‘The Modelers’ Thought Of Everything Except Reality

This is a post from a U.S. economic research website, criticizing the ludicrously over – the – top actions taken to limit the effects of the COVID – 19 coronavirus pandemic. The responses were of course based on the warnings of “scientists” who rather than using empirical evidence relied on output from mathematical models in order to predict how the pandemic would unfold.

Needless to say the predictions were hopelessly wrong …

Via The American Institute for Economic Research,

As a site focused on economics, AIER would rather have stayed away from commentary on diseases and their mitigation. In normal times, we would have. 

The archives of AIER dating back to 1933 show that we had no comments on the polio epidemic (1948-1951), the Asian Flu (1957-59), the Hong Kong flu (1968-69), the Avian bird flu (2006), or the Swine flu pandemic of 2009, which was a strain most like 1918 and therefore, one might suppose, would have caused panic but did not.

We had nothing to say because disease mitigation is a job for medical professionals, not economists and certainly not politicians.

The problem is that this time, the disease mitigators (some of them, the ones in power and with the ear of politicians) didn’t stay out of economics. Indeed, their plans for mitigation trampled all over commerce, life, and the freedoms that are necessary to make it function. For a few months in 2020, the presumptuous model-building disease mitigators became central planners, overriding the wisdom of not only medical professionals but also economists, philosophers, political scientists, historians, and everyone else including legislatures and voters.

Our first piece on the topic ran January 27. The focus was on the quarantine power and the argument was simple: because people are not ridiculous and know how to deal with disease in consultation with medical professionals, this state power should not be deployed. At the time, people said we were being alarmist even for saying this. Nothing like this could ever happen in the U.S. because we have a Constitution and courts and a tradition of trusting the people …  Continue reading >>>

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Coronavirus fear and panic

 

 

London’s Future?

This article, by Theodore Dalrymple, first published in Law and Liberty is reproduced by this Not For Profit site under fair use terms in the public interest, as the chaotic failure of our government to deliver the democratic decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) has revealed the chasm that has opened between the ruling elite and the nation they govern is now insurmountable.

December 14, 2017

I Have Seen London’s Future and It Is Caracas

by Theodore Dalrymple|25 Comments

 

Important (for good or evil) as Brexit may be to the future of Britain, it is not without its importance for the European Union. Indeed, it was always essential for the Union that Britain’s departure should be an economic disaster for Britain: for if it were not, why have a union at all?

It was therefore entirely predictable that the Union should drive a hard bargain with Britain, even a bargain economically harmful to itself, provided only that it was worse for Britain: for the self-preservation of the European political class is at stake. In the European Union politics always trumps economics.

In Britain too, political considerations were uppermost in the minds of those who voted for Brexit. They saw in the European Union a Yugoslavia in the making, led by a megalomaniac class without effective checks or balances. But now they are increasingly apprehensive of the economic costs of Brexit.

And the economic auguries for Britain are indeed poor, though not only, or even principally, because of the European Union’s hostility. The fact is that Britain is unlikely to be able to take any advantage of life outside the European straitjacket because its own political class is itself in favour of straitjackets that are no better, and quite possibly worse than, the European ones. The present Prime Minister, Theresa May, is very much a statist, indistinguishable from European social democrats, and the leader of the opposition, Mr Corbyn, who might well be the next Prime Minister, is an unapologetic admirer of Hugo Chavez. It is hardly to be expected that foreign investors will place much trust or confidence in an isolated country whose next government might very well weaken property rights, impose capital controls and increase corporate taxation in favour of supposed social justice. It would not take very long to turn Britain into a northern Venezuela: a Venezuela without the oil or the tropical climate.

Moreover, Britain already has many weaknesses and few strengths. It has a huge and persistent trade imbalance, because it does not produce enough of what the world wants and cannot easily be made to do so; it has a large national debt, about the same size as that of France, but without a highly functioning infrastructure such as France’s to show for it; its household debt is among the highest in the world. For many years, its economic policy might as well have been presided over by Mr Madoff; its social policy has been to smash up all forms of social solidarity or support for the vulnerable that do not pass through the state. The destruction of the little platoons has been very thorough: most large ‘charities’ in Britain are now dependent on government rather than on private funding, and hence are in effect departments of state.

As if this were not enough, Britain has enormous cultural problems, perhaps only to be expected in a country in which more than fifty per cent of children are born out of wedlock and twenty per cent do not eat a meal with another member of their household more than once every two weeks. A dangerously high and perhaps unsustainable proportion of the population is unfitted for productive life in a modern economy, having attained an abysmally low educational level despite (or because of?) considerable state expenditure. This section of the population is not merely indifferent to refinement of any kind – intellectual, aesthetic or of manners – but actively hostile to it. Similarly, it is not merely not anxious to learn, it is anxious not to learn.

