Conflicting Views On The Economic Recovery

Nobody seems to know what is going on in the global economy. Take these two articles on the state of the recovery:

UK Economy Records Fastest Growth In Nine Years (The Guardian)

The British economy grew at the fastest pace in nearly a decade in the second quarter, higher than initially estimated, thanks to a pick-up in the construction industry and strong consumer spending.

The Office for National Statistics’ second estimate for the second quarter showed GDP rose 1.2% between April and June, the fastest growth since …

On the other hand:

Stock Markets Face A Bloodbath (Daily Telegraph)
Investors should brace themselves for an equities “bloodbath” and a further fall in bond yields when the current excessive optimism propping up the market seeps away, Albert Edwards, a strategist at Société Générale, has warned.
Mr Edwards said there was too much hope among investors, with excessive valuations in the US, but predicted it would come to an end in the coming months as economic data increasingly pointed to a double-dip recession.

“Equity investors are in for a rude shock. The global economy is sliding back into recession and they are still not even aware that these events will trigger …

The optimism of the left which credits the Labour government with saving the economy thanks to their wise and far sighted fiscal management is a little overstated. Do not forget that Labour printed money equivalent to 10% of GDP and pumped it into the economy to secure growth of just 1.5%.

It is true the economy is growing now but people had to start spending again sometime. We should also remember that although the economy is grpwing is is running behond inflation so in real terms is still contracting.

On the other hand reports that the global economy is sliding back into recession are based on evidence that the US economy is heading for a double dip recession.

Though the American economy is big it is not the global driving force it once was so perhaps we should focus less on what is happening across the pond or maybe direst our attention to the Canadian and southern banks and leave the USA to reap the biter harvest of their unbridled consumerism and sense of entitlement.

The party is over, the good times are gone. We must learn to put aside wants and focus on needs.

RELATED POSTS:
Property Prices To FallVertical Farming
All The Jobless People

Does Dr Kelly Deserve An Inquest

The attempt to deny the need for an inquest into the death of Dr David Kelley in 2003 dominate the news today. The pathologists who conducted the post mortem was yesterday standing by his coluclusion that death was cause by severed arteries in Dr. Kelly’s wrists exacerbated by advanced heart disease. You may remember Dr. Kelly was involved in leaking information about the Iraq Weapons Of Mass Destruction dossier after Tony Blair had allegedly mislead Parliament to justify going to war.

Funny, I could have sworn earlier in the week he was talking about Dr. Kelley having swallowed 26 Co Proximol tablets, way over the maximum eight a day stipulated when I was prescribed the powerful pain killer.

And then there are the contradictory conclusions of the private autopsy carried out at the request of the family.

Curiouser and Curiouser. No wonder the conspiracy theories persist.

Read more on the pathologist and Dr. Kelly

Feeding the nine billion

Fancy eating grey goo, or according to scientists meat grown in a vat. One of the ideas proposed by science and academic experts to deal with the problem of feeding the world when the population has boomed to nine billion is turning skyscrapers into farms to feed our cities. This is not a scheme cooked up by corporate interests or big agribusiness like cloning and GM food, but the loonytoons thinking of an academic.

Nine billion is the number of humans is predicted to be reached by 2050. The simple answer to overpopulation that nobody is talking about is population control.

Do we need nine billion people? Apart from feeding nine bilion people with exactly the same resources as are failing to feed 6.8 billion now can we ceep such a vast population occupied in an increasingly jobless world? Do we have the technology to keep population levels manageable? Yes and yes.

Read the full article Vertical Farming will feed the cities

United Nations Warns Of A New Food Crisisfrom The Daily Stirrer
With food price inflation causing social problems in poor nations already the United Nations, as always slamming the stable door after the horse has bolted, has warned of an imminent crisis.

food crisis control freakery

RELATED POSTS:
Eugenics os not a conservative idea but from the left
GM babies? How About The Frankenstein Lobby Try A Bit Of Honesty And Call It Eugenics
Eugenics by any other name: Scientists call for ban on editing human genome

A Miracle In Afghanistan.

This is not the usual shit stirring item or snipe at oficial idiocy but I was so gobsmacked by this news seen on Citizen Wells blog I wanted to pass it on.

