In what is a world-first for The Slog, I am typing this post standing up. This is due to the lack of any furniture in the vicinity, and my tight-fisted desire to squeeze every last drop out of Orange before I depart Slogger’s Roost.
Yesterday, The Independent on Sunday wrote that Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Sir Philip Hampton had moved to calm investor fears over chief executive Stephen Hester’s future. Apparently they thought he might be leaving – an event that would calm the fears of every RBS customer – but he isn’t after all. Anybody with useful information about stakes and silver bullets should write to jawslog@gmail.com.
In the US, Fed Ponzi games continue, as Lee Adler relates how the Fed dishes out to sovereign US bond dealers in a way enabling them to buy more bonds, which the Fed then spends on half-arsed job creation schemes. This direct quote from Adler’s piece is a pearler:
‘….while the number of jobs is growing, the employment to population ratio has barely gained since the recovery began in 2009. Jobs growth is only keeping pace with population growth. Top line growth may satisfy the markets, but it is doing next to nothing to help the massive army of people who have been and continue to be unemployed. Their numbers are growing right along with the number of people who do have jobs. It is a sad state of affairs for the US, but markets don’t care about that….’
Correct. Absolutely and utterly insane, but correct.
However, fear not you armies of Anglo-Greco-American recovery-without-jobs victims, because China needs workers! Yes, its infamous labour surplus will disappear soon after 2020, says the IMF. A decade after that China will face a labour shortage of almost 140m workers – the greatest jobs crunch in human history. Start learning Chinese today.
Chris Huhne should’ve started learning the difference between right and wrong many years ago, but pressure of work sadly kept him from the task. However, now the former energy secretary has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice (by persuading his then wife in 2003 to accept penalty points on her driving licence for a speeding offence he had committed) Mr H has also resigned his seat as an MP. This means a by-election….and in the Eastleigh constituency, speedster Chris had a majority of just 3,864 over the Conservative candidate in 2010.
This makes it a winnable seat for Dave. And we might even see UKip piling in. What fun we shall have.
The Slog 