This explains why Britain has persistently imported labour from Eastern Europe to perform tasks in its service industries that ordinarily one might have expected its large fund of indigenous non-employed people to perform. The fact is, however, that though these tasks require no special skills, they did require certain personal qualities such as reliability, politeness, and willingness to adapt: and these the eligible local population lack entirely. No hotel-keeper, for example, would consider using British labour if he could get foreign.

Perhaps nothing captures the levels of personal incompetence and lack of self-respect in Britain than the fact that young men of the lowest social class are about half as likely to die in prison as they are if left at liberty. In prison, though adult, they are looked after, at least in a basic way, and told what to do. They are no longer free to pursue their dangerous and crudely self-indulgent lifestyle, in which distraction is the main occupation. In prison they receive the health care that, though it is free to them under the National Health Service, they are not responsible enough to seek when at liberty. In short, they do not know, because they have never been taught, how to live in a minimally constructive fashion, though they were certainly not born ineducable.

No doubt other comparable countries have similar problems, but none (at least, none known to me) has them to anything like the same extent. These problems do not originate from Britain’s membership of the European Union, nor will they be solved by exit from the Union. They can be solved only by something more resembling a religious revival than by any likely government action. But expecting a population to bethink itself while simultaneously being offered political solutions that require no effortful cultural change is unreasonably optimistic. And politicians are unlikely to be frank about the problem for two reasons: first because alluding to the deficiencies of their electorate is probably not the best way to get elected, and second because it downgrades the providential role of politics, which politicians are understandable reluctant to do.

As if this were not quite enough, the hold on the country’s intelligentsia of statist solutions to practically all problems is still immensely strong. Nowhere is this more evident than in its attitude to the National Health Service, the establishment of which it almost universally regards as having been a great achievement, perhaps Britain’s only great achievement of the twentieth century. This is despite all the evidence that it has not been egalitarian in its effect, as it was originally supposed to be, or that almost all Western European health systems are superior to it. The fact that all Western Europeans regard it with at least disdain, and more usually with absolute horror, does nothing to shake the British intelligentsia’s faith in the essential goodness of the National Health Service. The only perceived problem with it is that it underfunded: the same problem as with all other government services. In the struggle between rhetoric and reality, rhetoric always wins.

The population by and large follows the intelligentsia, and the politicians follow the population; but the only economic advantages to Brexit would be the possibility of a nimbler, less regulated and bureaucratic economy. There is now no prospect of this. Therefore, I have seen the future of London, and it is Caracas – or very might be.

 

UK Taxman Ruthlessly Pursuing Its Contract Staff For Six-figure Sums In Unpaid Tax

Picture credit: hillkindy.com

Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is once again hounding its own employees for potential six-figure bills as part of a crackdown on tax avoidance schemes. Some years ago I was a victim of one of these crackdowns, as an Information Technology consultant I, along with thousands of others working as external consultants in both government and business were forced by the tax inspectors to operate as  limited liability companies.

The tax service had decided we were using th

e self employed status to avoid National Insurance Employers Contributions (a sanitized name for a British payroll tax,) as the self employed were not liable for this levy. By reinterpreting a law in such an extreme way it stretched words beyond any literal meaning, the taxman decided we should all set up limited companies, with ourselves as the only employee, thus making our employers, the quasi – companies, liable as our employers for the payroll tax.

Taxman thought he had won, but people who decide to employ themselves are bright, resourceful types and we soon learned the completely legal tax dodges used by the super rich, through their companies and trusts. We got ourselves accountants who advised on techniques like buybacks, directors loans etc. and we, in partnership with our incorporated dopplegangers, were soon all paying less tax than we had as self employed individuals.

Needless to say the taxman was furious. But we IT professionals, consultant engineers, designers, technicians and other contract workers in media, finance, healthcare and across the whole range of commercial activities were being advised and assisted by accountants. So the taxman hit on a new idea, he talked politicians into passing retrospective laws. Something you did legally in, say, 1995, could in 1998 be declared to have been a crime since 1993, thus in 1999 you could be prosecuted for it. And they call this liberal democracy.

All that was a long time ago. The techniques we used then have been blocked one way or another, and as a bonus for the taxman, Britain’s software industry died (well, relocated to cyberspace,) as a result.

The ruthless war on enterprise and talent continued. Electricians and plumbers were targeted by the taxman in a purge that cost us poor taxpayers £8million and in which the tax inspectors managed to recover £100,000 in unpaid taxes (yeah, economics is not one of these people’s strengths.)

Among the people in another purge  to fall foul of this new retrospective lawmaking were entertainers and sports stars. And like the professional consultants of my era, a few years earlier,  these people fell foul of the taxman for doing something that was perfectly legal at the time they did it.

