Analysis & Investigation

In response to:Who is lending the money?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:18:45 +0200

You are not quite correct that all of it will have to be paid for by the tax payer. A lot of the money is only being made available to the banks in the form of commercial guarantees - they have to pay for it to be earmarked to back one of their interbank loans. The money does not go to the bank itself but would be in a fund in case the loan goes sour. There is a fair to good chance it would not be called on, but the taxpayer would get the fee for the guarantee.

The other loans to banks are loans, not gifts, which obviously means the taxpayer is expected to get the money back. In other cases the bank has to give up preference shares in return for the cash - a share in the business which is an asset owned by the taxpayer, not a gift.

In response to:The Economic Consequences of Peace, by John Maynard Keynes

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:52:13 +0200

Although I have read little of his work, I've read enough to be in awe of the man.

He arguably saved Europe after WWII by going to Washington and pleading - would we have had the Marshall Plan without him?

Perhaps he would be dumbfounded by modern economics (neo-liberalism)?

Also, wasn't he one of the fathers of the IMF and World Bank? I'm sure I read somewhere that he envisaged the IMF would control some 50% of world GDP, whereas it's more like 2% nowadays?

Thanks for an interesting article!

In response to:The bad manners of some employers

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:53:47 +0100

but then, perhaps they get so many applications that they are unable to answer every single one of them... Although I do understand how annoying that can be (especially after listening to famous "We'll call you" line;) )

In response to:The bad manners of some employers

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 10:32:30 +0200

Yeah that have happened to me every often. I don't know why companys do like that. Maybe it's easier for them. When I was working at the Labour force office I heard that this happens to many people here in Finland, unfortunately.