[Paul Coleman]

How relevant shiners words are. Almost prophetic. He who laughs last eh? Well done dave. An interesting post by the way.

Well it doesn't take a genius to work out what is sustainable and what isn't.  The bit I DIDN'T get my head around was that the government would take the role of banker and the banks would be the businesses.  If the government screws up it then becomes the IMF as the banker and national governments as the businesses.  Big problem there as no-one has yet said what happend when the IMF screws up.  There is no endless pot out there.
Abolish money and wait around for first contact with the Vulcans I suppose 

[simon knight]

I have just opened my post to find i have just lost a £120 a fortnight contract, not a nice thing to wake up to on a saturday morning.

They state all there service contracts are now being provided through an estate management company therefor they no longer require my services.   

ah well time to move on and see this as an opportunity rather than a loss.

Dave

What about your terms and conditions?...Sue their sorry hides!

[Clive McDonald]

oops I think you might have it again shiner. It could all collapse.

[mark dew]

Big problem there as no-one has yet said what happend when the IMF screws up.  There is no endless pot out there.

Imagine the thatcher years. Public spending cut massively etc. That is what will happen if the imf gets involved.

[Paul Coleman]

Big problem there as no-one has yet said what happend when the IMF screws up.  There is no endless pot out there.

Imagine the thatcher years. Public spending cut massively etc. That is what will happen if the imf gets involved.

Even that would not necessarily solve the problem.  Cutting spending increases unemployment.  Even in the "good" years the amount of "hidden" unemployed was high by virtue of the fact that the government funded jobs that they wouldn't have in "bad" times.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing though because spending on government projects can filter through to the private sector and increase production there (this sort of thinking was the basis of the "new deal" in the USA).  It does need to be done in a way that doesn't fuel inflation though - hence one of the reasons it is only usually done in economic depressions when companies are too scared to up their prices.
I have put the words "good" and "bad" in quote marks because I have always questioned exactly how "good" the past few years really have been.  Without government intervention in providing jobs, I believe that we would have been in recession years ago.  We have been living in a recession that has been masked by smoke and mirrors for many years and it only gets noticed when the smoke clears for a while.