Why the British and American Financial Authorities are Actually Doing Nothing

Why nothing is really being done in our financial world has to do with power. Power resides in the hands of the very rich, and they are in control of policy, if not directly, then indirectly. Power in America and Britain revolves around electoral processes and a desire to see what jobs are left, remain. This is a false hope.

We have to release the money and let it float away to the off shore and the oil producing havens where it won't do so much damage. Britain and America are building a future based on very weak foundations.

We see Clinton, Obama, and McCain debating and acknowledge that the Fed has to be even handed before an election. We see Cameron and Brown debating and recognize that the Bank of England has to be even handed before a likely election.

We watch tourist paradises being built in deserts.

We see China wanting water from Tibet to flow on without incident. We see the Yangsee River water diverted to the Yellow River.

We see the majority of the world's work force receive much less than what seems fair.

In the United States and in the United Kingdom, the mood is tending towards change. In the UK, the Labour party has sunk almost to an historically low level for council by-elections. Obviously, some people are hurting badly. In the United States, the mood is to do something different from whatever George Bush did. If he likes his coffee one way, you can be almost sure most everyone wants it the other, at least temporarily.

If one wanted to terrorize the two countries the way to do it would be to do as the financial authorities presently are doing, that is nothing that would actually get deserving people in the middle ranks somewhat wealthier. For whatever reason, income distributions are not moving in the direction they need to. It seems that the faster we grow the economy, the worse things become overall. Why is that?

The problem is not that we don't know that the very rich are getting overly rich, but that we are being black mailed into doing nothing about it for fear that they can make our situation much worse. The truth is that in the short term they can, but ultimately we need to have policies that produce a higher average income and a lower extremely high income that is obscene in a modern age.

Have we not had any progress in economic thought on this issue by any political force, or does the political world just drift along in acceptance, or is it fear?

Removing the Protective Shield Associated with Mortgage Lending

How many people in the UK remember the Big Bang? Well, the Big Bang occurred a few decades ago, and represented a radical change in the way high street banks and other financial entities could operate in the UK, allowing them greater scope to enter new markets and offering foreign financial entities increased room to do 'their thing.' The problem with this whole process was that some of the foreign banks were American, and doing their thing is very different from the way things are normally done in London. You might as well say that their is no rule book because in the States if it isn't illegal and it can make you money, you go out and do it. Perhaps, you do some of the illegal things as well. Innovation in finance begins in America, after all, they have the moxy.

It was a measure to increase competition and its resulted in banks competing directly with building societies for the business of home loans and mortgages. With this change, the building societies essentially transformed themselves into banks.

Of course, the British banks were delighted because they could engage in the business of longer term lending and make huge profits without as much risk as lending to business, which they were frightened to do. Actual lending to business outside of the housing market is risky or didn't you know. And, so ended the protective shield associated with mortgage lending.

Now the world, and especially Britain, has caught a Stateside disease of profligate lending, it looks as though we will go through all the symptoms of this disease. We could, as the authorities are now doing, pretend the disease can be fed and driven away, but that is not to understand the nature of the disease. No, to get to the disease the protective shield for the consumer must come up again, and a higher penalty for profligate lending charged. Yes, interest rates will have to rise!