Apocalypse Soon

[Russ]

Moan about it on the internet?

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by Osem

I'd ask anyone who seriously believes we're on the brink of financial meltdown what, if anything, they've done (or are planning to do) to mitigate the effects.

The logical thing to do would be to elect a Government that will manage a beautiful deleveraging. In my experience, Conservative Governments over the years may have no heart but they know how to manage money because it is their raison d'etre and there is a right time and a right place for everything.

At some point we'll need global financial management and I hope I'm not around when that particular beast raises its ugly head.

Originally Posted by Russ

Moan about it on the internet?

Hi Russ,

Best spend what you have plus borrow a big fat sum and spend that. You can`t pay it back once the balloon goes POP and paper money is used for toilet paper. The trick is judging the time scale.

The UK now owe almost £1.7 Trillion and rising as you watch the clock. Its gotta blow a fuse in the next few years.

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by Wittmann

The UK now owe almost £1.7 Trillion and rising as you watch the clock. Its gotta blow a fuse in the next few years.

Who do we owe it to?

I wonder if they'll let us play double or quits?

Originally Posted by swoop101

in 2010 we owed the US 578 bn Euro they owed us 834 bn
I

That is the comedy of it all. Everybody owes everybody else and nobody pays it back, they just keep on borrowing from the banks in some crazy financial Banzai charge to disaster.

[Kursk]

At what point do you think the pop will happen? Everyone owes trillions. Will is pop once we reach gazillions?

[arcimedes]

Originally Posted by Wittmann

That is the comedy of it all. Everybody owes everybody else and nobody pays it back, they just keep on borrowing from the banks in some crazy financial Banzai charge to disaster.

Simple solution then; have a world government and it can then cancel all the debts that it owes to itself.

Or everyone converts to Islam and then you don't have to pay any interest.

Simples

[Gavin78]

Just get the green party elected they will solve a world crisis

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

I'm an engineer: The glass is twice the size it needs to be.

I'm in an AI construct, there is no glass.

Originally Posted by arcimedes

Simple solution then; have a world government and it can then cancel all the debts that it owes to itself.

Or everyone converts to Islam and then you don't have to pay any interest.

Simples

ROFL

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by arcimedes

Simple solution then; have a world government and it can then cancel all the debts that it owes to itself.

Or everyone converts to Islam and then you don't have to pay any interest.

Simples

Instead of interest you pay sky high fees to sharia banks iirc, seems usury is a very highly defined ideal

Originally Posted by swoop101

If all countries balanced the books by cancelling equivalent debts then interest would not need to be paid and all would be well.

Unfortunately, our current financial system allows a bank to claim the money it is owed as a form of asset, as it is (in theory) a guaranteed income stream from interest and capital repayments. In 2008, it was the realisation that a massive pile of sub-prime mortgages were in circulation, which would never at any point in the future be repaid, that precipitated the financial collapse. Note that it was the dawning realisation that future interest payments would not be made, and not a sudden, actual failure of large numbers of people to pay, that was the trigger.

If equivalent debt is cancelled, then those "assets" (the bank's claimed future income stream from interest payments) disappear in a puff of logic. Crucially, if the capital is paid down, then the interest payments are lost and a truly massive chunk of what the banks claim is their value just disappears at a keystroke.

[Osem]

Nobody here's filling their garage with tons of survival equipment and supplies then, not even the person predicting imminent doom.

Having read the OP I was tempted to start stocking up with tins of beans, corned beef, rice etc. but my garage is full of empty consumer goods boxes and packaging I might need if anything breaks down under extended guarantee and has to be returned to the manufacturers...

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by Osem

Having read the OP I was tempted to start stocking up with tins of beans, corned beef, rice etc. but my garage is full of empty consumer goods boxes and packaging I might need if anything breaks down under extended guarantee and has to be returned to the manufacturers...

You're paranoid that everything's gonna break

[richard s]

Make sure when you stock up with beans that they are Branston (the best IMHO).