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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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 Posted -
28/04/2011
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07:37
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Political comment is a high risk activity on the site these days so I thought I'd try again to give those who are interested in politics a safe haven!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
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Tardis
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Posted - 28/10/2011 : 10:53
Not convinced about soundbite snippets around directors pay levels. It is up to the shareholders to hold their people to account and not the rest of the population. Buy a share and you can raise your query.
One of the issues around the financial crash was that shareholders did not fulfil their part in the equation necessary for business ot function. The fact that the last administration then took control of two banks and did nothing with that speaks volumes for the laissez faire attitude of all who seek profits without regarding the longevity of the business that is being enacted in their capital's name.
I refer Stanley back to my previous comments about QE and the relative inflation that occurs. Here's a wiki link to basic economics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics
note production costs and efficiencies.
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Another
Traycle Mine Overseer
6250 Posts
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Posted - 28/10/2011 : 10:54
I think going to the shops and buying essentials or needing to use public services would have already made many people, union members or otherwise, fully aware of the current financial predicament. Nolic
" I'm a self made man who worships his creator"  |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 29/10/2011 : 05:55
Too bloody right Comrade! I reckon basics are rising by about 8% at least.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tardis
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Posted - 29/10/2011 : 10:26
Local Politics:
Pendle have published their Core Strategy Document which is a bit of a weighty tome in terms of the quantity of paper, but I will leave it to others to judge it's relative merits in terms of quality:
http://www.pendle.gov.uk/info/856/local_development_framework/824/development_plan_documents_dpds/3
I had 45 minutes at the paper copy yesterday in the Council Shop, and it wasn't enough
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Tizer
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Posted - 29/10/2011 : 12:03
"Buy a share and you can raise your query."
Tardis, as I understand it, most shares owned by ordinary folk these days are under a special scheme (can't remember the name) where you don't have the right to have a say at the shareholder mettings. I think you can choose to hold the shares the old way but the default, which most people unwitttingly take and is easiest, is to give up the rights.
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Tardis
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Posted - 29/10/2011 : 15:41
If you hold a share you can vote
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Tizer
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Posted - 30/10/2011 : 11:33
I wonder then what I'm confusing it with? In the 1990s a change was made which could affect your rights if you bought shares through a telephone sharedealing service and chose not to receive a share certificate (which became a common choice in those days when the dot.com boom was beginning). I seem to remember newpaper reports saying that this would affect the control of companies because many private individuals would hold shares but not be able to vote.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 31/10/2011 : 05:50
There seems to be a hiatus in financial news as everyone holds their collective breaths and waits for signs that EU measures are having an effect.
Meanwhile we get a flurry of quite important announcements from Downing Street. Unilateral raising of precept that can be taken from benefits to pay court fines. Allowing merchant ships to carry arms etc. Funny how Saturday is a favourite day for slipping these out into the news. It's almost as though everyone is waiting for the next financial indices......
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tardis
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Posted - 31/10/2011 : 10:35
The financial news is there if you look for it Stanley
Stock Market down, euro down as fears over China involvement in Euro bailout not secure, and obviously the run up to the G20
US seems to be following isolationist policy, with huge financial caveats now to Asian markets.
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Tardis
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Posted - 31/10/2011 : 10:38
Not sure what you mean about the "newspapers" unless someone is holding them in a "blind trust" or similar to ensure that share certificates are not printed out.
If you have a share you usually get invited to the AGM's, and that is why I couldn't really understand how Tom Watson got to go to the News International one, never mind actually ask a question unless he was acting as a proxy.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 01/11/2011 : 06:22
Bit of a curve ball thrown into the Greek Debt Crisis by George Papandreous. He's announced that there will be referendum on the question of whether to accept the terms of the bail-out. As I predicted, someone somewhere has been taking stock of what the bail-out actually means for Greece. According to the polls about half the population are afainst it on the grounds of loss of independence/sovereignty.
