Twaddle from the USA!

The Government is failing in its pledge to rebalance the economy, which is now more dependent than ever on financial services and still remains hell bent on destroying our National Health Service. Of course, it has  little chance of rebalancing the economy, particularly as it is in denial about so many economic facts. But it can reverse some of it’s lunatic policies of further fragmentation of our healthcare system and privatisation. The worldwide system of capitalism is in a deep and irreparable state of crisis. And do not believe the twaddle from the USA economists. It is a tissue of lies.

If you live in or around Birmingham UK- join us at the following meeting.

March and Rally- Who Owns the NHS? 10th November 2012- 1-15pm

The list of speakers for this important meeting and rally is now confirmed as;

Peter Last WMPC- Chair
Joe Morgan- GMB Regional Secretary
Dr Jacky Davis- NHS Consultants Association
John Partridge- Unite Regional Assistant Secretary
Mary Locke- Unison NEC and Health Worker 

Gail Adams- Head of Nursing- Unison- Chair of Mary Seacole Committee- Unison.

Meeting at Carr’s Lane Church Centre, Birmingham City Centre, Near Birmingham New Street Station- Saturday 10th November 2012- 1-15pm- 5-0pm.

Plenty of opportunity for all those attending to speak and contribute to this important debate.

Ivor Timson MSc (Econ)

Eurozone Vision?

The European Central Bank president Mario Draghi described the current set-up of the eurozone as “unsustainable”.

There were rumours that Spain had already gone to the IMF, after the Spanish deputy prime minister went to meet the IMF’s managing director Christine Lagarde.

“My desire is to not come out and deny these rumours because they are senseless,” Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said on Spanish television.

Spain has taken Greece’s place as the epicentre of the eurozone crisis as concerns over the health of Spanish banks have shaken markets.

Bankia, Spain’s fourth largest bank, has asked for another 19bn euros (£15bn) recently from Madrid, but many questions as to whether Spain will be able to afford it.

Speaking to the European Parliament, Mr Draghi said: “Can the ECB fill the vacuum of lack of action by national governments on fiscal growth? Can the ECB fill the vacuum of the lack of action by national governments on the structural problem? These questions must be answered.

The next step is to clarify what is the vision for the Eurozone years from now. The sooner this is specified the better. But with no benchmark or alternative policies, surely no real vision is possible.

EU economics commissioner Olli Rehn said more austerity was needed if the eurozone was to avoid disintegration. Yes, more cuts and printing even more money. Will they ever learn!  We really must organise for even more effective action and resistance to all austerity which only patch up a crisis; caused by the banks and the corrupt systems they support. Ivor Timson MSc ( Econ)

Poor standards!

Poor Standards. France has lost its top AAA credit rating from Standard and Poor’s and eight other eurozone governments have also been downgraded by the ratings agency. But who are these people with a very discredited history? And now they seem to have the power to destroy millions of peoples lives, hopes and are accountable to no one. Again, they are pure speculators and merchants and are so desperately trying to save the failed capitalist system. So much for democracy!

Economy and our society!

Well that really was the very last one on this topic. Over the months we have seen politicians imprisoned, further wars, a continuing global economic crisis, high rates of unemployment and that is just for starters. But perhaps  one very important matter I have neglected is our precious NHS which now looks in danger. For example, 

• The Secretary of State’s legal duty to provide a health service will be scrapped. On top of that, a new “hands-off clause” removes the government’s powers to oversee local consortia and give some guarantee of the level of service wherever we live. We can expect increases in postcode lotteries  together with less ways to hold the government to account if the service deteriorates.
• The NHS will almost certainly be subject to UK and EU competition law. Private health companies will be able to take new NHS commissioning groups to court if they don’t win contracts. Scarce public money could be tied up in legal wrangles instead of hospital beds. Meanwhile, the legislation lifts the cap on NHS hospitals filling beds with private patients. We must avoid a US style system.

• And has we now know this bill has now been passed, with only a  handful of Lib Dems voting against. So it is now imperative to  lobby the members of the House of Lords and join in the  demonstrations planned for October.
• Enjoy your weekend and I hope you join me on my new Blog        planned for October.                        Ivor Timson  MSc (Econ)

New danger zone!

World markets have entered a “new danger zone”, according to the president of the World Bank. Robert Zoellick,  investors had lost confidence in the economic leadership of several key countries.

“What’s happened in the past weeks is there is a convergence of some events in Europe and the United States that has led many market participants to lose confidence in economic leadership of some of the key countries,” Mr Zoellick said.

“I think those events combined with some of the other fragilities in the nature of recovery have pushed us into a new danger zone. I don’t say those words lightly.”

The eurozone faced more serious problems, he said, with a lot of member states “moving from drama to trauma”.  There are other major signs of a mounting housing crisis.  Further words of gloom and despondency, which unfortunately have been the common thread throughout this blog.  I have offered both a prognosis and a diagnosis to the current economic crisis and have tried to evaluate the current state of economics.  Urgent action is clearly now required within this societal system; but leadership, the required knowledge, or indeed the desire to radically change is sadly lacking. We continue to worship a unfettered market even thought it has abysmally failed and can only continue to fail.

For these reasons, I am concluding this blog and it’s posts to commence a fresh one offering a new economic zone.  Hope you have enjoyed at least some of the posts.  Thanks for the e-mails.                      Ivor Timson  MSc (Econ)