Petrol on the Flames 174


Nick Clegg today is proudly announcing a coalition housing policy which is perhaps the maddest thing the government has come up with yet (though that is a tough competition). Apparently the answer to housing problems is to find ways to enable people to take on yet more debt, being helped by government to find deposits which they will however ultimately have to repay in addition to the ordinary mortgage.

In effect the government thinks that the only problem with the housing market, is that it is not as it was in early 2008. The government supports ludicrous inflated house prices, giving the economy an entirely fictional huge monetary value asset base, sustained by mortgages of 100% or more on the inflated value, amounting to many multiples of the debtor’s income.

The answer to housing availability is not for the government to find ways to enable young people to take on unrealistic amounts of debt so they can afford fake prices. The answer in the owned sector is for house prices to crash down to realistic levels which people can actually afford.

These government proposals are the precise opposite of what is needed.

The primary answer in the rented sector is for local councils to build public housing and rent it to people at genuinely affordable prices. There are a huge number of brownfield sites which can be utilised and a huge number of empty buildings ripe for conversion – including many of those empty shops. 50% of the “printed” money created by the Bank of England in the last round of Quantitative Easing exercise, and given to the banks, would have built 400,000 family homes if given to local authorities for that purpose. Think of the employment that would have created.

The UK is every bit as indebted as Greece, both as a per capita absolute and as a percentage of GDP. The difference is that Britain has more private and Greece more individual debt. But it is equally impossible to pay it back in the long term. That incredible mountain of personal debt is what has sustained Britain’s ludicrous house prices. Just as the bamks have had to take a 50% haircut on Greek debt, so also they are going, in the end, to have to take a massive haircut on their UK mortgage portfolios.

The extraordinary thing is, that those mortgages – based on totally unreasonable house valuations – constitute not liabilities but “assets” on a bank’s balance sheet, and the banksters have been able to “leverage” those assets to make speculative financial transactions – or bets – to the valuse of 12 times the “asset”.

These are some my policy prescriptions:

Give local authorities money to build 400,000 new council houses for truly social rent levels, using cash from quantitative easing
nationalise all housing association property and give to local councils as council housing
wipe off 50% of all outstanding mortgages
watch house prices crash, and cheer!

That may sound extreme to some of you. But I promise you it is infinitely more sensible than the incredible folly the government has just produced.


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174 thoughts on “Petrol on the Flames

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  • tony_opmoc

    It has absolutely nothing to do with me. When he was 11, I gave him complete responsibility for all the computers in our house. I was working too hard. I knew he was bright.##

    I Trusted Him

    I Gave Him Full Resposnibility

    He Learned Even Faster.

    He was running his own Business When he was 13 years old.

    Whilst his Mum has, I have Never done that…#

    The company I was working for did all the beuracy – all the tax forms all the regulations and all ths hit.

    I just did my job to make the fuckin thing work

    And yes I cant spell beuracy

    I never had to deal with these idiots

    He does that as well

    Tony

  • tony_opmoc

    I used to have to put up with all these ISO9001Twats asking me if I had documented it properly just in case it all fucked up, or I left or died and these idiots had to do it without me being there…

    I said Yes. I have Clearly Documented it.

    You Press The On Button

    It Is There (Complete with Diagram)

    And it All Comes Up and Works

    What if It Doesn’t?

    I said you are quite welcome to test it…

    Be my guest.

    There was no space for a coffee cup.

    Tony

  • anders

    Talking about injustices – anyone remember this piece of establishment press jumping the gun?

    One minute?

    Maddie???

    Why did immediately Gordon Brown And Cameron get involved?

    Why?

    Maddie’s father GERRY RSA

    Doctors? A dozen odd docs/gsnrtd on/apologists i

    Paedophilia?

    Cosy cosy cosy???

    Anyone remember WTC7?

    The BEEB said it collapsed 20 minutes before the demolition!!!

    20 Minutes!

    Unfortunately the plane due to crash into WTC7 was, ahem, oops, shot down by a patriot (now probably dead) pilot.

    The Daily Telegraph publishing the first ever Madeleine abduction story at 0ne minute past midnight on May 4. This timing was a matter of minutes after the police arrived on the scene and had not made a determination about the situation.

    Anyone remember 7/7?

    Why did Maddie’s mother rush into the Tapas7 meal/bar screaming ‘They’ve taken her”???

    WHO are ‘THEY?’

    Pretty good going by the Spygraih. Also interesting that the local priest, after hearing the confession of a certain woman, banned the person…and said he waas “deceived”…

  • The Craigster and the Cleggster do battle on Whitley Moor

    pretty piss poor show from the regulars to allow this cunt to rule the roost
    oh well

    You’re a damn sight worse than Tony Opmoc with your Paedophilia? WTC7? arsedribble, Anders.

  • Mary

    Things not looking so hot now Sir Philip Green? Bet he wishes he hadn’t wasted all that money on parties including flying out guests to his tax haven and to his yacht. Disgusting displays of wealth whilst the silly people bought his rags produced in Asian sweatshops.
    .
    BREAKING NEWS:Arcadia – which owns High Street chains including Top Shop – is to close around 250 stores, firm says

    .
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1366724/Kate-Moss-Katherine-Jenkins-Tess-Daly-toast-Sir-Philip-Green-birthday.html
    Warning scary photos.

