥檚 hour long special on 大象传媒 News (24), a couple of nights ago, has made anything like a serious attempt to start the real debate which is needed.

Can we, therefore, have as much focus on the new global futures as on the experience of a front-line US unit in Baghdad which has taken up so much of your time recently.

As a footnote, didn鈥檛 our poor PM look unhappy. This was understandable, where his much publicised dash to take the lead on the global economic problems turned out to be 鈥� once more 鈥� a demeaning photo-call as Bush鈥檚 tame poodle!

NEWS AND CURRENT DESPAIR (#10)

We don't do depth, only immediacy.

We don't do personality (no matter how revealing) even when our PM is a wannabe rich-n-famous celebrity or (as now) a psychologically split devious saint.

We DO 'live inside the lie' (Havel).

The government has always tried to claim that mass immigration is good for the economy. If so, then surely Britains economy should be going through the roof with the all the record breaking levels of immigration that we have had forced on us.

In these troubled econmic times, spare a thought for Britain's youngsters, who are seeing their future and identity being flushed down the toilet by the uncaring selfish baby boomer generation currently in power:

Young people think a steady stream of immigrants is eroding Britain's national identity and threatening jobs, a survey by the British Council found.

Almost two-thirds (60%) of the young people surveyed think the presence of foreign immigrants is "diluting" their sense of national identity.

A quarter said immigrants pose a threat to workers' jobs and 12% said they think the influx is a security risk.

threaten+jobs'.aspx

But the uncaring, out of touch elite does not care about the feelings of the youngsters. They could have put controls on immigration, like what the Russians have done, but they haven't and won't.

I am probably thinking right outside the box, but in the event of the government having to nationalize all the banks perhaps we have the opportunity to create a brand new sustainable stakeholder economy.

The object of the exercise would be to give every working age person in the country 100,000 quid in a national savings account which paid 10% interest. This would equate to a " citizens income " and people would be able to be employed to increase this. Income tax would be 50% after the first 5000 but it would be possible to allow tax relief on the purchase of your own home. Children could also attract tax relief, 7500 for the first, 5000 for the second but only 2500 for the third and extra children.

There would also need to be a maximum income, five times the citizens income, anything above that would be subject to 100% tax. However tax relief could be given for every full time person directly employed ( 10,000 )

The object of the exercise would be to achieve maximum income via saving throughout life up to retirement. Obviously people in high paid jobs could retire earlier ( after having paid in full for their house ). Perhaps they could continue to work part time as consultants in their chosen field.

To prevent depreciation on consumer goods there would be no credit allowed on any product not capable of ( with maintenance ) lasting 30 years.

ANARCHISTS POSING AS SOCIALISTS?

CaringHumanist (#12) "Almost two-thirds (60%) of the young people surveyed think the presence of foreign immigrants is "diluting" their sense of national identity".

But New Labour were given a mandate from the electorate to turn the UK They ratified the Lisbon Treaty, which will enshrine anarcho-capitalism (Trotskyite Workers Democracy) throughout the EU and encourage even more immigration to compensate for our indigenous below replacement level birthrate across the EU, and further tilt differential fertility towards the sub-prime market.

It's just business and caveat emptor ('freedom'). After all, everyone's equal, and we certainly don't want a nanny state or any clever cloggs do we?

So it's our own choice/fault if we get taken in...

..........is't it?

Hi, everyone.

Petunia here again.

I'm still waiting for the explanation why my last comment has gone to arbitration. No reason for it that I can see, although I am new to blogging. There again it is sunday morning - perhaps everyones still in bed. Good on em.

HI MRS DOBBINS

It is easy to fall foul of the Blogdog. I once used a word beginning with P that is used, colloquially, to mean selling ones body, but I used it in its broader sense. On that occasion, I did actually rise from the dead.
Check your posting for anything that a prude or a pedant (with poor language skills) might react to.

BAIL OUT

It has been reported that US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is worth about 拢700 million. Perhaps somebody should ask him how he managed to do $700 million worth of work in just 50 or 60 years.

