1 – Misplaced belief There is a common perception that public officials know what they are doing. They are experts paid out of our taxes, and have been doing it for years. It’s always best to leave matters to the experts, and there’s no point in interfering. This lazy, unquestioning syndrome certainly applies to […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 59 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES – AS NEVER BEFORE GOING POSTAL – 29 July 2019 The pace of change on the political spectrum is truly bewildering for mere onlookers; and as for the usual clutch of clueless columnists and TV “interviewers”, no matter how measured their misguided speculations may sound, the tripe they […]

THOUGHTS ON “LEGAL TENDER” AND GAMES OF PRETENCE Economic Perspectives 54 – April 2019 Few people understand the purpose of so-called “legal tender”. It is widely believed that the government’s legal tender laws protect citizens’ money by formally designating it as the official medium for the settlement of transactions. The Latin root is “tendere”, to […]

“GOING POSTAL” 25-2-19         [ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES no. 50: EMILE WOOLF] ECONOMIC DISTORTION, COURTESY OF YOUR CENTRAL BANK Governments rarely set out to take responsibility for every single issue, but that usually happens anyway. As a result there is a growing expectation by citizens that, whatever the problem, it is the government’s job to sort it out […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 39 REAPING THE WHIRLWIND My wife and I have just returned from a couple of weeks in the USA. Among many sources of stimulation, debate between friends and family threw up a number of key issues of economic interest – two in particular stand out, and they are closely related: (i) Whether […]

GOING POSTAL 20/8/18 [Part 1 of “This time it will be different” appeared as Going Postal last week.] PART 2 THE SCOURGE OF CREDIT EXPANSION – THE SYSTEM’S DEMISE COULD BE SOONER THAN YOU THINK The monetary conjuring trick employed after the last crisis, described in Part 1, required central banks to purchase government bonds […]

1 – THIS TIME IT WILL BE DIFFERENT – Yes, far worse! [ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 35] The last crash 2007/2008 Before the last financial crisis in 2007/2008 sub-prime mortgages were all the rage. The idea was that if mortgage lenders put a pot-pourri of mortgages in a parcel, the risks attaching to mortgages at the […]

Having seen the nature and causes of unsound money, what can we say about sound money? It is money that can be trusted, by anyone and everyone who uses it. Trusted to do what? Trusted to retain its purchasing power. what matters is what money can buy After all, what matters is what money can […]

Let’s look more closely at the role of interest rates Money is one of many forms in which wealth may be held, but money and wealth are not synonymous. Wealth is the accumulation of savings. Savings, in a business, are what is left after meeting all its direct and indirect costs, depreciation, distributions to the […]

“ACCOUNTANCY” – FEBRUARY 2018 PENAL SANCTIONS REGIME THAT DOES NOT RAISE STANDARDS The main objectives of the Financial Reporting Council’s sanctions policy are to improve audit performance, protect the public from sub-standard work, maintain market confidence and uphold proper auditing standards. The policy emphasizes, however, that its purpose is not to punish, but to protect […]