“The Financial Jigsaw” has been serialised here and now is replaced by this weekly “Letter from Great Britain.”
NOTE – If anyone would like an electronic copy of the complete book, I should be pleased to email a free PDF on request to: [email protected].
A diversion for an intriguing question: Ever wondered who owns the Moon? The October 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans any nation from trying to own the Moon. It also bars state signatories from placing “nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space”; and it requires that the Moon and other celestial bodies shall only be used for peaceful purposes.
If only the Treaty could also apply to the Earth – Sigh.
UPDATE: Mask experiences, first week: I thought you would like to know my own experience of not wearing a mask during the first week of our confused government’s pronouncements. Here is my shortened diary of events:
- Friday, July 24 (day 1) – I boldly entered our local Spar shop, naked from the neck up, sans mask, but noted some quizzical glances; no questions asked. I was ‘one degree’ under on Saturday and did not venture forth.
- Sunday, July 26 – Having recovered, we went for a walk to Budgens in Bruton’s West End when I was asked politely whether I might wear a face diaper – I replied: “NO – I’m mentally ill” and carried on without a problem.
- Monday, July 27 – was spent enjoying my friend Mike’s company at a very favourable lunch in the pub near Wells where we plotted our strategy for his refusal to pay for a TV licence (see below) and agreed that I should represent him in court when the time comes. We went into Tesco, without challenge, bare-naked at the bonce, and wandered around, without challenge.
- Tuesday, July 28 – I was treated to a great pizza at our local pub by my friend Col. Niall (our former Commanding Officer), ‘The Sun Inn’, where everything is back to normal and the landlord reports that trade is back at better than before the pandemic – good news! Excellent conversation about politics and economics. In the evening we enjoyed an episode of “Who Wants to be A Millionaire” to whom I have applied online following my appearance on Tipping Point – ITV last year.
- Wednesday, July 29 – was passed in the office drafting my ‘Letter from Great Britain’, ready for updating and posting at TBP on Saturday morning.
- Thursday, July 30 was our monthly shopping day in the nearby town of Wincanton where I was not challenged at Lidl, but politely asked at Morrisions to wear a mask – to which I replied: “NO” without response and carried on my way. My wife Yvonne felt more comfortable wearing her mask (she’s an ‘intercessor’ type of person). We had a great lunch of steak at the Wagtail restaurant and were surprised to observe only three customers at 2pm. Service and food were their usual high standard. The staff said that business was slow since they opened recently. In the evening we joined some of our neighbours for wine and beer at the communal grassy knoll and passed several hours until dark laughing, jesting and generally having a good time.
- Friday, July 31 – We enjoyed a liquid lunch and in the evening, it being 86 degrees (F) and sunny, we set up a ‘Bring & Braai’ [Braai is South African for BBQ] at the same neighbour’s recreational area where our comical friends joined us for more jollities.
So ends another ‘boring’ week in Bruton within ‘Lockdown Britain’. Phew this retirement thingy is exhausting!
TV Licences in UK: Our BBC (Bullshit Broadcasting Corporation) is a 24/7 reconstructed crap TV and they charge you £157.50 per year (licence) for it – this little ‘tax’ is enforced by law – you are liable to be jailed if you fail to pay.
The latest recent effrontery is for ‘them’ (government or BBC? Perhaps they are one and the same?) to take away the free licence, having been issued to all those 75+ in the past, and which I attained in December last year – hopes of my final years being relieved of such imposition having been dashed on the rocks of this Corporation’s hubris. My long-time friend and fellow yachtsman, Mike, will refuse to pay and I have agreed to represent him in court:
“Earlier this month, the broadcasting giant announced it is pushing ahead with plans to end free TV licences for over-75s after postponing the controversial change due to the coronavirus pandemic. Under the plans, an extra three million households will have to pay the £157.50 annual fee and only those who receive Pension Credit will be exempt.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1311056/bbc-tv-licence-fee-over-75s-free-tv-licence-decriminalise-non-payment-defund-the-bbc
The BBC is full of leftist, BAME and LBGT PDQ types who conform to all the platitudes of the celebrity caste. They are paid a fortune to spout government narrative all day and night. Most aware folks here in UK ignore them with contempt.
Note 1: ‘Pension Credit’ is a welfare system for impoverished pensioners (approx. 1.5 million) who are unable to live on the ‘below poverty level’ state pension which amounts to some £150-£200 per week depending on National Insurance Contributions (NIC) having been paid throughout one’s working life. It raises the pensioner to the ‘poverty level’ of a living standard deemed by government to be sufficient for their twilight years.
Note 2: Workers pay National Insurance contributions if you earn more than £183 a week for 2020-21. You pay 12% (a tax on labour) of your earnings above this limit and up to £962 a week for 2020-21. The rate drops to 2% of your earnings over £962 a week.
