If my Nu-K party (See below) were ever elected, this is one of the things I would change.
My son is a dual national holding a full Japanese and a full British passport. He is now studying full time at university in England. But... I have to pay full international school fees for him. Instead of around 3,000 pounds a year, I have to pay 16,800 currently with raises every year.
When I checked with the ministry of education I found out that it is not based on Nationality, but on whether anyone in my immediate family has paid tax for 3 years previously. Having been an expat since 1986 the answer was no. But I have paid 12 years of taxes previously to UK treasury.
To add insult to injury, when I forced a response to the following hypothetical situation, I was amazed at the response.
" If a Korean family of 5 (arbitrary number) goes to U.K. since the Father's company need him to work in UK on a 3 year secondment. If after 3 years his head office require him to return to Korea but his eldest son is University age and wants to study in UK, what fees will he pay?"
The answer was 3,000 pounds the domestic rate. And yet the son doesn't even have a claim to citizenship, let alone a full passport.
Further to that, in my son's last year in Japan at high school he visited Hungary and Austria for a school choir trip. Being a parent it was my duty to ask about passports and visas etc. I was told by the Austrian Embassy in Japan that either passport was good to travel. At that time I also asked them that if my son wanted to study at the prestigious Mozart Academy, and assuming he passed the audition, what other requirements would there be. I was told that he would require at least 1 year of high school German language. Which is fine and understood. When I asked about fees I was told that since he has a full UK passport and UK is part of the European Union, he would pay domestic European fees, which at the time converted to approximately 2,700 pounds per year.
No wonder the UK is in such a mess.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sale of public assets.
For a number of years the governments of this world have sold public assets created at the past taxpayers expense to private industry.
Examples are National Telecoms Companies, National Post and Parcel services, National Rail Services, Healthcare and the like. The governments "claim" private industry will run them more efficiently and therefore more profitably. They will also claim that this is a good time to sell that asset. (Usually to make up some of the red ink that the bad governments have caused)
Logically, In public hands a company can provide good competitive services for that sector, and may often benefit from being a monopoly. Once bought the private company will want to minimize cost so that they can "quench their insatiable desire for profit". This means a drop in services, staff levels and quality. Put bluntly, if a company isn't providing high quality goods and services with public ownership, it will only get worse in private ownership.
We now have the ridiculous situation where health-care insurance companies are dictating what operations and care the patient can receive, not the patients doctors.
No wonder the insurance companies are up in arms at the Obama proposal to renew and modify the healthcare system. The health-care insurance companies have a true fear that the profits will end. Why should any company be allowed to make monster profits from the sickness and medical need of ordinary citizens. Therefore, I put healthcare insurance companies in the same category as tobacco companies and drug dealers. i.e. They make profits from the misery of others.
Examples are National Telecoms Companies, National Post and Parcel services, National Rail Services, Healthcare and the like. The governments "claim" private industry will run them more efficiently and therefore more profitably. They will also claim that this is a good time to sell that asset. (Usually to make up some of the red ink that the bad governments have caused)
Logically, In public hands a company can provide good competitive services for that sector, and may often benefit from being a monopoly. Once bought the private company will want to minimize cost so that they can "quench their insatiable desire for profit". This means a drop in services, staff levels and quality. Put bluntly, if a company isn't providing high quality goods and services with public ownership, it will only get worse in private ownership.
We now have the ridiculous situation where health-care insurance companies are dictating what operations and care the patient can receive, not the patients doctors.
No wonder the insurance companies are up in arms at the Obama proposal to renew and modify the healthcare system. The health-care insurance companies have a true fear that the profits will end. Why should any company be allowed to make monster profits from the sickness and medical need of ordinary citizens. Therefore, I put healthcare insurance companies in the same category as tobacco companies and drug dealers. i.e. They make profits from the misery of others.
Public Companies who pay dividends.
Once the general public begin to wake up what is really happening behind the scenes they will realize the following.
1. If a company can pay dividends to shareholders one of the following is true.
(a) That company is cheating its workers and is not paying them their full worth.
(b) That company is charging too much for its products or services.
(c) A combination of (a) and (b)
2. Because public companies are allowed to issue common shares, it is the equivalent of having a printing press that makes money. Many public companies are not run by good business men and some companies operate on the fringe of the law such that they need a sea of in house lawyers to fend of litigation. Some of these companies are run by wide boy type businessmen. Should we not have stricter checks on who may become a director of a public company?