An American soldier serving in Afghanistan, Channing Moss, was impaled by a live RPG during a Taliban ambush while on patrol. Army protocol says that medivac choppers are never to carry anyone with a live round in him. Even though they feared it could explode, the flight crew said damn the protocol and flew him to the nearest aid station. Again, protocol said that in such a case the patient is to be put in a sandbagged area away from the surgical unit, given a shot of morphine and left to wait (and die) until others are treated. Again, the medical team ignored the protocol. Here’s a short video put together by the Military Times, which includes actual footage of the surgery where Dr. John Oh, a Korean immigrant who became a naturalized citizen and went to West Point , removed the live round with the help of volunteers and a member of the EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) team. Moss has undergone six operations but is doing well at home in Gainesville , GA.

full story

Footballer and Teenage Prostitute

When I saw the News Of The World headline about the Premiership footballer and the teenage prostitute my first thought was:
“Why would a decent human being with so much going for them want to get involved with somebody lives a life full of sleaze, depravity and moral turpitude.

But as I read the story I realised the girl was not much better herself.

More humour every day at Boggart Blog

California Gay Marriage ruling kills democracy

An appeal court ruling in favour of Gay Rights Groups and Single Sex Marriage points the way to yet another constitutional crisis in U.S.A.

Oh well, Obama sems to enjoy creating one every week.

When an appeal court Judge who also happens to be a gay activist overturned a democratically approved law banning same sex marriage in the U.S. State of California it was hailed as a victory for gay rights and a defeat for religious prejudice. That may be so, but it is also a defeat for democracy, justice and sanity. Since when did the demands of minority ‘rights’ campaigners trump the will of the majority expressed through the ballot box?

read allCalifornia Gay Mariage Law

The Milk Of Clone Kindness – Cloned Cattle

When news leaked out that milk and beef from cloned cows, cows raised from embryos created by biologists in laboratories, was being sold for human consumption scientists were quick to point out there was no health risk from consuming such foods. Nobody had suggested there was, what worried people is the inceasing tendency of science to play God. Fortunately they stopped short of telling us the science is settled otherwise nobody would have believed them.

The other big question of course is as usual “Cui Bono?” Who gains from this,; no doubt the politically correct wailers will be whinging about feeding the third world poor but as cloned cattle are delicate creatures and need warm, dry sheds, an enriched diet and plasma TVs, pool tables, gymnasiums with personal trainers etc. the produce from their bodies will sell at quite a premium.

And they have an enormous carbon footprint.

So who is likely to benefit? Not you and I for sure, not the poor and hungry. I think it might be the political control freaks, the scientists who get a step nearer to playing god and the corporations that will control the breeding stock and thus another important part of the food chain.

The point nobody wants to discuss is where is the need for this technology? Are we short of cattle? Is the current production method failing? Or is this another technology that will be forced on us.

Soon you will eat meat and drink milk from cloned cattle – But there is nothing wrong with real ones so what’s the point?

RELATED POSTS:
Never Let Me Go (cloned humans)

The IDS (he sounds like a disease) Welfare Reforms

Iain Duncan Smith, IDS, the man who sounds like an intestinal problem is the coalition government minister charged with reforming the over complex, over bureaucratic welfare system. Can he succeed where others have dabbled?

Through the course of our lives many of us will find our circumstances have changed in ways that affect our ability to earn a decent living. Illness, family responsibilities, disability, unemployment and old age are among the most frequent causes of people having to look to the social security system for financial support.

The welfare system, which was begun by the Asquith / Lloyd George Liberal Government of 1908 – 1914 and has evolved under all governments since then is now ill equipped to deal with the jobless economy of a post industrial society.

When I began my career in the computer industry more years ago than I care to remember the ideal of machines doing all the mundane work and freeing humans to fulfil their potential seemed very attractive. Unfortunately politics and politicians are too blinkered and short – termist to plan for a society so radically changed by technology that most people will be jobless for a very significant part of their lives.

In the past few days David Cameron was talking about being unable to see a reason why people should be doing jobs a machine can do better. Allow Little Nicky to tell you why Dave: Because people need meaningful work. OK some are equipped to fill their time blogging or writing poetry, painting works of art, compiling sports statistics or creating a fine garden. But not all.

So what do you with your spare people, the ones best equipped to stack boxes or work on a factory production line? Kill them?

I don’t think that would go down well at the ballot box.

The welfare system does need reform but who, especially in the dullard world of politics, has the imagination to propose the right reforms, the ones that will solve the problem rather than just slapping a sticking plaster over it?

IDS?

I’ll be surprised if it is.