Gordon Brown: Nobel Laureate

Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by OHC in United Kingdom

Saints be praised, the impossible has happened: Britain has emerged from recession! Yes, GDP grew by 0.1% (lower than any economist estimated) in the last three months of 2009 (six months later than the rest of the world). And that’s despite our crippling debt and endless reams of mal-investment being propped up by inefficient and hapless government spending. Bravo.

Looks like Gordon saved the world just like he said he did! In honour of your achievement, Gordon, please accept the Nobel Prize in Economics. It can’t be any less deserved than last year’s Peace Prize. Well, actually… it probably is.

And now Ireland out of recession?!

Posted on 17. Dec, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom

Ireland, that paragon of economic stability, has finally got itself out of recession. Its economy grew by 0.3% in the third quarter, compared to a 0.3% decline in the UK, taking it out of recession at least three months before Britain (Ed: bet you 0.6% of GDP it’ll be six months).

Zimbabwe pulling itself out of recession before the UK may have been a bit of a cheeky comparison. After all, Zimbabwe does have a democratically-elected Prime Minister. But Ireland is not some hermit state. It is a modern economy, previously worst-placed to weather the storm. Now, that accolade belongs to Britain. Makes you feel proud.

The government’s last claim of dignity was “It could be worse – we could be Ireland.” Now, we can only wish we were Ireland.

Darling gagged!

Posted on 11. Dec, 2009 by RK in Other, United Kingdom

So, the PM blocked Darling’s plans for a quicker recovery? Further proof that Labour are playing politics with people’s lives.  More cuts would have meant the ability to lower the deficit faster, but Brown didn’t want Labour’s 4-point plan to go to pot, did he?

Well… this editor was awake early this morning and couldn’t sleep so… quick off the mark on this one!

The REAL Pre-Budget Report

Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by RK in United Kingdom

This is what we might as well have heard today. (Taken from Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand)

Directive 10-289

“In the name of the general welfare,” read Wesley Mouch, “to protect the people’s security, to achieve full equality and total stability, it is decreed for the duration of the national emergency that–

“Point One. All workers, wage earners and employees of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave nor be dismissed nor change employment, under penalty of a term in jail. The penalty shall be determined by the Unification Board, such Board to be appointed by the Bureau of Economic Planning and National Resources. All persons reaching the age of twenty-one shall report to the Unification Board, which shall assign them to where, in its opinion, their services will best serve the interests of the nation.

“Point Two. All industrial, commercial, manufacturing and business establishments of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth remain in operation, and the owners of such establishments shall not quit nor leave nor retire, nor close, sell or transfer their business, under pentalty of the nationalization of their establishment and of any and all of their property.

“Point Three. All patents and copyrights, pertaining to any devices, inventions, formulas, processes and works of any nature whatsoever, shall be turned over to the nation as a patriotic emergency gift by means of Gift Certificates to be signed voluntarily by the owners of all such patents and copyrights. The Unification Board shall then license the use of such patents and copyrights to all applicants, equally and without discrimination, for the purpose of eliminating monopolistic practices, discarding obsolete products and making the best available to the whole nation. No trademarks, brand names or copyrighted titles shall be used. Every formerly patented product shall be known by a new name and sold by all manufacturers under the same name, such name to be selected by the Unification Board. All private trademarks and brand names are hereby abolished.

“Point Four. No new devices, inventions, products, or goods of any nature whatsoever, not now on the market, shall be produced, invented, manufacturerd or sold afer the date of this directive. The Office of Patents and Copyrights is hereby suspended.

“Point Five. Every establishment, concern, corporation or person engaged in production of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth produce the same amount of goods per year as it, they or he produced during the Basic Year, no more and no less. The year to be known as the Basic or Yardstick Year is to be the year ending on the date of this directive. Over or under production shall be fined, such fines to be determined by the Unification Barod.

“Point Six. Every person of any age, sex, class or income, shall henceforth spend the same amount of money on the purchase of goods per year as he or she spent during the Basic Year, no more and no less. Over or under purchasing shall be fined, such fines to be determined by the Unification Board.

“Point Seven. All wages, prices, salaries, dividends, profits, interest rates and forms of income of any nature whatsoever, shall be frozen at their present figures, as of the date of this directive.

“Point Eight. All cases arising from and rules not specifically provided for in this directive, shall be settled and determined by the Unification Board, whose decisionswill be final.”

Ok that’s all of it. Please sit and think about this and what it means.

And now Zimbabwe overtakes us

Posted on 02. Dec, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom

Gordon Brown got into an awful mess at PMQs, trying to scratch his head thinking of a G20 nation that’s still in recession. The UK, and… Spain. Which is, as was pointed out by Brown at a press conference last year, not in the G20.

But, worse – way worse – is news from Harare. Yes, news from that shining city on the hill that the Zimbabwean economy has also returned to growth. After ten consecutive years of decline. And, yet, they’re still getting out of this supposed ‘global recession’ before we are.

But, of course, they don’t count, because they’re not in the G20, right, Gordon?

