My book “The Financial Jigsaw” has now been accepted and published at my academic network. Scroll down and Hit: ‘View Full Text’ button for the complete book: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358117070_THE_FINANCIAL_JIGSAW_-_PART_1_-_4th_Edition_2020 I will be pleased to email a free PDF on request to: [email protected].
STOP PRESS: Britain is now without a functioning government! As the country faces the incoming economic hurricane there’s nobody accountable at the helm as the jagged rocks of catastrophe loom large. Shades of the Titanic come to mind. A week used to be a long time in politics – now it’s measured in hours.
BUT WAIT, we aren’t the only ones – our Sugar-Daddy, America, is in a similar position this week: “Rudderless, aimless and hopeless,” said one member of Congress in describing the White House.” https://www.zerohedge.com/political/top-democrats-staffers-fume-over-white-houses-chaotic-impotence
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Can we believe anything our ‘leaders’ say? Sir Humphrey Appleby, in Britain’s comedy series ‘Yes Minister’ is dealing with Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). Boris does it every Wednesday and tells lots of porkies in the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ4sOdqdxaw
BREAKING NEWS: Tuesday night was a blockbuster with two top ministers telling Boris to stick it. At last, two senior ministers have grown balls, showing apparent honesty and integrity, and resigning their illustrious posts in Cabinet. And there were at least 10 resignations by the time Westminster went to bed. MPs viewed the feebleness of the press briefing as “the last straw” and there have been plenty of other straws already. Better late than never.
Now we know who the remaining nest of vipers really is as they scramble to grasp the last lifelines attached to the sinking ship of state and emerge from the steaming heap of Westminster’s sewage to sate their gross egos. Ed Vaizey, the former culture minister, gave the BBC quite a funny summary of one candidate: Sunak is “so rich he’s incorruptible, which is a very important point”, he said. “And also he’s one of the few members of the cabinet who can do joined-up handwriting.”
Clearly there is no love lost between Boris and Sunak because later, after Sunak’s resignation, Johnson hosted drinks for loyalists and said that at least it would now be easier to cut taxes. It looks like strong liquor is the PM’s last refuge. And hints of a final party-bash at Chequers – will the partying ever end? Nero at least played his fiddle.
UPDATE: Thursday: EXIT BORIS? After 50+ MPs resigned. The PM is still hanging on, vowing to “lead”, and firing Michael Gove, a powerful Cabinet minister and former ally.
NOT SO FAST. Nice story but there’s much more to it. Boris hasn’t ‘gone’ – he relinquished his leadership of the Tory Party – that’s all – he did a deal with the 1922 committee. He remains PM and stays in No.10 on a nod that he will not implement ‘new policy’ which is impractical and impossible and the ‘agreement’ is loose and undefined. Boris is a puppet WEF Young Global Leader and is doing the work of the cabal just like Trudeau et al. He claims victory on three counts:
- An 80-seat sweeping majority in 2019 but he was against a discredited Marxist Corbyn with a ‘Red Wall’ bulwark that crumbled – Corbyn would have lost against a feral ape. This was a fail.
- BoJo claims victories in the scamdemic fiasco – but lockdowns have been disastrous – he could have followed Sweden but was against the script – Another fail.
- He claims victory in the distribution of deadly jabs (ably assisted by NADHIM ZAHAWI – the next in-line). This was yet another fail. Note that BoJo plans to be in power until the autumn so what is planned between now and then?
Perhaps Friday’s press have pinpointed our worse fears? “Johnson will leave scorched earth. The idea that he should stay until autumn is madness”. His faux ‘going’ was hardly more graceless even than I could have imagined. Boris Johnson did not seem sorry. Not now, maybe not ever. When the Downing Street barnacle on the arse of Britain was finally chiselled off his rock, it was only to deliver a parting salvo lacking in all humility or self-awareness but instead verging on the accusatory. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/07/boris-johnson-conservatives-resign-leadership? The ex-advisor, Cummings, has it right: “Predictably, Cummings had the most apocalyptic analysis. “I’m telling you – he doesn’t think it’s over,” he wrote on Twitter. “If MPs leave him in situ there’ll be CARNAGE.”
