Sooner or Later they'll Have to Admit it -Tax is a Bad Thing

Telegraph article here.

Darling has - sort of - scrapped the proposed hike in business rates. He said that this would valuable help to businesses in this time of crisis.

Listen you stupid prat - tax destroys returns and excessive tax destroys businesses. This is important because businesses create wealth. You don't create wealth. You destroy it.

So if cancelling - sort of - a tax rise is good for business clearly that applies all the time whatever the state of the economy.

You really are a bunch of Muppet's aren't you? If you weren't you'd have cut taxes by now on all of us.

Later

Bit of an edit in response to MW in the comments.

Sorry, yes!

I know that business rates is the 'least bad tax'. The point I am making is that all tax is bad and its take should be minimised if we want a successful and wealthy society.
At the moment the lefties have been able to sustain the argument that tax is a Good Thing. By cutting business rates, VAT etc what they are now tacitly admitting is that tax is a Bad Thing. Of course they still couch these 'cuts' in terms of 'benefits', as if it was their money in the first place!

If you are going to want a proper economy you will need to raise some tax, for defence, law and order etc etc. But you could do that without taxing the beejesus out of wealth creation. Maybe LVT is the answer - I am not tax expert enough to know - but what I do know is that excess overhead and bureaucracies kill wealth creating businesses. Bloated states and their bureaucracies are paid for by imprests on wealth creation. This has to stop.

Anti Labour is not Tory, Necessarily

We've moved on from Labour / Tory wars, despite New Labours determination to keep this phony war going. Whilst I concede that Cameron's henchmen are still 'Tory' as in having a propensity to trend toward oligarchical totalitarianism, many people who support his party have moved on, and if he gets elected will move him and his henchmen on as well.

What we have now is Labour / Anti Labour.

Labour, and New Labour in particular, are the party of big government, big tax 'n spend, big bureaucracy and big control. They trend to statist totalitarianism. They are anti freedom.

The opposition is now coalescing around a disparate and amorphous group that represent the opposite traits. In particular they represent freedom. They believe in small government, low taxes, small bureaucracy and the responsibility of the individual. But they also believe in the state as insurer and lender of last resort. They could be labelled compassionate libertarians. This coalition has been enabled and nourished by the shrinking of time and space provided by the Internet. Nowadays I don't just go down the pub to argue I can sit at my laptop in my kitchen and reach across national borders and develop global connections. This exchange of views and ideas is driving the new opposition to the Statists / Oligarchists.

However such a loose alliance is very difficult to deploy into a national parliament. You cannot stand on a party ticket and get party funding. Yet. But maybe, just maybe that could happen. And why not? Socialist International has been a movement across borders. Why not a new political movement shaped to fit the 21st century and the Internet age? A looser more individualistic independent movement with members sharing principles but standing as independent? Representing anti -Socialism, anti - Tory oligarchism, anti -cartelism, pro - freedom and responsibility.

You may think this unlikely, but witness Hannan's video. Does he really need the Tory party any more? His views are shared by millions he'll never meet from here to Timbuktu. He may have more in common with David Davis than Cameron. Why shouldn't they ally outside the Tory agenda and seek their funding and support from the Internet generation?

I think that New Labour sort of realise this. I could see it in the recent comments from Draper on the tellybox. He was determined to revert to the old classist common room wars of yesterday. Determined to keep this Labour / Tory war going. I've witnessed the same desperation on other lefty blogs and politicians as they start to realise that the game is up.

But the fight is not yet won. We still have to make this new paradigm work. It will take time and effort and resources to pull the world back into an era of renewed freedom and responsibility.

Are you up for it? I am.

Whilst I Remember

Listening to the sainted Hannan it struck me that he only had time to attack Brown on th debt failures of his tenure. The other terriffic failure is Browns taxation and wanton destruction of capital.

In may ways this is even worse than his debt binge. The economy needs capital. Capital is used to multiply the efforts of labour. It makes them more productive. Destroy it and productivity goes down. Browns tax 'n spend policies majored on stealth taxes on capital.

Dear Mr Darling....

Ipswich

26 March 2009

Dear Mr Darling

I trust that you are well and busy. It always good to have something useful to do I say.

First some family news. Since I last wrote much as changed at chez Lola. Miss Lola 1 has been working for an advertising company for some years now and very successful she and her company have been. But with the recent savage downturn her position looks more precarious by the day. And it's not cheap living in London. Miss Lola 2 is pushing hard to develop her book keeping business but having lost one client, a building company that recently failed, her main client now also looks dodgy. It's an entertainment business that has seen its turnover drop by 30% since January. This really looks like a savage recession. Miss Lola 3 is in shipping. All looks OK at the moment as she is in booze, but well, you never know. Miss Lola 4 is about to go to uni. I don't know if you've seen the costs recently? The tuition fees and accommodation costs are just eye watering. The poor kid will leave Uni with a shed load of debt.

Business is good for me. We have picked up a lot more work from clients who have seen a massive destruction of their capital and income in the last 11 years and are now desperate to preserve what they have left. It's not easy. Our turnover is down though, as a lot of it is geared to the capital markets, that have hugely, well, tanked recently.

