Damn foreigners, think they can come and lecture us about our dependence on the financial sector!

Next thing you know, they’ll be suggesting we shouldn’t pay people more money in a year than they can spend in a lifetime.

He’s got a good point. You know your economy is up the shitter when people up to their eyeballs in debt are buying £500 iphones, driving this year’s AUDI and holidaying in the Seychelles, all using funny money.

“I think you should go back to doing what I call real business – producing goods, providing services, trading – not just moving figures in bank books, which is what you are doing.”

Difficult to fault the logic there, really

I thought this was going to be a thread about the Enfield poltergeist..

‘coming over ‘ere from the other side on their benefits migration.. stealing our jobs..’

nowt right wing about that. common sense.

he has the massive advantage of being a foreign poitician so seems to have accidentally told the truth, probably as there is no ‘cost’ to him. Our politicians could run the country properly or they can stay elected by telling us what we want to hear ………….

money in a year than they can spend in a lifetime.

Wanna bet?

Why would this article send RWers, or anyone else, into “full xenophobia mode”?

They might wonder why it takes the BBC so long to get round to covering a story and viewpoint covered in the FT a month ago, but Mohamad makes pretty uncontraversial points with the possible exception of whether currencies should be fixed or not.

Mohamad knows very well the dangers of allowing financial services to run wild (as they did in the Malaysia and Thailand pre-crisis) and is correct to point out the imbalances in the UK and other Europeam markets towards financial services (and the public sector). We are now seeing the painful adjustments in both sectors that will continue for quite a while.

He notes, in the FT (11 Jan), the irony between the policies advocated by the West during the crisis in Asia ie, raise interest rates, let banks and businesses go bust, have a budget surplus, and the measures currently being implemented in the crisis of west.

What wing of politics does the notion that, “European workers are overpaid and unproductive…I think that you have paid your workers far to much money for much less work.” come from?

Mohamad will always have an anti-market view when it comes to FX markets as the currency markets laid bare the policy mistakes that he made in a particularly harsh manner. But perhaps the really interesting thing out of this article and the FT version is the idea of whether after devaluation the PIGS should re-fix their currencies at a new level in the same way as Malaysia. Thats a timely question to ask as Greece and Portugal near default and possible devaluation.

Rather than creating any xenophobia, I think that Mohamad raises some very interesting point, not least that this is a crisis of western economics and politics not a global one!!

The title of his FT article was “The west needs to go back to capitalist basics.”

RJ …or buying £3-4k mtbs on tick!!!!!

wot he said is good.

No, I think right wingers generally grasp this fact.

It’s those on the left who still refuse to accept that there isn’t a magical money tree after all.

ditch_jockey could you describe to us what you think to be right wing?. I dont know what you are getting at, so do tell.

For once Mahathir talks a lot of sense, who could disagree that Europe needs to work hard and live within it’s means? He might have something to say when France elects Francois Hollande as it’s next President on a platform to return to universal retirement at 60 from the current grand old age of 62.

Mahathir is a little less sound on the gays and the Jews which definately upsets this right winger.

OP in sh*t stirring shocka.

Does appear to have scored an own goal however 😉

As an attempted troll DJ this isnt going very well is it. Don’t be shy, lets be having you.

“Teamhurtmore in knows what he’s talking about shocker”

Not the first time either.

I wish I was clever enough to understand that geetee. One day perhaps? Anyway lunch over now. Time to get back to work. 😉

Surely this post will have anyone of a rightwing/conservative disposition agreeing with the assessment of Asian countries? This is the opposite of xenophobia.
Bad troll by OP.

I do however take exception to the implied assumption that those on the right of politics are racist/xenophobic and those on the left not.
The two are completley separate (ignoring nut job groups like EDL).

I wish I was clever enough to understand that geetee.

I was referring to the, now closed, ‘What’s the point of bonuses?’ thread where you broke out in a rash of well informed and balanced insight. It was in stark contrast to the usual garbage, as is the above post.

But like you said. Back to work….

I do however take exception to the implied assumption that those on the right of politics are racist/xenophobic and those on the left not.

This is what I was thinking too. A properly nasty little troll you are ditch_jockey. Why don’t you go outside and play with the traffic.

Actually, if you wanted to really stir up some debate much better to quote Harjeet Johal (who I assume is British so no need to raise the concept of xenophobia or racism) and his “interesting’ argument in yesterday’s FT that it is, “Time to let the British High Street Die.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fec9cd1e-51a3-11e1-a30c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1lb9igwkp

Now that is “quite” an argument – and one worth debating!

[Tea made, back to work again. Is it just the cold or am I drinking a lot more tea and coffee? Anyone else?]

Mahathir Mohamad for the next UK Prime Minister, based on that BBC article.

It’s the most sense I’ve ever heard from a politician (ok, ex-politician).

Our politicians could run the country properly or they can stay elected by telling us what we want to hear

This is one of my biggest bug-bears with UK politics – politicians seem more interested in being popular than actually taking the job by the scruff of the neck and making the tough/unpopular decisions

Now that is “quite” an argument – and one worth debating!

Honestly, that article is so obvious that it defies debate!

I’ve never quite understood how quick people are to criticise the out of town/large multiple retailers and equally as quick to shop in them!

If you liked the local book shop so much why the **** didn’t you shop there?

