Coronavirus

Quoted from golfer

The government can't keep printing money to bail out the needy - they just don't have it. The only way is to get it off the rich one way or another. Who did the rich get their money from to make them rich---the poor. The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. Time they started paying back

We can print (well, create) as much money as is necessary. We are the sole issuer of GBP Sterling and can never run out of it. At the end of the day, let's not forget, the only place it can be spent is in the UK so it will ultimately come back to the government to destroy (through taxes) in due course.

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't ensure that the wealthy pay a healthier share, however. In every measure, economies with low inequality to better for all their citizens. I can certainly live with a few billionaires becoming multi-millionaires instead and those with many millions that they will never spend having a few million less. Let's not forget that in real terms, NHS workers are still 8% worse off than they were in 2008 due to the austerity years. A pay freeze or below inflation rise is actually a pay cut. Let's get more money back into the hands of those who are really important for the economy.

Quoted from Gaffer58

Well Richard Branson is reportedly worth £4 billion plus but he has furloughed his staff, even if he paid them 3 months wages himself he would still have £3billion, he’s made his money from these workers so now it’s time for him to give something back, threaten to take away his knighthood and see his reaction.

Whilst I agree with what you say, I don't see why you quoted my post on the health aspect on the virus and how it affects older people in particular.

Quoted from Maringer

We can print (well, create) as much money as is necessary. We are the sole issuer of GBP Sterling and can never run out of it. At the end of the day, let's not forget, the only place it can be spent is in the UK so it will ultimately come back to the government to destroy (through taxes) in due course.

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't ensure that the wealthy pay a healthier share, however. In every measure, economies with low inequality to better for all their citizens. I can certainly live with a few billionaires becoming multi-millionaires instead and those with many millions that they will never spend having a few million less. Let's not forget that in real terms, NHS workers are still 8% worse off than they were in 2008 due to the austerity years. A pay freeze or below inflation rise is actually a pay cut. Let's get more money back into the hands of those who are really important for the economy.

The more money the lowest paid get the better for the economy, they spend a greater amount of it a greeting greater demand, also it reduces  top up payments like help with rent, the trickle down economics of the last few years were the rich and corporations get cuts in the hope they will pay more has proved nonsense. They just save more, buy property, holidays abroad or luxury goods, many just take the money out of the economy and stuff it into tax havens.
One of these will furlough his airline staff so we pay, a man who covers his planes in the Union flag but has not paid personal tax in this country since the seventies. Every penny the Government gives to companies like this should be seen has an investment and the equivalent value given to the government in shares

Quoted from Maringer

We can print (well, create) as much money as is necessary. We are the sole issuer of GBP Sterling and can never run out of it. At the end of the day, let's not forget, the only place it can be spent is in the UK so it will ultimately come back to the government to destroy (through taxes) in due course.

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't ensure that the wealthy pay a healthier share, however. In every measure, economies with low inequality to better for all their citizens. I can certainly live with a few billionaires becoming multi-millionaires instead and those with many millions that they will never spend having a few million less. Let's not forget that in real terms, NHS workers are still 8% worse off than they were in 2008 due to the austerity years. A pay freeze or below inflation rise is actually a pay cut. Let's get more money back into the hands of those who are really important for the economy.

Interestingly Mervyn King (ex governor of the Bank of England) said that the years of austerity since the financial crash had put us in a better position to "weather the storm" in how this pandemic affects our financial resilience in the future.

Quoted from rancido

Interestingly Mervyn King (ex governor of the Bank of England) said that the years of austerity since the financial crash had put us in a better position to "weather the storm" in how this pandemic affects our financial resilience in the future.

A man in charge of the Bank of England and a system that would have gone bust without a bailout says he did the right thing? The top bankers never suffered austerity they screwed the system and still kept their jobs, austerity for the rest of us to pay for it. Austerity or no the economy is in real serious trouble, if there had been investment and growth in the last ten years particularly in health and social care instead of contraction we would be much better at “weathering the storm” of death this pandemic is causing.

Quoted from codcheeky

A man in charge of the Bank of England and a system that would have gone bust without a bailout says he did the right thing? The top bankers never suffered austerity they screwed the system and still kept their jobs, austerity for the rest of us to pay for it. Austerity or no the economy is in real serious trouble, if there had been investment and growth in the last ten years particularly in health and social care instead of contraction we would be much better at “weathering the storm” of death this pandemic is causing.

So as well as an expert on how to deal with a pandemic, you are also a leading light in world fiscal affairs and policy.

Quoted from rancido

I watched an interview with the Italian Prime Minister on the Saturday. The interviewer asked him that in hindsight would he have done things any way different. He replied that he wouldn't because the information and science available at the time was the basis for their approach.
The only country in the world that has the right approach is the one that suffers no deaths due to coronavirus. Obviously China must be well up on that last as they have had less than 4,000, a far lower figure than the UK, France, Spain, Italy and the USA.

I bring this back in reference to you quoting Mervyn King(a man who spent time lobbying for looser banking controls), no politician or leader likes to admit they were wrong, look at Trump a few weeks back C-19 was no problem , even a couple of weeks ago he expected the Economy open for Easter, has he admitted to making any mistakes, of course not.  It’s like asking Blair if he made mistakes over Iraq, quoting people with a stake in the game on the decisions they made is a waste of time

Quoted from Stadium

Only if you are Irish.

My point was it shouldn't have gone ahead. Madness

Quoted from codcheeky

A man in charge of the Bank of England and a system that would have gone bust without a bailout says he did the right thing? The top bankers never suffered austerity they screwed the system and still kept their jobs, austerity for the rest of us to pay for it. Austerity or no the economy is in real serious trouble, if there had been investment and growth in the last ten years particularly in health and social care instead of contraction we would be much better at “weathering the storm” of death this pandemic is causing.

By investment do you mean borrowing? If that is the case then those debts on top of the debts we are going to incur would put us in an even worse financial state in the future. Even if there had been more money poured into social care and the NHS do you think the death toll in the UK would have been less, bearing in mind there is no effective medical treatment or vaccine available for a new virus?

King backed austerity after 2008 and must surely know it hasn't worked in any way, shape or form and has led to the weakest recovery from recession for a century. His recent comments about us being in a better place because of it are just doubling down on his original incorrect decision to back austerity. Looking for an excuse to cover his backside, I'd say.

What would definitely have put us in a better situation now would be a better-funded health service with more staff and equipment to deal with the overwhelming number of cases they are now facing from the ever-aging population. Alongside a wealthier and healthier general population which would lead to fewer unnecessary deaths. The cuts to social care won't have helped either, of course.

QE has destroyed the argument that the bond markets can run government policy (though the current BoE head was drivelling some nonsense about unwinding QE the other month, I seem to recall). If we're going to avoid another Great Depression after all this is done, we can't let the financial sector decide it is the nurses and public sector workers who should tighten their belts. If we let them, that's what the fornicators will do as they rake in the proceeds once again.