The Guardian's morning business newsletter seemed to have a story to tell in the headlines that it chose today. These were the openers:
I, of course, have my own view on each of these headlines.
The economy is not limping, as seen from the perspective of the Bank of England: everything is going exactly as planned in their view. Recession is the goal, and if we are not there, the signs are looking good for those in Threadneedle Street.
The second headline confirms the view, and must offer delight to the far-right who have long wanted the UK (and the world) to be rid of what they call 'zombie companies', whose marginal existence but fundamental role in delivering employment has been perpetuated by low interest rates. Now, higher interest rates and higher minimum wages threaten to wipe out such companies, and the far-right will be delighted. In their madness, they think a new wave of euphoric entrepreneurialism will arise from the ashes of those entities that they wish to fail. What we will actually get is recession, heading for depression, if their dreams are fulfilled.
Meanwhile, L&G proves that rentierism at the expense of pensioners is alive and well and extracting value from all that they can see. So good do they now think they are at extracting value, because they have confused the impact of interest rate rises and their own ability when appraising their recent results, that those at the top of the firm wish to pay themselves unfettered rewards, just as a rentier always does.
And Michelle Mone, who is the epitome of those for whom rentierism coupled with the odd favour from a friend in government paid particularly well, has not the slightest remorse at having used the legal system in a vain attempt to stop those seeking to tell the truth about her from doing so. Which did not stop the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg from giving her a platform to protest her innocence.
Elsewhere in the headlines were these two:
For some, there is money in excess.
And for them, the idea that the business model of our media, most of which is dependent on advertising to bring us news, might be failing does not, I am sure, cause any concern. After all, as Michelle Mone has made clear, the truth is desperately inconvenient.
We really are not in a good place.
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Even more depressing is this:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/16/labour-backs-away-press-reforms-after-prince-harry-phone-hacking-victory
My hope that Labour is being ‘strategic’ and saying little to not get monstered in the press during an election campaign – to then be radical (as they need to be) afterwards – has virtually disappeared.
So labour are beaten by their right wing opponents before they’ve even become a government.
Gutless and useless. No moral compass at all.
There are certain things that demand a party take a stand on, and dealing with the behaviour of the tabloid press is one of them. It’s time Murdoch was stood up to, not kow-towed to. The disastrous effects of the Murdoch press are well documented by now. This current labour leadership are like the Tories in so many ways.
And they expect progressives to vote for them!?
Re Mone and her husband, the sense of entitlement which they seem to think applies to them tells us everything that is wrong about what Rule Britannia PLC has become. When the cost of living crisis happened we were fed a lie, that we were “all in it together”. That is never the case. The elites always continue with their merry way of finding ways to milk the system. For them, a cost of living crisis is an opportunity to make more money. There are so many examples of this from the last 2-3 years that it is difficult to know where to begin. It’s just amazing that they think they can get away with it.
The unfortunate truth is – they do get away with it.
David Cameron’s father was a tax avoidance specialist. The rich especially take the piss in the UK because the majority of voters want others to do their thinking for them in regards to economic and political processes. This is simply because they don’t want to put the effort in. This country has been drifting along for centuries in regard to so many matters. Only extremes partially wake up this majority.
Tax abuse is very much harder now
It happens, but it is very much harder
I did not work in vain
HMRC aren’t agreeing with you Richard:-
https://www.rsmuk.com/insights/weekly-tax-brief/latest-tax-gap-stats-suggest-more-can-be-done-to-stop-taxpayers-making-careless-errors
There is no quantification of the deliberate error amount but tax evasion has increased.
HMRC mark their own work when it comes to the tax gap
That is clearly wrong
I agree with you in part, but it’s important to remember that the education system in this country is geared towards preventing people from learning to think for themselves. Schools have no mandate to teach any kind of critical analysis skill, learning is by rote, not thought.
This is by design to produce a population which will accept the lies fed to them by the media, both broadcast and print, and has been extremely successful in delivering just that.
Even with that, most people are becoming more frightened of the direction the world is taking, but they have no idea how to change it because they’ve been indoctrinated to believe that there are no alternatives to what we laughingly call representative democracy (I say laughingly because our democracy only represents the wealthy, not the majority).
I fear that there will be a period of civil unrest in the future as people find themselves in more and more difficulty just managing to eat and keep a roof over their heads. This is exactly the type of environment that aids “strong man” leaders to seize opportunity and present themselves as the solution to folks worries, exactly as Trump is doing in the USA.