IT’S COMMON KNOWLEDGE that bureaucrats and politicians of any colour will always obfuscate their mistakes, misdirect the audience and eventually, when the worms crawl out of the woodwork often months or years later, they instigate the cover-up and double down – witness the scamdemic fiasco. It has ever been so and Boris is no different as he has so eloquently proven. Another 3 min clip from ‘Yes Minister’ illustrates the point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V4i6PV4GGI
Within hours the PM had filled the holes in this Cabinet and we now have a new Chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, of unknown competence in the financial world but with some obscure business dealings in the recent past. We can only wait and see if the listing ship can be righted: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/05/nadhim-zahawi-this-self-made-solid-minister-is-in-rapid-ascent BUT the MSM would say this in support of yet another snake-in-the-grass having risen from impoverished Kurdish heritage to found YouGov by less than transparent means and latterly the ‘vaccine’ boondoggle. It’s fun and profit to be in the club.
THERE IS SOMETHING PUTRID IN THE STATE OF BRITAIN. They say that the fish rots from the head. I have no idea how true this is but it certainly applies to the rot at the heart of Westminster led by a consummate liar who has no understanding of why it is so important to be truthful in high office. The penalty for the lack of honesty, integrity and murky immoral behaviour is loss of public trust, support and the risk of being cast into political oblivion for a very long time.
Johnson’s mood is defiant: “He said millions of people voted for me only two years ago – and I’m going to fight this to the end. I can’t just pack that in.” This is yet another fudge which is paraded ad nauseam. The fact is that the 2019 election resulted in the collapse of northern Labour seats (aka ‘The Red Wall’) under the Marxist Corbyn activists – very little credibility can be accorded to Boris’s apparent spectacular election win – the Tories won by default.
This is where we are in 2022 Britain which has descended into a cesspit of sleaze unmatched in any previous period. The Guardian had a quote on Monday: “Another younger Tory colleague said: “There were persistent rumours about Chris and how he behaves when drunk, but there are persistent rumours about most people in parliament and if you believed all of them we would have no MPs.” [Maybe that would be no bad thing?]
“This transcends party political lines and appears to have been endemic within the realm of a government led by BoJo and his clan of misanthropes. If his cabinet had a smidgen of professional integrity their clown of a leader would have been long gone.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Anneliese Dodds, the Labour party chair, asked him why he was not having the party to investigate Pincher, unlike the inquiry into Neil Parish, the Tory MP who resigned for watching pornography in the House of Commons [see below for a laugh].
“Only Boris Johnson could have looked at ‘Pincher-the-Pincher’s’ record and thought “he deserves a promotion,” Dodds said. “Not only that, but by not investigating these allegations and allowing the former deputy chief whip to keep the Conservative whip, the Prime Minister is sending a dangerous signal.
“This Prime Minister is clearly happy to sweep sexual misconduct under the carpet in order to save his own skin. Conservative MPs need to take a long hard look in the mirror and decide if this is the kind of leader the British people deserve.” There is much more to come from beneath these covers: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/06/how-much-longer-can-boris-johnson-refuse-to-budge
FOLLOWING ON; are these the sort of people who should be governing Britain? If Boris is ‘Clown-Man’ what does this 10 minute interview say about the disgraced Neil Parish (MP-Failed). Is this the depths to which our lawmakers have sunk?