Once the common man realizes these factors, he will not want to work for a company that pays dividends. Once the supply of staff becomes scarce to these companies, they will have to start to pay a premium to hire staff. Once that happens the dividend pool will be depleted and companies who pay dividends will be forced to operate in a more open and socially friendly manner.
1. If a company can pay dividends to shareholders one of the following is true.
(a) That company is cheating its workers and is not paying them their full worth.
(b) That company is charging too much for its products or services.
(c) A combination of (a) and (b)
2. Because public companies are allowed to issue common shares, it is the equivalent of having a printing press that makes money. Many public companies are not run by good business men and some companies operate on the fringe of the law such that they need a sea of in house lawyers to fend of litigation. Some of these companies are run by wide boy type businessmen. Should we not have stricter checks on who may become a director of a public company?
Once the common man realizes these factors, he will not want to work for a company that pays dividends. Once the supply of staff becomes scarce to these companies, they will have to start to pay a premium to hire staff. Once that happens the dividend pool will be depleted and companies who pay dividends will be forced to operate in a more open and socially friendly manner.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Is the time value of money formula true?
I challenge the establishment.
Our whole financial system is based on the time value for money formula. 1 unit of currency today is worth 1 unit + interest at some time in the future.
Why?
Because you have use of my money for x months or years, so you have to give me more back to compensate my loss.
Why?
Paper money is still an analogy for gold. In the olden days of gold nuggets did a nugget grow in size after 1 2 or even 3 years? No of course it didn't. Perhaps you might argue if a plant or an animal were used as currency, then the time value of money formula might have validity.
Here is my view:
A clever group of rich old men figured out that they cannot take worldly goods or money with them after death. However they could pass wealth on to the offspring.
However this wasn't good enough for them. They felt that since even ancient economies fluctuated there could be no guarantee of the worth of unit of currency today compared with its value tomorrow. (i.e. its value can also decrease).
So the notion of interest baring money was born.
In today's capitalist societies we assume that we can buy goods, raw materials and labour in cheap underdeveloped countries add some value making a product and sell the item on for (total cost + profit). So long as a gap exists between raw materials and the finished product price there will always be inflation (or GDP). Therefore if there is always inflation the cost of money must also go up (carry interest).
I challenge the fact that we need to make huge profits and have this constant inflationary spiral. Steady state capitalism is the way forward.
Our whole financial system is based on the time value for money formula. 1 unit of currency today is worth 1 unit + interest at some time in the future.
Why?
Because you have use of my money for x months or years, so you have to give me more back to compensate my loss.
Why?
Paper money is still an analogy for gold. In the olden days of gold nuggets did a nugget grow in size after 1 2 or even 3 years? No of course it didn't. Perhaps you might argue if a plant or an animal were used as currency, then the time value of money formula might have validity.
Here is my view:
A clever group of rich old men figured out that they cannot take worldly goods or money with them after death. However they could pass wealth on to the offspring.
However this wasn't good enough for them. They felt that since even ancient economies fluctuated there could be no guarantee of the worth of unit of currency today compared with its value tomorrow. (i.e. its value can also decrease).
So the notion of interest baring money was born.
In today's capitalist societies we assume that we can buy goods, raw materials and labour in cheap underdeveloped countries add some value making a product and sell the item on for (total cost + profit). So long as a gap exists between raw materials and the finished product price there will always be inflation (or GDP). Therefore if there is always inflation the cost of money must also go up (carry interest).
I challenge the fact that we need to make huge profits and have this constant inflationary spiral. Steady state capitalism is the way forward.
A Question of Sport (Opium of the Masses)
* Governments have long realized that their policies or actions could under analysis by the masses give them either very low ratings, or force a change of government.
* Thinking doesn't come easily for most people, in fact it is hard work.
The governments of this world realize that the average working and middle class males find it hard to communicate at work with their fellow male co-workers. General homophobia and macho mentality prevent them from talking about home life, family and children. Therefore there is a dangerous vacuum in which original male thought might evolve.
So.... The governments appeal directly to the little head and give them something that is easy. No thinking involved. Plenty of sport, sport, sport. Books, clothes, premium TV channels, a thousand and one different games. That's right folks! Appeal directly to the testosterone and you will never have a problem from the male populace. They will never have to think again. It works !
While not wanting to criticize sport and exercise to keep fit and healthy, I do want to criticize the trillions of dollars every year that is spent on professional sports. Clothes, videos, interviews, TV rights, athletes salaries, Newspapers and magazines, TV commercials, sponsorship. The list goes on.
