QE2 - In other words, You are being conned again.

Last week, the UK government announced a second phase of quantitative easing. Or to give it it's real name "printing lots more digital money."

It was publicised by the Bank of England as a mechanism to kick start the UKs flagging economy. The idea was that this new money would trickle down from the central bank, to the investment banks, then to the high street banks, then to small businesses as loans and finally to facilitating new jobs and new wages.

What a load of bollocks.

This new money will never trickle down. The sum announced was £75 billion. That equates to about £1,300 for each person in the UK. That new money is yet another lot of new money that will have to be paid back at some future date by you and me.

My guess is that if you are lucky and the usual 90% to 10% rule applies, then you might see about £115 of that new money in your pocket over the next year or two. The other £1,200 will disappear much further up the food chain. It might even be used to save a bank from collapse or just be gambled to zero by hapless city traders.

The point is, the only way to get people spending again, is to put real cash directly into the pockets of real people. Most people (the 90%) have to spend all of their income on basic living expenses plus a few luxuries once in a while. If the new money were directed to the poorest 10%, that money would be spent in the blink of an eye and would continue sloshing around in the lower economy for some time. This would create demand, jobs and compounding VAT revenues.

Either the people at the top just don't get it, because they are so far removed from the realities of ordinary peoples daily lives or they are just plain evil and are pursuing a deliberate program of enslavement.

I'll leave you to decide.

FOOD MADNESS - Counting the calories

Chasing the calorie trail.

It takes 10 fossil fuel calories to produce 1 food calorie on a first world table.

An oil burning machine is used to plough a field.
That ploughing machine and all of the raw materials in that machine were manufactured using oil, gas and coal based energies.

An oil burning machine is used to plant seeds.



That seed drilling machine and all of the raw materials in that machine were manufactured using oil, gas and coal based energies.



The seeds are treated in a factory with germination products derived from oil.
The factory uses oil, coal and gas based energies to run.

The factory uses oil burning machines to bring raw materials to it and oil burning machines to deliver seeds to distribution centres.

These distribution centres consume oil, gas and coal based energies.


They use oil burning machines to transport their seed products to farms.

An oil burning machine is used to apply a high yielding fertiliser.



That fertiliser is derived from oil.


That fertiliser is produced in a factory that uses oil, gas and coal based energy sources.
That factory uses transportation methods and energy sources to distribute its product as the seed company.

The farms often rely on irrigated water systems.
Oil, gas and coal based energies are used to extract water from aquifers and pumped large distances using pumps that consume oil, gas and coal based energy sources.
Pesticides are used throughout the growing period.
These pesticides are derived from oil.
Like the seeds and the fertilisers, these pesticides are made in factories using oil, gas and coal based energies and are transported and distributed using oil burning machines.

The crops are harvested using a multitude of oil burning machines.

The crops are transported to distribution centres using oil burning machines.

The distribution centres use oil, gas and coal based energies.

The goods are packaged in plastics and cardboard.

The plastics are oil derived products.
Cardboard use huge amounts of oil, gas and coal based energies for their extraction, production, transportation and distribution needs.
These packaged products are transported to distribution centres using oil burning machines.
They are then redistributed to supermarkets using oil burning machines.
Millions of people collect their food from supermarkets each day using oil burning machines.














To reiterate then. For each calorie of food on a first world table, another 10 calories of fossil fuel derived energy has been used to put it there.

And finally to put this in perspective.

Each person requires around 2000 food based calories per day to maintain themselves. In power terms this equates to 2.326 KWh; about the same as an electric kettle running for 1 hour or 15 TV sets running for an hour. And given that it takes 10 calories of fossil fuel to produce and transport 1 calorie of food to your table, each person uses the equivalent of 23.26 KWh of fossil fuel energy per day. That is about twice the amount of fossil fuel energy that the average family uses each day for their domestic electricity requirements.

OIL IS THE KEY.

EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON IT AND IT'S RUNNING OUT FAST.

AVERAGE EARNINGS – Bullshit !

Both economists and the Government use average earnings when designing fiscal strategy and policy.

The figure for the UK is said to be £39,000 (about 46,000 euros or $56,000).

By using this figure their policies are targeted at a very small and unrepresentative part of the demographic.

This average figure is distorted massively when you look at the distribution curve for earnings.

87% of the UK population are earning less than the national average !!!

The true average (what most people earn) is shockingly around £11,000 per year or £220 per week.

Those on these typical lower incomes are largely invisible to those above the government's published average earnings.

See how you’re doing at http://www.ifs.org.uk/wheredoyoufitin

Comments are welcomed.