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Global financial system implosion begins

Queen invites Gov. of BoE to Palace for first time in 57 year reign - clearly she is not amused.....

In the midst of the economic crisis yesterday, when news about the nation’s finances dominated every news bulletin, the Queen did something she had never done before; she held an audience with the Governor of the Bank of England, at Buckingham Palace, for the first time since she came to the throne 57 years ago.

For half an hour she and Mervyn King were in a room alone as they discussed the state of the economy. No one else was there: no advisers, no officials, no one to take notes of what was said. And no one — not unless Mr King lets indiscretion get the better of him when he comes to write his memoirs — will ever know what they said to each other.

It would not be stretching speculation too far, however, to suggest that the Queen expressed her concerns about the country’s problems and asked Mr King why not enough was done to forestall the effects of the credit crunch. For his part Mr King, who arrived after appearing before the Treasury Select Committee, may have expressed his opinions about Gordon Brown’s handling of the crisis.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article5970954.ece
 
Barking_Mad said:
Steve Bell - Guardian.

Proper LOL

26.03.09-Steve-Bell-on-Ob-001.jpg
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:D
 
I've been following this thread with much interest, and thanks to everyone for the various links posted.

I have a question with regards to prices, currency values and inflation.

For years, in the UK, it seemed we paid higher prices for everything. I remember seeing CDs priced the same in dollars as they were in pounds, when a pound was 2:1 with the dollar. Same with computer games and consoles. Now I hear the Nintendo Wii is going to increase in price, by £20, to counteract the fall in value of the pound (these examples were just a few I plucked out, I'm sure there are many others). So you can understand my confusion on the matter, we paid the highest prices because the pound was strong and now that it's decreased in value, prices are going up? It's a huge non-sequitur. I understand that the pound has fallen against the Yen, but surely the fact we were already getting shafted on prices should counteract this?

Personally I think it makes good business sense from Nintendo, as they basically can't make the things fast enough, since they expanded into non-traditional gaming markets. But isn't a bit shameless and is this the started of a trend? Can we expect our already high prices to be increased further in other areas?
 
stupid kid said:
I have a question with regards to prices, currency values and inflation.

For years, in the UK, it seemed we paid higher prices for everything. I remember seeing CDs priced the same in dollars as they were in pounds, when a pound was 2:1 with the dollar. Same with computer games and consoles. Now I hear the Nintendo Wii is going to increase in price, by £20, to counteract the fall in value of the pound (these examples were just a few I plucked out, I'm sure there are many others). So you can understand my confusion on the matter, we paid the highest prices because the pound was strong and now that it's decreased in value, prices are going up? It's a huge non-sequitur. I understand that the pound has fallen against the Yen, but surely the fact we were already getting shafted on prices should counteract this?

Personally I think it makes good business sense from Nintendo, as they basically can't make the things fast enough, since they expanded into non-traditional gaming markets. But isn't a bit shameless and is this the started of a trend? Can we expect our already high prices to be increased further in other areas?
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We didnt pay the highest price because the pound was strong, indeed the pound was often quite weak at the peak of ripoff Britain, but there were a more complex set of reasons for the ripoff than jut exchange rates.

For a start the worst ripoff prices for £ customers compared to $, was quite a while ago now. Go back a decade or so and computer stuff was often the same price in £ as it was in dollars, even though the pound was worth more than one dollar.

Part of the reason was that VAT adds a fair bit to our prices.

Some of it could have been due to import taxes, I dont know.

Part of it was the straightforward exchange rate stuff, at times the pound was very weak against the dollar.

Costs to import stuff in the UK were sometimes a tad higher because we are an island, compared to some land-based export-import routes, but in this age of stuff being made in the East and shipped to the West, we are in the same boat as most of the West so I guess it isnt too much of a factor now.

