Malcolm Blair-Robinson's Blog, page 183
February 21, 2015
How To Grow Without Borrowing
Politicians do not like to talk about the fragile nature of the UK’s Economic Recovery. Yet it remains rooted in borrowing, asset inflation, housing costs which are out of control and a housing shortage which continues to grow. It is consumption based in a country which no longer makes things for shoppers to buy, so jobs are exported and things are imported. Wages are at near historic lows, requiring subsidy and support from the government, even for those in work. The list goes on and on and you know it well. If you are a politician you never talk about it because you cannot see any other way forward. If you are in the top 10% you have never had it so good. If you are young and unemployed you are close to despair.
Yet it does not have to be like this. There is another way. Dynamic Quantitative Easing. It is only 2500 words in easy read format. To turn this original paper into a booklet, the January 2015 posts of this blog have been added. This bold new idea for economic growth will empower you with a greater understanding of what is happening in our economy and how we can change things for the better.
Download or Paperback from .99p
February 20, 2015
Greece: Germany is Wrong
Germany is overplaying its hand, not for the first time in its turbulent history, and will start to pay a price. Like a calvinist pastor it lectures on the morality of sticking to agreements, paying debts and reforming wayward habits. Very good as a lecture or a sermon. But nonsense when it flies in the face of the two critical pillars of capitalism and democracy.
The foundation of capitalism is that businesses, individuals and countries can fail and go bust if they borrow more than they can manage and repay. This is an essential discipline that acts as a restraint upon borrowers and lenders since both lose in the event of failure. The pillar of democracy is that governments can agree to anything they like but if they do and its becomes such a burden upon the people that they can no longer accept it, the people will throw out the government and all its works.
Both of these things have happened in Greece. Berlin and under its orders, Brussels, say that Greek people can vote for whatever they like but that does not change what their predecessor governments agreed to. This is a denial of democracy, because the Greek election outcome changes everything. Even if the new government could be browbeaten into accepting Germany’s terms it would return to Athens convulsed in uproar on the streets, which would lead to its overthrow and replacement with something wholly unwilling to agree to anything which would avoid default.
This blog will not dare to predict how today’s talks will end. What it can record is that Europe now has three problems in which its record is littered with ill judgement and mistakes. Russia, Greece and the Euro. None of it looks good. And there is a fourth. Britain could be on the road out.
Growth Without Borrowing
Politicians do not like to talk about the fragile nature of the UK’s Economic Recovery. Yet it remains rooted in borrowing, asset inflation, housing costs which are out of control and a housing shortage which continues to grow. It is consumption based in a country which no longer makes things for shoppers to buy, so jobs are exported and things are imported. Wages are at near historic lows, requiring subsidy and support from the government, even for those in work. The list goes on and on and you know it well. If you are a politician you never talk about it because you cannot see any other way forward. If you are in the top 10% you have never had it so good. If you are young and unemployed you are close to despair.
Yet it does not have to be like this. There is another way. Dynamic Quantitative Easing. It is only 2500 words in easy read format. To turn this original paper into a booklet, the January 2015 posts of this blog have been added. This bold new idea for economic growth will empower you with a greater understanding of what is happening in our economy and how we can change things for the better.
Download or Paperback from .99p
Russia:UK Foreign Office Gets It Wrong
BBC News – Ukraine: UK and EU ‘badly misread’ Russia
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The above is taken from the BBC news website and refers to a detailed report by the important and well informed House of Lords EU Committee. It is a shocking thing to discover ineptitude and miscalculation at the highest levels of both our country and our partners in Europe at a time of international crisis.
It is however exactly what this blog has been saying time, time and time again.
February 19, 2015
Economic Growth: A Better Way
Politicians do not like to talk about the fragile nature of the UK’s Economic Recovery. Yet it remains rooted in borrowing, asset inflation, housing costs which are out of control and a housing shortage which continues to grow. It is consumption based in a country which no longer makes things for shoppers to buy, so jobs are exported and things are imported. Wages are at near historic lows, requiring subsidy and support from the government, even for those in work. The list goes on and on and you know it well. If you are a politician you never talk about it because you cannot see any other way forward. If you are in the top 10% you have never had it so good. If you are young and unemployed you are close to despair.
Yet it does not have to be like this. There is another way. Dynamic Quantitative Easing. It is only 2500 words in easy read format. To turn this original paper into a booklet, the January 2015 posts of this blog have been added. This bold new idea for economic growth will empower you with a greater understanding of what is happening in our economy and how we can change things for the better.
.99p Download now! Or paperback £2.99
Follow the links below.
A Baltic Threat? Yes But Not As Fallon Claims
Michael Fallon, the UK Defence Secretary, sees a Russian threat to destabilize Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all members of Nato, but formerly part of the Soviet empire. He is correct to see danger, but his ‘blame the Russians’ mantra is not only wrong but increases the threat.