What surprises me is why this should come as a surprise to the EU politicians. Did they not think that the Greek voters were intelligent enough to look at the experiance of countries like Argentina and Iceland who rejected bail-out and defaulted. Hard medicine but they have survived and are their own masters. As I keep pointing out, there are consequences to bail-outs and a political agenda behind it supported by the large capital holders who see opportunities in the fire sale that follows the'help' given by the IMF. I know it takes some effort but get hold of 'Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klain and read the history of such events, take note particularly of the example of Chile.If Greece defaults unilaterally this will almost certainly lead to the downfall of the Euro and could shatter the whole basis of the EU. The markets aren't going to like this at all....
Meanwhile, forecasts for EU growth are downgraded from over 2% to 0.3% which is, in effect, stasis and cannot be supported by the system. The figures for UK growth are expected to show a miniscule improvement but not enough to give anyone cause for optimism. There is also the question of the doubts about the accuracy of these forecasts. There is no reason to be cheerful, the train wreck has not been arrested and my advice is still to retrench, get the tin hats out and get ready for even worse news. Isee no light at the end of the tunnel!
Meanwhile, and I never thought I would regard the actions of the CofE as totally political, the St Pauls affair develops into a first rate PR catastrophe for the church. I did comment that it all seemed quite clear to me, Jesus threw the money-lenders out of the Temple, the 'management' of St Pauls (and notice that their criterion all along has been the impact on income from their commercial enterprises) has sided with the City and the authorities instead of sticking to church teaching and the moral high ground. They are now reaping the harvest of their policies and I have no sympathy for them at all.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 02/11/2011 : 07:04
I see St Pauls and the City are having a rethink about shifting the protesters. I think they have realised that they have a point and there is the possibillity of some very bad PR if they go ahead.
It becomes obvious that Papandreou is playing a very deep game. He has been forced to do something to assert control and the referendum, and a vote of confidence later this week, are part of his strategy to get control of the government. Without this the likelihood is that the government would have collapsed and this could be equally damaging to the EU bail-out. There is also the possibility that by being an obstruction he can improve the terms of the agreement. One wonders what the other politicians would have done under similar pressures.
On a wider front, I wonder what the result of a collapse of the EU and the consequences to global trade would be. Could it be that such a catastrophe might concentrate minds and get the world to consider the real root of the problem, a defective system and runaway debt? After all, Greece is only a symptom of deeper problems in the EU and the EU problems are only a symptom of the way we run our economies. The US is a far bigger basket case than anyone will admit and it's noticeable how quiet they are at the moment. This all comes back to the St Pauls protest which, though incoherent, is touching a lot of nerves.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tardis
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Posted - 02/11/2011 : 11:17
I am amused by the "curved ball" issue.
The people who became angry were the socialists in the north, failing to spot that a referendum is basically a democratic tool, and the only one left to a nation that has to decide whether or not to become a vassal state of Germany.
Greece has resisted all attempts to prise assets from the hands of the government, and the population is in open revolt about the measures being imposed from foreign governments.
If Greece is forced out of the Euro and defaults then it may actually force the eurocrats to take stock of the mess that they have created. Sarkozy also fears that France will be the hardest hit, just as he needs to be re-elected.
I also find it odd that Berlusconi is now being openly described as a "clown".
Make no mistake, that whatever happens it could sieze up the banks for a bit longer yet, and would dissuade any lending from outside the eurozone.
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Tardis
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Posted - 03/11/2011 : 12:31
Is the fall of the Greek premier instigated by Merkel and Sarkozy?
It isn't the people that ran up those debts,
An election is better than a referendum for the Eurozone though because it is unlikely that Greece can then vote to leave.
Italy is feeling the heat today too
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 04/11/2011 : 06:16
Greece still in melting pot.
Meanwhile, M&S accede to what was seen as the unthinkable a week ago, that a member can leave the Euro and the EU. In other words they recognise they have done all they can about Greece. In effect Greece is being left to slide off the edge. Italian bond rates are approaching 7%, the trigger point that persuaded Iceland and Ireland to throw in the towel.
What strikes me is where all the money paid in interest rates ends up.....
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
POLITICS CORNER
