08/10/2011 by Fin.

The Bank of England is going to inject £75bn into the economy through a process known as quantitative easing (QE). The Bank has already used QE before previously pumping £200bn into the economy by buying assets such as government bonds, to try to boost lending by commercial banks.

All of this money will go to the banks because supposedly that is the best way for the money to filter into the economy. But I am sure that it would be better to give everybody in the country about £4,000 to spend how they wish. For example they could spend it on upgrading their bathroom or buying a new TV, which would all help the economy in a different sort of way. This is much better than seeing the banks get it and sit on it, and still not even lending to small businesses.

In October 2008, the world’s financial system was on the brink of collapse. Even with the announcement of a multi-million pound bail-out, major British banks were about to go bust.  Gordon Brown came up with a plan which was at the time heralded as saving the European banking system. The government bailed out the faltering banks. But here we are again in the same situation.

Moody’s has just downgraded the credit rating of twelve financial firms in the UK including RBS, Lloyds TSB, Santander UK and Nationwide. The sticking plasters seem to have all fallen off and the culprits have taken all the credit and moved on, leaving an even bigger mess.

Is this the end of Capitalism?

Posted in Finance | 2 Comments »

25/04/2011 by Fin.

Creating a “No Fly Zone”. Am I the only person who does not understand this term, or how it has been applied in Libya. Creating a “No Fly Zone” I thought should mean that certain planes are not allowed to fly in Libya. But once again the UK government are bending the agreed rules and this means that they can take out ground troops as and when they feel like it. This war is also not a Regime change, or is it? The more things go on the more this is getting like Iraq, bend those rules, get what you want, as collateral damage mounts. This coalition government is going to be as unpopular as Blaire’s government was over Iraq. We cannot afford to be the world’s policeman and are we now going into Syria and possibly other countries? It would be nice to cure every little piece of unfairness in this world but it is totally impractical.

Posted in Politics | 4 Comments »

05/02/2011 by Fin.

I have been unemployed for the past few years. I was in printing as a typesetter and then retrained as a web designer/administrator. I have been to college doing all kinds of things. I have found no vacancies for this area and have been applying for all kinds of jobs, without success. The last few weeks there has been nothing to apply for most jobs say “for internal applicants only”. My fear is that with about half a million public workers about to join the unemployed how am I ever ever going to get any work. The longer I am unemployed the more disadvantaged I become. It’s things like clothes and fuel I can’t afford. My only outing is to my jobcentre to sign on every two weeks and the people there always make me feel so inadequate, I find them so sarcastic at times. I have had four interviews this year out of hundreds of applications, still not enough to satisfy the jobcentre. Things were relatively ok for the first year but a person can only take so many knock-backs. I’ve picked myself up so many times over these years. And when the news talks about necessary things going up in price and they include air travel, and what with rich people not able to make ends meet, I feel as though I’m actually living on a different planet.

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments »

05/12/2010 by Fin.

In my opinion there are many advertisements particulary on television that are misleading, I think that most of them need looking into by the Advertising Standards Authority. A recent advertisement for Argos has just been banned for making claims about “convenient” delivery times. The ASA said that their claims were misleading. The TV advertisement said that Argos would deliver “at a time slot that’s right for you”. This turns out to be only slightly misleading but I am convinced that there are bigger misleading claims from other advertisers. The ASA need to get off their arses and do their job and stop these compulsive liars.

The ASA is the United Kingdom’s independent regulator of advertising across all media which includes internet, TV, direct marketing and sales promotions. They ensure that advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful by applying the current Advertising Codes.

Posted in Finance | 2 Comments »

16/10/2010 by Fin.

I am so fed up with the coverage of the spending review by the BBC. Every bloody day they remind us of the debt this country is in. “A season of special coverage. Find out what the spending review is, how it works, what it means and the debate around it.” They obviously haven’t got anything better to tell us about. Also this so called review won’t affect these overpaid stuck up presenters one bit . . . oooh maybe a little bit of child benefit. This is definitely overkill and I do wish they would just SHUT UP!

Posted in Finance | 4 Comments »