Speaking to ITV’s Lorraine this morning (July 4), Mr Parish admitted he had experienced a “moment of madness”. He said: “I think there are moments of madness in your life and this was one of them and of course, you know, one has plenty of time to regret afterwards.” Unsurprisingly, some fans of the show found his appearance on ITV hilarious. One person tweeted: “This is like a Little Britain sketch #lorraine”. Someone else described it as “one of the funniest interviews” by Lorraine. And @leeleeCThomas added: “This is one of the funniest interviews Lorraine has ever done. The denial is hilarious. He must think that we were all born last night.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmlxAdDywZM
WHILST OUR LEADERS are engaged in petti-fogging nonsense Britain is on the brink of an economic and financial disaster. Dr Tim Morgan has noticed the trend and it’s not pretty. This is a lightly edited précis of Tim’s prescient essay:
“Whether the country’s leaders know it or not, the United Kingdom is now at serious risk of economic collapse. We must hope that this doesn’t happen. If it does, it will take the form of a sharp fall in the value of Sterling which, in these circumstances, is the indicator to watch.
A currency crash would cause sharp increases, not just in the prices of essential imports such as energy and food, but also in the cost of servicing debt. In defence of its currency, Britain could be forced into rate rises which would bring down its dangerously over-inflated property market.
This risk itself isn’t new. Rather, it results from a long period of folly, and can’t be blamed entirely on the current administration, inept though the Johnson government undoubtedly is. What we’re witnessing now seems to be a government on the edge of panic. The official opposition doesn’t offer a workable alternative programme, and mightn’t be electable if it did.
The first problem is the over-inflation of the values of assets, and principally of property. High and rising property values provide both the collateral and the confidence for perpetual credit expansion. This is why successive governments have sought to promote, rather than try to tame, house price escalation.
Every initiative branded as “help” for young buyers has, in reality, been a device for propping up or further inflating the real estate market. At the first sign of a wobble in house prices, transaction taxes (stamp duties) are suspended. A property price crash is one of the nightmares that haunt the slumbers of British decision-makers.
The second structural weakness is the permanent and worsening current account deficit. The United Kingdom consumes more than it produces. The system incentivizes people to make money – preferably through asset price escalation – rather than to produce goods and services.
A concept which has been described here before is the distinction between globally-marketable output (GMO) and internally-consumed services (ICS). In Britain, GMO has become dangerously small, such that excessive reliance is placed on ICS. Hitherto, the structural current account gap has been bridged by the sale of assets to overseas investors, a process which has seen major companies, utilities and even football teams sold into foreign ownership. This trend has become particularly acute since Britain ceased to be a net exporter of oil and gas.
The dangers implicit in this structure are clear. First, a heavily indebted and credit-dependent economy is extremely vulnerable to rises in interest rates. Second, overseas investors might start to wonder about Britain’s ability to cope with a steadily worsening structural current account shortfall, reasoning that there are limits to how long any economy can survive by “selling off the family silver” or relying on “the kindness of strangers”.
There’s not much point in urging companies to hold down or even cut their prices when those companies’ own costs are soaring. Workers are unlikely to pay much heed when highly-remunerated officials urge the virtues of wage restraint. But what sets Britain apart is its long-standing adherence to an increasingly extreme ‘liberal’ ideology. We’ve seen this over decades, with a succession of initiatives designed to translate taxpayer funds into private profits.
Taken to extremes, this version of ‘liberalism’ becomes the same system that sent small children up Victorian chimneys. That probably wouldn’t pay in the 2020s, but its modern equivalents – the “gig” economy, “zero-hours contracts” and the relentless undermining of security of employment – have all been warmly welcomed in Westminster and Whitehall. This is the same kind of myopia which remembers the Defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, but forgets the Defeat of the English Armada in the following year. https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/
COLLAPSE MONITOR: For the First Time Since 1991, Germany’s Trade Surplus Vanishes. Germany’s trade surplus is gone. Foreign trade balance came in at negative €1bn in May, which is the first negative print since 1991 due to its energy problems & weakness in manufacturing. Germany’s growth model has been to import cheap energy from Russia, use that to assemble manufactured goods and export those goods to the rest of the world. While Germany now seeks new energy suppliers, its trade balance and that of the Euro zone will look ugly.
And here is an insane decree in Holland. “Farmers in the Netherlands have been angered by the government’s plans for tougher measures that would drastically reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides. The Dutch government unveiled its goals on Friday, mandating reductions of up to 70% in many places and as high as 95% in others in a bid to protect nature — or what the cabinet called an “unavoidable transition”.