And a fair chunk of it was that for whatever reasons, there was a history of Brits paying too much, and they seemed to live with it and still buy the stuff, so companies milked that for all it was worth, and did not really want to compete to lower prices anymore than they had to. This is the totally unjustified stuff that is a fair use of the 'Ripoff Britain' phrase.

Now with certain products this situation started to improve a lot in the last decade. Computer hardware and software has been much less of a ripoff. This change was also helped along nicely by the pound being strong, something that is now reversing rapidly and has seem various prices go shooting back up in recent months for certain products.

As for Nintendo, I dont think its shameless, the extent to which our currency has fallen makes a huge difference to the profitability of their sales to the UK. They dont really want to shoot themselves in the foot by osing sales, so many manufacturers and the retail chain have been absorbing quite a lot of the pounds weakness, but there comes a point where they have to act. Japan as a whole will be suffering a lot for years due to the renewed strength of their currency versus the pound, dollar and euro.
 


Within 9 months America will have total economic collapse, apparently :D

I think if this does happen, pepple will look back on it and say "why didn't we see it coming" Well, pepple did see it coming, but they couldn't believe it, until it was too late.
 
Voices and opinion that come across as maverick or blunt are always worth paying a bit of attention to. Often they are seeing the panorama of things that others aren't seeing. In the current economic climate, if you follow media and commentators from across the political spectrum, across different countries and from amateur to expert you stand a much better chance of staying on top of what's going on and protecting yourself from a deterioration in future conditions. It's a good way of balancing out the vested interest voices that often don't paint as honest or accurate a picture of things. That will do your preparations and future planning no end of good. Celente seems to extrapolate most of his predictions from present events, often small ones, trends or fashions, events that aren't perhaps getting mass attention or a following yet or whose true significance down the line hasn't quite been fully appreciated. It takes courage and a stiffer spine to go against the grain and stand out from the crowd, particularly when it involves risking academic marginalisation and so on, so when someone does, it's worth paying attention to what they have to say. When a politician breaks ranks and resigns in disgust at some government policy or a man shouts fire in a crowded theatre it's important to give them some attention. I find NASA's Jim Hansen (climate) and Nouriel Roubini (economy) are also worth following:

http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/
 
Definitely worth the read.


Sent a shiver down my spine. It felt like peering into the dark soul of capitalism; catching a glimpse of the depth of the blackness as the cossetting shroud is, momentarily, rent aside.

:eek:


Much as I fear the chaos that would be unleashed should the system spasm itself into oblivion, my seething anger would likely be salved by seeing its passing.

:mad:


Woof
 
The author of that article's name is Tyler Durden. I wonder if it's a pseudonym? It's also the name of a character from the film Fight Club, which I was watching yesterday coincidentally enough.
 
Wonder what the Queen said to the chairman/head of BoE. Must've been like being sent to the Head Master. NO ONE gets sent to him unless you have been --really-- naughty.
 
All armed forces swear allegiance to the Queen and the Windsor Massive. If it ever kicked off those crips from Berkshire would be sorted.
 
:hmm: Can MP's claim for mercenaries on expenses.
That's a rhetorical question, I'm not donating 300k to the server fund to find out.
 
London_Calling said:
Swearing allegiance is one thing, generals with political ambitions another.
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One of the more interesting constitutional questions that can be asked.

Those generals are always invited to royal tea and balls and such, right bunch of Royalists if you ask me. IMO Gordon Brown would have a bullet between the eyes from a hand pistol in the time it takes to go from the MoD to the Commons.
 
Price of copper goes waaaay up, mainly due to China buying it in droves.

chart


12 month chart

chart


Someone suggested on Cynicus Economicus that either there is a recovery or war on the way......
 
OECD saying that Britains economy won't shrink as much as everyone elses...

Guardian said:
It expects its member economies to shrink by an average 4.3% this year, with the United States contracting by 4%, the eurozone by 4.1% and Japan by 6.6%. It forecasts Britain's economy will shrink by 3.7% - the worst performance since the second world war.
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From...

So pick your set of experts...
 
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