PowerSwitch

What happens to stirling at 0% with our trade deficits and government borrowing levels as they are? Mind you , many thought the dollar would be toast, yet they are at 1.5% interest rates (probably 1% on wednesday) debt higher than ever, no growth (probably in recession) and yet the dollar has stren...

You see, this thing about "savings" is just an illusion anyhow. In reality the retired people are fed by the working people. One small correction - the non-working people are fed by the working. The important number is not the ever-increasing number of retirees - they were once children o...

They have used a ton of oil & energy to get made ... and then they are shipped across from China ... and packed for retail ... and shipped across the UK ... and then use batteries and wiring etc than I add on .... all for 4.8 watts (or 60 watts) ... Madness. I suspect they would have to last ma...

That game, 'more of everything', (putting aside efficiency gains which along with 'energy quality' I'm ignoring for simplicity of argument) grinds to a halt once net available energy (gross energy flow minus the energy used to produce that energy) ceases to increase each year. Naturally, but as tha...

Oh yes it can. Its called depreciation. Iron rusts, wood rots. All food becomes inedible and valueless in time. Your house will fall apart if you don't maintain it. Just maintaining a constant volume of 'hard assets' requires a constant energy input. Then there's consumption... stuff gets used up, ...

Is it actually possible to have inflation at 2-3% in the same year that oil, gas, iron ore, etc prices pretty much double. Is inflation just a measure of increase in the money supply so can be restricted to low single figures when commodity prices are changing an order of magnitude faster? No, infl...

Inflation happens when the money is created. After that it's a game of musical chairs to see who ends up paying for it. That's what I thought till now, so who is printing the money HMG? Neil Absolutely. There is currently a "war" between the 'flations. Massive deflations as the SIVs, CDO,...

I just got this e-mail from one of my suppliers - it doesn't mention 3%. For the attention of the Purchasing Department. Dear Sirs, As you may be aware, much of our raw material is imported from Europe. Over the last 6 months there has been a significant fall in the Euro / pound exchange rate and t...

We'll build lots of shopping malls so that people can buy all the things we import from China! Great idea, all that spending will boost the economy! How will the items be paid for, if everything is made in China? Don't worry, we'll extend lots of credit, and allow people to spend the equity in their...

yep our manafacturing base is so small its only the fifth largest in the world by value! :wink: According to 2008 data we're sixth, behind China, US, Japan, Germany and Italy (and have been behind Italy since 2000. Actually even sixth surprises me, looking at the huge US move into Mexico, and large...

I'd start by looking at the growth rate of the total money supply - ultimately the amount of money (relative to growth in goods to be valued by that new money) will define inflation.

If someone cal tell me how to get rid of that bloody shoppers reports every time I do a search I will stil use google. Vortex? Anyone? Have you tried using a combination of Firefox browser, and the "Adblock" add-on? I use these, and anytime you see ads you can just block the source pages ...

danza wrote:

I havent heard the interview yet

Listen to it and then tell me Im wrong.

It's not necessary to listen to the interview. We've never experienced "pure capitalism", therefore that cannot be the reason.

Rumours are rife that the next bank that will go under are Citibank, the worlds largest. OK, where are these rumours? I can't find a sniff of this on the web. Have a search under "Daily Reckoning" or "Mish Shedlock". People have been talking about Citibank for a long time. There...

I watched the film (that marvellous cartoon about debt on Youtube) and sort of understood it but I still can't quite believe it...it just seems so barking (sorry for yet more doggist comments!) Don't worry! It doesn't just seem barking, it is barking! :? But having watched the film, I bet a lot of ...