Mind, that's enough of my problems. How are you getting on? It looks like you are having trouble with the neighbours again. I know that they are your friends and so on, but really the way that they have treated you. By the way, have you sorted out what you are going to do about the money? It was very handy you being able to walk into his job, a nice position in normal times, but it all looks a lot more challenging now. I thought you said that he had so sorted it all out that you were looking forward to a nice two to three years peace and quiet building up your pension and then, whoosh bang, you were off? Do you think that you'll be able to get the full service for your pension now? I must say from here it looks less and less likely.

Just going back to the money, have you, er, actually said anything yet? I know you said you were going to, but have you? I noticed that your mate Mervyn had a gentle go. Did you put him up to that? It had your gentleness about it.

I must say though it all seems so unfair. I've always thought that being the nice bloke you are, you would end up being put upon by someone. I know, I know, I don't mean to sound pitying, but you really should stand up for yourself a bit more. Now would seem like a good time to do so, don't you think?

Anyway, must dash. I have to empty the dishwasher and write some letters.

Look after yourself.

Regards

Lola

An Apology

I am sorry I am not erudite and witty like Stanislav.

I am sorry that I don't have Guido's ferreting and blogging skills.

I am sorry that I cannot write gossipy prose like Iain Dale.

I am sorry that I am not as clever and as educated as John Redwood.

I am sorry that I mispent my youth with cars and women - actually no I am not at all sorry about that - it was glorious. But I am sorry that I didn't learn what I should've when I had the chance.

I am sorry that lacking these skills I can only write poorly (mind you I can write a demon business letter).

But, dear reader, I am not sorry that I am inflicting all this on you. What else can I do?

When you get to the state of apoplectic fury that I have been driven to by the deceitful, witless, moronic, venal, arrogant, self serviving, sanctimonious, sleazy, thieving, lying, ugly, shrill, illiberal, controlling, centrist, nannying, finger wagging, hypocritical gits that masquerade as political leaders from the Labour Party and who are stealing my democratic power from me there is little else I can do but add my poor voice to the collective scream of the traditional English two word phrase, more excoriating as a multi useful expletive than possessed by any other language known to man; New Labour - fuck off.

"We'll do whatever it takes"

Every time Brown spouts his mantra "we'll do whatever it takes" I am waiting for someone to state the bleedin' obvious response....

Answer "Well then, since this is all your fault, and if you really want to do 'whatever it takes' why don't you fuck off and die?"

Please watch the Video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eorder%2Dorder%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded


http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/Daniel_Hannan

Update

Of course this won't make a blind bit of difference especially when the BBC nor any other lefty broadcaster won't cover it - the distorting, propaganderising shits that they are. Hannan's moment will live on in the blogoshere, but how many of the great unwashed will see it? Well, bugger all really.

Christ it pisses me off. The lies and spin, the traducing of democracy. These New Labour shits don't just deserve to lose and election they deserve something a lot worse. And I'm not saying the current crop of Toryists are any better. They are cast from the same class mould - the political calls. Perhaps Marx or Mao were right. We need a continuous revolution to keep these shits in check.

An Excess of Money Cannot be Cured by More Money

Two things have come together this week to concentrate my thoughts on Brown's abject failures in economic and fiscal management.

One, on Wednesday I attended an investment conference and two, I have been writing our investment policy statement.

At the conference one of the best speakers was the bloke doing the fixed interest bit. The simple message was that the rates of return available to investors on fixed interest securities, both Sovereign and corporate, did not provide adequate compensation on instruments with durations greater than 12 months. Short dated bonds of AA quality or better were the only things to buy as investments. This is essentially an anti inflation argument. Inflation being the excess of money supply.

We have decided that the Risk Free Rate of Return will use is RPI. RPI is the nearest proxy I can get for inflation, as in the excess of money supply. Really I would prefer a more comprehensive measure that took into account the increase in broad money supply, but the RPI seems to us to be a reasonable proxy.

These actions and consequential thoughts got me thinking about money supply. Clearly, and now undeniably, the cause the the current economic woes is an excess of money supply. Here, in the US and elsewhere in the world. Money supply has boomed. And suddenly it all stopped. Why did it stop? The 'market' stopped it. Not Brown, not Obama, the 'market'. That is blokes like me and you said, 'That's it. No more. I don't believe what I am being told. It's all gone Pete Tong and I'm off'. 'I'm not going to put any more of my wealth into money or investments until all the existing excess of money has been washed out of the system'. 'And what's more any more money that I do get will be used to rebuild my balance sheet by reducing debt - and in consequence increasing the amount/value of my equity'. 'So stuff it'.

'I am not going to invest until I can be sure that this excess of money has been washed out of the system.'

(Of course one of the most bound and certain ways of destroying this excess money was to let the likes of RBS and LloydsHBOS go bust.)

Given the above, how is Brown's policy of tipping Billions of new (poor quality) Pounds into the economy going to help us get rid of this excess of money and encourage investors and others to spend their, devalued, money?

Afterthought.

