UK banks have just pushed up mortgage rates by about 50% on existing customers. Fixed rate borrowers have no escape, and renters are still stuck in hell.

The only people not suffering are the gamblers who went for base rate trackers – they live in paradise because of the bed-wetters at the Bank of England. Alot of the gamblers are landlords, and they enjoy tax breaks on their mortgage payments.

Merv is going to froth at the mouth – I can foresee him telling the parliamentarians to stop fucking around. But no matter how forthright, he’s still part of the extortion.

MMT has an almost undebatable premise, but one practical point is on the money-issuer’s capacity to prevent malinvestment.

Item – Where the money is going:

“Whitehall departments have spent £1.4 billion over the last seven years in a bid to save £159 million by sharing “back-office” functions such as personnel and procurement.”

They must be assuming that human nature will be a result of MMT, not a cause. Does the theory have a release valve for greed?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/efficiency-drive-increased-costs-000700565.html

Surely they want the opportunity to defend themselves and lead prosperous lives.

Cynicism has a limit – you hate our lying government so much that you want their murdering government to show defiance on your behalf.

“The CADTM insists on the immediate abolition of the IMF and its replacement by a radically different and democratic institution focused on the satisfaction of fundamental human needs.”

To each according to his need. Fine, but I’m not going to work to pay for that. So it’s up to you and your infinite wealth.

Joe

Thanks for that, great site. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. It’s like the Iranians are being manipulated into developing a weapon, just in case they are not already doing so, by being forced to the point of saying “WTF!! we may as well, seeing as they are intent on attacking us anyway”. There really is no difference between these media bastions & their mongrel brethren the tabloids who they choose to look down on, they all take the truth & render her unrecognisable.

Guys, you were talking about a likely invasion of Iran not long back. Have you seen this from Media Lens? http://bit.ly/zIS08Y

“As to the haircut – who are these private investors and how much of a cut will they actually suffer once CDS comes into play and ‘losses’ are set off against tax liabilities?”

Doesn’t look like they’ll get much from the CDSs:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/28/us-greece-isda-cds-idUSTRE81R26120120228

Depends what tax laws you reside under that determine the amount that can be claimed. You can generally claim the full losses against capital gains made in the same period (as should be), but if the gains aren’t >= losses, then it’s often a percentage (sub 50%) of the losses?

“In essence it is a chicken and egg closed off in a can of worms and sealed by obfuscation to prevent the Greeks finding a way out.”

Yeah, alas. Obviously the austerity measures taken so far have been an unmitigated disaster and hopefully someone learns something from it.

Hi Phil

Thanks for the suggestion. I don’t think that there is much that I can add though. It is people like Steve Keen, Ben Dyson, Tony Greenham and Richard Werner that taught me – not the other way round !!

I just hope the conference gets a good attendance and helps to spread the message and make it more mainstream.

At the moment the mainstream media & economics “profession” can render monetary reformers / critics as cranks and crackpots. Having a session with the likes of Adam Posen present should help to legitimise the movement.