Around 50,000 contractors are now being targeted by the tax office for using so-called disguised remuneration schemes, which involved receiving income in the form of tax-free loans from an offshore trust, throughout the Noughties and more recently.

The law was changed in 2016 and those who used the arrangements now face huge tax bills which, campaigners claim, will force some into bankruptcy or cause them to lose their homes.

It has now emerged that HMRC engaged contractors who were being paid in loans and is now pursuing them for the unpaid tax, the Sunday Telegraph revealed.

A panel of MPs  looking into complaints about HMRC’s persecution of certain groups has received evidence from multiple contractors once engaged by the taxman who say they used disguised remuneration arrangements and now face penalties.

Sir Ed Davey, a former Government minister, said: “This is astonishing considering HMRC’s ruthless and unreasonable pursuit of people in this situation, when they didn’t break the law and followed professional advice.

 

“What’s more, the evidence we’ve received also shows that these people declared all their arrangements in their annual tax return, so contrary to their claims not to know, HMRC were indeed aware contractors working for them were using these schemes.

One contractor, who worked for HMRC over two spells, anonymously told the panel that, based on the bills received by her peers, she expects she could be asked for almost £140,000. The 45-year-old, who lives in London, said: “It feels like the Government has gone to war against you. This is all about wearing people down and getting them to give up.”

Well yes, as I said earlier the government has been at war with enterprise, creativity and talent for a long time.

The schemes became popular in 1999 and were briefly sold by some of Britain’s leading accountancy firms.

In December, the House of Lords Economics Committee criticised HMRC’s approach to recouping the tax owed, describing it as “retrospective” and saying it was failing to distinguish between “contrived tax avoidance by sophisticated, high income individuals” and relatively low earners who made “naive decisions”.

A spokesman for the tax office said: “HMRC has never endorsed or participated in disguised remuneration tax avoidance schemes. It is possible for contractors to use disguised remuneration without the participation or knowledge of their engager.”

He added that all contractors found to have used a loan scheme would be treated the same. What a pity they do not feel able to deploy the same diligence in their dealings with companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, all of which are handled with kid gloves in spite of blatantly operating tax scams to avoid paying tax on most or all of their corporate profits.

 
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Lord Rothschild: The New World Order Is At Risk

Baron Jacob Rothschild – concerned banker or Bond villain? (Picture Source:  http://www.myfirstclasslife.com  )

In the RIT Capital Partners 2014 annual report, the head of Rothschild family banking empire warned that “the geopolitical situation is most dangerous since WWII.” A year later, Baron Jacob Rothschild repeated his warning about the outcome of “what is surely the greatest experiment in monetary policy in the history of the world”. In August 2017 with markets still behaving irrationally he cautioned that “share prices have in many cases risen to unprecedented levels at a time when economic growth is by no means assured.”

Little did he know at the time that, driven by High Frequency Trading, computer algorithms and a quasi religious blind faith in technology they would keep rising, but related to that, he also made another warning which the market has so far ignored:

The period of monetary accommodation may well be coming to an end. Geopolitical problems remain widespread and are proving increasingly difficult to resolve.

In the latest half-year commentary from RIT Capital Partners published yesterday, Lord Rothschild made his sternest warning to date, this time focusing on the global economic system that was established after WWII to create a new world order, and which he believes is now in jeopardy.

The billionaire banker pointed to the US-China trade war, which is really a US versus Russia, China and Iran currency war, and the Eurozone crisis, with the resurgence of nationalism threatening the European Unity project after the UK’s Brexit vote, as the key problems putting economic order at risk, and the lack of a “common approach” – a reference to the gradual unwind of global thinking in the wake of President Trump – that has made “co-operation today much more difficult”:

“In 9/11 and in the 2008 financial crisis, the powers of the world worked together with a common approach. Co-operation today is proving much more difficult. This puts at risk the post-war economic and security order.”

It wasn’t clear if he was referring to the post-war fiat money standard that emerged once FDR devalued the dollar relative to gold, and then fixed a price for the yellow metal, a tenuous link that was subsequently destroyed by Nixon who finally took the US off the gold standard, or the primacy of the dollar which emerged as the world’s reserve currency after the end of WWII, paving the way for the US to bid for global hegemony, but whenever one of the people who profited handsomely from the “post war world order” warns it may be on its last legs, it may be time to worry.

Either way it is hard to believe that Rothschild is a stupid man, although living in an elitist bubble he may be detached from reality, but his comments suggest that he is unaware the great mass of people have woken up to the fact that globalisation can only benefit the elite in the west, while diminishing the educated populations of developed nations in favour of buying the loyalty of uneducated third world multitudes with handouts and cheap gadgets.

