Is Britain f***ed?

[Ludwig]

It's very scary reading but actually makes sense, to me at least. The only thing that's different is that we can print GBP. Eurozone don't let themselves print Euros?

London is the operational headquarters of the global banking scam, so this is no surprise.

[clv101]

It's a little hard to interpret the "Britain lost 20% of GDP from 2007 - 2011" headline. I suspect it just further goes to show what a rubbish metric GDP is for anything useful. Is the UK really only doing four fifths of what it was doing in 2007? Of course not, there's an extra 1.2 million people here for starters!

Sure, this country is screwed, the next decade is going to see massive change, the like of which we haven't seen in a couple of decades. However, we need to be wary of reading too much into statistics.

[Ludwig]

Sure, this country is screwed, the next decade is going to see massive change, the like of which we haven't seen in a couple of decades.

I would replace "in a couple of decades" for "since the Norman Conquest".

[clv101]

I'm not sure it's clear how this coming decade will compare to the the Great War and WWII - sure things were okay a few years after the wars (both here and in Germany) but the actual war time years certainly weren't okay.

The 20th C. wars killed far more people than Norman Conquest and I suspect the day to day lives of the average person in England at the time, didn't change as much as it did for those living through ether of the more recent wars.

[emordnilap]

I've read that there are more people alive now than have ever died - though how they could know this for definite is a mystery.

What do you think?

[energy-village]

energy village the original article is here

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/

your link is to the comments.

Apologies!

Presumably, now that inflation has flickered downwards, the printing presses will be starting up again.

[clv101]

I've read that there are more people alive now than have ever died - though how they could know this for definite is a mystery.

What do you think?

It's an urban myth that keeps coming back. Whilst we have a far larger population now than just a few hundred years ago, the low human population existed for a very long time. The population would have to increase of 100bn, and fast, for this to be true.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... umber-dead

[PS_RalphW]

The Norman invasion was fairly brutal. Certainly the Villains were still bonded labour, but every other class were affected for the worse. Certainly the local land owners suffered very badly.

[emordnilap]

I've read that there are more people alive now than have ever died - though how they could know this for definite is a mystery.

What do you think?

It's an urban myth that keeps coming back. Whilst we have a far larger population now than just a few hundred years ago, the low human population existed for a very long time. The population would have to increase of 100bn, and fast, for this to be true.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... umber-dead

Thanks for that. It seems almost as hard to grasp that (according to your man) as many as 100 billion people have died already!

[energy-village]

It's a little hard to interpret the "Britain lost 20% of GDP from 2007 - 2011" headline. I suspect it just further goes to show what a rubbish metric GDP is for anything useful. Is the UK really only doing four fifths of what it was doing in 2007? Of course not, there's an extra 1.2 million people here for starters!

Sure, this country is screwed, the next decade is going to see massive change, the like of which we haven't seen in a couple of decades. However, we need to be wary of reading too much into statistics.

You're right, it is hard to interpret some of the figures in the article because the GDPs of various countries have been converted into US dollars for the sake of comparison and the pound sterling seems to have slumped against the US dollar (30%) and Euro (17%).

Sterling has lost 30% versus the dollar since the financial crisis erupted in 2008, from $2.00 in January 2008. From €1.45 at the same time, the pound has lost 17% of its value.

Sept 2011
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news ... pound.html

Certainly GDP is a flawed measurement and there is a lot of smoke and mirrors. But if we consider that we added 1.2 million people to the country over that period things look even worse. It suggests that per capita productivity has shrunk even more alarmingly than we thought (i.e. more people doing less overall work).

I don't think the changes ahead are going to be limited to the level of a 'couple of decades' though. When the Governor of the Bank of England says the financial crisis is the worst since "the 1930s, if not ever", it's not a good sign. Add to that worsening access to cheap energy, debt (of all kinds) preventing growth and a housing bubble it's a toxic mix.

[clv101]

Yeah, and that $2 to the pound was an aberration. The 20% decline in the UK is the result of cherry picking data.

[SleeperService]

Regarding the 20% dip in UK GDP. How much of that is due to the collapse in futures markets et al and how much to a decline in manufacturing etc.

I wonder how much of the 'Invisible Exports' that regularily appeared in government statements didn't really exist in the first place

Despite questions about the statistics the significantly different UK figures must bear some relation to relative performance?

[RenewableCandy]

Sure, this country is screwed, the next decade is going to see massive change, the like of which we haven't seen in a couple of decades.

I would replace "in a couple of decades" for "since the Norman Conquest".

Hey does that mean we get to double the number of words in our language again ??

[UndercoverElephant]

energy village the original article is here

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/

your link is to the comments.

It's very scary reading but actually makes sense, to me at least. The only thing that's different is that we can print GBP. Eurozone don't let themselves print Euros?

Eurozone can't print euros because the eurozone is a half-formed state. If the Bank of England prints money to spend on propping up British banks or paying of British debts then the whole nation feels the consequences equally. If the European Central Bank prints money in order to bail out Greek/Irish/Italian banks or pay of the debts of those countries then basically the Germans end up footing the bill. It boils down to who is part of your nation and who isn't. People who live in London politically accept that Liverpool is part of the same country, and that it is inevitable that the rich parts of the country subsidise the poor. People in Germany do not accept the same about Greece.

So the eurozone (ECB) could print euros, but only if the Eurozone was politically serious about becoming a properly unified state. And the reality is that not enough people in those countries are willing to accept this.

Trouble is I don't think the PTB will alter strategy until it's all fallen apart around us. If they try we'll probabily fall foul of the European court or the IMF depending on which puppet the PTB use.

TPTB don't control the bond markets. Eventually they will lose control because of individuals and organisations protecting their own backsides (or trying to.)

[Tarrel]

Eurozone can't print euros because the eurozone is a half-formed state. If the Bank of England prints money to spend on propping up British banks or paying of British debts then the whole nation feels the consequences equally. If the European Central Bank prints money in order to bail out Greek/Irish/Italian banks or pay of the debts of those countries then basically the Germans end up footing the bill. It boils down to who is part of your nation and who isn't. People who live in London politically accept that Liverpool is part of the same country, and that it is inevitable that the rich parts of the country subsidise the poor. People in Germany do not accept the same about Greece.

So the eurozone (ECB) could print euros, but only if the Eurozone was politically serious about becoming a properly unified state. And the reality is that not enough people in those countries are willing to accept this.

That is the clearest, most succinct description of the underlying Eurozone problem that I have ever read.