Owning our owed outgoings...

---

The belt-tightening after 2008 hasn't continued; did it really even start? All I see and have seen over the last decade is people spending like crazy, wanting everything now, the austerity that never was...there may be trouble ahead.



Click on image to link to article. You will find more infographics at Statista



"The rate at which UK institutions, households and businesses are borrowing money is greater than that of all other OECD countries. This fact is alarming some economists not only because the rate of UK borrowing is high against the country’s GDP, but also because households, business and state coffers are running a deficit simultaneously for the first time since the 1980s"....



" Not included in the data by the OECD are overseas investments by Britons as well as foreigners’ financial business in the UK. Here, another troublesome statistic emerges. While the UK had been running a net profit for overseas lending and borrowing in the past, the situation has reversed since the financial crisis."

Owning our owed outgoings...

---

The belt-tightening after 2008 hasn't continued; did it really even start? All I see and have seen over the last decade is people spending like crazy, wanting everything now, the austerity that never was...there may be trouble ahead.

Click on image to link to article. You will find more infographics at Statista

"The rate at which UK institutions, households and businesses are borrowing money is greater than that of all other OECD countries. This fact is alarming some economists not only because the rate of UK borrowing is high against the country’s GDP, but also because households, business and state coffers are running a deficit simultaneously for the first time since the 1980s"....

" Not included in the data by the OECD are overseas investments by Britons as well as foreigners’ financial business in the UK. Here, another troublesome statistic emerges. While the UK had been running a net profit for overseas lending and borrowing in the past, the situation has reversed since the financial crisis."

Overflowing ordure...

---

Some, me included, defended the banks from much criticism over the 'credit crunch' because it was not only the banks but also the greedy public and the hopelessly wrong politicians: in the UK's case Gordon Brown et al. Now, the banks have ceded any goodwill by letting the mask slip to reveal the casino-bank wide-boy jumped-up spivs they really are; I have no need nor wish to paraphrase Raedwald who puts it so well:

"We have been forced to recapitalise the banks, mortgaging future generations and impoverishing the Kingdom, to pay for the bankers' greed and folly. Ordinary lives have been ruined, industry grievously wounded, the nation's trade, it's very life-blood, draining from severed vessels as these gilded popinjays, these pampered jades, these foul and corrupt excrescences continue to lie, steal, distort, manipulate and cheat to maintain their pillage of the national wealth. Though the temptation is to march on Docklands with a coil of hempen rope and decorate the lamp columns of Canada Square with this noxious fruit, we must leave it to the courts and the criminal justice system to exact retribution. For retribution there must be."

Overflowing ordure...

---

Some, me included, defended the banks from much criticism over the 'credit crunch' because it was not only the banks but also the greedy public and the hopelessly wrong politicians: in the UK's case Gordon Brown et al. Now, the banks have ceded any goodwill by letting the mask slip to reveal the casino-bank wide-boy jumped-up spivs they really are; I have no need nor wish to paraphrase Raedwald who puts it so well:

"We have been forced to recapitalise the banks, mortgaging future generations and impoverishing the Kingdom, to pay for the bankers' greed and folly. Ordinary lives have been ruined, industry grievously wounded, the nation's trade, it's very life-blood, draining from severed vessels as these gilded popinjays, these pampered jades, these foul and corrupt excrescences continue to lie, steal, distort, manipulate and cheat to maintain their pillage of the national wealth. Though the temptation is to march on Docklands with a coil of hempen rope and decorate the lamp columns of Canada Square with this noxious fruit, we must leave it to the courts and the criminal justice system to exact retribution. For retribution there must be."

Obvious outcome II...

---

"What were they thinking?..." from Frances Wooley on Worthwhile Canadian Initiative (and good comments on that post). "No one ever seriously considered the possibility that an EU country might not be able to repay its debt... ... the question is: Why?" Click on image to enlarge: the graph is 6 months old but it does tell the story of 'The Much Praised "Convergence" as a Cause'; the failure of the market to differentiate across the Eurozone members and treat all Eurozone governments as the same (paraphrasing Frank J. Lysy via the 6 month link above). Hat-tip Raedwald.

Obvious outcome II...

---

"What were they thinking?..." from Frances Wooley on Worthwhile Canadian Initiative (and good comments on that post). "No one ever seriously considered the possibility that an EU country might not be able to repay its debt... ... the question is: Why?" Click on image to enlarge: the graph is 6 months old but it does tell the story of 'The Much Praised "Convergence" as a Cause'; the failure of the market to differentiate across the Eurozone members and treat all Eurozone governments as the same (paraphrasing Frank J. Lysy via the 6 month link above). Hat-tip Raedwald.

Olamic oppression...

---

Ongoing and eternal oppression: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose: history repeating itself: "Between 1720 and 1723 John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon published Cato's Letters. This is No 4."[Against false Methods of restoring Publick Credit]: part is quoted below; Raewald has the rest.



"SIR, All men are now taught, by miserable experience, that the project of the South-Sea, through the hard-hearted knavery of some, who have been in the direction of it, and through the folly or rather distraction of the people, has not answered the good and wise ends designed by the Parliament; but instead of that, has ruined thousands of innocent and well-meaning people, to glut harpies and publick robbers with millions: 



Unhappy fate of poor England, worthy of a better! For this, trade has been neglected: For this, industry discouraged: For this, credit undone; and all, that stock-jobbers might make fortunes, and small sharpers grow mighty men. 



Every one, therefore, seems to agree, that something is necessary to be done, in a legal way, to restore, once more, our publick credit. But it is hoped, we are far from consenting, that any thing ought to be done to repair the losses, occasioned by folly and covetousness, out of the estates of those, who always foresaw, who always opposed this mighty mischief; much less at the further expence of the honour and trade of the nation."...[...]



...Such mighty mischiefs as these men have done, will be but meanly atoned for by such infamous lives, unless their estates be also confiscated; and even these, great as they are, will repair but part of our misfortunes. But what we can have of them, let us have; their necks and their money."

Olamic oppression...

---

Ongoing and eternal oppression: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose: history repeating itself: "Between 1720 and 1723 John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon published Cato's Letters. This is No 4."[Against false Methods of restoring Publick Credit]: part is quoted below; Raewald has the rest.

"SIR, All men are now taught, by miserable experience, that the project of the South-Sea, through the hard-hearted knavery of some, who have been in the direction of it, and through the folly or rather distraction of the people, has not answered the good and wise ends designed by the Parliament; but instead of that, has ruined thousands of innocent and well-meaning people, to glut harpies and publick robbers with millions: 

Unhappy fate of poor England, worthy of a better! For this, trade has been neglected: For this, industry discouraged: For this, credit undone; and all, that stock-jobbers might make fortunes, and small sharpers grow mighty men. 

Every one, therefore, seems to agree, that something is necessary to be done, in a legal way, to restore, once more, our publick credit. But it is hoped, we are far from consenting, that any thing ought to be done to repair the losses, occasioned by folly and covetousness, out of the estates of those, who always foresaw, who always opposed this mighty mischief; much less at the further expence of the honour and trade of the nation."...[...]

...Such mighty mischiefs as these men have done, will be but meanly atoned for by such infamous lives, unless their estates be also confiscated; and even these, great as they are, will repair but part of our misfortunes. But what we can have of them, let us have; their necks and their money."