With global risks growing after politicians and the banking cartel have kicked the can down the road for several years by printing money, how is Rothschild positioned? He writes that “in the circumstances our policy is to maintain our limited exposure to quoted equities and to enter into new commitments with great caution” and indeed, in the first half, RIT had a net quoted equity exposure of only 47%, historically low. The reason: the iconic banking family is concerned that the 10-year bullish cycle and market rally could finally be ending.

While Rothschild noted that “many of the world’s economies have enjoyed a broad-based acceleration not seen since the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, with as many as 120 countries seeing stronger growth last year” he also cautioned that “we continue to believe that this is not an appropriate time to add to risk. Current stock market valuations remain high by historical standards, inflated by years of low interest rates and the policy of quantitative easing which is now coming to an end.”

One potential risk is Europe, where debt levels have reached “potentially destructive levels”.

Quite so, but the growth we have seen since the 2008 crash has not been organic growth but has occurred mainly because interest rates at which governments lend to banks (by selling bonds to fund their deficits,) have been artificially maintained at suicidally low levels. This has enabled banks to borrow at a quarter or a half per cent, and use their borrowings to buy bonds with a fixed rate of three or three and a half per cent (or higher for nations with weaker economies.) These bonds often give a higher yield as it is possible to buy them at a discount.

Globalisation And The Destruction Of Civilisation
Despite repeated assertions that this blog does not align itself with either of those anachronistic labels, left and right, our oppositions to globalisation (an attack on benefits the early trade union movement fought for,) and our support for controlled borders and strict vetting of immigrants we are often accused by those who like to label themselves ‘left’ (because it sounds cuddlier) …

Can Americans Overthrow The Evil That Rules Them?
The anti – establishment, anti – globalisation mood that manifested itself in the Brexit vote is sweeping across Europe, the cosy government – corporate cartel is desperately trying to control the narrative, but against the combined strength of millions of new media commentators all challenging the official; narrative, the dark forces of globalism are on the back foot.

Is Bilderberg A Sinister Group That Runs The World Or Just A Tea Party For Rich And Powerful People
Are the Bilderberg Group meeting, this weekend in Dresden, Germany, really The Shadow Government (the New World Order, The Illuminati,) that rules the world?
The Oligarchy Is Tottering – Trump Tramples The Neocons’ “False Song Of Globalism”
Donald Trump scares the global establishment as do the anti Federalisation parties in the EU. We take a long and detailed look at why, and exactly what the globalist agenda would have meant for freedom and democracy had people not wonken up and opposed it in vast numbers. Kudos to the Islamic Jihad too, medievalist religious nuts they may be, but they resisted American attempt to impose western consumer culture on them.

If You Look At How Fast Global Trade Is Unravelling, You’ll Get Dizzy
Governments constantly make positive noises about the health of their economies although most people who are in work have felt no improvement on the position they were in after the crash of 2008. Wages are stagnant, employment has reduced somewhat (see below) and while the banks are printing money and the super rich are widening the gap between themselves and ordinary people faster than ever, the real situation is frightening.

The New World order Pope Wants You To Pray For One World Religion
The Marxist, globalist, Soros apparatchik currently posing as head of the Catholic faith wants to scrap the Catholic Church. He didn’t say that in so many words but he has called on Catholics to pray for the creation of a world religion (because love and peace) which would embrace

Democracy Murdered In France
I’m hearing very disturbing news from the French regional elections, predicting that the Front National, comfortable winners in last week’s first round of regional elections, hasve been routed in all regions. For that to happen, and to happen through a massive increase in turnout, suggests electoral fraud on a hughe scale. Or has France joined Britain in adopting the Islamic version of democracy, which is one man one vote, one Imam one thousand votes.

Who Runs America, The White House Or The Shadow Government?
Reports of President Barack Obama’s meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit over the weekend do not look right in the context of yet another blitz of provocative rhetoric from The Pentagon and the Department of Defence towards Moscow. In view of the USA’s constant push towards all out war with Russia, one has to ask who is in control: Obama or the generals?

EU “Sounds Alarm” Over New US Sanctions On Russia; Germany Threatens Retaliation
Late on Friday (21/07/17), Congressional negotiators agreed to advance a cross – party bill that would punish Russia for its (alleged) interference in the 2016 election according to the Wall Street Journal. And while it seems improbable that President Trump would sign the bill if it reaches his desk, the loudest complaint about the bill to date has emerged not from the Oval Office, but from US allies in NATO and the European Union …

Trump catches attention of CFR, Bilderberg, Trilateral

Donald Trump is portrayed as a clown by mainstream media and his combover is the silliest I have ever seen. Still, he’s a billionaie so I don’t suppose he gives a flying fuck what The Daily Stirrer thinks of him. Not that we think he is all bad, anyone who attacks Obama’s global naziism trade deals, TTIP and TPP mush have some good points.

