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Pat_N_Interrupt

Listed below are comments made by Pat_N_Interrupt between Tuesday, 1st July 2008 and Friday, 5th December 2008.

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A British subprime mess 6:41pm on 05 Dec 2008 I think it is a necessary action that Buy-to-Let landlords are specifically excluded from any government-driven action to force banks to lend.

They wouldn't do it for hedge funds after all.

But then again hedge funds don't vote and are punchbags to win cheap political points.
Weep for Woolies 12:52pm on 27 Nov 2008 Robert,

now the government have opened the Pandora's Box of price fixing (bank lending rates) and mandatory lending targets then they should also openly pressure TESCO who have recently threatened thousands of suppliers' businesses by using their monopoly position to bully suppliers into accepting much longer payment periods.

This is totally analagous to banks tightening credit. It has the impact of sucking credit out of the economy, threatening otherwise viable businesses, allowing TESCO even more leeway to dominate.

IF the government can dictate to banks (which is a big if, but this is economic-fascism after all) then they should dicate to TESCO.

Of course, TESCO's ongoing lobbying and influence in Downing Street means it won't happen, but it would be nice to make the point.
Map of the week: Economically inactive - other 10:06pm on 23 Sep 2008 Sadly, the last 40 years has seen a society move from where it was becoming acceptable to see married women go out to work and earn their own salary, to a society where many married women have NO CHOICE but to go out to work to pay the mortgage!

40 years of economic progress and for a typical family all they have to show for it is less free time, less choice, more expense for nursery care, and a huge mortgage on an overvalued house (forgetting the broader social problems caused by absentee parents).

Here's a thought - if mortgages on houses had been limited to say 3-4x ONE wage-earner's income, house price-to-income ratios would never have gone as crazy as they have. Married women could have chosen to stay at home and live in a nice family house, and bring up kids, or they could have chosen to go to work to earn money to spend on luxuries.

If that had been the case though UK GDP would be far lower today than it otherwise is, the UK would look poor on international comparisons, and there would be a much lower tax base.

Politicians and economists care about statistics implying an improved standard of living, not the de facto reality.
Treasury's mortgage rescue plan 09:21am on 29 Jul 2008 If banks had stuck to lending 3x main earners' salary with a 20% deposit, houses would have remained affordable for the last decade, no alleged 'shortages' and the world would be a happier place.

The only answer the corporatist-lobbyists have to help sustain their own business empires, avarice and greed is to re-start the Great British Housing Ponzi Scheme.

Fortunately for them, in today's climate of 'economic-fascism', they will get their way.
Controversy and conspiracies II 12:27pm on 01 Jul 2008 Hi Mike, I am glad the BBC is on the case of 'Conspiracy'. However, can I make a point that an interesting documentary to make might be called "The 'Conspiracy Theory' Conspiracy Files" - along the lines of what makes people more or less prone to accept or argue against the whole idea of Conspiracy Theories.

Almost by definition, these are theories where the evidence on either side is scant or ambiguous, and where people tend to have strongly held opinions in relation to the subject matter. Hence people tend to be agitated and argue what essentially boils down to their point of view - basically arguing whether a glass is half-full or half-empty. The kind of argument that would lead both parties to feel like they are right and are banging their head against a wall!

The term 'Conspiracy Theory' is a great example of what you might call an argumentum ad hominem - argument against the man - i.e. many anti-conspiracy people label someone as a Conspiracy Theorist to imply that they believe that lizards rule the planet, hence any view they hold, however sensible (such as that maybe governments do, on occasion, lie to us?) must be nonsense. A very lazy, disingenuous and inadequate form of argument.

Why is it that some people have a strongly held belief that the world is how it looks on the surface, whilst others tend to have a need to dig deeper?

Solving that dilemma may go someway to 'solving' some Conspiracy Theories.

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