PJC Journal – Original » 2008 » April

Apr

05

This is not living, this is just existing

IanPJ Libertarian Party, Main Page Add you comment

Old Tom does not come to the pub any more. For seventy five years his
one great treat was to sit quietly in the corner and enjoy a harmless
pipe of tobacco and a pint of ale in the inscribed silver tankard that
the regulars gave him to mark his ninetieth birthday. Now the zealots
have banned his pipe and taxed his pint out of reach. He does not
understand why. When there is a cheap wine or spirits offer in the
local co-op, it is the old-age pensioners who form the queue, striving
to restore a little colour in their bleak existence. Yet the zealots
urge the raising alcohol taxes further and the banning of special offers.

The
excuse is the existence of bands of drunken youths in town centres. The
bans are called for by those who are often the very people who were
responsible for creating the problem of alienated feral youth in the
first place, by such policies as the destruction of discipline in
schools and undermining the institution of marriage.
Alcohol is not the cause: it is just one means by which the disaffected young express their defiance. There are a few more fat people around, so the whole population has to be harangued into an anorexic conformity.

This is not living, this is existing.

Imagine telling somebody twenty years ago that by 2007, it would be illegal to smoke in a pub or bus shelter or your own vehicle or that there would be £80 fines for dropping cigarette butts, or that the words “tequila slammer” would be illegal or the government would mandate what angle a drinker's head in an advertisement may be tipped at, or that it would be illegal to criticise religions or homosexuality, or rewire your own house, or that having sex after a few drinks would be classed as rape or that the State would be confiscating children for being overweight. Imagine telling them the government would be contemplating ration cards for fuel and even foods, that every citizen would be required to carry an ID card filled with private information which could be withdrawn at the state's whim. They'd have thought you a paranoid loon.

“The March of the Zealots” tells us much more.

Life doesn't have to be like this.

Consider which politicians and parties are responsible for this. Do you really want to vote Labour again, or for the Conservatives who are just as culpable in turning this country into the 'existence' state that we have become. Or even the LibDems, who want to extend the banning of products, raising both taxes and age limits.

All three of the major parties are big state parties, big government parties, big taxation parties. All three parties believe in interfering in every facet of your daily life, and they all want to ensure that this state of existence 'for your own good' continues.

There is another way.

Your Life, Your Country, Your Choice.

Seen on http://www.lpuk.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=453

This is not living, this is just existing

IanPJ Libertarian Party, Main Page Add you comment

Old Tom does not come to the pub any more. For seventy five years his
one great treat was to sit quietly in the corner and enjoy a harmless
pipe of tobacco and a pint of ale in the inscribed silver tankard that
the regulars gave him to mark his ninetieth birthday. Now the zealots
have banned his pipe and taxed his pint out of reach. He does not
understand why. When there is a cheap wine or spirits offer in the
local co-op, it is the old-age pensioners who form the queue, striving
to restore a little colour in their bleak existence. Yet the zealots
urge the raising alcohol taxes further and the banning of special offers.

The
excuse is the existence of bands of drunken youths in town centres. The
bans are called for by those who are often the very people who were
responsible for creating the problem of alienated feral youth in the
first place, by such policies as the destruction of discipline in
schools and undermining the institution of marriage.
Alcohol is not the cause: it is just one means by which the disaffected young express their defiance. There are a few more fat people around, so the whole population has to be harangued into an anorexic conformity.

This is not living, this is existing.

Imagine telling somebody twenty years ago that by 2007, it would be illegal to smoke in a pub or bus shelter or your own vehicle or that there would be £80 fines for dropping cigarette butts, or that the words “tequila slammer” would be illegal or the government would mandate what angle a drinker's head in an advertisement may be tipped at, or that it would be illegal to criticise religions or homosexuality, or rewire your own house, or that having sex after a few drinks would be classed as rape or that the State would be confiscating children for being overweight. Imagine telling them the government would be contemplating ration cards for fuel and even foods, that every citizen would be required to carry an ID card filled with private information which could be withdrawn at the state's whim. They'd have thought you a paranoid loon.

“The March of the Zealots” tells us much more.

Life doesn't have to be like this.

Consider which politicians and parties are responsible for this. Do you really want to vote Labour again, or for the Conservatives who are just as culpable in turning this country into the 'existence' state that we have become. Or even the LibDems, who want to extend the banning of products, raising both taxes and age limits.

All three of the major parties are big state parties, big government parties, big taxation parties. All three parties believe in interfering in every facet of your daily life, and they all want to ensure that this state of existence 'for your own good' continues.

There is another way.

Your Life, Your Country, Your Choice.

Seen on http://www.lpuk.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=453

Another indicator of the government's problems

IanPJ Main Page Add you comment

From the Times political blog today about Gordon Browns parting shot as Chancellor.

As
reported this morning, there is a growing rebellion over the decision
made a year ago to scrap the 10p band, effectively doubling tax to 20p
in the pound for about five million people on incomes of under £18,000.
This morning's report adds:

Some
MPs were stunned yesterday to receive text messages from the whips
asking whether their support could be counted on for the passage of the
Finance Bill, which implements the Budget in legislative form.

The whips are worried about the Budget being passed? Jeez…

Credit Crunch – banks have never had it so good…not..

IanPJ Main Page Add you comment

Despite the media and politicians telling us all that all in the world in just fine and dandy, the world financial community continue to suffer, quietly and with as little media coverage as possible.

