In the second part of the Eyes Wide Shut series we examine how the UK’s economic freedom has come down to a circular relationship between the BoE, the banks, bondholders and householders. Each component threatens to undermine the other leading to a loss of faith in the UK as a currency issuer. Most likely in the aftermath of such event there will be a dialogue on how to reset the system. If the diagnosis of the malaise is not accurately explained the risk of resuming the current monetary system will be high. So we offer the explanation and we offer solutions of our own and those of the Cobden Centre, whilst not exhaustive or detailed, they are an outline for real dialogue.
Archive for June, 2012
Revolting PIIGs, A Golden Hope?
Almost a year to the day on June 27th, 2011 I wrote a blog for the popular alternative news broadcaster King World News. It was titled ‘Revolting PIIGs’. I made no apologies for my lack of sensibilities in a follow-up broadcast and still do not now. PIIGS is the appropriate acronym not GIIPS, as so many commentators now use having acquiesced to political correctness. If someone calls me ‘chubby’ I tend to do something about it. Get called a PIIG enough times you might hope EU member countries might do something about it. But that’s the problem try as they might to solve the problem they can’t because policymakers either do not want to understand the problem or actually just don’t understand the problem in the first place.
Eyes Wide Shut – UK Hitting the Wall
The spectacle of the Olympics will be upon us shortly. And quite frankly from a sporting perspective I personally can’t wait. I gave up my Olympic hockey ambitions to pursue the competitive battleground of the financial markets some twenty years ago. The right decision then and now. Great Britain needed talent not sweat and aspirations. For those who love competitive sport and athleticism it will be a much needed distraction from the ‘Greek tragedy’ that still haunts us.
I can’t help but feel that the handing over of the Olympic torch in Greece to Britain recently by eleven Vestal Virgins was more symbolic of the passing over of burning economic woes from one ruined nation to another, than the commemoration of the theft of the continuous Olympic flame from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus. I wish it were otherwise, but we cannot stand by and walk with our Eyes Wide Shut, as many citizens, perhaps, understandably do today.
UK Mortgage Rates: The Slow Drift Higher and the Impending Danger for UK House Prices
Today’s blog is an excerpt from our forthcoming May HindeSight, Eyes Wide Shut, which we will release later this week. The report discusses the UK, its soaring debt burden, how it is impacting the economy, and how the government is moving towards financial repression in order to deal with the problem. The following excerpt is about the parlous state of UK property, and the growing likelihood of another sharp dive in UK house prices.