From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

If only unemployment of Civil Servants were the highest priority  Once more the government has failed to separate the notion of the States of Jersey from the People of Jersey. They are not one and the same. We, the people, do not care whether the government lives or dies, we are not interested in what plans they will ultimately and inevitably fail to achieve in the next three years. We, the people, just wish they would stop trying at all. For the first time, the States of Jersey is setting budgets 3 years in advance and moving towards long-term planning. Jersey’s first Medium Term Financial Plan describes how Ministers are proposing to meet the objectives set out in the States Strategic Plan, and manage the Island’s resources from 2013-2015. After all there is no failure, like a carefully planned failure. I am surprised that they did not issue a 'five year' plan, so the failures could be as catastrophic as the failures of other Soviet nations of the past. Because...

The old shop front You may or may not know that one of the businesses surveyed every quarter in order to compile the statistics on Jersey retail sales is my own. I was in the completely novel position this quarter, of having to show an increase in sales of more than 5%. So the question is why is this happening amidst an economic depression? Let's just clarify those numbers somewhat I submit solely the retail sales made in the Central Market premises, and specifically exclude the inter-jurisdictional sales made from my website, from eBay and through Amazon. These now account for about 50% of the total business from 0% within 3 years, but when you are the cheapest on the internet, it is fairly easy to make sales in this way. Major producers are now making fundamental changes in the way their goods are sold on the internet which has begun to destroy their own businesses, but that is a topic for another post. The changes to the VAT have not really had any effect other than to ...

The Employment Law (Jersey) 2003 is a particularly nasty and restrictive piece of legislation which has done more for unemployment than any other piece of legislation enacted by the States of Jersey. It has also served the services of taxation to a greater extent than any other piece of legislation which is on the books, and is one of the first which should be repealed come the Revolution for Liberty. 1A       “Employer” and “employee” (1)    In this Law – (a)     “ employer”  means a person who employs another person; and (b)     “ employee”  means a person who is employed by an employer. (2)    For the purposes of paragraph (1), a person is employed by another person if the first person works for the second person under a contract of service or apprenticeship with the second person. (3)    For the purposes of ...

During an economic boom, exuberance finds itself lodged in all types of industries. When profits soar, so does the public’s disregard for prudence. And as tax revenues rise, politicians can’t help but give in to their bread and butter of buying votes . Periods of accelerated economic growth typically come in two different forms. If capital is drawn from a pool of real savings to finance investment in more efficient forms of production, the boost in wages and income will be sustainable as long as consumers remain willing to purchase whatever is being produced in greater amounts. In the case of a credit-expansion boom fueled primarily by fractional reserve banking and interest rate manipulation through a central bank, the boom conditions are destined toward bust. Liquidation then becomes necessary as the bust gets underway and malinvestments come to light. For private industry it means slashing costs, laying off workers, and possible bankruptcy to discharge debt. For governme...

It’s raining, it’s pouring, coffers overflowing. No doubt you will all be aware of the ongoing chatter about the island’s so called ‘rainy day fund’. Those of you who were not aware of its existence may be shocked to learn that the Shitheads States of Jersey are sitting on a stockpile of your money. This money was stolen from you through taxation or extorted from you with fixed penalty notices/fuel duty/GST/stamp duty/Jamaican switch/whatever name they attach to the con.  They are sitting on this stockpile of your money. It cannot be put simpler that the theft of this money through the above means was not ‘justified’ insofar as government programs/schemes/scams could merit. There has been a concerted effort to fuel this discussion, largely by the biased, government ran toilet newspaper, the JEP. On the 11 th July, the headline read “Use rainy day fund to boost economy”, whilst the tagline in the same article read “Chamber of Commerce call for a 2% c...

There can be no clearer signal, no larger or brighter billboard sign that the ECB's decision to offer 0% interest on deposits.  The thunder of imminent collapse is trumpeting more clearly with each passing day. Once the seals are released, Western Society as we know it will collapse. The much beloved government in whom so many have placed so much of their trust, to whom so many have passed so much of their responsibility to, will finally teach the necessary lesson to those who would believe that their life, their future and their responsibilities are nothing that they need worry about. The chart above shows the effect of the ECB's decision to cut their overnight deposit interest rate to 0% a fall of  €484 Billion  or around 50% of deposits. Where did all this money go, well the yield on Swiss bonds fell to a record low of MINUS 0.38%, yes people are willing to lose money to buy Swiss bonds, together with a multi-record breaking WTF? auction of US 10 year t...

Above Video: The Scene in Spain as Socialists are told  they will have to earn their wages, not be guaranteed them by Government. Further rioting erupted in Madrid in response to a de-regulation of the labour market which allowed bosses to more easily make staff redundant. The clash between the Socialists who believe that all responsibility and freedom should be removed from them in return for their leasing themselves into slavery to an employer and the government and the reality that workers must earn their pay and that part of the reason for the high levels of unemployment is the high cost of employing someone. With youth unemployment at over 50% and a large number of over-paid, union affiliated civil servants refusing to accept any change to their terms and conditions despite the economic realities of the world today a clash would seem to be inevitable and this is unlikely to be the last. The sheer ludicrous position that is the modern union movement is ...

