Blimey

[canveyshrimper]

heard this this morning on rado4 it was september. Early indications are their going down no one said wete making nothing what has been said is we cannot compete with the test of the world with what we currently have.
cmon ah its ok ;-)

Sorry osy but you did say or intimate that, I can't be arsed to trawl through all the posts, but I did say that anyone who suggested this is crass.

For as long as I can remember we've always had a deficit in our balance of trade, we import more than we export. Judging by the figures for September we certainly seem to be able to compete with the rest of the world in chemicals & medical supplies, and no doubt many other things.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Just noticed that the Euro has ominously taken a tumble this morning. So, can someone tell me what is likely to happen if the new initiative from the Euro countries fail to calm the markets? Do we have the stronger economies going ahead with the euro, combined with closer political and economic union, whilst we have the return of the drachma and pesata etc., for those unable to continue participation. Or will Germany pull the plug on the currency, prefering to return to the strength of the deutsche mark? Could this lead the UK into attempting some kind of a rekindling of EFTA?

 

[osymandus]

Sorry osy but you did say or intimate that, I can't be arsed to trawl through all the posts, but I did say that anyone who suggested this is crass.

For as long as I can remember we've always had a deficit in our balance of trade, we import more than we export. Judging by the figures for September we certainly seem to be able to compete with the rest of the world in chemicals & medical supplies, and no doubt many other things.

I think its the design and creation of these products we excel at sadly the mass manufacture was shipped off years ago :(

Cmon , maybe but again these are parts , and ive been to Egypt myself (a friend of mines from Luxor) they will tell you how great and wonderful you and how great is your country ;-)

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

But Osy this is not so. I was down in Wichester being a tourist and there was a feature on a firm in Hampshire which made the fuel pumps for the new Boeing, Hi tec wasn't in it. I was shocked but maybe I'd been taken in by the crap that we don't make anything anymore. I googled the new Boeing and the carbon fibre wings are made in Wales and some of the engines by Rolls Royce (some by General Electric). Add the more low tec seats some of which appear to be made in Southend. I think it's pretty clear we do make things.
Oh and thinking of holidays we went to Egypt last year and the "pilot" of our balloon over the Valley of the Kings proudly said that the all the ballons used were Britsh. A quick google again and Bristol is a world centre of ballooning and balloon manufacture. Why do we as Brits always love putting ourselves down.

What we don't do is mass manufacture any more. We instead specialise on the high spec or niche stuff, which is where the higher margins are.

 

[osymandus]

What we don't do is mass manufacture any more. We instead specialise on the high spec or niche stuff, which is where the higher margins are.

as long as there is money to buy high end systems and their not mass produceded

 

[Neil_F]

Appears Vince Cable (man who ran Shell's finances for 2 years small company you may not have heard of it )
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16133286 is a tad worried

Believe it or not I have heard of Shell. You clearly haven't heard that he was chief economist for a couple of years (I think he was employed for longer). He was not the CFO as you state.

It seems he may have changed his mind on resigning now though. Surely by not agreeing he has marginalised himself and lost his ability to influence future cabinet negotations???

 

[osymandus]

Believe it or not I have heard of Shell. You clearly haven't heard that he was chief economist for a couple of years (I think he was employed for longer). He was not the CFO as you state.

It seems he may have changed his mind on resigning now though. Surely by not agreeing he has marginalised himself and lost his ability to influence future cabinet negotations???

i thought it was longer as well but couldnt find anything more the 2 i though it was 10 years . Yes o forgot only one man/woman runs or controls the finances of multinationals . Or did the sarcasam of the post elude you :-p.

people speculated and said he would leave he never has. He dosnt stike me as someone influenced overly by speculation.
Mind you if he did retire he could say whatever he likes :-D

 

[Beefy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16136004

Very good (IMO) article by Gavin Hewett on the BBC about all this which explains things clearly for a layman like myself and which adopts a rather different stance than one would normally expect from the Beeb.

 

[Neil_F]

i thought it was longer as well but couldnt find anything more the 2 i though it was 10 years . Yes o forgot only one man/woman runs or controls the finances of multinationals .

Let me explain to you the division of labour within the multi-national in question. The CFO and finance leadership team will be responsible for the financial accounting, processes, treasury, corporate structure, tax and internal audit.

The chief economist in an oil major will be responsible for input into the corporate strategy and planning.

The difference is huge.

Or did the sarcasam of the post elude you :-p.

Yes

 

[osymandus]

Your having problems with the concept of sarcasm.

 

[osymandus]

Very good article Beefy and the bbcs not that bad ;-).
It really is a big risk at the moment. If the eurozone goes pop then the world siffers and everything is up for grabs. If not those outside will have big issues getting any influence . At the moment its wait and see time......... he he hail eris hail discordia

 

[Neil_F]

Your having problems with the concept of sarcasam.

