Twitter, to End POVERTY
1705 GMT
London
Tuesday
26 January 2010
Editor © Muhammad Haque
KHOODEELAAR! Told you so! That the economic downturn, the crunch, the recession, had been caused by imprudence! Nobody of any note, other than the Khoodeelaar! Campaign itself, had said this for six years. Until this afternoon. Only in the past hour or so, when the UK Establishment began to see the evidence and admit to doing so! Howard Davies [Oops! The ‘ennobled’ Howard Davies] of the London School of Economics [confusing abbreviation shared by BOTH the ‘LSE’+LSE=London Stock Exchange] was launched. Davies said the behaviour of UK Govt had not been prudent. Even the FT’s ex editor and the Big Business tout now fronting the Big Biz lobby the CBI [Confederation of British Industry] in effect echoed that. As did the next ‘expert’ hauled in by the BBC to opine on the alleged end of the recession. And as if that were not bad enough. Vince UNPLUGGED Cable too was at it again. He has been carrying the latest confected OTT-imagery around for the predicted delivery during the day of the sound bytes he has now delivered today by moulting a pack of clinical phrases. But not a single one of these ‘talking faces’ actually said the truth. What it is that had really caused the recession. Why has the alleged recession allegedly stopped. [to be continued]
From the website of the
Financial Times London
Inflation and debt fears point to a nervous recovery
By Chris Giles and Daniel Pimlott
Published: January 3 2010 22:31 | Last updated: January 3 2010 22:31
After the terror of the crisis comes a nervous recovery. That is the message delivered in the views of economists and policymakers on the risks to the economy as the UK exits recession.
By far the biggest fears keeping analysts awake at night are a sovereign debt crisis – in the UK or internationally – and inflation.
Of the 79 respondents to the FT’s survey, 37 were worried that a failure to sufficiently tighten public spending or raise taxes could leave the country facing much higher costs from servicing the national debt, or even the possibility that investors will stop lending to the UK. “The major risk is the loss of confidence in the government’s ability to get the public finances back under control,” said Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics.
“Major fiscal consolidation is needed, and more concrete plans should be developed and communicated as early as possible,” said Henrik Braconnier, who monitors the UK for the OECD.
A number of economists worried that an end to extraordinary policies such as quantitative easing – the £200bn programme mostly made up of purchases of government debt – could reveal public borrowing to be even less sustainable than it now appears.
Pierre Cailleteau, managing director of Moody’s Global Sovereign Risk Group, warned of “a disorderly exit from highly stimulating policies, leading to an abrupt increase in long term interest rates and/or sharp currency realignments”.
Annexed to the fear that public debt is out of control is the threat – seen by more than a third of economists surveyed – of an inflationary surge. The chief worries are that quantitative easing itself could spur sharp price rises, or that booming recoveries in China and India would do little to help Britain’s meagre exports but would drive up commodity prices. “Over the next few months it is highly likely that we get an intensifying ‘inflation scare’ if growth surprises on the upside,” said former MPC member Sushil Wadhwani.
Economists were sharply divided on inflation, with many believing that the risks of a price surge were overdone and that a Japan-like “lost decade” of slow growth accompanied by weak inflation was still possible. Similarly, however, many economists said the size of the national debt was not an issue. “People worry too much about the level of government debt and inflationary risk,” said Andrew Scott of the London Business School.
Policy misjudgment was a further area for concern – particularly in relation to inflation. Some economists warned that high inflation in the short term might lead the Bank of England to move too early to tighten monetary policy, or that the government would misjudge the severity of the recession and cut public spending before recovery was entrenched.
Sixteen respondents view- ed policy error as a significant risk, and 16 also believed that the economy could slip back into recession, or experience very weak growth. This could also happen if the kraken of the banking crisis were to reawake.
It is perhaps unsurprising that about a quarter of respondents were worried that a hung parliament or political weakness might threaten the UK’s outlook.
Slightly more analysts viewed the victimisation of bankers as a threat than thought climate change would be a problem this year.
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We shall publish the following item at a later date and time:
KHOODEELAAR! No to the “Big Business -Military Industrial Complex [=’MIC’] agenda scam Crossrail…” CAMPAIGN rebutting a pack of new lies at the expense of the 'deprived East End of London' being spread by Ken Livingstone's 'Business adviser' of '8 years' .
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