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lionHeretic

Listed below are comments made by lionHeretic between Wednesday, 20th August 2008 and Monday, 22nd December 2008.

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How our banks were rescued 9:02pm on 22 Dec 2008 I've followed your Blog for the past two years and believe that you have called it right time and time again Robert.

I also believe that the reason you are getting so much critism about your reporting, is because you are actually reporting what is going on. For too long business and the Treasury have tried to hide what they were doing, as if economics is hard, or that the world economy should be shrouded in some secret to stop jo average understanding what is actually going on.

Perhaps if the average person was actually informed about what was going on, we as ordinary people, could make a few simple steps to not get into quite so much trouble.
Interbank hysteria 6:11pm on 24 Sep 2008 From bloomberg:

I think that says it all. Paulson's rescue isn't required. Capitalism can work this out - the bad banks go bust, and the good ones pick up the market share the bust ones gave up. Normal service resumes.

But isn't that the entire point. Capitalism hasn't sorted this out because 'capitalism' let it happen in the first place and then had no rescue package other than running to governments.

I think it is fair to say that if AIG had gone bust the world economy would have died over night. It would have taken years for capitalism to sort that one out...if ever.
Wettest weather? 1:00pm on 12 Sep 2008 AlanLeon wrote:

Hang on; didn't the believers in the global warming cult assure us that we would now have baking hot drought-ridden Saharan summers for evermore? I'm sorry for all the people who spent lots of money on the drought-resistant plants that they had been told they would need.

It is called climate change not global warming. As scientists have come to understand the inter-relation of climates in the world so their views have come to change. The sahara is getting a lot hotter and drier as are parts of the Med, Australian deserts and American deserts.

However, the north atlantic climate presents a more complex problems. This centres around the north atlandtic convayer and the gulf stream. As Siberia gets hotter the perma frost melts dumping fresh water in the north atlantic. This is having an impact on the North Atlantic convayer.

This may or may not explain the wet weather.

Your assertion that this wet weather is somehow proof of climate change being a falacy is false.

You either do not understand the climate change debate or the basis of science itself.
The immigration trade-off 09:30am on 10 Sep 2008 Of course the flip side of the care home employment issue is this. For as long as we employ foreign workers to keep wages down we Brits are less likely to do that job (no matter how rewarding it is). Care home staff often get paid minimum wage for a hard and demanding role (I know, I have done it).

I feel it is only correct that they are paid properly and get the correct training. One day the system will be looking after me.

The other issue that has been raised is unskilled labour, such as fruit picking. In this case I believe that able bodied people whom are unemployed should be made to do that sort of work(remove benefits). It requires a little skill and is seasonal and important.

For me this is where the debate hinges. No one minds having a nice pleasant person come into the country with skills and an education as they will no doubt improve society a little. I think where I and many people draw the line the imprtation of huge amounts of cheap labout when there are plenty of people to do those jobs anyway.
Map of the week: Crowded Britain? 12:06pm on 09 Sep 2008 I think a lot of people have written what is a very valid point. It is not the amount of people but the quality of life we have.

However, what i find intersting is that there is a need in this country for everyone to want to live in a house. Where as a lot of people in Europe live quite happily in flats. Houses of course take up much more room which is why London covers twice the area of Paris.

Living in houses has several draw backs. Because of the additional area needed living in houses means that joe average naturally on average lives further away from work, further away from shops and other places. With a lower population dencity public transport is less effective so ultimatly people who live in houses use cars much more.

This leads on to more traffic, more traffic jams which creates stress.

Living in Paris has its draw backs but one of the pleasures is getting around. Living in a flat I used to live 2 minutes from a bakery, a small supermarket, 10 minutes walk from the gym and 10 minutes from the metro. Moving about was easy.

So really sometimes being more densly populated can have advantages. The other is that if London were half the area then there would be a lot more Green in the south east.
Map of the week: Crowded Britain? 5:59pm on 08 Sep 2008 Llanmaes wrote:
density of London was included on your chart where do you suppose it would figure with an average 4,700 people living in each square kilometre according to figures from 2003 ? The UK is a heavily populated country, it is more than twice as densely populated as France (106 people per sq.km), nine times as densely populated as the USA (27 people per sq.km) and 100 times as densely populated as Australia (2 people per sq.km). And as for places like Hong Kong or Ch

The problem with your figures is that 90% of Australia is inhospitable. A large part of the USA is as well. Lots of nations have similar problems to our own. Others like Italy have a better spread of population.

A lot of our problems (demograpically speaking) come from the 6 or so millions scots moving south simply because nothing was done to help their economy when it was rusting away.
Fannie, Freddie, Cheshire and Derbyshire 3:39pm on 07 Sep 2008 Although I am no fans of politicans I do support the idea that the current economic situation is so big that it really is out of Darlings control.

However, I am sure that he will continue to get all the blame no matter what the cause or effects of the current crisis.

The only real issue is about our own housing market and how it was allowed to get so bloated and out of control in the first place. I suspect a weak wristed regulator is to blame.
The football bubble 10:40am on 02 Sep 2008 @5

You are right it will make imports more expensive. However, as I stated it gives an oppurtunity for producers in this country to bridge the gap, increasing employment and becoming more self reliant.

So for example, why buy apples from Chile when apples from england now become cheaper due to changes in exchange rates.

Also a couple of people have stated why few people have responded to the topic in Prestons blog. This might be because the topic is so removed from the lives of ordinary people. Preston is talking about huge collections of capital being transfered from the middle east to Britain. He is trying to make it relavant by using football as a backdrop. That still does not make it relavant to people's lives.
The football bubble 09:30am on 02 Sep 2008 @3

Which means more people are having holidays in the UK. This keeps £ in Britain and boosts our economy a little.

Your analysis that devalution is bad appears to be based on a small number of criteria which is basically your expenditure. I think that is very short sighted.

I would love to see the pound get weaker simply because I understand that if it doesn't the chances of a huge recession get bigger. With a weaker pound our producers actually give us a chance to keep unemployment low through exports while on the other hand it gives a certain element of protection for producers who wish to sell goods in Britain itself.

Like a lot of people I take several holidays a year to Europe and I understand the rising costs. But holidays are not a right, and it is not a right for them to be cheap. At the end of the day I would rather take one foreign holiday a year and have a good economy at home based on production, than many cheap foreign holidays and a country with an economy is tatters.
Non-plastic picnicking 1:06pm on 20 Aug 2008 I think a lot of people are missing the point of the blog. This is an examination of how much we use and rely plastic in every day things and situations. With the blogger going through various situations it becomes clear just how hard it is to go without plastic, I think this is better than simply stating the amount of plastic used in tons per person as it allows us, the reader, to relate to real life scenarios.

I certainly applaude the motives and I hope to live by the mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle more and more.

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