Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Who is sleep walking,

Happy New Year with Michael!

"Fiscal Cliff” in perspective.

* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
* Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

* Annual family income: $21,700
* Money the family spent: $38,200
* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Total budget cuts so far: $38.50

Yes, and your point exactly? :O)

Penury.

Twice a year I am a United fan Tim, work it up the red shite tomorrow :O)

It is a bit like starting up a New private company,

Floating it, borrowing after the float to buy larger premises buying new plant on tick, maybe further R and D, hoping to pay for the plant over 20 years, while paying large CEO salaries and expenses.

The problem is "earning" enough to cover the "expense", "interest" and other "outlay" until the company has enough contracts for its output. (I.E employment.)

How many weren't it debt when they bought their own houses.

Debt ain't the problem, it is whether you can service it and utilise it beneficially.


--------------

PS

How many Private companies are borrowing invisibly from the "public purse" by paying low "wages" which are backed up by the governments out of benefit payments.

.
For Greek, Tanker and Ilk

Political cartoons eh!

Is the cartoon suggesting Law and Order, Education and Health investments are only for the well healed and lesser quality should not be available for the the average and those below on lesser incomes.

(Or does raising the above improve the well being of society as a whole?)

(It is a pity that society can't divest itself of the dependent.)


Mind it does show where the money went, preferable than into the back pockets of those in the Cayman Isles and the and other Tankers.

------------------

I think the point of the second cartoon misses the fact that Cameron and cohorts are becoming detached from the "middle classes", who are waking up to the fact of how much they were/are benefiting from the "welfare state", especially when they start paying for "granny" going in hospital or, care , and can't find a "bed", their kids going to university and moving back home, or being broken into and can't find a policeman.

Ring their MP who is probably living in a gated area.

Events, dear boys, are sometimes just consequences.

PS. Anyway, some of "my" cartoons are in colour.

I might try and get some large printouts and put them on my car.

(To cover the rust.)

This collaboration should generate some political satire.

Ken Clarke and Peter Mandelson join forces to fight Eurosceptics

Tory grandee Ken Clarke is joining forces with Labour peer Lord Mandelson in a historic cross-party bid to turn back the rising tide of Euroscepticism.

The two political heavyweights will share a platform to call for an abandonment of plans to disengage from the European project. Clarke, who attends cabinet as a minister without portfolio, is determined to fight back against the clamour for Britain to step back from the European Union or withdraw entirely.

Along with Liberal Democrat Lord Rennard, Clarke and Mandelson will spearhead a new organisation, the Centre for British Influence through Europe (CBIE), which will support a cross-party "patriotic fightback for British leadership in Europe". The organisation will hold its launch event at the end of the month.

People take on debt and then pay it off over a set time frame.

Countries don't have a limited time span, thus debt just keeps getting rolled over. Its the only thing stopping half the nations of the world from declaring themselves bankrupt!

One for Tanker - discuss!

Immigration is British society's biggest problem, shows survey of public

Immigration is regarded by the public as the biggest issue facing British society, a major new survey taking stock of the state of the country reveals.

One in three people believes tension between immigrants and people born in the UK is the major cause of division, while well over half regard it as one of the top three causes.

Over the past two decades, both immigration and emigration have increased to historically high levels, with those entering the country exceeding those leaving by more than 100,000 in every year since 1998.


Blow up of the graphic at the bottom of the article.

Skinny,

Interesting poll.

What would be expected by many.

----

One question which I haven't seen guesses for is how many British Medallists at the recent Olympic Games are the offspring of second and third generation immigrants?

Strange how the "Empire" came to the "needs" of Britain when "wanted", but only some "Commonwealth members" are received with the same enthusiasm.

As far as "culture" is concerned, it is sometimes easy to question it and revise your valuation of some of its "values", acting spontaneously sometimes is more difficult.

Also, maintenance of "family" cultures binds many families together for their own "good" and that of others.

PS.

Remember the figures before the last referendum 40/60, after the ref 60/40.
The silent majority often have more sense than the rabble rousers.

This_is_me (20012)
"Fiscal Cliff” in perspective. [...]
"Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:"

Total budget cuts so far are not $38.50
They are $385.
However, your point is the same.



That's a pretty good way of doing it. You've divided by 100 million, reducing it to the size of a single household's budget. There might be 100 million households in the U.S. which is why dividing by 100 million works.

Another way is dividing it by the number of people, circa 250 ~ 300 million. You get smaller numbers, but then it's per person instead of per household. The point is the same.



To puncture political hyperbole (on both sides) it's usually a good idea to take the amounts of money they mention and divide by the number of people in the country, or the number of tax-payers, or the number of households. I do this for all U.K. political ranting. This instantly reduces very big numbers to the personal level so it's obvious what variety of horse manure the politicians are talking.


Fred1new (20016)
"Debt ain't the problem, it is whether you can service it and utilise it beneficially."

Yes, that applies if the debt is constant. What if (as in the U.S. case) the debt is growing year by year? That ought to be a big glaring signal that you CAN'T service the debt. I do wonder why people keep buying U.S. government bonds. I suspect the Yew Ess Gummint will end up printing money to repay the bond holders. This will cause inflation, so that the inflation exactly cancels out the return which the bondholders thought they would get. Muuaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaha!

Arf,

Are you a strategist?

I understand the necessity of intending to return the "loan".

But loans are generally thought to be on temporary basis.

I don't think Obama is squandering the money, and would expect that tightening of the screws will come.

But which ever way one looks at it you have a temporary devaluation of "cash" which is "inflation" from a different position.

Also, whatever is said when you think about putting money into the market by Q.E. etc. it is a form of wealth distribution. The latter is what is choking the present tory leadership.

Personally I would prefer the State ploughing money directly into the improvement of state owned infrastructure and "hoping" in permeates into the general economy.

They are beginning to do the latter, but has been delayed and it is choking some of the them.
Nos da i chwi.

Flat-rate state pension 'expected to start in 2017'

A new flat-rate state pension likely to start in April 2017 will be simpler than the current system of means-tested top-ups, the government will argue as it outlines details later.

The weekly payment will be £144 plus inflation rises between now and 2017.

The current full state pension is £107.45 a week, but can be topped up to £142.70 with pension credit.

Plans to introduce legislation were included in the Queen's Speech, but detailed proposals are now ready.

These have been expected for some time, with the aim of simplifying the system by replacing the means-tested pension credit element.

This is me.

Your post "Fiscal Cliff” in perspective, makes its own point.

Just shows how the US debt hole just keeps getting bigger.

The UK debt is just the same, with the government stating that borrowing is shrinking, but conveniently don't mention that they are still borrowing far more than the country is earning, and coupled with the interest on existing debt, we are digging almost as fast as the USA.
Most of the worlds countries are doing the same.

fred why are polish migrants ignorant dirty is it that it is normal in poland .
two girls in the pub friday they stunk and were told to leave that turned in to abusive
jestures