Economy is worse under us, says Cable

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Pierre

I think that's obvious, just think how bad it would be if Labour was still in power.

Indeed

[Ignitionnet]

Who knows? End of the day it couldn't be that much worse.

Oooooh.....

Be careful what you wish for.......

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Who knows? End of the day it couldn't be that much worse.

l will second that.

---------- Post added at 21:30 ---------- Previous post was at 21:29 ----------

Originally Posted by Hugh

Oooooh.....

Be careful what you wish for.......

And whats that.

Something that couldn't be much worse (is still worse)....

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Nearly every house hold has two cars, 3 tvs, sky or cable, broadband and several smart phones

You sure thats accurate?

Noone in my immediate family has 2 cars, the only people I know off who have more than 1 vehicle are the ones who have a work vehicle seperate.

Multiple tv's and broadband sure, but the multiple smartphones and cars not so sure.

Also putting things in perspective a TV now days is not the same as it was in the 70s, today its something to expect from a very basic standard of living.

I would say the crisis is worse but the differences are better media shielding of the problem, available credit hiding the true wealth of the country, government policy aimed at doing things like shoring up a unsustainable housing maket. In addition intelligence is stepped up so anti government opinions are more managed and the unions are much weaker now than in the 70s.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Oooooh.....

Be careful what you wish for.......

Fair point, could end up with a Lab-Lib coalition. That'd be an experience.

Doesn't change that we're all getting kicked in each and every way imaginable, and George is missing his deficit reduction targets due to a lack of growth, so he and the BoE have taken the cowardly and disgusting way out of inflating away debt.

George reckoned there was some room built into his plans so given he's inflating away the national debt like the wind and has 20% of it under his control to tear up I'm sure he'll be putting some investment down in infrastructure apart from their porn project HS-2.

[spanna]

Originally Posted by martyh

just to play devils advocate for a mo ,If labour had not spent so much money we wouldn't have the new schools ,jails and hospitals .The best thing they did in my opinion was the huge investment in social housing improvement ,unfortunately instead of these types of investment being done steadily over a number of decades they tried to do them all at once which meant borrowing huge amounts ,i believe that most of the investment was done in 05/06 and 08/09 when they doubled investment when they should have started back in '98 .
Labour did some good work with investing our money and we realy did need it the problem is they went about it the wrong way

They had a choice either raise taxes to pay for those improvements which the voters wouldn't like or spend it on credit so when the bill came in somebody else had to pay for it - they took the cowards way out

They borrowed the money, took the credit for spending it , then left someone else to take the blame when it came time to pay the bill

[Ignitionnet]

Immigrants are needed to pay your pension and health care when you retire, that's the nature of the ponzi scheme and the lack of native born children to support the big baby boomer population bulge.

The idea is great to get people into jobs in the real economy, however those jobs right now are generally right at the bottom end of the scale, and ~87% of them are getting taken by immigrants as they are willing or able to accept the underhousing and other sacrifices required to accept such abysmal pay with such high costs of living.

People with families can't take a minimum wage job usually, they'll lose too much money from their welfare payments.

[mertle]

What gets me is if we in the uknown situation with world fiancial issues how come all the experts know what to do. For all these experts might just be sending the world to oblivion. They guessing there might be educated guesses but at the end they dont know. Can you trust one person/organisation to get things right.

Would it not be good idea to tell some countries to spend there way ie push boat out some to do austerity some to do nothing but sit tight. That way we will see who rides the wave better compensate countries who got told wrong.

For all these experts Balls might be right he maybe proved wrong but unless we get general broad indicators of performance of countries doing it differently see how things 12/24/36 months on we will never know.

Figures released today from the office of national statistics appear to tell a different story

New figures show the Government cut its borrowing last month and spent over £1bn less than it first thought in August.
The Treasury said the numbers offered evidence of "progress" towards the coalition's aim of cutting the deficit.
Data from the Office for National Statistics showed public sector net borrowing totalled £14.1bn in September, against £15.4bn this time a year ago.
And strikingly, August's borrowing figure of £15.9bn - which had been a record for the month - was revised down by a staggering £2.2bn to £13.7bn.
The ONS said increased income from taxes and lower Government spending were behind the recalculation.

http://news.sky.com/home/business/article/16093459

And these figures from yesterday show UK retail sales stronger than expected, and stronger than September last year.

BBC

Originally Posted by Hugh

And these figures from yesterday show UK retail sales stronger than expected, and stronger than September last year.

BBC

perhaps Mr Cable needs to rethink his statement ? or is he just scaring the pants of everyone and being over cautious

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by spanna

They borrowed the money, took the credit for spending it , then left someone else to take the blame when it came time to pay the bill

That's Labour's prudence for you.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by martyh

perhaps Mr Cable needs to rethink his statement ? or is he just scaring the pants of everyone and being over cautious

Nope I'd say he's spot on, it's good but once you take away the 0.4% drop the previous month the picture isn't so pretty. A 0.7% rise over the quarter doesn't even cover the sales deflator for the period.

“We don't think the recent strong growth in monthly sales is likely to be sustained,� Blerina Uruci, an economist at Barclays Capital in London, said in a note to clients today. “The environment for retailers is likely to remain challenging as consumer spending remains depressed driven by low confidence and slow earnings growth.�

Sales at household-goods stores jumped 3.2 percent in September from the previous month, partly led by back-to-school spending on items such as computers, and demand for new video games. Food sales were unchanged and clothes sales fell 0.7 percent as warm weather curbed sales of winter ranges.

Regardless these numbers don't account for the stories on the ground, which are infesting even the affluent suburbs here now.

---------- Post added at 10:26 ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 ----------

Originally Posted by Sirius

That's Labour's prudence for you.

Indeed, we are now enjoying 'prudent' austerity for the people while their living standards are inflated away and their taxes bail out banks.

Enough about Labour, getting boring now, the current government could be doing it better but are, as so many are, corporatist whores beholden to big business and banks, merrily screwing over their electorate as they tend to the needs of the people who bankroll them and supply the lucrative consultancy positions when they leave politics.

Confidential undocumented meetings with banks - corporatism, fast track access to ministers for 50 large corporations - corporatism. Government is supposed to remove barriers to corporations while ensuring they trade sustainable and sensibly, instead it's actively pimping itself to them to the detriment of us.

The only reason this lot are considered in any way competent is the astounding incompetence on the other side of the aisle.