IN MOST COUNTRIES, THE PRESS WOULD BRAG ABOUT THIS...

...WE ARE IN A BETTER STATE THAN GERMANY...

Standard & Poors give Scotland their highest economic assessment. Dispels a few myths, eh? pic.twitter.com/LrpTWe7VBU

In Scotland, however, the press is rather quieter about it. Presumably this is because they don't want you to know. Doesn't fit with their proprietors or editors collecting gongs, seats in Houses of Senility and perhaps a slightly lighter regulation...

I wonder, if ever the Uk managed a better GDP than Germany (snigger, giggle, choke), would they be so reticent. Probably only if there was something in it for them.

PLAN A IS DEAD, LONG LIVE...PLAN A+

So now we know that, although there is no Plan B, there's a Plan A+.

And this is it: The Bank of Britain England is going to print more money to buy up government debt, which is a cause of inflation and a devalued pound, and because the banks that we own will not lend money to small and medium sized companies, the government, or rather we, will do the lending. 


Well, I suppose you couldn't expect the government forcing the hand of the banks and the City, given how much money the Tory Party got from them, and will probably continue to get from them now.


Credit Easing, as it appears to be called, will inject tens of billions of taxpayers' money into businesses. It will not add to government debt, because the government will get assets in return for its money (sounds a bit like nationalisation to this untutored mind). However, if the money is not paid back, and clearly some of it won't be, the taxpayer will pick up the losses.


However, much though I may pour scorn on Mr Osborne's plans, Standard & Poor, which some would say has a little more experience in matters economic than I do,  has said that it will keep the UK's credit rating at the highest level because of its ''wealthy and diversified economy''.

You have to wonder if they have ever been here, don't you?


The good news is that Osborne has seen fit to follow the example of John Swinney, the better man by miles, and extend the council tax freeze. £70-80 on average per year may not see a massive amount, but £6 or 7 extra at the end of the month when fuel, food, clothes and other basics are rising, and wages are not, has got to be welcome.


The even better news is that because the English government (yes I know QM, there isn't one, but the de facto English government), has found £850 million to do this, our freeze will now be funded, as there will be a consequential. 


Pic: "Ah, I knew there was an extra £850 million, plus some for the colonies, up here. Nice shirt, eh? You lot couldn't afford one like this."

I noticed this comment from Malcolm G on Political Betting. I hope he won’t mind me copying it here. It sums up for me just how completely useless the government in London is. He’s talking about the riots in English cities and Cameron’s (and I suppose other's) reaction to them, dithering about whether or not to come back from holiday:

"It once again shows how inadequate Cameron is and what a pathetic leader he is, no matter what happens he is always behind the curve and forced to act. He seems to have no clue and whilst he can talk plenty it looks like he would have trouble running a bath never mind a country. Having surrounded himself with a bunch of similar types who will have been unlikely to have to even dress themselves so far in their lives never mind understand what is going on in the world, we seem to lurch from gaff to gaff. This lot are useless."

The unfortunate thing for Londoners is that the Metropolitan Police is similarly cursed with leadership you wouldn’t wish on a playgroup.

Cameron’s other great gaffe this week, rather less important perhaps, and one that should never have reached the press in my opinion, was the Italian café incident. He made his order at the bar and asked the girl to bring it out to the terrace. She replied that she was too busy, and he declined to leave a tip (which he was entitled to do if he thought the service substandard). However, ever the PR man, when he heard that the matter had caused what we call a “stooshie” in Scotland (a bit of bother), he went back, tipped her massively and had his photograph taken with her. Awwww. Of course, firstly, it is quite possible that, like in some French cafés, you will only be waiter served if you sit inside; if you sit on the terrace, its self service, so he may have been asking a busy barmaid to do something that was not her job. However, that may not be the case in Italy, at least in the upmarket cafés the likes of Cameron would frequent, and he may have been correct not to tip. If so, why did he go back and do a PR exercise? Dithering idiot.

Two questions on the financial crises in the world, that this economics illiterate finds puzzling :

Firstly, who or what is Standard and Poor? They are one of three credit agencies, so if they downgraded the US economy to AA+, why haven’t the other two? Who is right? On the basis of two to one seems to be that S&P isn’t! Does it have an agenda?

Secondly, if the € is in such a mess, how come it is more or less holding its own against the £?

STANDARD AND POOR'S PREDICTS AMERICAN TAKEOVER OF...WELL BRITAIN

Because Sterling has lost around 25% of its value against the dollar in the last 2 ½ years, and the feeble recovery in the UK economy, British companies have become far more accessible to American corporations looking to expand their interests on this side of the Atlantic.

Following the Kraft takeover of Cadbury, Tate and Lyle’s buy over, and Gatwick Airport’s purchase by an American private equity firm, Standard & Poor, who did for the Euro when it looked likely that it would take over from the dollar as the gold standard currency, predicted last week that a number of well-known UK companies, including AstraZeneca, BAE Systems and Balfour Beatty, would soon be purchased by American firms.

It seems that Standard and Poor only have to predict something and it happens, such is the sensitivity of the markets. I think it’s time we examined just how much power these firms have, and exactly how they use that power and for whom... or what.

British Banking System No Longer Stable and Low Risk: Standard and Poor

We have been lectured till our ears hurt by Gordon Brown telling us how he saved the banking system, saved the world, put us in the best possible position to lead the world out of recession. We in Scotland have had our neighbours insulted by the fourth rate Secretary of State for Scotland telling us that Ireland and Iceland were backward looking basket cases, and that that is how Scotland would have been if it hadn’t had the blessed United Kingdom to bail it out.

So sure enough, when it came, 3 months after the rest of the G20 countries of course, we were somewhat surprised to find that our “leading” was being done from the rear, and our growth figure was in fact only 0.1%. The Chancellor was obliged to say that even this pathetic little figure could be a blip, and that the figures by next month might be negative again.

A further blow came yesterday when the alarm was raised over the Government’s ballooning debt crisis. International credit rating agency Standard & Poor warned in a report that Britain’s banking industry was no longer stable. It was seen as a further sign that the massive deficit that Britain is running might leave the country close to bankruptcy. And it came amid new warnings of a Bank of England interest rate rise. Standard & Poor’ statement said: “We no longer classify the United Kingdom among the most stable and low-risk banking systems globally.”

It seems to me that we are likely to hit the second leg of the recession in the next few months. A growth figure of 0.1% over the period that included the rush to spend that typifies every British Christmas, is hardly a ringing endorsement of the economy. The fact that unemployment reduced slightly over this period is also not terribly surprising. As anyone who has worked in the employment business could tell you, it happens every year.

But January and February are always hard months for businesses. As well as the credit card bills landing on the mat, there will be the yearly pay offs in shops and restaurants, bars and clubs that mark the end of the spending spree and return to normal.

I wonder how long it will be before the inflation that the quantitative easing is bound to set in train, will start to hit us and add to the misery?
........