Prepare For The Worst Case Scenario
An article on the cashless society our political and corporate overlords are pushing for proposes that as far as privacy and individual liberty are concerned, what is being planned right now in the political capitals and financial centres of the world is the worst case scenarion. An all digital financial system would mean the end of privacy, nothing you bought or traded would be your own business any more …

How Mainstream Media And The Major Political Parties Are Making Sure Voters Do not Hear The Voices Of Politics’ Most Powerful Critics
As the General Election campaign starts to heat up, we try to shift focus away from the squabbling between Conservative and Labour about who can make the most promises they have no intention of keeping and to the real issues concerning jobs, social breakdown , mass immigration, and loss of national sovereignty.

US Presidents Of The Past warned Against Secret, Shadow Government.
By now it should be obvious that peacemake, joybringer and putative aquatic pedestrian Barack Hussein Obama was never really in charge of the US Government. Whatever Obama said would happen, all the American government’s policies ensured the opposit would happen. The embedded article thows some light on how the US government really works

The American Political System Is “Not A Democracy Or Constitutional Republic” – Thiel
The state of democracy in the USA has become a hot topic of conversation in American business circles in recent years. While President Barack Hussein Obama, not so much a man as an ego on long skinny legs, has increasingly been inclined to rule by executive order in the manner of a despot or tyrant, even Obama’s fiercest critics have to admit the American electoral system seems increasingly capable of delivering only political paralysis …

U.S. versus Russia War: Top Russian Politics Scolar Stephen Cohen Tells The Truth
We have been blogging for four years about the US drive for war, provocation of Russia in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and elsewhere made it obvious. But I’m just a news junkie with a strong sense of curiosity and have wondered why the US seems set on this course. Good to see experts like Stephen Cohen, a prominent expert on, Russia are coming onside.

Another Reason To Get Out Of EU. UKIP MEP Hits Out At Fishing Policy That Penalises British Fishing Crews
As the General Election campaign starts to heat up, we try to shift focus away from the squabbling between Conservative and Labour about who can make the most promises they have no intention of keeping and to the real issues concerning jobs, social breakdown , mass immigration, and an often overlooked area in which our EU membership has perhaps done more damage than any other, the fishing industry.

Multi-Cultural England: Are You Feeling The Progressive Diversity.
As racial and sectarian tension increase on the streets of britain while politicians gear up for the election campaign, we take a look at the state of Britain today, Imigrant child abuse gangs, Clerics of alien faiths dictating moral strictures, and everywhere we look, foreigners being given provieged status. Is it any wonder the voters are angry?

Another Conspiracy Theory Becomes Fact: Oil Collapse Is All About Obama’s Proxy War With Russia.
While we are distracted with sex scandals at home and terrorists rampaging through the middle east and Africa, the US / EU / NATO confrontation with Russia / China / Iran is geting into a very dangerous state. While the Chinese led move to dump the US dollar as global reserve currency is causing economic chaos, the USA attempts to provoke armed conflict with Russia are getting more reckless and desperate.

Seventy Years Down The Line And We Have Come Back To Appeasement As A Means To Peace.
As a spate of increasingly bloody and violent attacks on civilized values and the democratif freedoms of the western nations (free speech for example) continues to cause revulsion among the general population, our spineless leader are calling on us to be tolerant. The cowardly hypocrites who lead us may be ready to surrender, but anger is mounting in the cities and towns.

Another Blow To The US Dollar Reserve Currency Status As Russia Sings Up Turkey, India
The move led by Russian and China to dump the US dollar as global reserve currency continues to gain momentum. Most recent nations to sign bilateral agreements to settle cross border transactions in the currency of the vendor are India and Turkey.

Even The BIS Is Shocked At How Broken Markets Have Become.
If the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) the bank where banks and governments do business is worried about the state of the markets, we are in bigger trouble than anyone is letting on.

Based on info at ZH (reveal)
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Climate Denial Finally Pays Off

This blog has always been sceptical of the scientific case for climate change. And we admit that NO we are not climate scientists, NO we have not published research papers in ‘peer reviewed’ science journals. Of the three main contributors (all retired or semi retired) one is an engineer who still lectures in engineering and mathematics, one is a finance expert (considerably more expert that economics academics who advise governments – he managed to predict the dot com bubble bursting, the crash of 2008, the failure of Quantitative Easing and the failure of the Eurozone)and an information technology consultant who is now a writer when he feels like it.

And it looks as if, once again they have been proved right.

As part of a series of Wall Street Journal editorials showing the climate cause in mid-crackup. Holman Jenkins writes :

All of us old gits at Boggart Abroad came to the conclusion that Carbon Dioxide driven Anthropogenic Global Warming was a scam from different directions. Xavier understands the mathematics and physics involved, Phil understands the economics and Ian understands how global corporations and banks operate. And between them they agree it was never about saving the planet and always about money and power.