There can be only two options: either governments around the world have gone completely gaga or there is another agenda. How long before Putin shuts off Natural Gas to Europe? So, two key questions of the day Europe needs to address: How long and what’s the economic impact? It’s important to note that a huge decrease in supply as opposed to a total shut down would cripple the EU whilst keeping money flowing to Russia. These outcomes are all in the hands of Putin. The EU has no control over supply; it is a buyer not a seller of energy. Yet, the EU thinks of creating a “buyer’s cartel”! Mike Shedlock (Mish) has a great article explaining this madness: https://mishtalk.com/economics/a-laughable-explanation-of-the-g7-oil-price-buyers-cartel-emerges
THE NARRATIVE BATTLE: Have you noticed that the Covid PsyOp operation is subtly gearing up again? “The government is acting as if Covid is gone,” writes Stephen Reicher – and so is the public. But that sense of safety is misplaced. He warns that a lack of caution is leaving us “exposed and helpless” to the next wave. The Guardian is always ready to press the WEF narrative – “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” Sun Tzu advises: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/05/pretending-covid-over
Here’s an example of blatant censorship from the FT: The Financial Times removed a comment from a reader calling himself ‘Mykonos Mike’ underneath an article about why COVID-19 infection and vaccination are only partially effective – and, in some cases, completely ineffective. The reason was “violating our community guidelines”, although, needless to say, no more detail was provided.
In light of this, we thought it was only right to republish Mykonos Mike’s comment in full which got the most ‘likes’: “Is this the long winded drivel to explain how people who have taken four doses of a 95% effective vaccine can get infected multiple times? The science in the pandemic has been so wrong it entered fairy tale wonderland story telling level, almost from the beginning. This is volume 15 of series four of the story. I’ll provide a spoiler – nobody cares anymore. And the decisions made in relation to this virus were ineffective and have created massive social and economic problems that will last decades. Time to start calling it as it is FT, the media are hugely complicit in this nonsense. Governments, scientists, health authorities and pharmaceutical companies need to answer very direct questions.” You can read the report here: https://dailysceptic.org/2022/07/05/financial-times-censors-criticism-of-vaccine-article/
NOTE: The FT is owned by the Pearson Group, which also owns a 50% stake in ‘The Economist’ which is a private company owned by Exor N.V. (43.40%) Rothschild Cadbury Schroder Layton. In other words, it’s a big club and you’re not in it.
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“And also he’s one of the few members of the cabinet who can do joined-up handwriting.”
LOL. When Walt went to school back in the late 1900’s, ‘joined-up handwriting’ was what he learned was called ‘cursive’. Along with a great deal of other interesting things, he learned to identify any adult who referred unironically to cursive as ‘joined-up handwriting’ as being retarded.
As an aside, at Walt’s school, ball points weren’t allowed (‘six of the best’ was, though), so we all learned to write with a nib pen. Any and all misspellings were rewarded by writing the word out 100 times.. Exercise books, nib pens, ink and blotting paper etc. were obtained from the Quatermaster’s store.
Walt’s writing was, and is still to this day, done with the very same nib pen (although not the same nib).
Thank you Peter. I have been anticipating your take on the BoJo resignation and you did not disappoint.
With the rapidity of government failure, are you accelerating your relocation timetable? I’m sure you are anxious to move into the next stage of life.
Yes TNP – time is moving fast now but I am sorry to say that SA is going downhill fast. My wife’s daughter (in Jo’burg) is so pissed off they are actually thinking of coming here! Have to rethink about frying pans and fire!
