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Listed below are comments made by Mr_Gladstones_bag between Wednesday, 22nd October 2008 and Monday, 5th January 2009.

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Plus c'est la mme chose? 7:01pm on 05 Jan 2009 Come on Derek, give up and take a few years rest. You really are embarrassing yourself quite badly. Only a few weeks ago you had quite a cohort of labour-sponsored Hoons on here, but you seem to be the only one thick-skinned enough not to feel an overwhelming sense of shame.

This tax reduction on savings is a very sensible idea, and would get those people who use the interest from their savings to supplement their income to spend more, not less.

I'm not convinced about the point it ends though. I would have thought that not paying tax on the first 2000 pounds (say) of interest a year, (whether the saver is a standard rate tax-payer or not) would be a fairer scheme.
The New Capitalism - in video 9:58pm on 21 Dec 2008 In post #52, it was said:

part of the current problem is the fact that the single control system (interest rates) has proved to have been disconnected from the system under control.

Very true, but it need not have been. The BoE interest rate should have been much higher during the boom period, but the government was frightened of putting it up that much.

I wonder why we need a defined BoE rate. Is it not possible for the various lending and savings institutions etc: to set whatever rate they feel is relevant at the time?
The New Capitalism - in video 5:33pm on 21 Dec 2008 Well, yes, most things you say in the essay (sic) are fine, as far as they go, although the feeling that your grandmother still has not yet learned to suck eggs is getting stronger.
Why do we need a new capitalism when real capitalism has not been tried yet? Any true free-market system will have numerous feedback loops which will provide an inherent stabilisation, provided (and this is important) that no-one, including the BOE and the state in general, fiddles about with the system every 6 months (or even more frequently).
There are supposedly other design engineers posting on here, as well as myself, who will tell you that NFB loops require the damping to be optimised to ensure that the continual corrections that the feedback produces is properly damped, to ensure that the output does not become unstable. It IS the job of the BOE etc: to attempt to perform this damping, but not to keep changing the system set-point all the time. The time-constants for economic systems are in the order of many months to years, so it is easy to understand why governments like to tweak things, to show that they are doing something (!!), but really, a true free-market system doesn't need this.

Give 'Austrian Economics' a try. Sadly our political leaders seem to have zero understanding of system control theory, (if indeed they are not sadly inumerate), but surely there are economic advisers to the treasury who could attempt to get some sense into that dense Pictish block that appears to be the head of Gordon Brown.
Deflation or inflation? 10:13am on 17 Dec 2008 If anyone remembers the articles that Samuel Brittan wrote for the FT in the late 90s, then they will realise that not everyone thinks that a year or two of deflation is really the scary monster that we are currently encouraged to believe.

Ultimately the only people that inflation helps is the foolishly profligate. (Such as our friend, 'Flash').
Who benefits from rate cut? 4:32pm on 06 Nov 2008 To poster #153.

No I'm one of those unregarded people, a design engineer. I use software modelling programs to determine how complex, non-linear systems work. The BofE economists also claim to use software modelling to help them understand how the economy works, and how best to plan for the future. The software used by engineers (and even the weather forecasters) has been shown to work; that used by the economists is either worthless, or (more likely) it's the economists, (who don't seem to have been at the front of the queue when intellect was being awarded) showing how apt the phrase 'garbage in, garbage out' is at this time.
Who benefits from rate cut? 2:52pm on 06 Nov 2008 This rate cut strikes me as the panic mode of those headless chickens masquerading as economists. There are people out there who understand how to produce simulation models of complex, non-linear systems. Those engineers who mathematically model large process control systems, or the people who produce the simulation models for modern weather forecasting. These are the guys who can define the transfer-functions of the building blocks that form our economy, not the super-annuated BOE and government economists, and certainly not the cub reporters pretending to be business journalists.

The problem was originally caused by too-low interest rates, making them even lower will mean that the reckoning next year will be harsh indeed.
Sterling shunned 9:12pm on 24 Oct 2008 Re post #50 (Ozymandias)

You, I and all the real free-marketeers know that we have to increase interest rates, but our blinkered politicians and mainstream economists are stuck in the 1930s thinking (wrongly) that low interest rates get the economy moving. Foolish little boys.

"Look upon these works ye mighty, and despair".
Now there are runs on countries 2:05pm on 23 Oct 2008 #58

What exports? Aren't you aware that we make very little in this country anymore that anyone outside it wants, whatever the level of the pound.

There are always for and against arguments for a higher or lower value pound, but at the moment I believe the case for a higher-valued pound is uppermost.
Now there are runs on countries 12:01pm on 23 Oct 2008 So then, what do we have?
1. We have the banks now flush with money.
2. But the banks which still don't want to lend, because they fear that the borrowers may not be able to repay.
3. We have a pound whose value is dropping like a stone.

Ok, so what's the solution?

It is to raise interest rates (to 6% perhaps?).
This will make the banks more willing to lend some of the money that HMG have thrown at them, and will also boost the value of the pound.

Come on, use 'Austrian School' economics now, before it's too late.
What Mervyn didn't say 4:40pm on 22 Oct 2008 In post #189, 'LiberalPolemic' wrote a good deal of sense.

Of course that is the right way to go about things, but how many politicians and economists out there follow such a 'classic liberal' line? Obviously no Labour-supporting ones, and precious few Conservative ones. If this country had a proper Liberal party, perhaps there might be some in that which would see sense, but as such a party no longer exists, it's just the 'Mises Institute' and a few of us on here that keep pointing out that the Emperor hasn't got any clothes on.

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