  • Mary

    We lost trust, British Gas says
    .
    British Gas to make changes after ‘loss of trust’ The regulator Ofgem has told energy companies to make their tariffs simpler. British Gas has said it is simplifying its tariffs after acknowledging a lack of public trust in the energy industry.
    .
    Managing director Phil Bentley told the BBC his company “had not made it easy for customers”.

    .
    You sure did Phil. You greedy bastards.
    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/03/26/fury-after-5-gas-bosses-bag-3-2m-in-bonuses-as-prices-soar-115875-23016426/.

  • ingo

    who would have thought, the basis for CleggCamerons double act on Monday was….. that affordable housing has collapsed, basically is no more, the 20% target has been ignored by the Ombudsman under Labour, now scrapped and forgotten by the Condem Government. The 800 million sop to councils, not to raise council tax, also seems to teter on the brink of illusion as many councils have already said they will ignore it and raise council tax.

    Anders, Tony has a drink problem, hence his rambling, your gutter reactions sound very american, the sort you might give to a drunk bum asking you for money. Now you might feel that to be a response worth shouting about, many of us find it primitive, it does not help anyone.
    Tony needs help from his rich son he is so proud about, but the chap is welded to keyboards and lives in lala land, making money.
    So if you want to learn how to change your response Anders, go down and join the occupy movement wherever you are, they know how to engage and deal with homeless and drunks.

  • Komodo

    Good to see Private Eye picked up on Craig’s Foxwerrity questions this week. But they remain unanswered, nevertheless. Nothing has been fed to the media for some time, Werritty is still in purdah (and still no word of that threatened police investigation), Fox is still allowed to fart and bluster on the back benches, and Gould continues to impress Israel with his charm, sensitivity and enthusiasm for the Zionist cause.
    .
    And Harvey Boulter and the MoD won ( technically) their joint action against 3M. This was the reason for Boulter’s approaching Werritty in the first place, it will be remembered. Lee Petar. of Tetra Strategy, and formerly of BICOM, pointed Boulter in Werritty’s direction, because, runs the story, Boulter wanted access to the MoD, and Werritty had access to the Minister. As we know.

    Juat a sodding minute. Boulter and his Porton Group were already hand in glove with the MoD. He had been instrumental in spinning off PFI’s from MoD’s operations for years, under both governments. Porton Group is named after Porton Down, where lots of lucrative biotech was awaiting its release into commercial applications. Why did he need an introduction to the MoD? He virtually was MoD. Another unanswerable question?

    If opmoc posts another pile of drivel immediately after this, I’ll know I’m right….

  • ingo

    Somethings up indeed Komodo, if Boulter already has access, for some time, was it the other way round, did he introduce Werritty to the MOD?

    Medvediev seems to have a point when he says that he does not trust the assurances given over the planned anti- Iran missile shield, that he wants a legally binding treaty that they are not being turned on Russia.
    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2011/11/2011112319546630722.html
    The US would have never trusted Russia to unilaterally dismantle nukes without the SALT treaties, so what makes them think they are honourable and trusted for their words?

  • Anders

    ThANKS iNGO, AM ACTUALy AN CAPS lock off a scale +_ pisshead, but have mostly learnt to focus mate =
    see way you and C and J have to say about the

    Square

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Craig, are we to take it that you are suggesting that what is required in this specific situation is simply a bit of old-fashioned, unfashionable, dare-we-speak its name, socialism?

  • Komodo

    Given that the transaction resulting from the meeting involved Boulter subsidising Werritty, I think it far more likely that Boulter’s alleged wish to contact the MoD was simply cover. If you accept that Israeli influence was central to the affair, it’s perhaps more logical to look at Petar seeking funding for a project to which he was privy, from anyone who could be induced (blackmailed? coerced?) to pay for it, the funds to be channelled through Werritty to AB or one of its participants. But that is just guesswork, obviously.
    .

    The speed with which AB wound itself up – it didn’t wait for the Charity Commission to close it, and it still had the option of complying with the CC’s requests – argues that there was something deeply averse to scrutiny in the setup, and that further publicity was to be avoided.

  • Komodo

    Another name we have heard remarkably little about, as Stephen Newton points out,
    http://www.stephennewton.com/ (23rd Oct)
    is Lord Astor of Hever.
    He is
    1. A trustee of Atlantic Bridge (RIP)
    2. Lords Defence spokesman
    3. SamCam’s stepfather.
    .
    So we’re probably wasting our time there, then.

  • Komodo

    My bad. Can’t tell my baron from my viscount. So there’s two of them in the Lords, then. Ain’t representative democracy wonderful?

  • Mary

    Fun coming next Wednesday.
    .
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15884527
    .
    Public sector strike could see Heathrow ‘grind to halt’
    Strike threatens Heathrow chaos
    Heathrow airport is asking airlines to halve the number of passengers they fly into the airport next week to try to minimise disruption caused by a strike.
    Q&A:
    Public sector strikes
    War of words over pension strikes
    NI facing strike day standstill
    Civil servants ‘to staff borders’
    .
    Perhaps Whiteman, May, Cameron and Clegg could do a turn at the Heathrow desks.

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