Re: your timeline… Why should there be a sovereign default in 2012 if the debt is in Sterling (and, uniquely, the BoE can create as much Sterling as it wants, if push comes to shove)?

And 2013: currency collapse. But against who? Pretty much every currency is in the same boat, so who exactly does Sterling collapse against?

I don't have the answers, BTW, just asking…?

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/no_blood_for_oil/?fp

"For months, Syria's brutal President Assad has paid henchmen to wage war on his own people. Governments across the world have condemned these atrocities, but key European leaders could cut off the cash flow that finances this bloodbath.

Germany, France and Italy are the three main importers of Syrian oil. If they move to impose immediate EU sanctions, Assad's slaughter funds will dry up. Assad has ignored political appeals for him to rein in his assault, and EU leaders have discussed ramping up sanctions, but only a massive global outcry will push them to act urgently.

We have no time to lose — every day dozens of Syrians are shot, tortured or disappeared simply for calling for basic democratic rights. The EU can stop subsidising it now. Sign the petition to EU heads of state to immediately adopt oil sanctions on Syria."

Words seem twisted in politics. Liberal doesn't seem to mean what it means does it. How a political system can work when the description of words is abused is beyond me.

I was at an anti cuts meeting a couple of nights ago and they find it hard to fathom the coming together of everybody to fight the main issue. I think they worry and rightly so about frontline cuts at their locality, their doorstep. I'm gonna keep trying till I get some sort of banning order. The unions would be good too as they have cash for promotion of 'The One'.

You know I have a marvellous way with words but I don't know how to articulate it.
I think this is what everybody should be thinking about. So the many become one voice, one message that transcends borders and continents. Be hard for mainstream media to ignore it if that's the only thing happening, the only news. A feedback loop.

Nothing to forgive dude.

So, our beloved PM is studying the possibility of curtailing social networks to prevent riots…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/11/cameron-call-social-media-clampdown

Where have I heard that before? Tunisia? Egypt? Iran???

He's so good he can twist the untwistable with his tongue:
"David Cameron says cuts programme will free up frontline police officers".
Hahahahahaha, what a chap! he's perpetually in Red Nose Day! I'm sure he's planning to try the same strategy in schools, to 'free up a few front-line teachers'…

Going to puke, will be back in a minute…

Good comment. I'm not left wing or right wing and I find this kind of labeling both irrelevant and a distraction from the real issues. A good example, I find Karl Denninger one of the best truth tellers on the web regarding our broken financial system, but I don't agree with much his politics.

So be very careful who you're calling a Brussels Sprout.

sorry about the rather preachy tone of the last comment. I hope both Carol and 24K will forgive me.

I am left wing. I am also Green. But I hope I have not allowed my personal politics to make this an uncomfortable place for those with different political and philosphical views.

As 24K says I hope this blog is a brroad church open to the considered views of all comers. Though I would have to say I do not consider myself a liberal no matter how wonderful it sounds in the dictionary. Living in America has given me an aversion to the word.

It is my feeling, and has been from the start, that while our leaders and bankers are not in this with us, the rest of us are all in this together. And this moment in history is, I think, so important that we have to step above our philosophical differences and seek a way forward broad enough that we can go there together and not fall apart in narrow disagreements before we have even begun. I do no wish to demand a philosphical purity or required set of beliefs as a test of membership.

I am vehemently opposed to any sort of part political name calling on the simple grounds that they are all, as far as I am concerned, all as squalidly corrupt (both legally and morally) and bereft of imagination and moral fibre as each other.

As for econimics as a field of study it is a filthy and debased cess pit of failed ideas and amazingly stupid assumptions for which I would not give you a stale fart.

I am also deeply against all temptations to lay the blame on this nation or that people. It is, again in my opinion, far more helpful and accurate to see it as a global financial class who have no loyalty or concern for others, against the people of all nations.

I hope this makes my persoanl position clear.

I have hoped from the start, and still do, that this blog might serve as a gathering place for lively and enquiring minds who do not accept the received wisdoms of our failing age and are not afraid to advance ideas and speak up, to admit when they have been mistaken and to be considerate when suggesting to others that they also also be mistaken.

I consider it important to be able to be polite to one another. And more important to listen to those you disagree with than to congratulate those with whom you already agree.

We are all in this together, left and right, those with savings and those without.

What we need above all are people who can think clearly and fearlessly in the face of those who would tell us we should be quiet and leave it to those who are more 'qualified'.