Independence SE Poll

[pete]

Indeed.

Can you imagine the stupidity of seeking to form a currency union with such financially inept charlatans ?

Regards,

Jeremy

It will be a transition period whilst they learn to cope without us.

[Kelvin]

Hardly any country in the World saw the crisis coming so to blame Brown et al is ridiculous.

[u63af]

Is the "recovery" not mainly based on rising property prices, which didn't even crash during the crash?
And no, I don't think a few chancers at Westminster are responsible for the global financial crisis, but equally I wouldn't trust them with the spare change in my pocket.

The property market crashed terribly, Aberdeen was the only place that didn't due to the oil. Commercial property is still struggling as well. Property prices and the level of sales have been increasing due to increased lending and help to buy schemes together with more confidence in the market.

An increase in interest rates which will happen if we get a yes vote will obviously not be good for the market.

[pete]

Is the "recovery" not mainly based on rising property prices, which didn't even crash during the crash?
And no, I don't think a few chancers at Westminster are responsible for the global financial crisis, but equally I wouldn't trust them with the spare change in my pocket.

The property market crashed terribly, Aberdeen was the only place that didn't due to the oil. Commercial property is still struggling as well. Property prices and the level of sales have been increasing due to increased lending and help to buy schemes together with more confidence in the market.

An increase in interest rates which will happen if we get a yes vote will obviously not be good for the market.

The SE of England has made a bubble like recovery.

[pete]

Hardly any country in the World saw the crisis coming so to blame Brown et al is ridiculous.

'Tis indeed a bless'd world in which they live.

They are charged, at least in part, with providing checks and balances to the markets. Which they didn't do, they (all of them) allowed or encouraged the banks to remove the divide between retail and investment. Thus one side was allowed to take down the other, and it turn the central banks on which they depended. (Or as near as makes no difference).

So then we say "Ah but no-one knew this would happen" (except the long dead politicians who put the checks in there in the first place) followed by "These are definitely the people who should give us advice on the next big financial change".

Och you're probably right, what do I know.

[Rosssco]

Is the "recovery" not mainly based on rising property prices, which didn't even crash during the crash?
And no, I don't think a few chancers at Westminster are responsible for the global financial crisis, but equally I wouldn't trust them with the spare change in my pocket.

The property market crashed terribly, Aberdeen was the only place that didn't due to the oil. Commercial property is still struggling as well. Property prices and the level of sales have been increasing due to increased lending and help to buy schemes together with more confidence in the market.

An increase in interest rates which will happen if we get a yes vote will obviously not be good for the market.

The SE of England has made a bubble like recovery.

Yet despite the pressure to increase interest rates to help prevent another bubble, the BoE refuses to increase interest rates to prevent stifling the rest of the UKs recovery.. The sign of a purely SE / London focused government obviously..

[pete]

Yet despite the pressure to increase interest rates to help prevent another bubble, the BoE refuses to increase interest rates to prevent stifling the rest of the UKs recovery.. The sign of a purely SE / London focused government obviously..

TBH That's a fair point - I kind of wondered if attempting to moderate the huge profits being made down there would be electoral suicide?

[robin]

To the politicians the low interest rates seem like a double-win; the SE gets to feel wealthy again (because they are under the misapprehension that their house price can only go up) and so start spending on consumer tosh while business can borrow (if anyone will lend) at the lowest rate possible.

The reality is that the banks are still reluctant to lend against anything that isn't a sure bet (many small business owners are being faced with essentially a mortgage situation) and selling/buying all the consumer tosh does nothing much for the UK economy ... most of the money involved in such sales vanishes to Asia, Luxembourg, Switzerland, etc.

I fear those of us in Scotland are much closer to learning just how unstable house prices can be! Anybody that is sitting on an 80% or higher mortgage might well be holding their breath right now.

Cheers,
Robin

[Corranga]

I fear those of us in Scotland are much closer to learning just how unstable house prices can be! Anybody that is sitting on an 80% or higher mortgage might well be holding their breath right now.

Cheers,
Robin

That was a few pages back

[woody]

Hardly any country in the World saw the crisis coming so to blame Brown et al is ridiculous.

While I can't really disagree, it's unfortunate for Broon that he spent the preceding years proclaiming loudly and often " No more boom and bust!".

[Kelvin]

Hardly any country in the World saw the crisis coming so to blame Brown et al is ridiculous.

While I can't really disagree, it's unfortunate for Broon that he spent the preceding years proclaiming loudly and often " No more boom and bust!".

Because he believed the economists who were saying that a crisis was near impossible and that we'd reached some kind of stability. Everyone believed this it seems. Point to all the economists who were highlighting the toxic debt that the banks were building up for example. The reason we are all so smart now about what went wrong is simply hindsight. I'm not saying Broon and the rest don't share the responsility in some way because they clearly do but the failure of the market and the banks can be traced all the way back to Thatcher and Reagan deregulating the financial markets. The big bang, as it was known, put all the focus on the money men in Wall Street and London - too much in reality. There is a very long list of people reponsible for what happened but the three causes of the crash were corruption, greed, and criminality. Sadly corruption is a human trait and you see this across all large groups from the Police to the NHS to MPs etc.

Butr yes, we are right to be sceptical of people telling us what the future will look like financially but only because they really don't know with any degree of certainty due to the unpredictable nature of the World we live in. As MacMillan said 'events, my dear boy, events' in answer to the hardest aspect of his job.

In terms of who to blame, I read a while ago that the NASA cutbacks were also in part to blame as you had all these big brains with nothing to do so they headed to Wall Street...

[mxvx]

Anybody that is sitting on an 80% or higher mortgage might well be holding their breath right now.

Cheers,
Robin

Except in Aberdeen? I guess the bubble will remain...time will tell.

[scott_e]

Hardly any country in the World saw the crisis coming so to blame Brown et al is ridiculous.

100% agree with that statement. Arguably a few economists saw the danger and even fewer predicted the resulting turmoil. To put the blame on politicians is not fair. They are simply an easy target.

[renmure]

Against the the spirit of posting links to articles which agree with what we individually agree with..

I thought this was well balanced article today from the BBC Economics Editor, Robert Peston

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29161335

[jason]

Hardly any country in the World saw the crisis coming so to blame Brown et al is ridiculous.

100% agree with that statement. Arguably a few economists saw the danger and even fewer predicted the resulting turmoil. To put the blame on politicians is not fair. They are simply an easy target.

^ agree with this


It is all too easy, and disingenuous, to blame specific parties or even individual politicians for bad news items (as seen every week on Question Time!). The referendum campaign has been rife with this. Pick a negative and pin it to the party/individual your are opposed to, whilst butter wouldn't melt with your side's perfection. I find it reprehensible. Yawn.

And yet there's always been claim this referendum is not about party politics or individuals. Aye, right, so long as that suits….