UK£sterling vs Euro/Eurozone

In a way the devaluation of the £ sterling
is UK protectionism although as the devaluation
results from market reactions rather than from government
action, it is not proactive protectionism of the kind
that the Americans Chinese and some European nations
seem to be embarking upon.

The reaction of the £ to market forces
seems positive for the UK economy because
the devaluation will eventually force us to adjust to
the effects of previous personal and government
over borrowing and spending.

The easiest looking
path for over borrowers to follow is often that of
consolidating loans or borrowing more but eventually
that path comes to a dead end. A currency
devaluation on the other hand forces a different path
on the nation as the price of goods and services
imported from abroad with borrowed monies, eventually
increases so painfully as to deter their purchase.

At the same time the worth to the lenders of their
sterling loans decreases so the cost of borrowing
would begin to increase which in turn should
reduce indebtedness. This process will be delayed by
government still trying Canute-like to take the easiest but
dead end path. However eventually market forces will
force through the neccessary changes for rebalancing
the economy.

The Eurozone countries however are presently stuck with their rigid
system of currency value which may have been ideal before
the current global financial breakdowns but which now
seems too rigid and to have been overtaken by events.

The £ is reacting to financial breakdown events almost as they occur;
the Euro seems stuck in pre-financial breakdown times and
risks reacting far too late for some of its member states.

Recessionary Woes

More and more people and companies are seeking help via day job office
with what is sometimes euphamistically called "down sizing".

In reality this means
for individuals parting company with their employers on the
best possible terms bearing in mind that leaving employment
compulsorily is never a happy experience. For companies it often means
these days, making hard decisions about who to make 'redundant' -
the legal euphamism for firing someone to save money.

Such help is normal enough even in good times but what is
tragically different in these bad financial times,
is that for some companies, the need to apply fair procedures for
redundancies is being overtaken by the absence of cash, leading to
the dreaded "Administrator" being called in while the fair procedures
are supposedly continuing, and maybe the complete
collapse of companies with total, unfair loss of employment for everyone.

The procedures for making people redundant "fairly" were designed
in relatively good financial times in the UK and allow for
weeks in some cases months even, of consultations before deciding who
is to go and who is to stay. So quickly are companies' lines of credit
and cash depleting that many are at risk of going under financially
before the fair procedures can be completed. This leads to
100% unemployment instead of say 20%.

Some requirements for achieving fair dismissals
are in the serious financial stress times we currently face, are
exacerbating unfairness, in that by having to be so
fair for the 20% both they and the 80% all lose their jobs.

Employment procedures need an emergency review by governments
to safeguard the very existence of many companies. Changes in
procedures need not be permanent. Like the emergency reduction
in VAT to 15% limited to 12 months, so any procedural changes
affecting individuals' job security rights warranted
in the interests of wider employment needs of the community
could be limited to 12 months or for the duration of the current
financial emergency

London Snowstorms February 2009

The working week began on Monday in surreal fashion.
Snow in suburban SW20 was 6 inches deep on roads and
footpaths. No SWTrains London Underground or Trams
from Wimbledon station and no buses either.

In a way one of the greatest experiences
of the unusual (for London) weather was the almost complete
absence of traffic noise - the silence was bliss.

Recalling the way in which I managed to travel to work
during the last storm to KO London's Transport when
gales hit in the 1980's, I trudged through the snow
to South Wimbledon Northern Line Underground Station.
The service was near normal on this deep underground line
as it was also on the Victoria Line interchange for the
office.

At the office only 3 of us had made it by
9am and one of those had spent the night in residence in
the flat there. We took turns to answer the phones.
Mrs Maytrees told me later that the headmaster who
telephoned me at work then telephoned her
to say that I had been demoted as I was answering the telephones.

London looked truely beautiful in the deep snow.