Everyone who has supported the case for climate chane by saying, “The science is settled,” should read the novel State of Fear by Michael Crichton. Written in 2004 it projects the actions of the enviro terrorists. Particular attention should be given to Appendix 1 at the back of the book about a new scientific theory that arose at the start of the last century and how leading lights bought into it until it was proved it had no scientific basis.

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Junk science

Elsewhere: [ The Original Boggart Blog] … Daily Stirrer …[Little Nicky Machiavelli]… [ Ian’s Authorsden Pages ]… [Scribd]…[Wikinut] … [ Boggart Abroad] … [ Grenteeth Bites ] … Ian Thorpe at Flickr ] … [ Tumblr ] … [Ian at Minds ] … [ Authorsden blog ] … [Daily Stirrer News Aggregator]

 

The Return Of The Tupenny Upright?

That erudite commentator on business and economics and Cappo di Tutti Cappi, Tony Soprano once said to one of his sidekicks, “In any recession which businesses are least affected? Prostitution, gambling and organised crime.”

Our political leaders, in Britain, Europe and the USA may be telling us the recession is over and recovery is surging ahead but this impression is largely created by increasing sovereign debt and fraudulent manipulation of statistics. In fact Boggart blog recently reported that politicians have been trying to claim prostitution, drug peddling and other illegal activities are driving economic growth.

Entrepreneurs working to boost GDP (source)

The Economist however has come up with a piece of evidence based on Sopranonomics which proves this recession .now a depression) is the longest and deepest ever. And prostitution is being hit hard.

The Economist finds:

“…the internet is making the buying and selling of sex easier and safer (from what we have been told). But it’s not all Pretty Woman… not only is the oldest profession in the world seeing prices going down (the dreaded deflation) as the shift online has boosted supply by drawing more locals into the trade; but as the following four charts show, rates vary dramatically by ‘services’, ethnicity, geography, build, and bust size.

Prices going down rather than heads. That’s got to be bad news for working girls. The Economist even gave us a nice infographic showing that in an industry where earnings are based not only on range and quality of services offered, but on looks, legs, breast size, ethnicity, hair style and colour and dress sense (or lack of), earning are dropping faster while knickers are dropping less often.

(Source)

Clearly then, deflation is hitting the working girls as well as their satisfied customers.

Here’s that link again, it’s actually quite interesting reading and tells us a lot about the state of society.

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Predictably, Krugman Flees the Scene

A while ago one of my readers took me to task for callingeconomics, krugman, wizard, economist Paul Krugman and elitist idiot and the scum sucking spawn of a pox whore’s scab louse (or something equally colourful).

“But you can’t say that about Krugman,” my reader said, “he won a nobel prize. And we know he’s very clever because he told us so, and he has a PhD.

I’ve always believed in what the Wizard of Oz said on the subject of clever, “You don’t need a brain, you just need a diploma.”

And Paul Krugman has enough diplomas to start a toilet paper factory. Sadly however it was his economic thinking that led American Democrat and Republican and British Labour Party governments to believe it was possible to fund ongoing prosperity by infinite borrowing, artificially inflating asset values to collateralise the debt.

It’s all smoke and mirrors of course, like Steinbeck’s monster, like Ponzi’s pyramid, the Krugman economy must grow because if it does not grow it dies. And when the lenders start to understand there will eventually not be enough money in the Krugman economy to pay the interest on accumlulated debt, they become very twitchy about lending more.

Only a complete cupid stunt would think that was a good way to run an economy. QED.

I’m not the only one who thinks Kurgman is a total wanker however. Read what The Daily Bell has to say about the ubiquitous bell – end. PheffingDee my arse.

Predictably, Krugman Flees the Scene

Here’s a preview:
As the West degenerates, as monetary systems fail, as war expands and the Leviathan produces endless, senseless laws and regulations that merely increase the destructive trends of globalism the Krugmans of the world have more and more difficulty justifying what is wrong.

Eventually, the cognitive dissonance becomes overwhelming and they attempt, finally and feebly, to simply jettison the vision they’ve been paid to vigorously defend. Here’s more on how Forbes puts it:

This is the world that Paul Krugman of the New York Times has defended for years. But in a column of August 24, “Galt, Gold and God,” he rails against an interest in the gold standard, which he attributes to Paul Ryan. Krugman lambastes Ryan, ironically enough, for an observation the latter made paraphrasing Keynes: “‘There is nothing more insidious that a country can do to its citizens,’ he intoned, ‘than debase its currency.'”

