The financial crisis awakens while too many are blaming the powerless

The tories have exposed the UK to global instability

In the last few months there have been no shortage of signs that another financial crisis is coming. Osborne and the tories will probably blame it on Labour while they are responsible for steering the nation through it:



Yet this government are happy to prostitute our resources, markets and workforce to any country as long as the right people are reaping the benefits:

• Our railways are actually two-thirds nationalised but not domestically - the German, French & Belgian states run large swathes of it. So the supposedly patriotic, Queen & country flag-waving tories are essentially saying "any state can run our railways as long as it isn't the British state."
• Immigrants that our elites seem to like, Russian oligarchs and the new super-rich Chinese, are welcomed to inflate property prices for locals & citizens who've paid a lifetime of tax only to be priced-out.
• As we know from 2008 our financial services industry is more open than ever under Osborne's light touch.

Our hyper-globalised economy can be a good thing, but not when run so unfairly for minority vested interests. While true that everyone is dependent on faltering China, the source of the turmoil but the tories seems to enjoy our status as one of the most globally exposed economies. If we had more control over our markets we could make decisions of economic sovereignity.

Anti-EU types seem to pick and choose when they speak about this lack of sovereignty, the much nastier global institutions of the G7 / G20 / IMF / WTO / TTIP are hidden from the spotlight - as is predatory global finance in general.

Stuttering growth is toxic for an unbalanced economy about to take a global hit. The graph below should have the tories apologising and using evidence-based economic solution instead of the austerity delusion. Yet they indulge in the rhetoric of empty triumphalism.





Domestic retail slowdown:

Weak figures over the 2015 Christmas shopping period do not present a optimistic future. The tories even had the gaul to blame it on mild weather. Seem to remember they used cold weather for a similarly disappointing yuletide results.

Meanwhile the supposedly anti-tax tories persevere with their ridiculous burden-on-the-poor VAT rate of 20% having raised it from 17.5% in 2011. Under the Labour it was 15% at one point encouraging consumer spending and liquidity after the 2008 crash.

UK productivity is one of the lowest in the G7 This particularly telling because it shows the lack of attention the tories pay to bottom-up long-term solutions. If there was a plan to incentivise small marginal gains for low-waged workers than the benefits would ripple-up. Instead trickle-down carrots do not permeate further than a small group, which as we know from wider economics.


Tories act as if certain groups are not essential parts of the economy:

While UK steelworkers suffer under market volatility the government does nothing. It appears they are completely at ease with skilled manual labourers losing employment through globalisation and ending up in the local Aldi for pitiful wages. While tax-take goes down it is also a complete waste of experience and expertise which tends to impact already-marginalised communities.

They sit on their hands apologising for dodgy Chinese market practices and provide no answers. No real surprise from the party who callously smashed the miners contributing to the regional issues in the first-place.

Meanwhile the Northern powerhouse has been moved from Sheffield to London. There are no words.

And the corporate media are up to their usual smoke & mirrors by again by failing to scrutinise the institutions which govern our lives. 

When the financial crisis strikes again we will finally realise the extent of media distraction #marr #bbctbq #bbcsp pic.twitter.com/hyTzbvZGG9

— JeSuisFedUp (@JeSuisFedUp) January 31, 2016

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The UK Austerity Myth

All 3 UK mainstream parties (Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats) and pretend protest party UKIP believe in some form of austerity. Since the 2008 global banking crisis which crashed the international economy austerity has become the consensus of most governments and institutions like the IMF.

It is intuitive to sell cuts to a public who are led to believe that running a country is like running a household. In hard times everyone can relate to the tightening of belts. We hear phrases like 'fix the roof while the sun is shining' and 'maxed out the credit card'. The whole extended metaphor is simplistic.

A country can borrow on global markets and print money via central banks. Debt and deficit are part of nations' finances because a global economy accommodates borrowing for investment. Households cannot use these tools and are not responsible for a population through which they can raise funds through taxation - if they dare. Still the austerity salespeople would like us to think this metaphor is valid.

What actually happens under austerity is a crisis of confidence that means banks stop lending, businesses stop employing and consumers stop buying and the whole household demand economy enters quicksand. Job numbers fall and with it income tax take. Is this ever mentioned by media vested interests?

Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman writes:

So what happens if everyone simultaneously slashes spending in an attempt to pay down debt? The answer is that everyone’s income falls — my income falls because you’re spending less, and your income falls because I’m spending less. And, as our incomes plunge, our debt problem gets worse, not better.

And yet despite the austerity rhetoric the current UK government is actually spending more than in pre-recession days. In 2009 and the start of 2010 the UK was recovering from the the turmoil of the crash under Labour's  economic plan. Then the newly elected coalition started taking an axe to the UK finances leading to stuttering performance until 2013 when they realised what many knew, austerity was incorrect. The legacy is 2 years wasted and then a return to massive borrowing while hypocritically bashing Labour. 

After the 2008 bak bailouts prevented world finance from collapsing. It was necessary but then that is an indication of the broken global system of finance. Quantitative easing is the same socialism for the rich.

The scale of the support currently provided to UK banks has fallen from a peak of £955 billion to £512 billion, but the amount of cash currently borrowed by the Government to support banks has risen by £7 billion since December 2009. It is likely the taxpayer will be providing support for years to come.

So what have the coalition government done they have punished public sector workers, the low paid, and the vulnerable. Further pain would be felt if the Conservatives remain in power after the forthcoming election when they restart their already-failed-once austerity.

Meanwhile there is little sign of a deterrent in the Libor rate scandal (CORRECTION 1 since 2012) or for banks laundering drug money affecting billions.

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