I wouldn't recognise sarcasam if it hit me in the face. Sarcasm on the other hand...

 

[Mad Cyril]

Before you feel too bad for our European cousins remember they will all be cheering when Steve McQueen comes off his motorbike this Christmas.

 

[dloman]

A lot more comments coming from Europe now, including France and Germany supporting the UK and the fact this pre traety agreement solves nothing along with restrictions on budgets etc. PMQ's today was interesting as when Cameron pushed Miliband about his position and what he would have done, he wouldn't answer.

 

[steveo]

Before you feel too bad for our European cousins remember they will all be cheering when Steve McQueen comes off his motorbike this Christmas.

*******s! .

 

[Reg Martin]

I would have thought it a certainty that we'll face "serious austerity measures",whether or not the Euro collapses, in order for the Coalition to fulfil its current deficit reduction plan.
Btw,I'm suprised that nobody has yet mentioned that there is no single example of an austerity programme, anywhere in the world, throughout history(and the IMF have looked into this),which has actually led to growth.

Strictly speaking the UK govt is not enacting an austerity programme at the moment is at plans to increase spending.
If austerity programmes have never worked in the past maybe it is because they were not needed when countries were able to use currency devaluation as a means out of recession - the one option that euro members currently being denied.
Some EU member countries have reached the point where they are struggling to service their debts. To carry on increasing borrowing doesn't seem an option as otherwise you end up at the point where all govt spending goes on interest and repayment of debt.

ps I thought you had reached a low point when you started quoting Prescott, now you are quoting Paddy Pantsdown in your signature, I think you would do well in a career in stand-up comedy

 

[Holy Joe]

"FTTs can be designed so that they are very difficult to avoid. The best example of this is the UK, where we have a stamp duty of 0.5% on all share transactions. The UK’s major competitors do not have this and there certainly is no global agreement, yet it is a successful FTT that raises around £5 billion pounds each year. It is designed so it can’t be avoided and London remains one of the biggest stock markets in the world".
http://robinhoodtax.org/how-it-works/everything-you-need-to-know


As you imply it's a tax on share transactions only.

I think the stamp duty is tax on purchases of UK listed shares - as far as I know these transactions cannot move elsewhere. A tax on say foreign exchange transactions would drive the business to off shore centres where the tax isn't charged as the transactions do not have to be put through a UK based centre. I don't think the two are comparable.

 

[Holy Joe]

Also that the bond market speculators who have done so much to create uncertainly in Europe and raise the cost of borrowing for countries such as Greece,Italy and Spain deserve to be punished for their actions.

I'm not convinced 'bond market speculators' have done much. Bond market investors have lost confidence in the ability of Spain, Italy etc to repay their debt and have sold existing holdings or stopped purchasing new bonds. This lack of investor appetite has caused yields to rise in order to tempt the next marginal buyer. I don't think there are that many short positions as (a) they are expensive, (b) volatile and (c) dependent on upredictable politicians.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Strictly speaking the UK govt is not enacting an austerity programme at the moment is at plans to increase spending.

Pains and decrease here surely?:look:

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I think the stamp duty is tax on purchases of UK listed shares - as far as I know these transactions cannot move elsewhere. A tax on say foreign exchange transactions would drive the business to off shore centres where the tax isn't charged as the transactions do not have to be put through a UK based centre. I don't think the two are comparable.

<This is a common and misguided criticism, and one that's easy to answer.

The short answer is no. As the IMF says, financial transaction taxes (FTTs) “do not automatically drive out financial activity to an unacceptable extent”.

FTTs can be designed so that they are very difficult to avoid. The best example of this is the UK, where we have a stamp duty of 0.5% on all share transactions. The UK’s major competitors do not have this and there certainly is no global agreement, yet it is a successful FTT that raises around £5 billion pounds each year. It is designed so it can’t be avoided and London remains one of the biggest stock markets in the world.

There are many reasons banks would not leave the UK, not least that they need a big enough government that they know will bail them out if things go wrong. There are not many governments with the ability or willingness to provide this implicit guarantee, certainly not the Cayman Islands or even Switzerland.

Time zones are critical for financial transactions, with London being ideally situated between Asian and US markets. This means that banks and other financial institutions cannot all move to New York as a major financial centre will still be needed in Europe. Germany, the main competitor in the European time zone is already committed to implementing an FTT.

The highly automated and centralised nature of many financial transactions makes an FTT very hard to avoid, and easy to collect. In recent years, FTTs have been introduced very effectively in more than 40 countries around the world.

In 2010 the UK government implemented a one off tax on the bonuses of bankers but despite warnings from the City this did not lead to any major exodus. In fact recruitment is up.<

http://robinhoodtax.org/how-it-works/everything-you-need-to-know