Central Perk

sâmbătă, 17 martie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Public Union Wage Bargaining Ends at National Level in Great Britain

Posted: 17 Mar 2012 08:17 PM PDT

I am pleased to report the end of collective bargaining at the national level. Unfortunately, I am talking about the UK, not the US, and also unfortunately, local wage bargaining will remain in place.

The Telegraph reports National pay rates will be scrapped in budget.

Millions of teachers, nurses, civil servants and other public sector workers are to lose their right to national pay rates, the Chancellor George Osborne will announce in next week's Budget.

George Osborne will say that public sector employees in poorer parts of the country should have their pay frozen until it is brought into line with local private sector workers.

Mr Osborne originally intended to introduce local pay rates in April 2013, but has decided to bring the plans forward by a year in an attempt to boost growth.

The move is likely to be met with a furious response from unions, which are already threatening industrial action over cuts to pensions.

The Chancellor will publish figures that show that in some parts of England and Wales public sector workers earn almost a fifth more than those in equivalent jobs in the private sector.

The Treasury argues that the pay gap leaves private companies struggling to compete for the best staff against public sector organisations, whose workers also enjoy better pensions and job security.

The National Union of Teachers said it was calling a one-day strike in London on March 28 as the next step in its pensions campaign. Mr Osborne, however, is determined to push ahead with the reforms to pay and pensions. The Treasury wants to base the plans on a local-pay system introduced for staff in courts under the previous government.

This is a start, but if you are going to incur the wrath of labor unions, and Chancellor Osborne surely will, then you may as well go all out. The correct move is to end bargaining altogether. If unions don't like it, too bad. If they can make more in the private sector, they can go for it.

Public unions bankrupted Greece, they will bankrupt Spain, they have the UK and the US on the verge of ruin, and they have bankrupted numerous US cities already.

Correct Policy Trifecta

End public union collective bargaining completely
End all prevailing wages laws including Davis Bacon
Institute National Right-to-Work Laws

Unlike parimutuel horse-racing bets, any order will suffice.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

James Grant Says Bond Market Is "Bubble of Modern Banking, a Desert of Value; Gold a Reciprocal Faith in Bernanke"; Time for an "Office of Unintended Consequences?"

Posted: 17 Mar 2012 10:41 AM PDT

James Grant, publisher of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, talks about Federal Reserve monetary policy, the bond market and investment strategy. Grant, speaking with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television's "Money Moves," also discusses the Chinese economy.

Link if video does not play: Bond Market 'Desert of Value'

Select Interview Quotes

Grant: The Fed seem bent on suppressing this most elegant thing we have called a price mechanism, the movement of price that determines all manner of things in a market economy. Yet the Fed seems bound and determined to superimpose its will in place of the price mechanism. Take the bond market for example, the Fed has hammered down yields directly and indirectly and in response people are throwing money at things like high-yield or junk bonds. These are the prices the Fed wants, but are they the right prices? No not necessarily.

Deirdre Bolton: How is a bond investor to deal with this current environment? You are calling actually for a bear market in bonds, am I correct?.

Grant: I have forever. So I am no help there. But it seems to me a bond investor is almost better off in cash. If you were to go out 10 years in a US treasury security you earn yield of approximate 2%. To remain in cash and be flexible you sacrifice those 2%. The bond market is a desert of value.

Deirdre Bolton: What does this mean for gold?

Grant: The price of gold is the reciprocal of the world's faith in the deeds and words of the likes of Ben Bernanke. The world over, central banks are printing money as it has never been printed before. The European Central Bank has increased the size of its balance sheet at the annual rate of 89%. It's amazing. The Fed is far behind at only 15%. The Bank of England 67% over the past few months. These are rates of increases in the production of paper currencies we have never seen in the modern age. It takes no effort at all. They simply tap the computer screen.

Time for an "Office of Unintended Consequences?"

Grant proposes the Fed start an "Office of Unintended Consequences" to study all the things that go wrong with Fed policy.