If you have not already done so, watch Janey Godley on Michelle Mone on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXkO2eiTUbU&ab_channel=JaneyGodley
Truly a national treasure – Godley not Mone
It is very good
Mone(y) says that she lied to protect her family.
Who doesn’t lie to protect their family and themselves in such circumstances? And lying it is. And it is wrong and has consequences.
All we are seeing here is exceptionalism by wealth.
Mone is asking us to believe that she did something wrong for the right reasons that excuse her. And that it somehow different and allowable. It shows you how their brains work.
Some media advisor somewhere has a nice gig. That about sums it up for me.
Technically she is finished – and she should be.
Another aspect of the Michelle Mone – Doug Barrowman interview was Barrowman’s unashamed description of his use of tax havens (Isle of Man) and family trusts to dodge tax. So, not only ripping off the public by creaming off 30% in profits from their PPE contract, they then avoid being taxed on their ill-gotten gains.
I think they need to worry about HM Revenue & Customs more than anyone in this case
My suspicion is that they are going to enjoy themselves
In reply to your post at 11:40 am Richard:
Thanks for all you do. More power to your elbow.
I’m getting rather old but while there’s life there’s hope and I do hope that your work on effective ways to make the UK tax system more progressive will increase my chances of again living in a country where, as from 1945 to 1950 and perhaps occasionally during the decade or so that followed, one-person-one-vote can successfully challenge one-pound-one- vote.
Thanks, Roger
Tim Watkins agrees, too. I went to my local small city on Saturday morning and it was heaving. However, on the the charity and food shop tills seemed to be ringing. I spoke to a shopkeeper selling ‘up-market’ cushions and lampshades and she said trade was terrible. Sure, there are those with money, but it’s the ‘squeezed’ middle classes that are suffering now, too.
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2023/12/15/in-brief-the-energy-death-spiral-grows-another-bad-omen-hobsons-choice/
I am dismayed at the uncharitable tone of this blog in the season of goodwil.
Asset managers are hard working people who give their all to make sure they can afford £600 christmas dinners @ the Ritz & it would be churlish to deny them this small pleasure on top of the small hill, nay mountain of other small pleasures that they so richly deserve. As for the “zombie companies” did not the blessed St Margaret of Thatcher perform miracles of zombie elimination in the early 1980s, all those Uk companies that she removed to make the Uk the healthier and fitter place that it is now. But, over time one has to repeat the effort & bravo to the Bank of England for undertaking this difficult & thankless task . We should all be very very grateful to the entities profiled that they do what they do. As for Lady Mone, a pillar of honesty and doubtless it was all due to a small accounting error. In summary, the country is led by a very fine group of people who know what they are doing – all of the time.
Hmm, time I went for a lie down.
I think so 🙂
Not a good place, but it’s got me puzzled—-
Are there not 2 FACTS that
{a} the UK as a sovereign monetary country issues/creates its own nonconvertible {fiat} currency, and
{b}it can’t run out of its own currency ?
As such, what evidence do mainstream economists have that says the above FACTS are wrong?
Am I missing something here?
They deny (a)
No one in the BofE or the Treasury will deny a or b ..but they understand the consequences of creating too much money. Whereas you, bizarrely, think there is no relationship between the money supply and inflation.
I have never once said that
If your argument relies on making stuff up it is not an argument
Trump’s latest use of language is red meat thrown to the far right. Putin began life as a Communist, and is now a right-wing imperialist. He is supported by the Hungarians; the country that briefly rebelled against the Soviet Union, and paid a terrible price. The Hungarians! China is nominally Communist, and obviously capitalist. When is the left going to realise that ‘right’ and ‘left’ are pointless; they can and do mean anything at all? They are terms fit only for opportunists.
I have done it again! Posted a comment on the wrong thread. Never comment on the move ………
I should never write on the move
That is always when I create most tipos (sic)
Well it is a good comment so you efforts are not wasted.
With respect to my oversimplified view of the world, it seems to me that Xi Jinping is trying to move China back towards a more pure state of communism and away from socialistic capitalism which allowed for much, if not all, of their economic gains of the last 20 years. Of course these economic gains were kicked-off by such lovely companies such as Walmart and Harbor Freight.
Re: asset managers, Brett Christophers’ book ‘Our lives in their portfolios’ is illuminating – and sobering.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/721305/our-lives-in-their-portfolios-by-brett-christophers/