Right now there is a questionnaire floating around the interwebs concerning the minimum wage in Jersey. I had the link but its gotten lost in the ether somewhere, so it will be added at the bottom should I find it again. This questionnaire is a trick, nothing more. It is designed to (1) fool you into believing that you can in any way influence the oligarch's agenda and (2) with fool you into accepting the continued existence of a minimum wage, with leading and frankly economically stupid questions such as "should it go up/down/round and round?". There should be no minimum wage. The free market should dictate how much a given person should be paid in a given role, taking into account their previous experience/capacity/efficiency in the role. Having a minimum wage dictated by politicians, who have little to no knowledge of how an economy should operate, let alone the workings of the way in which the island's economy is handled/regulated/distorted abysmally...

So there are a couple of questions which are occupying my mind at this time; When should I start to hoard food? Do I want my bank card to have a tracking device implanted into it? What is an RFID chip? It is a chip which transmits data in the radio wave frequency, this means that anyone with a reader can pick up your information and use it. There have been other uses for RFID chips suggested, for example on the US/Canadian Border you can simply pass your chip under a reader and be fast tracked through the border. Elderly people are being encouraged to have chip implanted with all their medical details. Well call me paranoid, but I do not like the idea of having someone be able to access all my personal data using surveillance equipment. Call me old fashioned but if someone wants to know something they only need ask. So I decided to render the RFID chip in my bank cards inactive. I even found a great you tube video which demonstrates the procedure. I chose a slightly mor...

The disputed area of the South China Sea  Long time followers of this blog will know that much of my understanding of what is going on in the world comes from the inimitable golden jackass,  Jim Willie CB . It is his analysis which points to a fundamental shift in the global economic stakes and that shift is in an eastward direction. I keep looking for the signs he has been pointing to in his recent offerings and Bloomberg reports that China has imported more gold in the first five months of 2012 than the UK holds. Yesterday the Financial Times  reported that Iran had been importing tonnes of gold in the first five months of 2012. Over at Zero Hedge the supposition becomes that not only is China directly importing gold but it is demanding gold rather than US$ from its trading partners. The Jackass hypothesis it seems is borne out by events. And whilst we are on the subject of gold, analysis shows that the UK's sale of gold in 1999 to 2001 directly assisted on...

I may be a little ahead of Tom Gruchy here in blogging on Richard Murphy's Plan B for Jersey (videos at bottom of page), but I wanted to give it a critical analysis from a Libertarian viewpoint.  Unlike many in Jersey, I recognise that Richard is an astute and able accountant and is certainly an effective 'expert' but fundamentally he believes in government.  I have no doubt that his analysis of the viewpoint of the European Union and what they intend to do is correct, but I think that for now they have other things on their minds.  I would also fully accept his analysis of the political intentions of Jersey, but  I do not believe that the government of Jersey is solely to support the finance industry, what you have to remember is that the civil service makes up 43% of the workforce, all of whom are paid by the finance industry. All the pensions and benefits, all the services. Jersey is locked into a financial  Armageddon  which even if nothing else hits,...

Disclaimer - the following is based on my personal experience in the jurisdiction of Jersey and may not be applicable to other jurisdictions particularly those which are not common law jurisdictions. This is not legal advice which in any case would only be relevant if given with regard to the specific circumstances of the situation which gave rise to your need for advice, but it is my understanding of what the law actually means and I hope it is applicable generally. Jersey does follow the demands of justice to a greater extent than many places and I am delighted to live in a relatively safe and pleasant place, but I would like it to be much better. Myth Two - Every Statute is not a Law but a Contract Myth Three - Statutes only apply to government employees These common misconception are partly true, it is hard to unwind them individually to get to the bottom of them individually, indeed they need to be looked at together. Myth three is in fact not a myth at all, it is entire...

Barclays boss: Banks should be allowed to fail by itnnews When paper money hyper inflates there is only gold  Few observers make the connection, but the current LIBOR scandal is a middle inning of two important events. The first is the demise of the Western banker leadership crew. The executives from the most powerful banks will be last to be deposed, all sharing an ethnic strain. The second is the open fracture of the Western financial system.  "Over the past few years, to be sure a great many people have grown tired of Jackass descriptions of corruption within the banking sector and financial system in general. Well, hear this: TOLD YA SO! The London Interbank Offered Rate scandal will erupt into an uncontrollable firestorm, hitting one chamber and then the next, with rapid contagion. The Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve are both implicated, but they will skate until the end game. They control the prosecutors and the news networks. Few yet connect the...