I believe Grant is speaking tongue-in-cheek. We certainly do not need such an office. Instead, we need to abolish the Fed.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Damn Cool Pics

Two Golden Retrievers Playing Piano
Creepy Masked Movie Killers
Then vs. Now: How Teenagers have Changed from 1982-2012 [Infographic]

Two Golden Retrievers Playing Piano

Posted: 16 Mar 2012 10:06 PM PDT

Taking cues from their French owner's ocarina whistles, a pair of Golden Retrievers "play" the Flea Waltz on a custom-made "puppy piano."

Creepy Masked Movie Killers

Posted: 16 Mar 2012 09:11 PM PDT

What makes a great slasher film? Usually a lone, iconic villain who systematically stalks and kills his victims with something sharp, and then gets his ass kicked by a girl at the end.

Laid to Rest

Nightbreed

The Hills Run Red

The Reeker

Stage Fright

Prom Night

My Bloody Valentine

The Strangers

Savage Weekend

Zipperface

Terror Train

Collector

Jason

The Tripper

The Town That Dreaded Sundown

Slaughter High

Tourist Trap

Dark Ride

Trick 'r Treat

Clownhouse

Michael Myers

The Scream

Leatherface

Alice, Sweet Alice

Scarecrow

Via: holytaco

Then vs. Now: How Teenagers have Changed from 1982-2012 [Infographic]

Posted: 16 Mar 2012 08:56 PM PDT

Those kids today… you may be the parent of a teenager and wondering what you've gotten yourself into. But do you have it worse than parents of the past? We all know that kids will be kids, but how much do they change over the course of a generation?

The typical teenager in the early 1980s was rocking a Walkman and had just seen E.T. Today's average kid? He has a cellphone in his pocket, he listens to Rihanna, he's less likely to finish high school and he's more likely to practice safe sex.

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Then vs Now: How Things Have Changed from 1982 to 2012

From: Best Education Degrees

Weekly Address: Ending Subsidies for Big Oil Companies

Your Daily Snapshot for
Saturday, March 17, 2012

Weekly Address: Ending Subsidies for Big Oil Companies

President Obama says that America needs an all-of-the-above energy strategy that invests in new technologies and ends the $4 billion in annual subsidies to oil companies that are earning historic profits.

Watch the President's weekly address:

President Barack Obama tapes the Weekly Address in in the Cross Hall Foyer of the White House, March 15, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Sonya N. Hebert)

Weekly Wrap Up

Your quick look at this week on WhiteHouse.gov:

No Quick Fix: Speaking from Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland on Thursday, the President explained his all-of-the-above strategy to develop every available source of American-made energy. “We need an energy strategy for the future,” the President explained. “Yes, develop as much oil and gas as we can, but also develop wind power and solar power and biofuels.”

Rock-Solid Alliance: On Wednesday morning, President Obama – together with the First Lady, the Vice President and Dr. Biden – welcomed British Prime Minister David Cameron and Samantha Cameron to the White House during the Official Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn. Later that evening, the Prime Minister and his wife were honored with a State Dinner, where they were joined by dignitaries from both countries. “In war and I peace, in times of plenty and times of hardship,” President Obama remarked, “we stand tall and proud and strong, together.”

Announcing a New Trade Case: After forming the Trade Enforcement Unit two weeks ago, President Obama announced on Wednesday that, “we’re bringing a new trade case against China – and we’re being joined by Japan and some of our European allies.” The effort is focused on expanding American manufacturers’ access to rare earth materials, which China currently supplies and, due to their policies, prevents the United States from obtaining.

Bracketology: Before the madness began, the President took time to fill out his brackets for the 2012 NCAA men and women’s basketball tournaments. While Kentucky, Ohio State and Mizzou made his Final Four, it’s the North Carolina Tar Heels who he selected as his national champion. On Monday night, the President headed to Dayton, Ohio with Prime Minister Cameron to catch some early round action in person.

West Wing Week: Your video guide to everything that's happening this week at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Watch here.

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