… Krugman would do well to dig into a classic: Goethe’s Faust, Part II. Scott Minerd, chief investment officer at Guggenheim, writing in the Financial Times recently, brilliantly called contemporary monetary policy “the ultimate Faustian bargain.” Paper money comes straight from Mephistopheles …

Prof. Krugman and his “plovers” have a propensity to dismiss their intellectual adversaries with infantile terms such as “derp.” It is easier, although lazy and louche, for Prof. Krugman to ignore the comments of world-respected officials, such as Herr Dr. Weidmann calling gold a “timeless classic.” Prof. Krugman chronically misrepresents marginal figures as significant. He sets up straw men for ridicule rather than grappling with proponents who make a rigorous case.

More on Kurgman’s big fail:

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Death By Debt Of Western Civilization?

The further left you think you are, the further right you are.

I often write sarcastic blogs about the self righteous leftie whose wailing and gnashing of teeth over the most trivial issues (e.g. equal rights for goldfishes)deafens them to the arguments of more realistic commentators.

I’m sure these people hate me (in fact I know they do because several of them have told me so) for reminding them that the further to the left they think they are, the closer to Hitler’s Nazis they actually are, but to be hated by people like the stupid bitch who once told me that ten year olds John Venables and Robert Thompson, the killers of two year old James Bulger should not have been punished because “they were only babies and did not know what they were doing” is actually something of a triumph.

The full details of little James’ death (he was two remember, really a baby)have never been published because even the tabloids considered the systematic torture and terrorising of the child Venables and Thompson kidnapped for the pre meditated purpose of harming him was to horrific.

I have not seen the forensic report but have seen a resume of it, to say the people who inflicted such horrors did not, at age ten, know they were doing wrong requires a level of delusion usually only found in psychotic dictators like Joe Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot and Idi Amin, or in sadistic serial killers, people so insane they can justify anything to themselves.

Not long ago, when I was slating the neo Nazi ravings of economist Paul Krugman who was recommending that political leaders of all nations sell their people into slavery to the bankers by abandoning economic discipline and just borrowing infinite amounts of fiat money.

“But you can’t criticize Krugman, he won a Nobel Prize for Economics someone told me. Yeah, and Barack Obama won a Nobel Prize for being a black, crack addicted rent boy, and Leymah Gbowee won one for being African, The European Union (EU) won one for shafting Greece, Portugal and Ireland, and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won one for simply existing while having totally failed to eradicate chemical weapons.

So what of this great economist Krugman, what magical solution does he offer for the world’s ills, apart from selling ourselves into slavery?

Paul Krugman said back in February this year that in order for the collectivist welfare state (his words, not mine) to run smoothly higher taxes and death panels will be mandatory.

Don’t believe me? Are you gnashing your teeth and wailing, “But Krugman could not say that, he’s in favour of bearded queens in bridal gowns, he’s a good person”, here is is straight from the Nazi’s mouth as it were.

So there you have it,death panels, euthanasia, bureaucratic dictatorship, the left’s favourite economist places them right alongside Adolf Hitler and Joe Stalin whose track record for killing his own people made Hitler look like a novice.

Krugman made his comment at a time when the existence of death panels were steadfastly denied by Democrats and before Obamacare was brought to its knees by the pathological ineffectiveness of the state.
Is this what the people whose sacrifices we will commemorate on November 11 gave their lives for. Elitism, dictatorship and death panels.

Here’s a post from blogger Bill Todd who lives in The Phillipines (but not in a Typhoon affected area) talking about how shocked he is now that the mandatory euthanasia element of Obamacare is out in the open to find how many “liberals” support it.

The act does not state plainly of course that the government has granted itself power to order the termination of certain people or groups. What it does provide for is the setting up of panels to make a decision based on financial considerations about the level of care a person is entitled to. This would include the withdrawal of care in some cases. While the law does not state when these panels will be empowered, governments do not grant themselves powers unless they intend to use them. More on this

The only good news is the Obama Administration is having trouble finding people willing to serve on an Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) for Obamacare (death panel) as The Daily Mail reports here.

Even the Democrats are turning against the Death Panels (as Sarah Palin dubbed them)or Independent Payment Advisory Boards, the sanitized title Obama’s politcally correct arse kissers supporters insist we must call them because The Chosen One, the peacemaker and joybringer would never kill people, oh no, those stupid Pakistanis, Yemenis and Afghans just got in the way of drones that had been sent to wipe out non-human targets. Political news website The Hill reports ObamaCare ‘death panel’ faces growing opposition from Democrats and joined Republicans in voting to repeal the bill. Unfortunately the Democrat controlled Senate refuse to consider the repeal issue.

Clearly then while Obama’s fascists still claim the Affordable care act (Obamacare) does not contain the words “death panels” it is a case of “a turd by any other name would smell as shitty.”

Those American Democrats who do acknowledge parts of the act could be interpreted as giving power of life and death over some patients to panels of bureaucrats, this is not like euthanasia as the intentions are benign. Well it was with the best of intentions that the notorious Liverpool Care Pathway was set up and that led to old people starving or dying of thirst in British hospitals because nurses had been ordered to withhold treatment.