The fact is SPORT DOES NOTHING! It doesn't solve any world problems. It doesn't stop wars. it doesn't clean up the atmosphere. It doesn't help the poor and starving. In effect it does nothing positive for the world. It triggers an adrenaline rush and
over production of testosterone which in turn makes men more aggressive which in turn makes "The survival of the fittest" the norm in our so called advanced society.
Wars are fought over religion that we know well, so when will the first war caused by sport be? We have the makings of tribal wars in soccer stadiums already.
Imagine if we had a 5 year moratorium on professional sport. No Olympics for one time, No world cup for one time. Sports teams, leagues athletes and everything concerned with sports can be run at break even just for 5 years. All the additional
money will be siphoned off by 100pct taxation thresholds. i.e. No one needs to earn more than $1mio per year so anything over that is taxed at 100pct. With this new tax windfall the government can create new projects with new jobs on a massive scale such as synthetic tree carbon scrubbers to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. Sport could actually give something back to the world.
But that is unlikely to happen since sport is big business, it generates trillions of dollars, the greedy want their share. Those in charge realize that such a break on professional sports will again create that "vacuum" where original thinking might occur.
Just take a look at the average sports enthusiast. Beady glazed eyes close- set in the face. An obvious excitement when with another group of males talking about sport. Their bodies twitch as they discuss trivia about this player or that handicap.
Someone in the group will think he has an important statistic to relay so that when the group do not listen for the 3rd time he virtually shouts out this precious piece of trivia so he can feel part of the group, part of the team. Take a look at Australia.
A nation that is totally controlled by sport. Every citizen is sports crazy, male or female alike. So long as you can get an Olympic gold nothing else matters. On the contrary everything else matters before worrying about a piece of metal. Those people that make it their life to keep fit and go to the gym several times a week. If excercise burns fat, it also does something to the braincells. It either consumes them or turns them to mush.
I believe mankind and womankind are truly meant to evolve and advance as a peaceful super culture around the universe but to do so we must give up these primitive ideas and thoughts and concentrate on what is important, have original thoughts and to positively change the way we live together. The world doesn't need a winner. We all need to be winners.
* Thinking doesn't come easily for most people, in fact it is hard work.
The governments of this world realize that the average working and middle class males find it hard to communicate at work with their fellow male co-workers. General homophobia and macho mentality prevent them from talking about home life, family and children. Therefore there is a dangerous vacuum in which original male thought might evolve.
So.... The governments appeal directly to the little head and give them something that is easy. No thinking involved. Plenty of sport, sport, sport. Books, clothes, premium TV channels, a thousand and one different games. That's right folks! Appeal directly to the testosterone and you will never have a problem from the male populace. They will never have to think again. It works !
While not wanting to criticize sport and exercise to keep fit and healthy, I do want to criticize the trillions of dollars every year that is spent on professional sports. Clothes, videos, interviews, TV rights, athletes salaries, Newspapers and magazines, TV commercials, sponsorship. The list goes on.
The fact is SPORT DOES NOTHING! It doesn't solve any world problems. It doesn't stop wars. it doesn't clean up the atmosphere. It doesn't help the poor and starving. In effect it does nothing positive for the world. It triggers an adrenaline rush and
over production of testosterone which in turn makes men more aggressive which in turn makes "The survival of the fittest" the norm in our so called advanced society.
Wars are fought over religion that we know well, so when will the first war caused by sport be? We have the makings of tribal wars in soccer stadiums already.
Imagine if we had a 5 year moratorium on professional sport. No Olympics for one time, No world cup for one time. Sports teams, leagues athletes and everything concerned with sports can be run at break even just for 5 years. All the additional
money will be siphoned off by 100pct taxation thresholds. i.e. No one needs to earn more than $1mio per year so anything over that is taxed at 100pct. With this new tax windfall the government can create new projects with new jobs on a massive scale such as synthetic tree carbon scrubbers to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. Sport could actually give something back to the world.
But that is unlikely to happen since sport is big business, it generates trillions of dollars, the greedy want their share. Those in charge realize that such a break on professional sports will again create that "vacuum" where original thinking might occur.
Just take a look at the average sports enthusiast. Beady glazed eyes close- set in the face. An obvious excitement when with another group of males talking about sport. Their bodies twitch as they discuss trivia about this player or that handicap.
