news & politics:discussion

[steviewevie]

3 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

hindsight etc.

all the forecasts were wrong...because they didn't realise that UK was as f**ked as it apparently is.

[fraybentos1]

14 minutes ago, Neil said:

dunno how its done, the clever wife did it!, but its possible to get free prescriptions, i'm saving £100+ p.m. with freebies. 🙂 

 

12 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

oh i get them now 🙂 medical exemption card ..... just dont think that would be the case if things went private ..... definately not the US version where insulin costs a fortune 

90% of prescriptions given in england are free

[cellar]

11 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

hindsight etc.

I guess it is hindsight... But its one of those things that just seems so ridiculously obvious now that it's hard to understand how it was missed. You can almost predict that there will be another thing in 10-15 years that will be the same, and financial institutions will take full advantage of it in the meantime.

[Crazyfool01]

5 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

 

90% of prescriptions given in england are free

didnt realise it was so high wow 

[squirrelarmy]

9 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

oh i get them now 🙂 medical exemption card ..... just dont think that would be the case if things went private ..... definately not the US version where insulin costs a fortune 

Same with my AEDs. $400 a month in the US for the same medication I get for free via the NHS.
 

It would be a lot of money to stop me falling over, the alternative would probably end up with me incurring even more costs if I was getting sent to the hospital to be patched up every time I split my head open if I wasn’t taking them. 
 

It’s the pharmaceutical side of things the Tories will be most interested in. The mark up on the medication is ridiculous in the US. You know they want to be raking in the same kind of profits. 

[cellar]

10 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

Another Tory government will end up costing you a lot more than £80

Luckily I think it's not a possibility. Honestly, if we end up with a Tory majority, I'm sailing a boat over the nearest body of water and trying to punch through the horizon, because that is not real life

[fraybentos1]

22 minutes ago, lost said:

Interesting that even the new statesman is saying the BOE messed up there:

 

Yeah but Ozanne says rates are too high 

[Guest]

58 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

with inflation + cost of living crisis, many people feel poor.

Yes of course, people are poor but Britain isn’t a poor country, we are one of the richest in the world. We have a poorly performing economy because of 13 years of Tory rule. 

[Guest]

44 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

hindsight etc.

Some people were saying that the BOE were getting this wrong quite early on… 😉

[steviewevie]

Don't think interest rates will bother this lot...

 

[mattiloy]

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

all the forecasts were wrong...because they didn't realise that UK was as f**ked as it apparently is.

 

44 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

Some people were saying that the BOE were getting this wrong quite early on… 😉

It seems you both misunderstand. The article suggests that the BoE’s mistake was in the QE program during covid in anticipation of an economic slowdown of a magnitude that never materialise- not recent interest rate hikes.

The implication is that inflation was partially a money supply issue 

In which case monetary tightening is called for and the interest rate hikes are justified.

I agree that it is mainly supply side (energy above all) but it can be that that was exacerbated by the covid monetary policy, and another element is also brexit and just a general feeling of the uk being a binfire bringing things to a head in the fx markets.

The uk imports a lot of energy intensive manufactured goods and exports mainly non energy intensive services. So there is an amplifying effect on inflation of any weakening of the currency.

As well as reducing the money supply and suppressing demand- the interest rate needs to rise in step with other countries in order to prop up the pound.

One thing that is clear to me from all of this (and all of that) is that we need to quit our addiction to oil and gas.

I also hope it results in a major correction in the housing market. We should get used to paying more for milk and a haircut. In a fairer economy we should be paying more to the farmers and barbers for goods and services rendered and less on housing.

Edited July 5, 2023 by mattiloy

[cellar]

I thought the "hindsight" comment was saying that it's hindsight they should have raised interest rates higher, and faster. Maybe I misunderstood.

There is hindsight to that, though. Forecasts earlier this year didn't anticipate the need for such rises (though it does seem obvious now).

[Neil]

Boe f**ked up should have increased interest rates sooner.was obvious they needed to increase after the crash in 2008.

[Neil]

1 hour ago, fraybentos1 said:

 

90% of prescriptions given in england are free

i think they only keep the charge to discourage people from going to the doc's.

[steviewevie]

Dickhead bankers.

[steviewevie]

1 hour ago, cellar said:

I thought the "hindsight" comment was saying that it's hindsight they should have raised interest rates higher, and faster. Maybe I misunderstood.

There is hindsight to that, though. Forecasts earlier this year didn't anticipate the need for such rises (though it does seem obvious now).

Hindsight to all of it..the forecasts were wrong, they thought we'd enter a recession and inflation wouldn't last...and we seem to be doing worse than elsewhere.

[steviewevie]

 

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

 

It’s not possible for a country that’s in charge of its own currency to ‘run out of money’.

[cellar]

53 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Hindsight to all of it..the forecasts were wrong, they thought we'd enter a recession and inflation wouldn't last...and we seem to be doing worse than elsewhere.

I don't remember a recession ever being on the forecast cards. It was more inflation that they got wrong (but that's why rates should have gone up higher, faster - again, hindsight).

As Neil pointed out above though... Having 0% rates for years after the 2008 crash was never going to end well.

[Neil]

1 hour ago, Ozanne said:

It’s not possible for a country that’s in charge of its own currency to ‘run out of money’.

its possible for income to not cover expenses, so printing money needs to happen, that's a political decision, not a boe decision.

[steviewevie]

6 hours ago, cellar said:

I don't remember a recession ever being on the forecast cards. It was more inflation that they got wrong (but that's why rates should have gone up higher, faster - again, hindsight).

As Neil pointed out above though... Having 0% rates for years after the 2008 crash was never going to end well.

I thought last year we were forecast to go into recession, but we didn't..just stayed above water. Now some are thinking these interest rates will push us into recession by design.

[steviewevie]

7 hours ago, Ozanne said:

It’s not possible for a country that’s in charge of its own currency to ‘run out of money’.

I think it's we're running out of the ability to borrow more money. 

Or something.

I failed economics A level, I wasn't really there...2nd summer of love.

[steviewevie]

Have to listen to what Osborne and Balls think on their new podcast.

[lost]

29 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

I think it's we're running out of the ability to borrow more money. 

Or something.

I failed economics A level, I wasn't really there...2nd summer of love.

As per the 1970’s when we were bailed out by the IMF.

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

I think it's we're running out of the ability to borrow more money. 

Or something.

I failed economics A level, I wasn't really there...2nd summer of love.

We won’t not be able to borrow anymore money. I would be willing to bet anything in the world that in 6/12 months time the country will still be borrowing and won’t have run out of money.

The ‘run out of money’ narrative is straight out of the Tory playbook to explain why they won’t spend money on poor people.