But now for some good news: Boris’s Bonus! For the month of August, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays only, our benevolent government will pay for each of us to have 50% discount on all food and soft drinks (not alcohol) up to a maximum of £10 and as many times as we wish. Here are the details:
https://www.lbcnews.co.uk/business/eat-out-to-help-out-which-restaurants-how-it-works/
NEXT UP – ‘The Face Mask saga’ proceeds apace
Julius Caesar’s crossing the Rubicon River in 49 BC in defiance of Roman law placed him and his army on a direct collision course with Rome, leading to the Civil War which established him as Roman dictator. It is a well-established metaphor for a point at which there is no going back and at which things will never be the same.
I predicted a few weeks ago that the UK Government would in the near future try to force everyone to wear face masks in public. Leave aside the plethora of information that makes it clear face masks are of practically zero benefit in everyday circumstances, and may in fact be dangerous, the forced wearing of face masks is a transgression so fundamental and of such significance that it is difficult to adequately express.
It implicitly hands your body over to state control, and renders one of your most basic existential freedoms subject to state interference. For the first time, the right to exercise a choice of whether you should inhibit your respiratory faculties and hide your face in public is taken out of your hands. If you doubt the significance of this, try to remember the public outcry that followed a debate regarding banning the wearing of burkhas and hijabs in the face of Islamic terrorism, and the connotations this had for civil liberties at the time.
Face mask wearing is the visible hallmark of Asian states perceived in the West as repressive and authoritarian. It is a badge of serfdom, akin to the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany. There is no greater invasion of your person possible short of tattooing you with a number.
Oh, BTW: The Dutch do not believe in Masks either! If everybody who is sceptical of the “masks save lives” (aka the glitterati), is a “denier”, then how does one explain the Dutch government’s decision to refuse to mandate mask wearing? The only place where masks must be worn in the Netherlands is on public transport.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that the Dutch government had decided the day before that it would not advise the public to wear masks to slow the spread of coronavirus because their effectiveness has not yet been proven.
The decision was announced by the Netherlands Minister for Medical Care, Tamara van Ark, following a review by the country’s National Institute for Health. After a resurgence in cases over the past week or so, the Dutch government has decided it will instead seek better adherence to social distancing rules.
“Because, from a medical perspective, there is no proven effectiveness of masks, the Cabinet has decided that there will be no national obligation for wearing non-medical masks” Van Ark said.
Boris’s Bungles this week: The never-ending saga of face diapers grumbles on this week with many looking like rabbits caught in headlights with their 1000 yard stare reminiscent of those Vets from Nam as they return to The World after so many traumas. Have government and the mainstream media gone too far in amplifying the risks and dangers to public health over Coronavirus?
First they ordered the public to stay at home in order to ‘Save the NHS’ and save lives, and now as the virus has almost disappeared from public health statistics, the government of Boris Johnson is ordering the nation to wear face masks in stores and public spaces in order to supposedly stop the spread of the virus – after previously giving advice that masks were not needed outside medical and care settings.
“They deliberately stirred up excessive fear at the beginning, which has completely changed the nature of the country,” says Peter Hitchens. He adds that, “What we had before was a country that was used to the disciplines of work, used to the disciplines of commuting – that link has now been broken.”
“In this episode, talkRADIO’s Mike Graham speaks with UK journalist Peter Hitchens about how the UK government has instilled “excessive fear” of a coronavirus ‘second wave’ which has fundamentally altered the way people feel about returning to work. The result has been an economic free-fall which has no end in sight.” Watch and listen:
But now, another government faux pas maximus: (July 27), Boris has even quarantined, for 14 days, all travellers and holiday makers arriving from Spain with only 5 hours’ notice leaving some literally ‘up in the air’ before they landed at Heathrow and Gatwick! Much furore and groaning from the great British public, after having been shut down for four months, only to be caged again after a brief respite on the burning sands of a Spanish summer.
The Spanish too are justly offended and aghast at losing all that much needed tourist spending power. To add insult to injury, Germany joined UK in their panic attack and quarantined the Bosch from Spain too! The Daily Mirror has the dirty details:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/voice-mirror-blundering-johnson-spreads-22432545
Working from Home is becoming the norm: Nearly 50,000 UK-based staff at banking giant RBS Group [Now renamed NatWest bank] have been told they will not go back into the office until 2021, just days after Boris Johnson said employers should begin encouraging people back into the workplace. RBS recommends working from home
UK banks in trouble: This is a very long report but worth skimming and reading the abstract. I am reminded of the bankers reporting losses in 2007 as a prelude to the GFC. Are we witnessing a repeat performance? Can UK Banks Pass the COVID-19 Stress Test?
file:///C:/Users/peter/Downloads/Can%20UK%20banks%20pass%20the%20COVID-19%20stress%20test%206%20May%202020.pdf
And HSBC has just reported heavy losses and joins the club: HSBC accelerates 35,000 job cuts amid Covid-19 profit plunge
Britain is not reopening just yet: People have not embraced an easing of lockdown restrictions in England’s pubs, bars and restaurants, according to figures that showed a drop in sales of about 40% among venues that opened their doors at the beginning of the month. Pubs that were open in the week beginning 6 July posted a 39% decline in sales compared with the same period last year, while bars were down 43% and restaurants down 40%.