Someone in the group will think he has an important statistic to relay so that when the group do not listen for the 3rd time he virtually shouts out this precious piece of trivia so he can feel part of the group, part of the team. Take a look at Australia.
A nation that is totally controlled by sport. Every citizen is sports crazy, male or female alike. So long as you can get an Olympic gold nothing else matters. On the contrary everything else matters before worrying about a piece of metal. Those people that make it their life to keep fit and go to the gym several times a week. If excercise burns fat, it also does something to the braincells. It either consumes them or turns them to mush.
I believe mankind and womankind are truly meant to evolve and advance as a peaceful super culture around the universe but to do so we must give up these primitive ideas and thoughts and concentrate on what is important, have original thoughts and to positively change the way we live together. The world doesn't need a winner. We all need to be winners.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
NU-(U)K Party
As a UK citizen who has lived out of the country for 23 years and a person who is disgusted that I could never live in that nasty, dingy, grey country in which I was born.
Many things have upset my over the years which I will post later. However, in the past year or so, I have been thinking about creating a political party in exile. British citizens and subjects that feel the same as me.
Britain has been run and managed by idiots for the past 40 years or so. It is time to change with a new constitution and new priorities and a new economic system to lead the world as Britain once did before.
Primarily, there are 3 concepts that would form the manifesto.
The first is a prolific line from the movie V for Vendetta, nevertheless it is very poignant.
Concept number 1.
Concept number 2.
Modify our economic system of capitalism (with greed).
Outlaw the insatiable desire for profit.
This new system will be called "Steady State Capitalism" or something similar.
Concept number 3.
Every citizen is entitled to the following three items.
a) FREE Healthcare cradle to grave.
b) FREE Global quality education from the age of 5 to first university degree level.
c) Good quality, affordable housing for all citizens. (If you treat people like animals, some of them will behave like animals)
The fact that the UK hasn't re-invested in major infrastructure since Victorian times, and that businesses are prepared to nickle and dime of that failing infrastructure needs to be adjusted.
I will add further items as I think of them or think them through.
Still the universities of this world teach about Reagan and Thatcher economics. These people truly messed up a generation. The isolated "inflation" as the bogey man and tried to hammer it out at all costs. What they failed to realize is that Inflation is called inflation when you do not want it and GDP growth when you do. It is the same animal. A fundamental design error in our current global democratic economic systems.
If anyone is interested in forming a UK government in exile or talking about designing a new and better economic system please contact me.
Many things have upset my over the years which I will post later. However, in the past year or so, I have been thinking about creating a political party in exile. British citizens and subjects that feel the same as me.
Britain has been run and managed by idiots for the past 40 years or so. It is time to change with a new constitution and new priorities and a new economic system to lead the world as Britain once did before.
Primarily, there are 3 concepts that would form the manifesto.
The first is a prolific line from the movie V for Vendetta, nevertheless it is very poignant.
Concept number 1.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
Concept number 2.
Modify our economic system of capitalism (with greed).
Outlaw the insatiable desire for profit.
This new system will be called "Steady State Capitalism" or something similar.
Concept number 3.
Every citizen is entitled to the following three items.
a) FREE Healthcare cradle to grave.
b) FREE Global quality education from the age of 5 to first university degree level.
c) Good quality, affordable housing for all citizens. (If you treat people like animals, some of them will behave like animals)
The fact that the UK hasn't re-invested in major infrastructure since Victorian times, and that businesses are prepared to nickle and dime of that failing infrastructure needs to be adjusted.
I will add further items as I think of them or think them through.
Still the universities of this world teach about Reagan and Thatcher economics. These people truly messed up a generation. The isolated "inflation" as the bogey man and tried to hammer it out at all costs. What they failed to realize is that Inflation is called inflation when you do not want it and GDP growth when you do. It is the same animal. A fundamental design error in our current global democratic economic systems.
If anyone is interested in forming a UK government in exile or talking about designing a new and better economic system please contact me.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Gold Lease Scam
From the 1980's one U.S. investment bank was notable for creating a new range of "derivative financial products" Firstly, the interest rate currency swap. Also the gold lease.
This is the same team and era that spawned famous traders. Rich and famous traders who brought companies to the brink (and over the brink) . One case in example LTCM.
Many of these whiz kid traders should be labeled "Financial Terrorists" since they cause just as much misery to their victims as a religious fanatic with a bomb.(Think about Enron and the life savings of its employees).