Main capital write downs in the last 9 months

UBS: $37.4bn
Merrill Lynch: $22bn
Citigroup: $21.1bn
HSBC: $17.2bn
Morgan Stanley: $9.4bn
Deutsche Bank: $7.1bn
Bank of America: $5.3bn
Bear Stearns: $3.2bn
JP Morgan Chase: $3.2bn
BayernLB $3.2bn
Barclays: $2.6bn
IKB: $2.6bn
Royal Bank of Scotland: $2.6bn
Credit Suisse:$2bn
Deutsche Bank :$3.9 Bn.

TOTAL : $ 142.8 BILLION

Bloomberg has a complete (?) global list here
Their table shows the $232 billion in asset writedowns and credit
losses since the beginning of 2007, including reserves set aside for
bad loans, at more than 45 of the world's biggest banks and securities firms.

As BullionVault says:

YOU DON'T HAVE TO
be a rabid libertarian or Marxist historian with leather patches on his
jacket to look at the current world banking crisis and ask “Cui bono…?”

“Who
benefits?” as the criminal lawyer demands of the jury. And curiously
enough, at first glance at least, the lawyers look set to clean up once
more.

“Investors
and their lawyers filed 70 securities-fraud class actions in the first
quarter,” reports Conde Nast's Portfolio.com, “almost the same number
that were filed in the first half of 2007, according to NERA Economic
Consulting, which tracks the filing of these complaints.”

Twenty-six
of the 70 new cases in 2008 to date are linked to the sub-prime
disaster, with Bear Stearns cited alongside J.P.Morgan, Lehman
Brothers, T.D.Ameritrade Morgan Stanley and 14 other firms.

Read the full story from BullionVault here. They go on to say:

Here in the UK,
the number of mortgage products on offer slumped by one-fifth at the
start of April says one estimate. Home-loan brokers got to work and
found some 1,000 offerings had vanished. This week then saw First
Direct suspend all new mortgage lending, claiming it was overwhelmed by
applications for its 5.0% fixed-rate deal – which is precisely where
the Bank of England's key lending rate will end up in May if not April.

In a move contrary to the UK “Tripartite” supervision that Balls/Brown set in motion to supervise Financial services and Banking in
the UK. From 1 May 2002 The Bundesbank and German Financial Supervisory
Authority (BaFin)(Bundesanstalt für inanzdienstleistungsaufsicht)
combined the previous activities of the Federal Banking Supervisory
Office, the Federal Supervisory Office for Insurance Enterprises and
the Federal Supervisory Office for Securities Trading.

It is
evident that this provides a more focused, central and powerful form of
control in which the Deutshes Bundesbank firmly control operations.
Which will be essential of a study reportedly made by BaFin is correct.

Spiegel today reports the contents of an internal BaFin study that says that shortfalls at finance institutions worldwide could end up totalling US$600 billion (€380 billion).

This
shorthall it is said, results from ill-advised speculation on the US
subprime market and resulting jitters in markets worldwide. BaFin
says that its prognosis is merely a worst-case scenario. “Given what we
know about the current situation on the markets, we presume that a
total of $430 billion is more probable,” the confidential 16-page
report says.

The paper also lists losses that have already been
admitted to by various credit institutions: a total of $295 billion.
Some 10 % of those shortfalls are accounted for by German banks. Should
that share of the damage remain constant, German banks can expect
losses to be as high as US$60 billion.

BaFin experts fear that
the finance crisis will spread to other sectors of the economy. The
turbulence could hit “other financial institutions outside of the
banking sector,” the paper says. The report lists hedge funds,
insurance companies and retirement funds as being at risk.

On
Friday Bild quoted banking insiders predicting total losses by German
banks from the American subprime mortgage loan crisis could hit the
€70-billion (US$111 billion) mark. They also reported that claims that
the country's third-largest regional bank, WestLB — which has been kept alive with injections from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia — will soon be requiring an additional €2-billion lifeline.

Meanwhile, IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG bank,which has already received a billion-euro bailout will be draining a further billion euros from the public purse, bringing its total rescue package so far to €8 billion.

On the same day Bavarian governor Günther Beckstein said the state's BayernLB bank would announce losses related to the credit crisis of up to €4 billion — double the €1.9 billion figure the bank had previously disclosed.

Munich based Hypo Real Estate
(Mkt Cap €2.2 Bn.) Germany's second-biggest property lender has warnnd
of more writedowns and gave more information last week on its 5 billion
euro plus exposure to structured debt products.

It said the
market for its 1 billion euro (US$1.6 billion) portfolio of U.S.
collateralised debt obligations (CDO) had deteriorated and that further
writedowns were possible. About a quarter of the portfolio is subprime.

It
also said any slip in the value of 3.2 billion euros of real
estate-linked investments it owns would hit its revaluation reserve.

Finance Director Markus Fell said “In this crazy world, I don't feel comfortable giving any further outlook,”

Hypo shares HRX:DE rallied on that news and rose from a low of €13 to €18.74 where they traded today.

John Paulson, a little-known hedge fund manager smelled trouble two
years ago. He had found a bubble he could short. He bet against the
American Dream and placed heavy bets of other people's money on the ABX
an index that tracks the sub prime market (sorry tracked .. there is no
sub prime market anymore).

His funds in 2007 made US$17 Bn, of
which his personal share was US$3/4 Bn – oddly at one stage in his
career he was a mergers-and-acquisitions investment banker at Bear
Stearns Cos.

We look at all this evidence that the MSM wont put together for you, so stand by for a rough ride, and more calls on your tax money to bail out these failing businesses as Gordon Brown and the Badger in the Treasury panic, not knowing what to do next and turn to the Socialist manual for guidance..

We wonder how long it will be before Gordon and his Scottish Mafia decide to nationalise the Banks, and sink this country to the next level of socialist depravity..