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VACLAV HAVEL LIVES (True)

. . . and "organised lying" - whether by spin-doctors, dictators or the PR industry - is on the back foot.
Are you sure Paul? I am inclined to the view (after Havel) that we are 'living within the lie'. There is a sort of 'thought experiment' (not sure if Einstein) where scientists who live their entire life in a plummeting lift, cannot discover gravity.
I suggest that some secondary lying might be on the back foot, but the big lie, within which we all plummet (civilisation, war, alcohol, 'education', 'justice', governance, entertainment, gambling, finance, faith etc) is ubiquitous.

why should busy people read something called idle scrawl? give a dog a bad name? if the name was a car what kind of car would it be?

if you read mayhews london then nearly every 19 century costermonger had a working knowledge of economics and knew how it impacted them. so no need to dumb down?

boring? people love money. find where and how money is being made [e.g. what are the growth industries] and people will be gripped.

there is a massive disconnect between official stats and peoples living experience. lets have a 'what i really spend each month' index to compare with the govts current fantasy index where people need to buy a fridge/tv/sofa a month to get their inflation rate down to the govt figure?

"I called the blog Idle Scrawl: it's an old Lancashire insult that my mother used to shout at me to get me out of bed."

I wish you'd told us that sooner - and I wish I'd learned sooner that not wanting to get up in the morning has the handy defence that 'I'm an owl, not a lark...' - I might have avoided those Welsh cries of 'Coda y pwdryn..' myself.

Any chance also of putting the 'Boy George' Osborne video on the site, as it was referred to in Prime Minister's Questions ??

Paul maybe this is the place for a general question that I think is important. I am no economist and I won't get this answer from the web or a book, I think.

There are problems in the world like climate change, and related issues of energy consumption and food demand/supply.

I don't think is is absurd to say that population is a central factor.

Population growth is on an exponential curve and could be considered infinite.

Food supply could be increased by technology but as there are finite resources at some point there must be a supply problem.

Therefore it is probable that population levels will come onto the agenda in the next twenty years. Action may not be timely.

We have what I think we would describe as a liberal free trade economy.

Is economic growth pinned to population growth?

If at some point it is determined we need a sustainable managed level of population does the economy crash because investors see there shares are going to be at best static in value?

My point is that if that were to be the case you would have to have pretty neat footwork to handle both the population issue and the economic stability issue.

Paul,

3rd time lucky? I never got round to replying to your last post. Given recent events, think you may well have jinxed Croatia with your England-replace-drop-out-Croatia blog: good team, playing its socks off after difficult qualifying, looses it during unexpected penalties... Enjoy your after-hours subbuteo.. ;)

CF

PS hope you don't feel forced into another post about this, doesn't seem to have been terribly popular, but it was different and made me giggle... nice reverie..

Welcome back boss!

Interesting that Lord Levy believes NU Labour should get rid of its leader, seeing him as a liability. Whilst certainly not a supporter either of the party nor Brown, I wonder whether Lord Levy and his ilk are one of the strong reasons voters are deserting this party in hords.

Saudi Arabia's initiative should not be belittled.

The Qu'ran, Surah 41, verse 34 teaches: "Good and bad deeds are not equal. Repel evil deeds with good, then your enemies will turn into dear friends"

I owe this quote to Abdulahi Pirzadeh, an Afghan journalist and Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow but it is a language which Quaeda might understand.

I have an intelligence background and am by nature sceptical. It ccould work and no one has dared to try it!

Dear Paul,

With regard to "c)" economic theory. Why not consider whether during these sour economic times, we should abolish the fiat money system, and go back to the gold standard?

Compare the Austrian school of economics to the Keynesian school..

Many consider the Keynesian model to be fundamentally unsound and unfair, and only liable to create credit booms and busts, benefiting only the few powerful people at the top.

The Austrian school, where money would be backed by 100% real assets (and there would be no fractional reserve system) would put an end to these illusionary economic cycles which amount to the bankers charging the tax of inflation by legalised counterfeiting.

An interesting video here is well worth a watch IMO:


Now.. the powers that be may not allow you to get this onto the newsnight program, but I'd at least be very interested to hear your thoughts on your blog.

Kind regards,
Tom.

I just want to post comment about your report yesterday about Slovakia. The first thing that really, but really, made me angry was- not even getting the flag right!!!! So right there, at the beginning.....Slovakia and you put Russian flag on....maybe a bit of more research next time?

Re comment 10 by AvensisTom

"With regard to "c)" economic theory. Why not consider whether during these sour economic times, we should abolish the fiat money system, and go back to the gold standard?"

We don't have a 'fiat' money system, we have a 'credit' money system. They are very different animals. The UK economy has some two trillion pounds circulating - only fifty billion (2.5%) of that is in the form of notes and coins. It is credit which drives the UK economy.

The move to the policy of quantitative easing is a fiat response to the credit crunch. Perhaps Paul could explain why he finds the fiat model of supplying money so abhorrent but doesn't criticise the banks when they create money out of thin air in the form of credit?

if more people know about the possibility of fundamentally changing the way money is 'created' could you please say more?

ie. could governments choose to create debt-free interest-free money for the common good, rather than borrow from commercial or private profit-making bodies? (and banks be forbidden from continuing to lend money into existence)...

We are all economists now, as indeed we are all apparently responsible for the demise of Anglo-American consumer capitalism. Well, I am not, for one, and I am gaining strength from various sources, one of whom, despite your bosses, is your good self. My sources are on both sides of the Atlantic, although I reside on these islands at the periphery of the Eurasian land mass, but more importantly, the analysis applicable to political economy requires an historical, cultural and philosophic perspective, which is universally absent, and indicative of the inadequacy of education at third level, to say the least. When cultural assumptions have shifted, out of the burden of specialisation demanded by employers from graduates of business, finance, economics, the consequences are collective moral failure, as no one can challenge the invisible hand, considered as the prime mover, when of course, it is not, never has been, and never can be. For this, having sinned in haste, we must repent, repeatedly, until the current generation of masters of the universe are replaced by those more modest in their aspirations to achieve a more balanced, equitable and dignified benefit to us all, wherever we may live quiet lives of hope in the capability of humanity to progress.