England yet to embrace reopened restaurants and pubs
Now that UK has left EUROPE I will comment on relevant EU – UK events as they arise:
“TARGET 2” is the EU settlement system for transfers between the national central banks (NCB). Target balances are positions on the balance sheets of all euro area countries’ NCBs and the NCBs of non-euro area EU countries that have joined TARGET on a voluntary basis.
Changes in the Target balances of individual NCBs result from the settlement of cross-border payments executed between banks via Target. The way it works, in theory, is as follows. A German manufacturer sells goods to an Italian business. The Italian business pays by bank transfer drawn on its Italian bank via the Italian central bank through the Target2 system, crediting the German manufacturer’s German bank through Germany’s central bank.
But since the Lehman crisis, and more noticeably the last eurozone crisis, capital flows appear to have gravitated from Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain (the PIGS — remember them?) to principally Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Finland in that order. Before 2008, the balance was maintained by trade deficits in Greece, for example, being offset by capital inflows as residents elsewhere in the eurozone bought Greek bonds, other investments in Greece and the tourist trade collected net cash revenues.
In this sense, it would be wrong to suggest that trade imbalances have led to Target2 imbalances. But part of the problem must be put down to the failure of private sector investment flows to recycle.
The ending of the euro will not be mourned. Those which it disciplined through its strength regretted the loss of money they could print for themselves. And those who end up paying for its failure will have sacrificed all their peoples’ hard-won savings.
For the moment, the euro is strong against the world’s reserve currency. This strength comes partly from its moderate international trade surplus compared with the enormous US trade deficit, and the fact that the dollar is over-owned by foreigners while the euro is not. But in terms of purchasing power both currencies are on their different trajectories to purchasing power destruction.
The Fed’s policy of tying in the dollar to the fortunes of financial asset values is one form of currency destruction, but the euro will be destroyed if, and when, the flawed Euro system falls apart. Full details: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/eurozones-financial-disintegration
To be continued next week.
“I replied: “NO – I’m mentally ill” and carried on without a problem.”
LOL…Fuckin love it!!
That is a good one!
Very interesting read. Thank you, AP.
Many thanks SeeBee, I always appreciate reader’s feedback and try to be relevant as well as interesting about a subject which can be somewhat tedious at times!
Well, Hans, there might be a smidgen of truth in it! 🙂
Peter.
“But in terms of purchasing power both currencies are on their different trajectories to purchasing power destruction.
The Fed’s policy of tying in the dollar to the fortunes of financial asset values is one form of currency destruction, but the euro will be destroyed if, and when, the flawed Euro system falls apart. Full details: ” Just thought I would add this to your purchasing power remark. Are we in zimbabwe yet?
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-dollar-devalues-99-vs-gold-100-years-gold-price-crosses-2067
A very good article Fleabaggs, thank you, and I do agree that “sound money” must be gold in the end as fiat currencies fail; and as the article concludes:
“Owning physical gold stored outside the banking system offers protection of your purchasing power from currency debasement.”
We in the Austrian school support this mantra. However, Gresham’s law is a ‘monetary’ principle stating that “bad money drives out good.” It is primarily used for consideration (medium of exchange) and application in currency markets. Gresham’s law was originally based on the composition of minted coins and the value of the precious metals used in them.
Although we talk of ‘money printing’ this is not exactly true because QE relies on bond issuance and is a form of credit rather than actual dollars which only represent about 3% of all the money in use. This puts a different angle on the effect of inflation as a form of currency debasement. I have spent many years trying to get my head around this concept and my friend Gerry Brady has gone to great lengths to explain it all over several years when I was writing my book.
I believed that the central banks would introduce a global currency based on the IMF’s SDR system, but now I think that they are working towards a blockchain digital method of settlement for international trade with individual nations retaining their own currencies for domestic exchange. This article explains it rather well IMO:
Also you may like to read Gerry’s view of how he sees the future of money:
The pandemic has accelerated the process of de-growth by (my guess) ten years.
But personally, I continue to stack bullion on a dollar-averaging basis whilst it is rising, just in case Zimbabwe arrives in my lifetime – not there yet methinks!