China in...

2013:

I found this comment on "A 'Plastic surgery' that turns duck into goose", which is obviously common practice in China (today), but then as it happens...

...on a day in 2013, it is very hot. But you can’t see the sun.

Whatever. I haven’t seen the sun for a long time anyways.

I drive my car to the nearest gas station to gas up. I’ve learned that gas there is cheaper.

There aren’t many cars at the gas station. Now you don’t have to line to gas up. It feels so great.

The worker there asks, “How much gas do you want?”

“About 1,000 yuan (US$150) of gas,” I say without taking a glimpse at the gas pump.

“With this little gas, how far can you possibly go? Why don’t you fill it up?” The worker says scornfully.

“No. I would rather spent that much money on a kilo of leafy greens.”

I stare at the sky and can’t figure out what color it is.

“Okay, it is ready to go. Do you want an official invoice?”

“No invoice is needed. Thanks!”

The worker is stunned, “Oh, my god. You are awesome! A private car owner has the nerve to gas up?”

I crack a smile. I do feel proud at that moment.

I drive the car away with much contentment, because I know, this little gas is enough to get my car to the dealership.

The price of gas has risen. The price of apple has risen. The price of egg has risen. The price of radish has risen. The price of instant noodles has risen…

But I am gonna tough it out, because the price of grave plot has risen too.

It is 2 o’clock in the afternoon. The weather is still hot. And I still can’t see the sun.

Holding a small wad of banknotes in my hand, I walk out of the dealership.

I think to myself, “It’s been a long while since kids last ate any meat. It is time to satisfy their cravings.”

I look at my watch. It is already 2 p.m.

“It’s quite late. I have to get home with a kilo of meat before 7 p.m.”

I quicken my steps. Suddenly, I find to my joy that the air hasn’t got a markup, and in fact, it contains way more ingredients than before.

Thank you 网易青海省西宁市网友 [wangning4500] 的原贴!

Carpe diem!

In Pound we trust?!

Miserere!

Some more details on the UK economy that are worthwhile sharing and noting - you can't do much more than note and watch the further development as this economy is obviously run by intelligence that tells us every day they knew what they are doing. A specific proof you can watch here. But for inflation see here. For DC's new economy see here.

These graphs below show our strength in imports and dependency. And strong we are:

The above shows the monthly trade deficit of the UK, the next one the same in reference to food, only.

more; all graphs are in English ink! Querschuesse

Should you make out some kind of trend over the 30 years: don't worry!

Once the Euro is history not only logically (that's the case since 1998) but also in the reality of such intelligence that came up with that crap in the first place and their naive heirs like Merkel and Sarkozy we will have to bury the Pound instantly; that is it will need dumping over night!

Let us hope our intelligence will understand that this burial must happen in an instant manner not being dragged over weeks, months or years really. The latter would destroy the last remains of any kind of UK (export) economy we have and would see us people starve and/or freeze to death despite a global climate change: many!

miserere: [lat] have mercy!

Carpe diem!

Pretensioning the B(l)ow!

 UK's bubbling model...

The chart seen on www.querschuesse.de shows the UK's monthly trade balance in reference to food!

• August 2011: minus £1.436bn! 


• First eight months of 2011: minus £11.648bn!


• We are depending more on more on imports e.g. of meat, a minus of £3.601bn in 2011, alone!


• Same for such simple and relatively easy to produce dairy products! A minus of £1.391bn in 2011!


• Wheat and animal feed minus £1.382bn in 2011.


• Since 1995 we are net importers of oil with a dramatically falling output of North Sea oil.

Great Britain shows the classic bubble economy of a degenerated Anglo-Saxon model under permanent erosion of any kind of industrial output in relation to its GDP while running out of all kinds of resources; see oil and gas.

Along with the high import volume an ever increasing inflation is imported, the currency is weak even compared to US $ and the failing Euro.

Not my words, but a description of the UK's situation in the German blog above. Now, you might not like Germans, Germany or German cars, but what about the truth?

Inflation, even after tweaking all statistical possibilities, is up: 5.2%. In reference to food even +6.4%:

Another Catch-22 situation one should think as once Mr. King (Governor of the BoE) would decide to fight inflation by raising interest rates the government and the banks would have to declare bankruptcy; however, don't worry, inflation is the globally preferred idea to make debts look smaller.

As such inflation must grow faster...

as debts grow faster!

Don't mention the stability and value of the Pound, though!

"The UK fails to feed its population, Mr Neo and Mr. Lib "what are your answers?"


Carpe diem!

call for disaster...

"Greece! RAUS!"

Following the international media more and more people refer to expelling Greece from EUROland as the prime solution of a problem they skin deep link to the alleged way of Greek people being especially attentive to black markets, laziness, tax fraud or simply not paying taxes at all.

There probably is a true core in everything you read but then many other nations and economies are not really far from what Greece is like. That goes for the above but also for the levels of accrued debts over the past years, the way those countries were made part of EUROland and the methods they were taken advantage of by the banksters, not only lately, as GS is a prime example for.

So would such an exclusion work? Certainly, the easiest way and the one with a majority of the voters supporting it would be to return to the good, old Drachma. Fine.

And then? Would that help Greece, or the EURO, or the Pound, even?

