This morning's video, as first posted, included a mistake. I misinterpreted a question on an Ipsos Mori poll. I misread the double negative and came to the wrong answer as a result.
Now we know that, this video has been taken down, been corrected, and been re-uploaded. The conclusions I reached do not change as a result.
However, the trolls have tried to claim that this proves I am silly, incompetent and untrustworthy.
It doesn't. It proves I am human, have been working under a lot of pressure to get things done as I try to finish work commitments before I end paid employment, and am willing to correct what I get wrong.
It also says to me that I really do need to invest more time in the videos if they are to reach their potential - which is exactly what I want to do in the future.
So, my apologies. I am human and can fail like everyone else. If anyone is surprised by that, you really shouldn't be.
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I wouldn’t worry about the trolls too much Richard I think the vast majority who read this blog are smart enough to recognise an honest error.
We come here to be informed educated and entertained not to gripe moan and troll.
Thanks
Since when has any Neo liberal or Blairite or Thatcherite ever admitted a mistake? Over fifty years of their mistakes we’ve been living with, if not more.
Don’t all line at once I say!
The fact that they have made a big deal out of your mistake should be taken as a compliment because you’ve just about eviscerated most of their bullshit peddled as orthodoxy from what I can see.
Richard
I rarely reply to your posts but that is only because you have contributors way more experienced and intelligent than I am.
However, please allow me to express my support for your views.
We are all human.
Thanks
I am amazed at the amount you and Thomas do. I note the number and lengths of responses is increasing-and you delete many. I keep thinking I should employ Cromwell’s self denying ordinance and say less as I don’t have the knowledge of many of your regulars.
We are grateful.
I delete obviously offensive people if I see them
And keep commenting
Correct Richard, we are all human and make mistakes, and frankly, it amazes me how you maintain the level of information output that you achieve. Well done.
Thanks
Appreciated
Your Blog is the first thing I read in the morning.
Please ignore the troll and keep up the excellent work
Thanks
You’re only human Richard. We all make mistakes. Hell, I voted Conservative years ago! Now that’s a real mistake!
Thanks for all that you do, it helps to keep me sane as the main stream media and supposed economics commentators keep trotting out utter rubbish and nobody is asking hard questions of those in power.
I enjoy reading your posts and the many informed comments so please keep them coming.
That’s the plan. Thanks
Richard don’t let the trolls get to you – they are keyboard warriors and if they saw you in real life they would be so frightened they would cross the street before running back to their mother’s basement flat! Your excellent website is a must each morning as I enjoy a cup of coffee! Thank you
Thank you
Trump, Starmer and Reeves never make mistakes.
Thank you, Richard.
Others have expressed what I feel, so I won’t add other than to echo Richard Atkins. In my case, that was voting Labour, albeit with a nose peg, last July when I voted for the first time, having been eligible since 1988. File under it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Thomas and you and the community you have assembled are amazing. Your blog is the most regular feature of my day. Please ignore the trolls. Perhaps, it’s quiet at CCHQ and Tufton Street before they head to the Red Lion and Blue Boar or parental country estates.
Thanks CS
Appreciated
Thank you, Richard.
Let’s get back to what you and this community are best at and, on the anniversary, ponder: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-cost-starmer-eu-membership-b2672440.html.
Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s lieutenant, said something like, “Show me the incentives and I will show you the outcomes.”
The donors to / owners of Starmer, Reeves and Streeting, Labour’s big three, are US and UK asset strippers, technology, private healthcare and zionists, so no one that would be interested in a rapprochement with the EU. Defeat and even the loss of a seat in 2029 won’t be a problem as the trio and others will be looked after.
I have to admit I thought your interpretation was correct. I was not in the least surprised that most MPs thought thre was very little government could do about the housing crisis.
Perhaps I thought they were answering the question ‘Do you think the government will take any effective action about the housing crisis’?
I think many of them misread the question as well
George Bernard Shaw said that “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing”. Equally Einstein said that “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – All humans make mistakes, and real humans own up to them. It is so much easier to criticise than to do whatever correctly oneself. Perhaps these trolls should try doing some good in the world, to educate others with positive ideas such as you do. Ignore them as they are jealous because they cannot. Thank you for stimulating my elderly brain and enlightening me on many concepts and subjects.
Thanks, Susan, Appreciated,
Thank you, Richard.
Further to my comment about you and this community getting back to what all of you are best at, I have just learnt, from former colleagues that https://www.iif.com/ is ramping up its efforts in Europe with bigger and more senior representation in Brussels. That is not good news for EU citizens. Big Finance is already far too influential in Brussels. European Labour, ETUC et al, are far too meek, weak and invisible.
It will also make EU detachment from the US more difficult. Last Sunday, my EU bank employer’s chief economist told a Sunday show that “Europe’s romance with the US is over”. I’m not sure about that at elite level. I think they would rather Trump not open his big mouth so much. That’s why the European elite adored Obama. He was a good front, especially with phrases like “hope and change”, “the fierce urgency of now” and “change you can believe in”.
The ETUC has always been incredibly weak, nice enough people, none of them willing to rock the boat.
Thank you, Richard.
I agree with you. It’s not sustainable, though.
A thought: On Jan 27th Stephanie Kelton posted about an analysis by Torsten Slok on what the effect on Canadian GDP would be of a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports to the US. Apparently, they slogged through some serious work and ……The answer? …..a 6% hit apparently.