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-06-load-shedding-is-adding-to-the-anxiety-depression-and-mental-health-toll-among-south-africans/?utm_source=TouchBasePro&token=MEdjczVNYUpZeFBuZmN2SkdvQUJXSE9XM1lxVStiYTlKdzhhTVN4Y3o1QUU3UEVrMjRPVGJSMm9sVEIxb0ZUalRqRGZPL2ZWb1poeUZONFpnMUIrWFpWVEdhOEpwemIxVGthVmhkSTVtZUF6WXROS1FoUmovOFQ5UndVVWtvL3g=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=First%20Thing%206%20July%202022&utm_content=First%20Thing%206%20July%202022+CID_6932a00138c7257121ae992fded9a590&utm_source=TouchBasePro&utm_term=Load%20shedding%20is%20adding%20to%20the%20anxiety%20depression%20and%20mental%20health%20toll%20among%20South%20Africans
That is a shame, Peter. With all that is going on, it looks like the southern hemisphere may get hit the least when the great reset comes. I have noted some TBPers who are located in S America and it sounds like they are in a much better position for what is coming down the pike.
I have been slowly accumulating components for a small solar system, just in case the blackouts come to W. TN. I have a 200W panel up and use it to recharge all of my 12 & 18v power tool batteries. It works great and would provide power to charge cell phones and a couple of fans, plus the morning coffee maker, if nothing else was plugged in. I have to be careful how much I plug in at one time as the inverter is quite touchy. That will have to be my next purchase.
Good luck to you and I hope it all works out for you and your wife.
Thanks TNP and SAM is an option – we are still looking – I will keep TBPers informed. Go well – it’s gonna be a bit rocky soon.
Very sorry to read this Peter – re your plans for SA.
My old country, the UK, has as you correctly write, has had its day.
Having lived and worked in Asia for many years, Good as it was it is not my choice to retire to.
Almost 20 years on the West coast of Canada is fine…as long as you can put up with the huge ‘woke’ culture….fishing helps:) BUT it does little to make up for the despot, Trudeau and the paramilitary that keep him in power…The RCMP.
Haven’t been able to find a S American country that will be safe for ‘gringos ‘ when everything kicks off.
Just read that Germany has siezed 3 Russian natural gas tankers. Piracy by any measure – do the Powers that be, truly understand what they are doing? (source: Telegraph)
Very good luck with your search for a safe haven and many thanks for an excellent post.
Thank you for your kind words Cannuck21. At least we are resident deep in the Somerset countryside where our local economy and good neighbours will mitigate the trauma to come and unusually we do have a bunker under our cottage should the missiles fly.
I remember the end of WWII – rationing etc – it wasn’t so bad; we had little but ‘make-and-mend’ kept us happy. And there was always the black market:
Really depressing article. How many other countries are going the way of Sri Lanka.
Glad you asked AKJ – this list is even more depressing I guess. Perhaps Davos are getting worried? The globalists are tracking it seems.
https://carnegieendowment.org/publications/interactive/protest-tracker
An article written three years ago warned of Boris…..
I was Boris Johnson’s boss: he is utterly unfit to be prime minister
I have known Johnson since the 1980s, when I edited the Daily Telegraph and he was our flamboyant Brussels correspondent. I have argued for a decade that, while he is a brilliant entertainer who made a popular maître d’ for London as its mayor, he is unfit for national office, because it seems he cares for no interest save his own fame and gratification…
For many of us, his elevation will signal Britain’s abandonment of any claim to be a serious country. It can be claimed that few people realised what a poor prime minister Theresa May would prove until they saw her in Downing Street. With Boris, however, what you see now is almost assuredly what we shall get from him as ruler of Britain…
If the Johnson family had stuck to showbusiness like the Osmonds, Marx Brothers or von Trapp family, the world would be a better place.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/24/boris-johnson-prime-minister-tory-party-britain
Brilliant B_MC thanks – great article and all so true – we reap what we sow!
while he is a brilliant entertainer who made a popular maître d’ for London as its mayor, he is unfit for national office,
Sounds like the leader of another country that is in the headlines the past 6 months or so.
Makes me wonder how many of these WEF Global Leaders were selected in part, perhaps in large part, for their acting skills.
All of them. Well, that and their total lack of shame or honour.
We had a reality TV star recently here in the states.
Kind of brings this home….
