BBC Blog Network

User Profile

RMichaelSh

Listed below are comments made by RMichaelSh between Wednesday, 26th November 2008 and Tuesday, 12th May 2009.

«Newer
Older»

Should we save building societies? 5:46pm on 12 May 2009 It would be useful to know what rules we can rely on. Happy Gordon says no private investor will lose out if a BS goes down but the law only guarantees up to £50k per liscence. Is this another case of Rules being there to be bent. If so what is the point of the legislation.
Even I withdrew from N Rock a year before their demise because it was clear what would happen when the housing bubble burst. Ditto there was no way anybody who raised there head above the parapet would have put money into the Icelandic banks. Politicians were so intent on making money from second homes that they bought into the whole idea that there could be no bust. We have totally lost our rigour because money was too easily acquired by too many people.
I know it is another subject but what about our Goods and Services Balance of payments. At the end of this budget period the cumulative deficit since Labour took power will be £500 billion. It does not even get a mention and we don't seem to be bothered.
Pushing string 9:23pm on 05 Feb 2009 As an amateur I think the Bank of England has completely lost the plot.
Who is going to lend to businesses at anything like base rate with all the risks around. As for the mortgage market savers have been wiped out and their spending ability transferred to those who were heavily indebted. In other words having had their pensions raided by g brown their other savings are now effectively being appropriated.
What a shambles.
- and could it just not be that in the great scheme of things pipelines have suddenly been filled. The two cars per family move has possibly played out and with cars more reliable and the government increased taxes on bigger cars demand must be reducing.- and in electricals could we not have broadly filled up to the point where demand is becoming more reliant on replacements as new products are no longer ground breaking?
Insurance that worsens crunch 8:59pm on 12 Jan 2009 The insurance topic is important but again we have to have a broad strategy of where we are going and there is still no sign of one. Pestons "New Capitalism" is a good start off point.
Drawing lessons from the past has little application today.- re the attempts to support the labour market. Apart from anything else much of the growth of the last ten years has come from discretionary spending supported by excessive asset valuations and debt. It is therefore comparitavley easy to row back without serious implications.
It will take years to get back to where we were so the job market is going to be much tougher. Surely a reduction of the baggage that a new employee brings with him should be a priority. I know not a comfortable thought but we are fighting for our lives in the world. (and trying to control the work mkt by admin means when all europe is the pool must be impossible).
With massive Bof P deficit, and potential inflation our only way out is innovate innovate innovate. Concentrate taxpayers money on this and scientific development.

Government spending has to be rowed back in line with the lower level of activity in line with a conservative assessment of where the economy will be in 5 years time.
We are deluding ourselves if we think we are going to recover to where we were in a short timescale.The poorest need to be supported but we will all go down the pan if services are not brought into line with the harsh realities of where we now stand in the world.
It is going to be nasty but it will be worse if we think we don't need to have some radical changes of attitudes.
Does the Bank Rate matter? 5:26pm on 08 Jan 2009 We are in a mess and their will be lot of suffering until there is confidence in the valuations behind lending.

People do not have cash because they are maxed out and not saving enough.

Purchases come mainly from abroad.

What on earth are the government doing trying to encourage more spending to pay for more goods from abroad.

How can the banks operate when the government takes 12% off them. If they judge this reflects the risk then how can my pension savings be judged to be worth less than 3%.

Disaster will be dripped out for a long time.
M&S: no ordinary downturn 11:36am on 07 Jan 2009 Unless you advise the political party of everybody you quote (or religion etc), so we know where they are coming from, you have in my mind, I am afraid, lost much of your credibility. Perhaps we should now have a clear statement of your political views.

Mr Wolfson was only expressing a view, as a business man, that seems to have been expressed almost unanimously by businessmen of all parties. My straw poll over the Christmas period of everybody we met did not find a single supporter for the VAT move compared with alternatives for the same cost.

And just so you know I have voted both Consertave and Labour
Bull in a china shop 8:42pm on 05 Jan 2009 To have any chance of some sort of recovery a much greater proportion of the working population needs to develop a stronger work ethic.

At Management level this means searching for long term wealth creation and not juggling balance sheets to ensure this years bonus. The greed level has increased exponentially over the last 30 years. I have watched £signs flashing as executives try to do what is needed to sell on a business without regard for long term building.

At many levels we seem no longer to grasp that a full days work should be given in return for a full days pay. - not helped by inadequacy of schooling and training for the 21st Century.

The problem seems particularly acute in the public sector and whilst there are many excellent dedicated people they are only as good as the weakest links. I have had the opportunity to observe with despair the lack of motivation and care in the NHS
The New Capitalism 8:33pm on 09 Dec 2008 In broad terms the analysis of how we got to where we are is pretty clear. What I cannot start to get a grasp of is the least painful way out of this for this country. Sure there are things that need to be done at the edges like improved regulation of the financial system etc but we do not seem to be asking ourselves the linked fundamental questions of: what do have to offer the world : where is our wealth creation going to come from : what is our balance of payments going to look like in the years to come. I read the pages in the pre budget report and all I could glean from this was that we really don't have clue.
If the answer to what we have to offer is pretty limited (by which I mean we simply are unlikely for a host of reasons to have critical mass) then surely we must be cutting our public cloth to the means at our disposal. Massive government spending will certainly put off the day of reckoning but unless it is targetted at wealth creation it will surely kill us in the long run.
Our natural resources are restricted, we have dithered over energy policy, the french have bought our infrastructure companies,
whilst there is no chance of us touching theirs. Lets go back to making a few rules as to how we want to run this country instead of "following".
The problem is that politicians are here for the here and now and what we will look like in 2015 is just too far away for them to handle but if I had put forward the assumptions in the pre budget report to the board of a plc it would have been laughed out of court?
Not everyone wants lower interest rates 6:36pm on 08 Dec 2008 This is late, so unlikely to be read.
As pensioners lunched today with well off civil servants who are laughing all the way to the bank on their tracker mortgage. They are not planning to spend it but to save it to go towards their endowment shortfall.
We would have spent the inrerest we receive as part of our pension.
So handing our interest over to well paid civil servants has achieved what?
Why punish savers? 2:46pm on 05 Dec 2008 The nationalized banks will do what they have to do but Gordon Brown seems to want to poke his nose in everywhere, and everytime he does a wart will appear somewhere else.

However when it comes to building socs they really have to be left to do what is in ALL the members interests and if savers feel they are not getting a fair deal then given the number of savers to borrowers there will be directors voted out at the next round of agm's.

Careful savers are now handing over their savings to many reasonably well off people
and those who did not take out appropriate insurance to cover for a period out of work.
Many have been through similar tough times without recourse to state aid.

If those with small savings spend their capital now the government (us) will have to pick up the costs in increased costs (i.e healthcare) down the line.

With Building Socs having to pick up their share of the bill for failed banks , including overseas banks , how can they be judged to be safe.
I would also like to know how Gordon Brown can change the rules without having to go to parliament. He is currently bailing out those who were outside the rules (over 50k), and this at the drop of a hat, so what is to stop him raising it immediately or indeed reducing it when he runs out of money.
The nationalisation of credit 10:11am on 26 Nov 2008 No 5

I agree. the "joke" in our family is that every month for the last 5 years I have announced that the Catherine Wheel is getting faster, that it will come off,and will end in tears.
I underestimated how far it would fly when it did come off

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

RMichaelSh