Stephanie decided to dig; she asked Deepseek (AI) to build a model to see what it would come up with in response to the same question. She emphasises that she did not ask Deepseek what its view of the impact might be of a 25% tariff, rather, it asked Deepseek TO BUILD A MODEL to assess the impact of a 25% tariff. She also pushed back on the first response to make Deepseek do some tweaking before then asking Deepseek to APPLY the model. The results were more nuanced than Slok’s and the results came in the form of a range of values with the bottom end of the range a little below 2%…in terms of its negative effect on Canadian GDP. Stephanie points out that it took Deepseek about 12 seconds to do its analysis!
Bearing in mind that the positions which many people on this platform take on public expenditure, the national debt, interest rates and so on are usually fobbed off by neo-liberal economists (and chancellors), Stephanie’s work made me wonder if we might not strengthen our hand a little by exploring the analytic resource which is AI………………..My thought..or question is………
……..Might it be useful to ask AI to build a model to assess the effect of, say, additional public spending; leaving balances in CBRAs (no bond issuance), and establishing tiered rates to apply to those CBRAs so that only a proportion are paid at the base rate? I imagine this sort of thing been done already, after all economic modelling is carried out in academic and policy making-circles as a matter of course…perhaps readers of this blog have expertise in this field. But the current fascination for AI might be something to exploit just now. An alternative (MMT?) model of how public funds work anyone??
If AI enables more ready access to comprehensive modelling of the economy without the need for major resources, is there merit in having a look at this? I know that the effectiveness of any model will rest on assumptions at the commencement and on the data which will be used….and AI will be inserting assumptions and harvesting the data to populate the model; but is there not some value in testing what we argue and then pushing out what reasonably grounded models might say? Might this not at least help to cut through some more? As I say, ……………just a thought.
Let me work on that (when I have a few minutes to construct the right question)
The big issue for futhering the adoption of MMT is the Neoliberal economists belief that MMTer’s don’t have an answer for dealing with inflation if the manipulation of base rate isn’t used. Mitchell and Mosler set out MMT arguments for trying to avoid this in Chapter 10 of their book “Modern Monetary Theory: Bill and Warren’s Excellent Adventure.” The chapter is entitled “Inflation and Monetary Policy – Central Banks Going Rogue.” Whilst their arguments are good I don’t ultimately find them sufficient I continue to believe that they need to put flesh on how they can control inflation with base rate retained at zero. My thinking is that our societies need to find a way of easily increasing taxation quickly in an equitable way, a more cybernetic way of achieving homeostasis if you like. MMTer’s if they are going to use AI to help them in this approach need to very cleverly construct the question/s on this topic to get the AI tool not to regurgitate Neoliberal garbage for its response/s.
You’re my first read of the day too. I sometimes need to come back to read the comments (1st read can be before 7am). You’ve “taught” me a lot about money and economics and how it works – not the way Reeves believes! I really value your posts each day, and the interesting comments on them too. As someone wrote on a wedding card to us over 50 years ago, “Lang may yer lum reek”! Very best wishes to you and the majority of your commentator from Liverpool.
I like that comment! And thanks
Apologies are as rare as hen’s teeth in political discourse.
Take the trolls as a good sign.
I look forward to Starmer/Reeves/Fa***e following suit although they’d be at it all day.
If I had a £1 for every mistake I’d made in 39 years of teaching and social work, I’d have enough for a round world air ticket. No flagellation! You’re doing fine, bollocks to the naysayers.
Thanks
It’s refreshing to see someone own up to a genuine mistake. Well done Richard.
As a mining engineer we have a system to mitigate accidents.
First we list all the risks, then the risks are accessed for severity, the chance of it occurring and how the can be mitigated.
With the above in mind we the write out a safe work procedure with the aim of ensuring it is safe to carry out the work.
I think it would be a good idea if this was used more widely, for instant how many people will die because the government cancels the winter fuel payment.
It would be more honest.
We are planning new systems – very soon.
It’s the 31st of January and the Barclays banking app has failed, since 930 this morning. As of 4pm, it is still not up and running! Thankfully I had time today to make a trip to the bank and pay my bills.
Maybe a little egg on face for you Richard but the turmoil to clients of Barclays is huge and costly.
Keep doing what you are doing and just wish the haters well.!
People can lose their credit rating, livelihood and quite simply their minds over a technical fault, which could take months to resolve.
Our last branch of Lloyds is closing in Southsea and we are now down to three central banks in Portsmouth. Online and telephone is becoming the norm in a system that may not be adequate.
Much to agree with.
May I add to all those supportive messages to you. If the trollers had an ounce of your decency and care for our country, and particularly for the truth, the UK would be a much better place.
Best wishes
Thanks Andrew
You do have to wonder if there is a neoliberal plot here to catch you out. Ipsos MORI are a globalist entity headquartered in London who would be natural adversaries of yours. They would be aware of your predisposition to criticise all governments you’ve known in your adult life and by implication that would be around 97% of MPs give or take. They can’t plot your day but know that busy people check out their workings. I think they included a complex question such as “Is there much that British governments can do to deal with its housing problems – Agree/Disagree” to catch out the hasty. And generate a bit of traffic to themselves to boot.
Just saying that I wouldn’t rule it out.
I think that massively overstates my significance