The threat comes from ethnic Russians who make up a substantial minority in all three countries becoming anxious about their status and their safety. If they continue to feel worthy citizens and an integral part of the country in which they live and were probably born, no real threat will develop. It is therefore vital that the West makes it perfectly clear to the governments of the Baltic States that it will not back them if they decide to foment trouble in the style of Kiev. For we must remember that it was the West’s enthusiastic backing of the mob which overthrow by violent protest the elected government in Ukraine which led to the chain of events now unfolding.
Nato thought it would be clever to expand the military alliance east to the Russian border by giving membership to former members of the Warsaw pact. Had this been part of a general settlement with Russia with a view to bringing her into both Nato and the EU as a European power, all the present troubles would have been avoided. As it is Nato now finds that it incorporates within its membership nations of little military contribution but substantial military risk. This is because of the clear risk of instability in the Baltic region if the West continues on its path of making an enemy of Russia, which in itself could be enough to stir up the fears of Russian minorities in these countries. In other words Fallon is right about the risk, but blinkered as to the cause. Yes Russia could stir up trouble by design, but the West could do the same by mistake.
Nato’s eastern posture in the Baltic is strategically mishandled. It has placed itself between Russia and Kaliningrad, which is Russian and given to it by the allies in 1945. It has done this by incorporating members who, were trouble to break out, would face significant internal stress because just over a million of their citizens are ethnic Russians. Instability in the front line is a serious military handicap, the more so with an enemy strong point in the rear. Fallon is right to worry but he is worrying about the wrong things.
Instead of allowing its dislike of Putin (because he appears to outsmart them) to translate into demonising the Kremlin, Western leaders must now face the fact that a danger point has been reached and the time has come when work must begin on a new settlement with Russia which will be in the combined interests of all. To describe such a thing as appeasement is to demonstrate, once again, that people who do so have little understanding of the real dynamics of the Nazi era. Now the dynamics are very different.
February 18, 2015
Dynamic Quantitative Easing: Free Download
This bold new idea for economic growth will empower you with a greater understanding of what is happening in our economy and how we can change things for the better.
It is on free download promo for one day only. Download Now!
Follow the links below.
Economic Growth: A Bold New Idea
Politicians do not like to talk about the fragile nature of the UK’s Economic Recovery. Yet it remains rooted in borrowing, asset inflation, housing costs which are out of control and a housing shortage which continues to grow. It is consumption based in a country which no longer makes things for shoppers to buy, so jobs are exported and things are imported. Wages are at an historic low, requiring subsidy and support from the government, even for those in work. The list goes on and on and you know it well. If you are a politician you never talk about it because you cannot see any other way forward. If you are in the top 10% you have never had it so good. If you are young and unemployed you are close to despair.
Yet it does not have to be like this. There is another way. Dynamic Quantitative Easing. It is only 2500 words in easy read format, but it has taken seven years to research and write. To turn the report into a booklet, the January 2015 posts of this blog have been added.
Today you can download it FREE. See how in the next post. Do it now and tell your friends. You can read it over a coffee. It is that simple. It will be the best coffee you have ever drunk.
Fragile Ceasefire: Can It Hold?
It was clear to anyone with some understanding of what the situation was on the ground and the emotions driving it, that the separatists would not stop fighting until the Debaltseve salient was in their hands. Merkel probably knew this when she said things were far from certain. She also probably knew, because that it what happened in Georgia, that the implementation of the ceasefire would be bit by bit rather than all at once. It is the case that violence has reduced but it is not ended. What happens next will depend on the political implementation of the promises made to give the separatists a vote on their future and an acceptance of the fact that they will vote to get as far away from Kiev as is possible. The level of killing and destruction makes that inevitable and any western politician who supposes otherwise is at the very least misguided.
The level of urban destruction, like in the Syrian civil war, is shocking and the conditions in which people remaining within the contested areas appalling. This blog has no hesitation in blaming Kiev. It sent in its army. It need not have done. It could have accepted from the very beginning that with the collapse of the soviet empire of which Ukraine was a unified part, the ethnic and cultural mix meant that the integrity of the state would only be preserved if some form of federal structure were put together which would satisfy both the aspirations and fears of all. Had it done so, it would have most likely preserved its territorial integrity.
Instead it sent in its army. It should never have done that. A government which sends its army to kill its own people has abdicated its right to govern. The West should have made this clear to Kiev from the very beginning. Pick a fight, and you fight alone.
February 17, 2015
Bondage Sex and Lies at the Top
This steamy thriller from the post Thatcher era is proving surprisingly popular, so it has been given a new cover in line with my latest novels. With all the media noise of the long election campaign, it offers a compelling insight into power behind the scenes. Check it out on my Amazon pages.