I hate to say this but I think the evil ex-PM of Msia is correct in his observation. In the past the ex-PM favourite hobby was either to create more cronies or to jail people …

Oh ya … the Asian giants have not completely woken up yet so plenty more to come.

🙄

Yes – a quiet word in ditch’s shell-like.

It is possible to be economically conservative and socially liberal at the same time, ditch old boy.

bravohotel9er – Member

No, I think right wingers generally grasp this fact.

Really? 🙄

You guys are so funny.

Great bait there ditch jockey. You didn’t need to do much to get the resident right whinge to come on here and defend themselves over a non-issue news article.

It’s those on the left who still refuse to accept that there isn’t a magical money tree after all.

That tree exists. It’s still paying out bonuses and the like to business leaders while everyone else gets squeezed.

He also deployed the controversial Internal Security Act to detain activists, non-mainstream religious figures, and political opponents including his sacked deputy, Anwar Ibrahim.

He also hates gays and jews.

Not for me thanks chef.

Joao – but can you imagine a UK PM standing up and saying. “OK workers, you are all going to have to work a lot harder, for less money…Oh and its going to be very hard for many years to come”? Or is that what the current one is saying?

When you look at what “globalisation’ has done to the supply of labour (increased massively), this is true but the culture/context of UK political and economic debate make such statements impossible. The frightening thing is that the young today are not being prepared properly for the scary reality of what global forces are doing to their likely future earnings.

Geetee – so what do you do with the high streets?

Great bait there ditch jockey. You didn’t need to do much to get the resident right whinge to come on here and defend themselves over a non-issue news article.

Why post it then other than to troll or look as though you haven’t read what is being said?

Great bait there ditch jockey. You didn’t need to do much to get the resident right whinge to come on here and defend themselves over a non-issue news article.

and then….

That tree exists. It’s still paying out bonuses and the like to business leaders and the like while everyone else gets squeezed

:roll:Oh the irony

TJ, I don’t think you’ll find any right wingers arguing with living within your means. Have seen way more copies of the Guardian at ‘no cuts’ events than the DT*.

*Not actually true but I’m sure you get my point.

Geetee – so what do you do with the high streets?

copy the dutch model using planning laws to prevent tescos and the like killing the high streets.

You are not allowed to build large food retailers out of the town centres. result – high streets that remain the place to shop.

Are you American geeTee?

jruk – have you not seen them all – they guys on this thread even – defending the huge bonuses?

There is no need for cuts at all if the rich are made to pay a decent amount of tax.

We are a low tax economy.

Geetee – so what do you do with the high streets?

One of the greatest challenges associated with high street retailing, at least as far as I can see, is that the cost of operation is greatly influenced by the most efficient/profitable operator. Retailing is far from homogenous; selling fruit and veg is nothing like selling TVs, if you’re separating them out as different businesses ( and this is why the multiple retailers have killed the market for books, electricals and soon clothes)

For years, the hurdle cost of operating on the high street was set at a level that a lot of companies could afford to meet because we as consumers spent our way to bankruptcy. Consequently you had retailers in business who had no rights being in business – Peacocks? Wittards? For the love of retail, how any one sustained a business model like those was beyond me. Where’s the profit in selling s**t tea and clothes?

Their models burst when everyone suddenly realised how poor we all really were. There’s nothing like not knowing where the next meal is coming from to focus the mind on whether I really need that piece of crap clothing or that boutique tea blend.

The problem is that the infrastructure that serves the retail industry, the input costs, does not sustain high street retailing, at least, not until the rates and rents on those properties fall to close to zero, at which point there will be a greater range of retailing concepts that might be able to survive on the high street.

This is just a problem of lag in a self adjusting system. High street retailing doesn’t have to die, you only have to look at the number of charity shops that have opened up to see that there is a model that can work if the input costs are low enough.

So.. how do we just ‘go back’ to manufacturing stuff? Doesn’t there need to be like, a market and stuff? And wouldn’t we need to be like, really competitive and stuff?

Molgrips we have a very competitive manufacturing industry. It’s world class where it exists.

It’s just not mass manufacturing. It’s niche, high value, high complexity, specialist manufacturing.

We, like the Americans, have never been able to mass manufacture cars, but we’re damn good at building F1 cars.

So why is high st retailing expensive? Rents are expensive, but why? The properties aren’t new. Maybe someone’s creaming a lot of money off the top here.

Seems to me that the high st have a very easy captive market, because lots of people want to go ‘into town’ on a Saturday.

and this is why the multiple retailers have killed the market for books, electricals and soon clothes

Ah yes.. the electrical retailers. Why is there only one big chain on the high st when that particular company is utterly awful?

We, like the Americans, have never been able to mass manufacture cars,

❓

We still manufacture many car makes here as do the americans in america

as for never been able to do it 😯

ford
Morris
Gm motors
Rover
Landrover
Triumph
I assume you get the picture

You need both high and low end market.

Not everyone is highly skilled to work in the high end sector and not everyone can afford high end stuff.

I have to admit that I hate the high street these days. You could be in nearly any city in the UK; same rubbish shops, same products, same choice.
The money men need to make rents more affordable so that we can have independent retailers reappear and parking must be free and plentiful. Otherwise, it’ll be out of town or internet for me.