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

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

#61
post #41
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I understanding this right, that the leader of the UK has his official residence outside of the country in order to evade taxes? If so, it's pretty wild that that's accepted

I don't think he is anymore but his wife is. I might be wrong though.

Correct, still dodgy as the lot of them.

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

#62

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…

It's not even Brexit really - the whole of Europe is poorer on a real, practical level because its economies cannot produce the same amount of stuff. Brexit put some additional barriers to exporting and importing stuff from Europe, but generally speaking the main reason imports aren't available cheaply is because the supply isn't there for anyone and export markets are mostly going away because there's no longer the same market for those goods or services full stop.

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

#63

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?

Not really, insofar as that early buyers aren't paid out w the entry of new participants with the absence of any real productive usage of capital. It's more that firms invest in production with the expectation for demand to increase, and outside of increased per capita spending, the main contributor to that effect would be simply more participants in the market. The expectation is obviously somewhat self-serving, but there isn't the sort of hollowness as you would get in a Ponzi Scheme. The system itself would still work so long as population growth slowly came to a halt rather than collapsed and firms observed such trends.

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

#64

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 conce…

The conditions existed long before Brexit, _and_ Brexit made it materially worse

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

#65

> Pill was more direct. He said there’s a “reluctance to accept that yes, we’re all worse off and we all have to take our share.” They should look into taxing the various British Overseas Territories which usually top lists of tax havens across the world [1]. I am not sure if the regular British public is just ignorant of the existence of these, or prefers to run with the limited set of facts that their Conservative…

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

> Taxing tax havens is fine but you shouldn't expect it to limit inflation very much.

Why not? To cite just one obvious effect, it can help fund social services that will inevitably be utilized more when the Government tightens monetary policy to combat inflation.

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

#66

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."

It's not expensive. It's expensive if you don't spend on good quality public services. Without the NHS then there would be no economy. Without social care then people are taken out of the economy to care for relatives. Without child care then parents can't afford to go back to work.

The main issue is that an every increasing proportion of money spent on services ends up in profits for private companies, and in the administration of that profit and contracts. If money went directly to public sector workers, then the economy would boom.

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

#67
post #59
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It would be laughable to equate holders of British passports issued by His Majesty's Passport Office [1] as "foreigners living overseas".

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_passport_(Cayman_Islan...

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

#68

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.

Economically, it’s best to not have children at all and depend on immigration.

You don’t have to waste resources educating people. Someone else does that, and you just pay them a slightly higher wages.

Much cheaper than a well-funded education system.

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

#69

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?

Parents support their children, then when the parents are retired the children support them.

Is publicly funded childcare and eldercare a Ponzi scheme?

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

#70
post #20

We should welcome back Brittain to the European Union. To lessen inflation.

People are happy to ignore the reasons why the Brexit vote happened in the first place, or why similar anti-establishment votes keep happening throughout the western world.

There are systemic issues that no main stream political project seems capable of addressing, it's pointless to simply remove some trade barriers again to paper things over, and then pat ourselves on the back and pretend they are being solved.

Brexit has exposed some of those issues, and made it clear where the responsibility lies. by exposing them and focusing attention on them it has created a real opportunity to address them, although I imagine that opportunity will be missed.

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