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thomas betham

Listed below are comments made by thomas betham between Tuesday, 18th November 2008 and Wednesday, 25th November 2009.

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Why did Bank of England keep shtoom? 12:07pm on 25 Nov 2009 Come come Robert. You are only peeved that your sources are not as good as you had thought. If the BBC can keep secret the amounts it pays to its top talent, surely there is a place for important State secrets in times of market hysteria.
BBC HD: Wimbledon and some Top Gear questions 11:05am on 07 Jul 2009 We really dont need to see Prince Charles giving the 2009 Richard Dimbleby Lecture scheduled for Wednesday 8 July. This should remain confined to BBC1.

Please stop this lazy programme scheduling on BBC HD and replace it with something like wildlife which can truly benefit from HD.
What caused the Amazon firestorm? 5:31pm on 14 Apr 2009 When I browse through the Amazon gay interest section they target me with ads, or sponsored links as they call them. This is what appeared today - Find gay singles in your area. Browse by age and location – with a clickable link.

I would imagine that this crass subjective decision, with blatant overtones of homophobia in its application, has upset a lot of advertisers as well as customers.
What caused the Amazon firestorm? 11:04am on 14 Apr 2009 This kind of censorship means that Amazon?s rankings simply can?t be trusted.

It also appears to be a policy which in practice discriminates against a section of the community and could soon be unlawful in the UK.

On Monday 30th April parts 2 of the Equality Act 2006 comes into force as do the Sexual Orientation Regulations which will make it illegal for businesses and services to discriminate against people because of their religion or their sexual orientation.
Fixing the Jag 4:25pm on 18 Dec 2008 Tata only paid Ford £1.5bn a few months ago and the net asset value must now be well below £1bn in today’s market.

An injection of £1bn by the taxpayer into Jaguar Land Rover would therefore require full nationalisation. The government would then be faced with providing the necessary investment capital on top, without which the company does not have a viable future.
Fixing the Jag 3:58pm on 18 Dec 2008 The government should seek preference shares in Jaguar Land Rover or guarantees from Tata. Maybe 50-50 against matched funding from Tata.

Of course Tata could just take the brand and move production to India at a fraction of UK labour costs!
Deflation or inflation? 11:31am on 17 Dec 2008 Robert unless you have not noticed, the world is in a period of de-leveraging.

It’s a return to thrift and prudent banking – a very good trend.

And it makes no difference if yield on government bonds are falling towards zero as most people are concerned about a return of their capital rather than a return on their investment.
Another Black Friday 10:14am on 12 Dec 2008 I’m afraid the gloom will continue for the real economy throughout 2009 and Nu Labours 2.5% VAT cut will make no difference as people fear for their jobs and sit on their cash.

Unemployment will also hit the public sector. My local authority is already reporting a significant drop in revenue from land searches and planning fees as property transactions have dried up.

Property prices have further to fall in the US, UK and Spain before a healthy relationship between incomes and borrowings can be restored.

The senate decision was correct. The US auto industry is simply making the wrong type of cars with the trend away from gas guzzlers.

On a brighter note the US will be the first to emerge from recession later in 2009 with the UK and Euroland following later.
Taxes to fall and then rise 6:48pm on 21 Nov 2008 A 5% hike in VAT is a great idea.

It would help to close the gap between rich and poor whilst permitting regressive income tax to remain low.

The conservatives would be unlikely to reverse it whilst perusing a policy of low taxation and smaller government and 22.5% would bring us closer to the EU average for VAT.

After the initial inflationary shock it would drop out of the picture after the first year of implementation.

Why not go a step further and increase the scope by applying VAT to bank charges and interest, presently exempt, which would make people more responsible when taking on debt whilst being broadly neutral for business.
Darling v Mathewson and Burt 7:10pm on 18 Nov 2008 I’m not a HBOS shareholder but I guess there are plenty who have already written off their investment and who would be prepared to vote down the merger because they see it as a government stitch up and a shareholder rip off just like Gordon Brown’s stealth tax on all pension funds in 1997 which has left most of us worse off.

Maybe a nice protest vote but unlikely to count! I would be surprised if institutional shareholders behaved in a reckless manner as this could cause a run on the bank by ordinary depositors’ leading to an even greater funding gap and pushing HBOS to the brink.

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thomas betham