Saw this as a comment over at Guidos.
Three major war crimes, Serbia, Afghanistan and Iraq, population does not revolt. Two more on the way, Iran and Russia both with the likelihood of nuclear escalation, and no one cares a jot. An economy built on debt. Negligible indigenous, large-scale industrial enterprise. Yet a supposedly rich economy, world’s fourth largest.
How can the UK be so rich when it produces so little? The UK makes nothing but trouble. A basic lack of regard for the real value of money and people. Money and life is cheap in the UK.
The UK is amongst the worst, greatest indebted economies/countries in the world. The Bank of England has given the four main UK banks £200 billions worth of Treasury gilts, in plain speaking cash, in the last nine months – the special liquidity scheme. That figure almost matches the total losses to date announced by all the world’s banks since the start of the credit crunch last August. The UK banks are more insolvent than the American banks or European banks. The Bank of England has in return for £200 billion cash taken unable-to-be-sold mortgage assets. If any of the UK banks that borrowed go bust in the next three years these assets being held by the BoE on behalf of the UK taxpayer will have to be sold. The current market rate for these assets is firesale or worse. Lehman and Merrills got 20% of face value in sales last week.
Hypothetically the UK taxpayer stands to be on the hook for £160 billion of increased national debt and interest payment from this one bank bailout scheme alone. Northern Rock and its expected multi-billion liabilities are separate to that.The UK is bust. Stamp duty is an incidental.
The UK economy was built on speculation, not real value-adding industry. It’s finished, over. The banks own your pathetic country. The banks are too big and powerful to go bust. The banks’ owners own the politicians. The Bank of England will roll over debt due for repayment and increase the liquidity schemes further as the housing bust increases. The pound will become utterly worthless as more and more gilts are issued. Zimbabwe looms on the horizon.
You, the people of the UK, can moan and kick about Labour this, Conservative that. It’s immaterial. You consciously/semi-consciously as a nation decided years ago to sell your soul/nation to the devil for the short-term good times. You convinced yourselves that making things, industry was passe. You believed that cutting hair, nail bars, coffee shops were real wealth creation, and most ridiculous of all that a place to live and raise good families was secondary to ‘investing’ and making a quick buck. Live by the sword die by the sword.
Some good may come from this pauperisation of the vast majority of the UK. They may draw in their horns and finally realise that even if they still wish to play the world military power and policeman, invading and destroying other countries, there is no more money to pay for it.
Eventually, it may be hoped that like the majority of most other countries without a colonial, world-power past the actual important thing is to live in one’s own country and make the best of it for the generations to follow. Build up its industry, its education and preserve its natural resources. Until the UK and its people get to that stage it will continue to be regarded as a ridiculous shell-economy that has an addiction to interfering militarily in other people’s affairs.
Cracking stuff