And Hitler’s Aktion T4 programme which established death camps for the old, disabled and chronically sick was presented as a new way of caring for and rehabilitating invalids.

And Eugenics itself, the elimination of blacks, gays, gypsies, dwarves and people with congential defects actually looks quite inoffensive and well intentioned on paper. Of course words like camp and concentration are never mentioned in the paper plan. I don’t know what words the nazis used but it was probably “Government sponsored secure recreational facilities for member of minorities.”

Remember Schumpeter’s warning: Capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction, socialism always leads to fascism.

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New World Order’s Pope Calls For Oligarchic Collectivism
In the first encyclical of his Primacy Francis, the New World Order’s Pope proved what many had suspected, that the ousting of conservative Pope Benedict was a fit up. By claaing for a new world order, global redistribution of wealth (from the por and middle income to the banks and corporations) and oligarchic collectivist global government, Francis revealed himself to be The New World Order’s hireling

New Political Leaders let us down.

As satirical bloggers we have been waiting for David Cameron to fall flat on his face. It’s disappointing then that he has emerged from the G20 conference of political leaders as the figure the world looks to for common sense responses to Barack Obama’s loonytoons economics.

How do I know this? I saw it in Guardian online so it must be true. And if The Guardian is praising a Consrervative we have to conclude the boy done good – well better thn England’s footballers at least.

Even more upsetting was the description in the same article of George Osborne as “looking increasingly authoritative. Where does that leave satirical bloggers?

Well we can always get infantile. I can never take George Osborne seriously because when I look at him the first thing I notice is the tip of his nose looks like a little arse.

More humour every day at Boggart Blog

Hugging An African Does Not Help

It has been the big thing for fading celebrities who have an album, film or book to promote, they know it will make them look cool and right – on global champions of politically correct thinking and it is so easy and costs very little. They just get a charity or television company to send them to Africa as a “Goodwill Ambassador”, have their press agents inform the media and then, having made sure plenty of paparazzi are watching they grab the nearest African and hug them.

Hugging an African and talking about poverty, disease, hunger and how your new album / movie / book was inspired by the plight of so many Africans guarantees front page and headline stories all around the world. All the usual suspects are doing it, Bono, Madonna, Sting, Brangelina, Kylie Minogue, Gerri Halliwell, Joanna Lumley, Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, Billy Conolly and the list goes on. It will not be long until you next see one of them grinning desperately for the cameras of the global media as they hug a bewildered and embarrassed African.

The western guilt trip demands celebrities make these gestures of course, but are they universally welcomed in Africa?

It is bad enough the west exploited the continent and its resources and people during the colonial era without western governments and charities pouring in financial aid while politicians and pop stars pour in and offer advice to Africans on how to run their nations and lives and less well known western guilt tourists just turn up and start hugging unsuspecting Africans oblivious of the fact that in many African societies hugging strangers is a total no-no. Not that telling the average fading celeb. or determined tourist something is not acceptable will ever stop them. They are being paid or have paid good money to hug Africans and they are damn well gonna, OK? There is nothing short of a panga through the skull that will stop them.

Bono of course knows beyond doubt that being patronised by him is the greatest blessing life can bestow on a person from the third world and if he just keeps on patronising bewildered third would peasants they will come to understand how fortunate they are. It is rumoured that Madonna has bought several small African countries and passed laws compelling inhabitants to be available for hugs whenever she wants a photo-op. What is certainly true is that Madge has threatened African governments that she will play gigs there if they try to stop her hugging the locals.

Hugging Africans is not the only problem westerners cause it seems. According to a new book, Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo, western aid and the “scientific advice” that is a condition of getting the money are counter productive. Dambisa, a Nigerian polymath whose qualifications include BSc (chemistry), M.A. PhD (economics) , MBA and being a premier league hottie claims aid and the conditions attached have stifled development and progress throughout much of Africa. If you are not convinced yet to buy the book (and for guys it is worth the price just for the picture of Dambisa on the dust jacket) read the article Everyone Knows It Doesn’t Work and learn more of Ms. Moyo’s ideas for solving Africa’s problems.

Perhaps if we started listening to Africans about how Africa’s problems could be solved rather than European politicians seeking votes and academics seeking grants and American Preacher – Politicians whose skewed view of African history is more fantastical than Lord Of The Rings we might start seeing social and economic progress in that continent.

Everyone Knows It Doesn’t Work A link to Dambasi’s interview with the G2 magazine.

Dead Aid: ‘Aid has not been able to increase growth and reduce poverty’ An analysis of the effects of Aid in this article.

Dead Aid – Dambisa Moyo (Penguin Books) Learn more about Dead Aid or buy the book.

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