Presumably most of his money came fro his job at Goldman Sachs. He should ask 1000 of his friends to bail out the banks instead of the taxpayer having to do it.

WHERE HAS ALL THE MONEY ACTUALLY GONE?

In all the talk over the past few months no commentator, economist, banker or politician has actually explained where the billions now being replaced by governments have actually gone. Money just circulates around, doesn鈥檛 it? So how come billions seem to have disappeared into thin air?

The answer is that it isn鈥檛 there because most of it never actually existed in the first place. People have forgotten that money is a measure of wealth created by human effort, not just abstract numbers in computer files. Bankers have made billions out of nothing. Here鈥檚 how.

I take 拢1000 of my hard-earned cash to the bank and put it in my savings account. The bank lends it to someone to buy a house. The 拢1000 is passed three or four times from buyer to seller in the house chain until the last seller, who is not buying (perhaps they inherited the house from their parents who have died), takes the money and puts it in his savings account with the bank.

The bank lends the same 拢1000 again to somebody else and the cycle repeats. The same 拢1000 repeatedly cycles through the economy without 鈥� and this is the crucial point 鈥� without anybody lifting a finger to create any wealth to enable it to legitimately enter its next cycle. In its second and subsequent cycles the money is not hard-earned; it is merely a number in a computer file and nothing more.

So the 拢1000 has been lent repeatedly and if the system wobbles, such as one of the borrowers losing his job, my original 拢1000, which may have been lent ten times or maybe a hundred times, cannot possibly be repaid. In fact it is impossible to say where it is (but see below) because, of the total amount lent, only a fraction has ever actually existed. A wobble could also be caused by a general slowing of the economy or a decline in the savings rate in which people save less and want their money out of the bank.

It should at least be obvious by this stage that the orphan and I cannot both get our 拢1000 back since there isn鈥檛 拢2000 there.

Each time the 拢1000 cycles round the bankers take a percentage even though no wealth has been created. If it goes round often enough they get it all, hence their billions of dollars in bonuses and my 拢1000 disappears into thin air. (It must be thin air since the Large Hadron Collider has not yet created any black holes.)

Furthermore, each time the 拢1000 has been lent the borrower has promised to repay it from his earnings over the next twenty years. The money to repay cannot possibly be found now because the borrowers cannot suddenly put in 20 years of work instantly to create the wealth to earn the money to repay the loans.

Contrast this with spending the money in the supermarket. Again the money repeatedly cycles round the economy but there is a difference. In this case the 拢1 you spend on a loaf of bread, for example, goes to pay the wages of the farmer, the baker, the driver who takes the bread to the supermarket, the oil worker who makes the diesel for the van and the checkout girl who puts it through the scanner. All these people have done useful work to the value of their wages and between them created 拢1鈥檚 worth of wealth to justify the 拢1 entering its next cycle through the economy.

This example is simple, yet it explains why all the money seems to have disappeared into a black hole 鈥� sorry, thin air. Fancy 鈥渇inancial instruments鈥� and practices like CDOs, leveraged this and that, hedge funds and short selling, which I don鈥檛 begin to understand, are doubtless clever devices which manage to turn money over even faster without creating a penny of wealth.

It should have been obvious to the politicians that there was something wrong when bankers could pay themselves hundreds of billions 鈥� yes hundreds of billions 鈥� of dollars over the last decade in salaries and bonuses without doing anything more than moving numbers from one computer file to another. Why they didn鈥檛 realise or why they didn鈥檛 do anything about it is for them to explain. Over to Jeremy Paxman.

Hi everyone.

Petunia here again, fresh from my wakabout on planet Zoig. Yes, I'm an Australian, you know.

Thanks to that very, very nice man BARRIESINGLETON. Well, I presume this person is a man, one has difficulty telling these days doesn't one? But thanks what ever for those pelucid words of advice about good old aunty beeb. There I was in full flow trying to save the world as usual and all she is concerned about is her bloomers. Very nice ones I imagine too. Mmmm!

I will be speaking to you all in due course when shes adjusted them.

See ya at the next barbie gathering.

Buy.