It is easy to forecast that inflation would be the most dominant of all Greek imports; exports might boom for a while depending on how long Greece had anything on offer besides olives and sheep; tourism could also draw many people into the country, a summer long at least. But then imports such as energy, food, cars and any other commodities would cost stacks of good, old Drachma, lots of paper to be printed; at the same time trying to repay old debts would be the killer: then, as it is today; Greece's rating would be down from triple "A" to mono "-Z".

The very moment Greece would give up on the EURO or was forced to do so Greek creditors - not only banksters - would have a hell of a job to balance their sheets and currencies! That bailout could be called "Lehman II(GR)" with "Lehman III(x) " ... following right away.

By the way, one of those "Lehmans" will then go down in history as "x(UK)" even though nobody would need to shout "raus!". Here are more details on our "quarter of a trillion pound exposure"; so much on how clever it was to not join the EURO - or vice versa!? Clever?

So asking to expel Greece from the EURO is very simple but programmed suicide; it is rather naive and hardly a solution to be looking forward to.

Or, as one of those naive EU commissioners put it the other day in his English voice "ve ar oll sittin in one boot".

Carpe diem!

re-pression is programme

Stock markets are running out of arguments where "all the money pumped into the economies" would pump the global party to new heights. While bank crunch has now turned into a credit crunch and soon will be a supply and demand crunch the global players gamble on all kinds of commodities, an artificial world they dream to live in and bound to bounce.

The wake up call will be ugly; it will be a fight for labour and energy enforced by neo-protecionism which will leave the neo-liberals homeless.

Not that charts tell you much other than memorising the past; obviously 1929/30 and last five years' FTSE look very similar - the challenging difference is that then we had lots of white spots on this planet and WWII was next while today we have many unsolved hot spots in a globalised over-populated world pressurised by the ongoing fights for labour, energy and any other resource.

And why does the GBP look so similar?


Carpe diem!

flood of weak pound equals inflation

source

telegraph: Bank of England's 'nerves' to be tested as inflation jumps most on record

The sharp rise in the annual rate of consumer price inflation from 1.9pc to 2.9pc was driven by exceptional events in December 2008, as the VAT cut and high street discounting at that point were not repeated last month.

Fine, but here are the two really significant reasons:

• The weak Pound is automatically importing inflation as imports generally became more expensive; classic example: automobile and energy import prices;

• bailing out the banks was flooding them with liquidity; € 1,5 trillion in 2009 Europe wide alone - passing those sums on into the economies has not happened at all - but the liquidity has helped to transform what had begun as a bank crunch into a credit crunch. That is per se bad enough, but the real damage is done by the fact that the banks, flooded with cash, had and have to find lucrative investments; so they did what they know best, had done before and what has proved most profitable to achieve ROI figures of 25% (> Josef Ackermann); they buy gold where they produce no jewels, they buy oil without producing energy and food not for feeding anyone; they gamble and speculate as before and very obviously can hardly get enough highly paid gamblers on board.

The Bank of England certainly is the expert; so what is the hidden agenda behind favouring a weak pound in order to boost an almost not existing and really diminishing export industry and of throwing cheap money at failed banks that then dry up the credit markets, chase commodity prices higher and higher and couldn't care less?

It can hardly make sense to get oneself into the either... or...

NYT

Carpe diem!

come on: "bash it!"

telegraph: Taxpayers-face-2-trillion-unfunded-pensions-liability

source

I'd understand if we had a wide and strong export industry to then trash the Sterling obviously would make sense (for the Export lobby and foreign tourists) just as China and the US (and others) are doing it at the moment (to the extreme).

But to bash one's own currency in times where we are depending on imports, should avoid (importing) inflation and rather strengthen our purchase power comes very close to acting suicidal.

The entire bill of around £2.2 trillion would more than triple the size of the national debt overnight. It is entirely unfunded, so will have to be paid directly by future generations of taxpayers, rather than out of a pot contributed to by the pensioners themselves.

Well, how new is that?

Between you and me and the gate post: at least one of the economies that make the EURO is insolvent, officially; it's called Greece! Others, in fact the majority, are close to being insolvent and are definitely over indebted! And close to all of them face the same downturn, the same deflationary scenario and, believe it or not, very similar liabilities when it comes to public sector pensions etc.

They just don't talk about it!

Why do we?

Is there a specific hidden agenda we should get prepared for?

Carpe diem!

in-de-flation

telegraph: Train operators in spin row over fair rises

Obviously we will be going through deflationary times with inflationary exceptions; but lets face it, items that are available in abundance and not really "essential" when it comes to making a living are becoming really cheap where items, fees and taxes that are necessary and unavoidable will drive inflation.

(c)source

Some fares will rise sharply, with First Great Western imposing a 15 per cent increase on its "super saver single" between Swindon and London, which will go up from £20 to £23.

Meanwhile Southeastern trains is pushing up the cost of all its off-peak return fares by 7.3 per cent, while passengers on Arriva Trains Wales will see increases approaching 10 per cent on some journeys.

I am sure the guardians of any official statistic will try to calm us down by mixing in- and deflation notwithstanding life per se becoming more expensive!

Carpe diem!

Apples importing inflation?

UK still eats twice as many apples from abroad as homegrown

"At the moment we have a situation where we are importing massive amounts of food into the UK, while we have our own apples. It is bizarre. Consuming local produce not only cuts down on food miles, it helps local farmers and is good for our health."

While imports not necessarily will be bad for your health I just think the Pound's weakness came too fast to be growing more apples over night; imports paid for in € have become 40% more expensive; but would you bet on an apple tree and next year's currency ratios?

Carpe diem!