Britain's Insolvent Financial Sector

Remember the John McFall interview on the BBC where he admits that Britain's financial sector is entirely insolvent. According to John that's also the view of the BoE monetary policy committee!

I've heard howls from unionists about how it was all Scottish banks getting the bail-outs etc. One commentor in Das Schottishman even ventured to suggest that Scottish independence was dead forever because Scots would never be able to pay off the bail-outs to the shareholders from the English taxpayer. Eh, the English taxpayers are the 'shareholders'.

Back to reality. Today is a RED alert day. John Waples and Iain Dey of The Times reveal that Lloyds, which is not a Scottish bank, is:

"being kept afloat with £165 billion of loans and guarantees from the Bank of England and other central banks around the world"

Maybe John and Iain can pass comment on John McFall's view that the banking crisis is systemic?

"The bank’s reliance on state funding, detailed in a document released last week in connection with a separate £21 billion fundraising, gives the first insight into the huge scale of aid extended to banks during the financial crisis."

Many unionists were saying last week that RBS was the worst run bank of all of them. That apparently is a sign of innate and unique Scottish managerial incompetence. Is this true?

"Royal Bank of Scotland is less exposed — it has about £40 billion in state funds. It has cut its dependency on state funding by 69% since the peak of the crisis."

Then there was HBOS. Another bunch of incompetent Scots getting bailed out by the largesse of the English taxpayer?

"Lloyds inherited most of the government loans from HBOS after it agreed to acquire the bank in September 2008. "


£165+ billion. That's 10% of Britain's GDP!

Is Brown the 'Arse of Insolvency'

Britain is "uniquely vulnerable" - that's the IMF's view on Brown's Britain as the crisis endures.

What do we need in this, our darkest hour? Churchill, according to an article written by Liam Halligan for The Telegraph. Never, in the field of human finance has so much wealth been transferred from so many to so few.

Liam, you jest man. What about 'green shoots', 'recovery' and all those growth projections from the Treasury? What kind of danger are we in if those are the forecasts?

"What is in jeopardy, though, is the prosperity of the British people for at least the next 15 to 20 years."

Yikes, that's a looong time. The unionists tell us that Scotland reaps great benefits from being part of Britain and its humungus global influence. Britain is so powerful it will overcome, no?

"In the balance, is nothing less than this country's place among the world's top-ranking nations."

Hang on, Labour told people in Scotland that if they voted SNP at the Scottish elections, Scots would be saddled with an extra £5, 000 tax bill. How much is Britain's crisis costing its citizens?

"an extra £32,000 will be added to the existing sovereign debt burden of every British household."

Gulp. Brits were already up to their necks too. Do you think that Britain could be labelled as a bankrupt then?

"Behind the scenes, though, even Brown and Co have grasped that yet another "fiscal stimulus" would see a sovereign debt downgrade, in turn provoking a creditors' strike – under which the UK would be rendered "insolvent", unable to roll-over its debts."

Has Gordon Brown single-handedly killed the 'union dividend' myth? Is he the 'Arse of Insolvency?'

Global Currency Crisis? New World Order?

Alasdair Darling will tell you that the G20 will be discussing "long term growth" this weekend in St. Andrews ('The home of golf'). Such a smokescreen is par for the course for Mr. Personality. We hear that in the 19th hole a glass will be raised to a new global reserve currency. Adios greenback. As the US's caddie, Britain's sterling will be found dead in the bunker loyally alongside.


Many economists, traders, analysts and even bloggers are talking about an impending international currency crisis. So, what are the hedge fund managers thinking?:

FOOL'S GOLD

Nothing exposes the politics of unionism in Scotland more than oil.

Deceit in relation to the economic importance of North Sea oil is thicker than 'Texan Tea'. How have Scots been kept informed about the enormous wealth off our shores? Have our authorities, politicians and newspapers given us balanced information?

Some words that describe unionist propaganda in regards to Scotland's oil wealth:

fraudulant, fallacious, dishonorable, dishonest, Janus-faced, duplicitous, double-dealing, fork-tongued, deceptive, hypocritical, insincere, disingenuous, underhanded, treacherous, deceptive, specious, unstrustworthy,scamming, propagandist, thieving, swindlling, game-rigging, cheating, defrauding, bluffing, embezzling, wangling, counterfitting, falsifying, phoney, faking, dissembling, betraying, double-dealing, sand-bagging, conning, feigning, simulating, oily....

Am I getting my feelings across here?