Clearly this is market success. The markets are passing an accurate judgement on the failures of proto-socialistic policies of global lefty or mercantilist governments. They daren't admit this of course. It's be curtains for them all.

Tessa Jowell - Useless

Watching QT. The odius, sanctimonious and clueless Tessa Jowell again trotted out the 'appalling self regulation under Tories that failed' mantra. Listen you fat headed old bat, I have run a financial services business under all regulatory regimes from 1989 and it is not the case, and never was, that self regulation 'failed'. It did not. I grant you that there were a couple of problems with pension transfer sales and endowment mortgages, but the costs and possible losses from these are miniscule when compared to the catastrophic losses created by the failed over regulation since 1997 and specifically from the the coming into law of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

Zen and the Art of Aga Maintenance

Late last week our oil fired Aga went out following a very windy day. Sometimes happens as fumes back up and trigger the fire control valve. So I set to and relit it. Over the next couple of days it became obvious that something more fundamental was wrong. It would not get up to temperature. On Friday night I let it go out and spent sometime on the interweb researching all I could find on Aga issues. I found one very useful site here, which I recommend.

Saturday morning bright and early and full of no tea following a breakfast of bread and Marmite and water I set to get it sorted. Now, I am quite a capable tinkerer and taking it apart and carrying out all the checks and repairs was quite pleasurable. The fault turned out to be the usual oil Aga problem of carbon build up in the base of the crucible and the consequential restriction of the oil supply line. Once cleaned and properly reassembled the Aga lit easily and was up to full temperature this morning, despite being set at 3 and a bit on the thermostat as opposed to the 4 ish that I had been using.

Whilst engaged in this therapeutic exercise I was musing on the world and it seemed to me that in the saga of the Aga there was a lesson. Normally the Aga functions well. It just goes on in the background ready to take on any form of cooking, always hot. Quiet and efficient and providing a source of heat for drying clothes or comforting the dogs or guests as well as being ready to cook bacon or kippers with no smell. It has no external controls, it is only regulated for heat. By one simple control.

The supply of oil.

Too much oil and it overheats and shuts itself down. But the oversupply of oil cannot be fixed until it has cooled down, which will take hours. And once you have fixed it - reduced the supply of oil - and got it going again it will take hours to warm up. Too little oil and it signals that it needs a little maintenance. That a blockage has occurred and needs clearing. If you ignore it and do nothing it gradually it goes out and the cold returns. But at least you can attend to it immediately as it is already cold. And consequently the time it takes to get it going again is half the time it takes following overheating.

Aga's and Oil. Money and Markets. It's a Zen thing.

Brown Cannot Reform

The causes of this economic crisis are now self evident. Excessive cheap money created by Brown together with excessive taxation of private business and the cash hosed at bloated unreformed public 'services'.

The cures are therefore a reduction in the amount of money, the reduction in taxation on private business and individuals, and the genuine reform of the public 'services'.

Reform of public services can only start with huge redundancies. There are about 7 million people engaged (I cannot say working) in public 'services'. Of these about 1.3 to 1.5 million are at the front end of the health, education, law and order, defence and the HMRC, which leaves 5.5 million doing what exactly?

Everyone knows that this is the case. Everyone knows that these jobs are not really jobs and need to go. Even Gordon Brown knows it. So why doesn't he get on with the redundancies.

He won't do it because he wants to leave it to the next government, whom he also knows will be the Tories. Why? So when he, or more likely his party is in opposition it can use the mantra of 'Tory cuts' to discredit the government.

Trust me, he ain't going to sack a single civil servant, unless the IMF turn up and tell him. It'll always be someone else's fault.

QED - we are doomed to impoverishment.

Told You So!

Go here to see why.

A System of Natural Liberty

That's it. I've found my short phrase to describe 'capitalism'.

A System of Natural Liberty.

Isn't that lovely? And who coined it? Adam Smith of course.




As some of you may know I had sort of tried various things leading to

'Anglo saxon libertarian free market capitalism with thrift resposibility and compassion operating under the rule of English Common Law'

Not a very good word smith am I? Not exactly up there with dear old Adam.


And you don't have to disect it do you? You just have to get on with it. Oh joy.

Market Failure - Not

I swear, if one more loony lefty trots (sic) out the 'what you are seeing now is the failure of the markets' line I will be straight out to the shed and measuring off lengths of piano wire and searching for suitable weapons.

For one more time listen. What you are now witnessing is markets working brilliantly to smash up all the statist leftist meddling and messing about over the last, well, 20 years ish.

A perfect example of this is the FSMA 2000 whose bastard child the FSA has so comprehensively cocked up. As anyone who works in financial services could (and we did) tell you they would. Why? Because their rule book is an eight foot high tome of bureaucratic minutiae, most of which is just train spotting. It is nationalisation by regulation. And we all know what nationalisation does to any industry don't we?

How though do we get this out on the MSM? The BBC is completely corporatist and knows its own future depends on the continuing deceit of the lefties? Murdoch will go with whatever makes him money and power. The Internet does not yet have the penetration to influence public mood.

If anyone has a good idea, just marginally short of full insurrection, I'd be pleased to hear it.