Thanks, Peter — great summary. Not sure which country is most screwed anymore: US, UK, Germany, France, or Zimbabwe.
Thank you for your kind words, DS. It’s the Fourth Turning, we are all screwed now as we pass through the inevitable process of massive change. What comes next is in the hands of the Gods! The elites know what’s coming and are trying everything to manage it and retain power – they will lose – according to history.
There seems to be no Franco, Reagan, Churchill, Charles Degaul, etc, ready to step into the leadership of the West and crush the Globalist Bastards and save the Fair Maidens from the Bidens, Clintons, etc. The latest poll I saw said 88% of Americas say the government is on the wrong path. Surely that is enough to overcome the democrat vote fraud machine this time and kick the SOB’ing democrats out of congress, impeach FJB, and prosecute a slew of criminals (2020 vote fraud, CV-19 Genocide, Russia Gate, J6, China & Ukraine Graft, Censorship, Supply Chain Fires etc). We do have some rising stars: DeSantis, Greene, Boebert, Bundy, Moore, Abbott, Masters, Loomer, Elder, Carlson, Ron Johnson, Marsha Blackburn, Kristi Noem, etc.
Don’t know that I would include Marsha in the “up and coming stars”. She came to a gathering of regional TEA Party leadership back in ’10 to talk to us and had all the right words to say. She assured us the republican leadership (Boehner, Ryan, McCarthy, et al) would be good leaders and get the House back to producing regular order for all bills, especially budget bills. If you recall, Boehner just went along with omnibus massive spending bills, driving the debt higher and higher and failed conservatives at every turn.
When one of the guys mentioned that the folks in the District of Corruption had better start looking out for the American public or there would be millions coming with tar and feathers, she suddenly remembered another meeting and had to split.
I’m sure she was a big hit at the frat parties back in her days at Ole Miss, but she has become part of the club. Of course, being a sorority chick at Ole Miss made her part of the Big Club back then too.
Kristi also showed us she is bought and paid for when it came to the transgender sports bill she vetoed.
Thanks for those details.
The UK is doomed. I don’t care what the government concocts today, they were doomed after what they did in 1948 and now it’s too late for anything. In one generation the EU and the UK will be ME and African colonies, per say.
So, in effect, their politics are pointless.
Enoch Powell was right!
“On 20th April 1968, the then-Shadow Defence Secretary Enoch Powell delivered his controversial and divisive ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech. 50 years on, the speech’s impact on the immigration debate in the UK is still being felt.”
Yep – he was bang on 🙂
Yes indeed Hollowpoint. These idiots don’t yet realise they can do nothing except designed to make it worse with their ‘policies which are meant to control and placate the public but we are on to them bigtime now – civil disorder is already growing around the world. The robber barons have taken everything and when the people have nothing to lose they lose it. Will a global civil war be the first unique event ever?
The inmates art truly running the asylum. We all know FJB is incompetent and has driven the US economy off a cliff, and the people running things in Europe are apparently no more competent than he is.
Germany is in serious trouble with its energy situation and it looks like it will get much worse unless they realize they are at Russia’s mercy and have a change of attitude. I would not be surprised to see some serious social unrest in Germany before the year is over.
At this point, it appears that a worldwide serious economic calamity is inevitable, which means the incompetent leaders will have to resort to wars to save their own asses from their infuriated populations.
All so true Jdog. Centralised governments have clearly failed which is why I support Scottish independence (pop. 5m) and Wales (pop 3m). England will need to divide into 30+ localised units based on a maximum management of 3m pop according to the recognised span of control thesis of management. There is a growing movement and secession in USA moving fast now.
This report at least recognises the failures:
“The UK is one of the most centralised states in Western Europe, constant
streams of regulations, directives and ministerial interventions pour out from
Westminster down to receiving bodies in local government, who are
themselves constantly centralised in thought, word and deed”
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/2791/pdf/
As per my Chapter 13:
https://austrianpeter.substack.com/p/the-financial-jigsaw-part-2-localisation?s=w