Over the years Scots have been told the oil was running out. We've been told that oil is nothing compared to the massive profits made by The City and that an independent Scotland would have a massive deficit even with the oil. The people have been lied to so much that they switch off when the subject arises. What a shame. With that oil money Scotland may well have become the richest country in the world. Instead, well we know about the life-expectancy of men in Glasgow being lower than war-torn Iraq, we know that our pensioners die of the cold, we know that hundreds in Scotland die of malnutrition each year..

We're not a greedy people, we Scots. Well, if you subtract the political and banking class - and I wish we would - that is. It wouldn't bother us an inch to see the living standards of our English, Northern Irish and Welsh cousins improving from our oil proceeds. The problem is that everyone in Britain PLC has got poorer. The oil money has been blown on wars, nuclear weapons, City bankers, in short; expanding the Ukanian/US empire.

So, what is the truth about oil?

Recently The Independent ran an article by Sarah Arnott interviewing John Gallagher, vice president of Shell's European upstream business.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/how-to-make-the-last-oil-pay-1800653.html

How important has North Sea oil been to the UK John?

"The North Sea is the UK's unsung industrial hero,"

So, what sort of contribution does Sarah tell us that oil has made during the economic crisis?: "The woeful state of the public finances will no doubt make it harder for the Government to rein back on a regime that produces an annual £20bn in taxes."

Now that oil is running out Scotland, a small nation of 5 million people, has no real asset that could propel our economy if Scots decide to vote for independence. That's obvious, no? What sort of money does The Independent think is left in the tank?: "Of the 25 billion barrels that are left, 10 billion are accounted for in commercial production plans. But the rest are not. If the last, hard-to-reach resources are too expensive to pursue, the difference to the UK economy – at an oil price of $70 – would be more than £1 trillion." (the oil price is around $80 now and rising).

Mmm, so the economy is still going to receive many trillions? That would buy Scotland some teachers, rail links, roads and trams, no?

Then yesterday another English newspaper tells it like it is:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/edmundconway/6505670/North-Sea-oil-is-dragging-us-into-the-red.html

The Telegraph's sub-header says: "Oil wealth was the secret saviour of the economy, but no longer". It seems, according to Edmund Conway that without oil, the UK economy is and was hugely subsidised.

Hey Edmund, has the truth been told about oil's contribution to the UK economy?

"One of the peculiarities of British politics – and economics – is the reluctance to take into account the critical contribution of oil to the economy."

A 'peculiarity' or crude propaganda? What significant is oil to Britain's recent economic history?:

"the industry that powered Britain towards prosperity in the 1980s"
"made us one of the most dynamic and successful nations in the Western world"
"described by a prime minister as "God's gift" to the British economy"

Oh stop gushing Edmond. Don't forget that Britain's economy was really built on financial services and not oil at all, right?

"the truth is that, for the past quarter of a century, Britain has been a petro-economy."

Yeh yeh. The oil off Scotland's shores is a mere drop in the ocean compared to what the Arab's have. The superpowers are all over there jostling for supply rights. That's real geo-politics!

"In 1999, we were producing more oil than Iraq, Kuwait or Nigeria."

Really? What about gas reserves?

"The following year, we pumped out almost twice as much natural gas as Iran – a country with reserves that are the envy of the world."

Hang on John, during the Thatcher years and since Scots have been told that it was London that was making us all 'rich' and that oil was insignificant and running out anyway. What exactly was fueling the British economy?

"..while we are apt to attribute the sudden spurt in Britain's prosperity in the mid- to late-1980s to a deregulated and reinvigorated City, it owed far more to the massive windfall from the North Sea. "

So, in a global context oil has helped Britain do things like be in the G7 and act like a big player on the world stage?

"Were it not for the cushion provided by oil exports, the deficit in Britain's current account – its international ledger – would have been one of the worst in the Western world."

What about all those international businesses that were established in London and the UK over the last 30 years. They performed well and international investors have shown confidence in Britain and the pound sterling. Surely they were the real reason for Britain's wealth during this era?

"much of the massive rise in business investment in the years before the financial collapse was due entirely to spending in the North Sea."

Waow. I wonder what it would have been like had Scotland had all that oil money to itself. I guess it would be like Norway which has the same population as Scotland?

"Unlike the Norwegians, who diverted a slice of their North Sea revenues into an investment fund designed to provide for them when the oil started to run dry, chancellors of every political hue treated North Sea taxes as current income."

So, the UK blew it. Maybe an independent Scotland with one-twelfth of the UK's budget spend could have invested for the future of Scots? Isn't that what Norway did?

"Norway's prudence has helped it withstand this crisis and establish itself as the Switzerland of the 21st century"

I don't doubt your indepth knowledge of oil economy but what are international investors saying. Do they think oil is important to the UK? Are they saying, like you, that without it the UK will suffer?