It is time to stamp out these "greed factor" Social manipulators armed with "rocket science" maths on their side that not many can understand. In particular the first generation traditional bankers who are their bosses. Actually, there is no proof that analysis of any indicator has any ability to predict future prices. However in the markets it is like a cult religion and therefore must be learned. It also serves as a bit of insurance for the trader if he screws up he can tell his boss "I was watching this indicator, or chasing that moving average". His boss being of the same "cult" will probably see his viewpoint and let him off lightly.
It is time to stamp out these "greed factor" Social manipulators armed with "rocket science" maths on their side that not many can understand. In particular the first generation traditional bankers who are their bosses. Actually, there is no proof that analysis of any indicator has any ability to predict future prices. However in the markets it is like a cult religion and therefore must be learned. It also serves as a bit of insurance for the trader if he screws up he can tell his boss "I was watching this indicator, or chasing that moving average". His boss being of the same "cult" will probably see his viewpoint and let him off lightly.
Most of these people have come from "old money families"
I am going to talk about the "gold lease" (One financial product that scammed the central banks of the world). Basically it goes like this.
When the global system decoupled from the gold reserve standard (where central banks were expected to carry enough gold in their vaults to support all the money in circulation) Central banks were left holding large amounts of gold in their vaults. The Financial Terrorists decided it would be a good idea to invent a financial instrument called the "gold lease" The theory is, The investment bank would take physical delivery of the gold and pay the central banks a low rate of interest originally 1 pct. (Better than nothing, already my life). The leases took the place of gold in the central bank vaults and everything looked great, until after about a year the central bankers realized that they had been duped. The price of gold had risen, They had entrusted the investment bank with all their gold. The gold had all been sold outright in the commodities markets and the investment bank continued to rollover (renew) leases at 1 pct or similar low rate. By the sales of the gold to the markets, the investment bank was able to re-invest in diverse markets making higher levels of interest and pocket the difference. When the world's central bankers finally realized what was going on it was ludicrously too late. Rather than admit they had been duped (The worlds top bankers had been scammed), and the fallout effects on the global economy they decided to keep quiet and pretend it hadn't happened and that they were still rolling over gold leases.
Where is this investment bank now? Part of a another nearly failed (some would say already failed) institution called Citibank. Where is the accountability. None!
The worlds financial markets continue to be abused by the bankers that work as traders. Now into the third generation, we have adopted globally the American style of Human Resources HR management. These people are for the most part low level management incapable of much original thought. Copying the old IT managers rule which was . "If you buy IBM, you will never be fired", the HR managers went on a similar tact themselves, When recruiting for finance and trading it was modified to "If you hire a PhD, you will never get fired".
So, we now have in our financial markets bright traders who are Indian, Chinese, Pakistani all who are brilliant, eminent and well trained "SCIENTISTS" who have been persuaded to work in finance for the financial advantage. While the scientific community cries out for talent. These highly educated guys are trained to work in the Newtonian world where they learn that
1. The speed of light is constant.
2. The force of gravity is constant over distance.
3. The laws of thermodynamics are constant.
etc etc.
These guys know how to work with constants. When however in financial markets the market turns 180 degrees in the blink of an eye, the PhD traders missed it and what's more do not know why! I have been in finance since I was 17 and have seen all of these types of people first hand. Its not so many years ago when traders were putting long dated trades on the bank's trading book because of "positive carry" (Means it looks profitable in the near term), so that they could inflate their multi-million dollar bonuses. They would also boast about it in the market bars after.
Currently white collar crime and financial terrorists are looked as naughty children. These crimes do not have sufficient punishments. I think that the following should be minimum in such cases as financial terrorism is proved.
1. The person is made instantly bankrupt and all his or her global assets are seized forever.
2. That person is banned for life from holding a public office or a directorship in a company
3. That person is never to be allowed credit in the future including credit cards.
4. At least a 10 year prison term with no special low security privileges.
5. No appeals.
5. No appeals.
The problem is, the law makers, and the lawyers, are all part of this "merry-go-round" and support the old money system. The old money money has all the aces and would never allow that to happen. Shame. It needs the average American to realize that the freedom of America and the American dream are no more than a fantasy planted by the super rich, and only achievable when you are in that little niche group.
The average man has to wake up, start thinking (which is difficult), and see what is really happening around him. The working man has the power in his hands to change the world if he would only think.
The average man has to wake up, start thinking (which is difficult), and see what is really happening around him. The working man has the power in his hands to change the world if he would only think.
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