Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 146 posts

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#51

Post by dkqmduems »

falcolas wrote: post #46
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Money is only as valuable as the amount of stuff in an economy. More money with same amount of stuff is just inflation." What if the number of people in the country's economy significantly changes, up or down? Nothing? Can one simply ignore this variable or should it be part of the analysis? Perhaps there is a hidden assumption here that it is held (more or less) constant. NB. "stuff" can be natural resources, or ot…

Economists keep chiding us about how that will ruin the economy too. They tell us our population must keep growing to keep the economy healthy.

[flagged]

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#52

Post by boomboomsubban »

rajin444 wrote: post #23
boeingUH60 wrote: post #8

Good karma for a former colonialist empire…anyways, their ceremonial king is a billionaire while the average citizens bear the grunt of the decline.

Ironically enough, one of the strengths of a monarchy is a good king could absolutely prevent this and set the empire on a path to enriching the British populace. And if not they run a high risk of losing their head. Nowadays we’ve all embraced democracy (oligarchy run by demagogues) and it’s a lot harder to hold anyone accountable. Everyone knows the British monarch is “powerless”, so they quibble amongst one anothe…

>And if not they run a high risk of losing their head.

This happened to roughly one British monarch, Lady Jane Grey and Mary Queen of Scots make it "roughly." Do you think there was only one monarch who failed to enrich the British populace?

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#53

Post by monero-xmr »

You can only financially engineer and money print your way for so long. Once living standards and real wages fall far enough, UK costs will get low enough to attract foreign investment again. A very educated workforce that speaks English with a good time zone will eventually be attractive at a low enough price.

The problems fall squarely on the British themselves, as it always does in democracies. They elected representatives who then made choices reflecting the collective will. Scape goat all you want but the answer is actually producing things of value that people around the world want to buy. Other than that it’s shell games.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#54

Post by dylan604 »

falcolas wrote: post #46
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Money is only as valuable as the amount of stuff in an economy. More money with same amount of stuff is just inflation." What if the number of people in the country's economy significantly changes, up or down? Nothing? Can one simply ignore this variable or should it be part of the analysis? Perhaps there is a hidden assumption here that it is held (more or less) constant. NB. "stuff" can be natural resources, or ot…

Economists keep chiding us about how that will ruin the economy too. They tell us our population must keep growing to keep the economy healthy.

Isn't this just an example of how the economy is a legitimized Ponzi scheme?

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#56

Post by zmgsabst »

bioemerl wrote: post #28
shadowpho wrote: post #4

>A tight jobs market and strong corporate pricing power means that firms can pass on costs in higher prices and workers can demand wage increases, fueling inflation further Maybe it's better to curb the strong corporate pricing power instead?

When demand is higher than supply there will always be strong pricing power from the supply side, you can't fix that with price controls, you'll end up with shortages.

And yet they routinely try when it’s the supply of labor in the strong position.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#57

Post by dukeyukey »

WalterBright wrote: post #16

All that free stuff from the government is expensive. "the British people need to accept they are poorer instead of seeking to claw back a historic drop in living standards after a jump in inflation."

Although the UK has an unusually low tax-to-gdp ratio compared to its neighbours, so it's probably not that.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#58

Post by gghhzzgghhzz »

legitster wrote: post #18

A lot of commenters are obsessed with just finding money. You can't eat money. You can't build a house out of it (advisably). Money is only as valuable as the amount of stuff in an economy. More money with the same amount of stuff is just inflation. The Pound does not need more inflation. Money and trade are only valuable in so much as they aid exchange and efficiency. On a real, practical-level Brexit made England m…

The issue isn't about Brexit making the country materially poorer, the conditions existed long before Brexit, it's the main reason for the Brexit vote in the first place.

Sure we can trade a bit more, but when the whole economy is financialised to a massive degree, then any benefits of that trade (if that trade outweighs the negative effects) are funnelled through a long standing system of extracting profit and concentrating wealth.

there's pretty much nothing you can do in your private or public life that doesn't result in a net transfer or wealth from the household, the local economy or from public funds, through a highly complex system of extraction.

So not only has people's purchasing power gone down, because purchasing power is relative to the money you have vs the money others have, but also basic services have just gone away from being free at the point of use. And what is free at the point of use is both low quality (so you are incentivised to pay to get a better service), and is again a black hole of public money being funnelled away thus reducing your purchasing power.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#59

Post by vondur »

pdntspa wrote: post #21
andrewmutz wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no tax shortfall. Taxing tax havens is fine but you shouldn't expect it to limit inflation very much.

The British government levying spurious taxes on its remaining colonies. I am absolutely sure that's going to go well.

Reminds me of that Monty Python episode where they suggest taxing all foreigners living overseas.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#60

Post by acjohnson55 »

dylan604 wrote: post #54
falcolas wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economists keep chiding us about how that will ruin the economy too. They tell us our population must keep growing to keep the economy healthy.

Isn't this just an example of how the economy is a legitimized Ponzi scheme?

Yeah, sort of. We're also counting on increases in productivity. Although these have also not been forthcoming.
Post reply on HN