"Jim Rogers, a renowned investor, has predicted that the demise of the North Sea will send the pound crashing downwards, taking the UK into banana-republic territory."


Finally, someone is telling the truth about how Scotland's oil was keeping Britain plc in the black.

And that truth comes from English newspapers. What sort of shadow of ourselves are we that the articles above would never be printed in Scotland's newspapers? Why no TRUTH? Priorities of our democratic press towards Scots? Das Herald Sturmer's and Das Schottishman's priorities clearly lie elsewhere.

Rabbie, will you help me out here man?

"O wad, ere I had seen the day
That Treason thus could sell us
My auld gray heid had lain in clay
Wi Bruce an loyal Wallace
But pith an pouer, till my last hour
I'll mak this declaration -
We're bocht an sold for English gold
Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation!"

Me interviewed on Spanish radio

Yeeeehaaaaaa, my first ever radio interview on economics or on anything. Glasgow boy takes on the big boys ; Obama, Goldman Sachs and even John McFall.

Part 1



Part2



Part3

INSOLVENT ABUSE

Busted! (First week blogging and kind of a scoop)

The fox is in the hen-house.

While everyone was glued to the government's increased share in RBS, John McFall MP dropped Brown, fortuitously, in the only thing that'll camouflage him.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8338647.stm

The Labour chairman of the Treasury Select Committee admitted on the BBC that the entire UK financial sector is insolvent:

"every bank in the united kingdom has the taxpayer standing behind them"

Behind them a lot John?

"the taxpayers investment is over one trillion pounds"

I'm not sure what you mean John, are you saying that Britain's entire financial sector is insolvent?

"the banks are, what one of the monetary policy committee members, David Miles, stated before he came to our committee : "they're in life-support stage at the moment""

Oh come on John, I'm sure without taxpayers money these banks would survive just fine independently in the private sector..?

"let's not be kidding ourselves, there's no bank at the moment in a sense standing on its own two feet because there's so much government money around with quantative easing, with the printing of money, that they are getting the benefit of this cheap taxpayers money."

Soooo, Britain's banks are insolvent - all of them!

Smoking Brown's 'Green Shoots', yehhhh.

The eCONomy has again been placed in the 'recovery' position. Why does it keep keeling over? Earlier in the year the business section of The Herald had smoked all the 'green shoots' in town. However traffickers have landed a fresh consignment:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/personal-finance/bank-urged-to-pump-extra-25bn-into-the-uk-economy-1.929921

OK, let me get this right. There are more people unemployed and the GDP is contracting even when exagerrated with stimulus and bail-out money. Yet "business leaders" want more of it: David Watt (Executive Director of the Institute of Directors in Scotland) said: "We believe QE to have been of significant benefit to the economy and in speeding a move towards recovery"

What 'speed'? What 'recovery'? What 'economy'?

Just how impressed is David with Brown's Zimbabwe shuffle?: "indeed some might argue that had the policy been commenced earlier we might not have been in such a bad situation"

Let's ponder a moment on this. The economy collapses because there was too much credit and debt. How do we fix it? Apparently with more debt. Heroine addicts should be queuing up to get heroine stimulus. Recession isn't good, withdrawals aren't good. Printing more money is devaluing the currency and all assets with it. Printing money transfers wealth. Printing taxpayers money is fraud.

And what about Gordon Brown's policies towards those insolvent, shhh that's our little secret, banks and toxic assets? Liz Cameron (chief executive, Scottish Chambers of Commerce) expertly thinks: "Our view is that the Monetary Policy Committee should extend its asset purchase scheme by a further £25bn at its November meeting,”

Let us put the above in a different way: The financial sector and the government have destroyed the economy. "Business leaders" want more free taxpayers money. There is no recovery. We're going to print money till we arrive in the Weimar Republic.

The economic statistics are a disaster. The consumer is dead, income tax and corporation tax are collapsing and so Brown can't balance the budget. Will he print lots more dosh? Well, let's consider what other Labour politicians are saying on the subject. Take for example ex-Labour Lord Provost of Glasgow, Liz Cameron. Oh my goodness, that's the aforementioned Liz Cameron from the Scottish Chambers of Commerce. It's a small world indeed.

This Watt and Cameron double act is quite good. Das Herald Sturmer are on to something here. Indeed, they are both quoted in a piece that was, shock surprise, highly critical of the SNP just last week in Das Schottishman:

http://heritage.scotsman.com/scotlandseconomy/John-Swinney-admits-business-friction.5776324.jp

In this piece Lizzy - a Labour politician - and Dave support an attack on SNP policies such as "preventing private sector involvement in prisons and hospitals". Mmm, public hospitals bad Zimbabwe economics good.

"Trust me, I'm a 'business leader'".