Posts by Steve Barnes

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  • Island Life: A week in the life of that…,

    it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the country should not run at a loss for an extended period of time

    Not quite. Many people seem to think that analogies can be drawn between, say, family earnings and expenditure and the economics of a nation. This is a false equivalence as families have no control over the value/worth of their cash/investments, a government can have this control.
    A long term view of global economics indicate a, roughly, ten year cycle.

    The IMF estimates that global recessions seem to occur over a cycle lasting between 8 and 10 years. During what the IMF terms the past three global recessions of the last three decades, global per capita output growth was zero or negative.

    ref.
    The trick is to synchronise growth and recession so as to smooth out the effects of this cycle has on the population of your country.
    Well, that is the basis of the ideology of the left. However, the ideology of the Right seems to favour using times of economic hardship to line their nests, buying up assets at lower prices. The trend since the seventies, with the advent of Thatchers monetarist policies in the UK, is to divest the nation of "expensive" assets and allow the private sector to run them "better".
    The upshot of this is, in my mind, obvious.
    We are out of sync. While the rest of the world is tending to lean to the left in regards to eliminating the worst effects of global recession for the majority of their people. We are lurching to the right at exactly the wrong time.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • Island Life: The resignation of Captain Worth,

    You couldn't script it better, could you?

    I'll try.
    Dick "I has all been a terible misunderstanding john"
    John "What about those Texteses"
    Dick "well you know tecksxes speak, LOL"
    John "No"
    Dick "you know, short and stubby, Like OMGAIF"
    John "whassat?"
    Dick " oh my god am I fucked?"
    John "So what about the textsesis"
    Dick " Well I txteded to her "Would you be interested in a position in my company" She textededid "WDYM?'
    John "what?'
    Dick " What do you mean"
    John "I mean what does WDYM mean"
    Dick "it means what do you mean"
    John "Oh, in tecksteddy speak"
    Dick "Yes John, Anyway. So I texteded back saying "I'd like to place you on my firm"
    John "Your firm what?"
    Dick "you know, my Internal Affairs thing"
    John "Sound reasonable. So why the shared Hotel room ?"
    Dick "Just saving taxpayer money John, what did you think?"
    John "I'll get back to you on that"

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • Island Life: The resignation of Captain Worth,

    What really pisses me off about having that slanderous and libelous man on television is that he automatically gains some legitimacy in the eyes of a large proportion of Close Up's viewers

    It makes you wonder just how close up they want to get and to what?. If the 'Mainstream" puts this guy up as representive of their point of view then .............. erm
    My brains are made of poo.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • Hard News: Swine flu, terror and Susan Boyle,

    If it is to be termed terrorism then the term is going to be applicable to many other situations as well.

    Yes Grant, you're learning, its not just another word for Islam.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • Hard News: Swine flu, terror and Susan Boyle,

    Oh, and talking of fire, Arson features quite often in relation to "your" side of the "debate".

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • Hard News: Swine flu, terror and Susan Boyle,

    You cannot seriously be putting skinheads and nazis in the same boat as pro life groups, can you?

    Only if its on fire.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • Hard News: Swine flu, terror and Susan Boyle,

    I see our pet troll is back and implying murder is a good thing, if the sky fairy says so.
    The more the fool uses words, the less they mean.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • Hard News: Swine flu, terror and Susan Boyle,

    Ah, Swine Flu.
    Actually this is the only thing I have found Wolfram Alpha useful for, a running total of infections and deaths (we still only have 9 infections and 0 deaths but globally it don't look that great). On the other hand Anthony Douchbag still seems to think

    The launch a fortnight ago of WolframAlpha, hailed by many as a new Google, has set the technology world alight.

    Now that, sir, is an act of jounalistic terribleism
    As for Susan Boyle, even the most cynical amongst us, yes I mean me, shed a little tear of unexpected joy at the original clip and still get pissed off at the media's insistence on calling her frumpy or hanging some other derogatory label on the poor woman. She gave it a go and good on her.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Budget 2009: “Aww, shit.”…,

    I know the Herald thinks we are all idiots but THIS is beyond the pail. Its the electronic equivalent of writing in crayon.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Budget 2009: “Aww, shit.”…,

    We all knew there would be nothing for R&D but there should have been. R&D would lead to more jobs, more productive jobs that is as opposed to the non productive 600 extra cops and more probation officers to control the disenfranchised unemployed.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

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