Friday Propaganda: Storm Warning Edition

Posted on 27. Nov, 2009 by OHC in Friday Propaganda

When our government claims to have saved the world, but has actually doomed the nation, we need some economic cheering up. You know, something like “We’re seeing some green shoots of recovery”. Maybe “We’re best-placed to recover from this global crisis”.

Kinda similar to the recession of the early 1980s. Like Brown, Thatcher called it a global economic crisis. Like Brown, Thatcher said we were best placed to recover from it. But unlike Brown, Thatcher actually had facts on her side. Here’s a poster from the 1983 election campaign.


And the electorate gave Thatcher a landslide victory in return. What are the odds on Brown achieving that?

Big government caused Irish crisis

Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom

Some Labourite nonces have jumped on Ireland’s continuing economic woes as evidence that small government caused the recession. Or, worse still, that the UK isn’t in as bad shape as our ‘nearest comparator’ (Ed: we’re comparing ourselves to Ireland? Wow, we really are in decline…). These are lies.

Yes, the OECD is predicting that the Republic’s economy will contract by 2.4% next year. But read the article. Indeed, you don’t have to – just read the headline the same news outlet’s Business section gave the same story!

What do OECD diagnose as the problem? A high minimum wage and excessive expenditure on public services without improved returns. Hmm, sounds familiar. And what do they prescribe as the solution? Reviewing the minimum wage, decreasing public expenditure, removing the cap on university fees, and ruling out nationalising any banks.

We could not agree more, and would love to see those policies employed in these parts of the Isles. Big government DID cause the crisis in Ireland, and it’s causing one here. Yet, Labour socialists spin that as an endorsement of their policies. How did they think they’d get away with that?

Gordon’s stealthiest tax rise yet

Posted on 29. Oct, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom

So the USA’s economy has grown by 3.5% annualised between July and September, smashing analysts’ forecasts. This compares quite strikingly with the UK’s contraction by 1.6% in the same period. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. So much for us being best placed to weather the recession.

But we’re missing a trick here. Whilst those of us with economics degrees from the fourth-best university in the world (Ed: you’re such a wanker) will immediately notice the significance of the GDP growth gap between the UK and its rivals, we at KRO don’t think it resonates with the population. Just as talk of effective marginal tax rates doesn’t connect with people until you talk about those working to get off benefits keeping just 4% of their earnings, so talk of GDP growth doesn’t really get our engines going either.

Let’s put it into context. In the last quarter, the UK economy shrank at an annualised rate of 1.6%, compared to growth in the US of 3.5% and the Eurozone of an estimated 3.6%. The gap, of 5%, cannot be blamed on the world economy – that’s the gap that makes us best-prepared to recover from the global crisis, remember! That 5%, with a GDP of £1,443bn, corresponds to £72bn.

Over the course of the year, that £72bn will be gone. It will never be earned. It will never be produced. It will never be paid in wages. It will never be spent on what families need to buy to get by. It is as if the government taxed us £72bn, and then, instead of spending it on essential services or putting it towards filling in our world-beating £175bn budget deficit, burned it in an Viking-style orgy of rape and pillage.

A £72bn raid on hard-working families. Why are we not talking about that?

Daniel Hannan. Prescience personified.

Posted on 23. Oct, 2009 by RK in United Kingdom

Today we’ve learnt that the United Kingdom is still in a recession.  And a record breaking recession at that!  Since records began, we are in the worst situation the country has seen.  Six (count them) quarters of economic decline has now passed and Brown and Darling have yet to be heard to utter once again that they’ve ’saved the world’.

Our Prime Minister has harped on endlessly over the past 18 months about how Britain is in the best shape of all countries to exit the recession, thanks to Labour and their genius SPEND SPEND SPEND policy.  Well if there were ever any evidence that Mr. Brown wasn’t acting on any sound economic theory, it’s come today.

Our continental colleagues are out, so why are we still bearing the brunt of the economic landslide?  I think Daniel Hannan put it far better than I ever could.  Let’s recall what he said to Brown’s face in European Parliament nearly exactly 7 months ago:

You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt. And when you repeat, in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we’re ‘well-placed to weather the storm’, I have to tell you that you sound like a Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line. You know, and we know, and you know that we know that it’s nonsense! Everyone knows that Britain is worse off than any other country as we go into these hard times. The IMF has said so; the European Commission has said so; the markets have said so – which is why our currency has devalued by thirty percent. And soon the voters too will get their chance to say so. They can see what the markets have already seen: that you are the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government.

Or let’s watch it a la KRO:

‘

Head in the sand

Posted on 18. Aug, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom

After David Cameron gave a speech today about the unsustainable mounting government debt, he was criticised for sharing a platform with best-selling author Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Taleb is best-known for his work in the field of credit risk: which some people would believe to be an important topic of academic discourse recently.

Cue Blair Bore Phyllis Starkey:

David Cameron seems increasingly keen to associate himself with people who have “eccentric” views. Why is David Cameron so keen to associate himself with people like this if he doesn’t share their views?

Those ‘eccentric views’ wouldn’t include the prediction of the current recession, resting blame at the door of governments, and calling Cameron ‘the only hope we have’, would it? Perish the thought.