Gordon Brown's Economic Nightmares

Hot on the tracks of the new political gem of an idea, whereby Gordon Brown adopts an Alan Sugar persona and listens to the political views of young Britons, how about something even better? Step forward;

"Gordon Brown's Economic Nightmares"

Picture the scene, as intrepid Gordon comes in to review the finances of a random nation, going through it's books looking for assets to sell (like Gold reserves), shaking the pockets of taxpayers for any spare change, or any that might be lost down the the back of the sofa, thinking up devious ways to increase the national debt without anybody realising, dreaming up loads of stealth taxes on pensions and ISAs, while maintaining the illusion of "not increasing income tax", and dreaming up endless ways to drag more people into the welfare state and thus vote to retain the status quo in future elections.

First candidate...the UK.

Oh hang on, he's already done that one.

Oil Prices going up...oh what a shame, honest...

Funny, the news this week that the biggest profiteer of high petrol prices in the Uk happens to be HM Government, who've successfully raked in over half a billion pounds extra as a result of the increased price in the last 6 months. Certainly puts Golden Brown's comments about wanting to "help" the UK consumer into perspective, doesn't it?

Actually, the best help he could give us would be to go away and stop interfering in our lives with his pathetic stealth taxes, ever increasing government indebtedness and selling off the nations the gold.

By the way, the issue of whether oil prices are really going up, or whether in fact the value of the pound is going down, is a subject better covered in How to Invest in Gold and Silver.

If you fancy investing in Oil for tax-free profits, without having to stash a load of barrels of stuff in the garden shed, check out Successful Tax-Free ISA Investing.

Will Charging for Supermarket Carrier Bags Save the Environment?

This issue of "free" supermarket carrier bags in the UK, and how environmentally friendly it suddenly is to be against them, and start charging for them is one of the most naive pieces of spin I've ever seen.

Firstly, Marks and Spencer are getting a lot of good publicity off their decision to start charging for carrier bags, in a bid to save the environment, but surely one of their carrier bags contains less packaging than 4 of their Coxes apples, for instance? MS are one of the heaviest users of plastic packaging, and biodegradable or otherwise is not the issue here, considering people often forget the amount of greenhouse emissions and waste of oil resources in actually manufacturing all this packaging in the first place. As a store that is big on presentation to help maximise profits, they have successfully managed to deflect attention from their excessive use of packaging.

and they are not alone, I feel guilty every time I look at the huge rubbish bag full of plastic packaging I've generated from cooking even a simple meal. The amount of energy used to produce all that packing and transport it to me was surely way in excess of the calorific value I got out of it.

So, no, banning pastic bags, or a tax on plastic bags is definitely not the answer. But hey, it certainly, temporarily at least, deflects attention from the real issues, doesn't it?

The Con of Home Ownership

Okay, I'd like this to be a point for discussion, but the con of home ownership, and the importance the government attaches to us all "owning" our own home is one of the biggest cons of all.

For starters, how many of us really own our own homes? As soon as property values start "rising" (although whether they are really rising, or the value of the national currency is being diluted by financial manipulations falls more into my book on How to Invest in Gold and Silver), a lot of people seize on it to make a trip to the bank to increase the size of their mortgage (ker...chinggg!), and use their house as some kind of ATM cash machine. Since any loan, properly viewed, represents a claim on your future productivity, most of us just end up being slaves to our properties, always having live on the treadmill of life, earning to pay the mortgage, the council tax, the utility bills and whatever other taxes the government dreams up to keep the general population slaving away like little hamsters at the wheel, never really moving forward.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many different taxes out there? The real reason, I believe, is to ensure no segment of the population can ever live outside the system. By this, I mean no matter whether you are a young wage-earner, retired and living off your savings, or somewhere in-between, you are required to buy into the system by some form of taxation or other.

and now for the final part of my prediction, now that the last 20-30 years have seen vast majority of the British population have bought into the home ownership con, these taxes and costs of owning a home are about to start going up big time.

Why? Well, quite simply, in a globalised world, where much business is conducted internationally, income taxes and corporation taxes are becoming harder and harder to collect, and where people and corporations can base themselves outside jurisdictions with unfair taxes, taxes on fixed assets are bound to increase simply because those assets are the last ones left that can be taxed.

Property prices may rise in nominal terms, as the pound is devalued, but don't be surprised if in 5 years time, your £200,000 flat is still worth, in paper money at least, £200,000, but a loaf of bread costs £50.

I am so glad I don't own a property in the UK any more.

Should Britain join the Euro?

I used to be strongly in favour of a single European currency, and my partner is from the continent, but after living over there for 3 years, I've completely revised my opinion.

Culturally, Europe is much more socialist and controlling, when compared with the historic British attitude of an island nation based on international trade and financial freedoms, as evidenced by our reputation as one of the best places to conduct international business, and our base as the world's leading financial centre.

Using the old dictum that "he who controls the currency controls the nation", by giving up the national currency, you are also giving up much of the control and handing it to another power, with vested interests of its own.

Fortunately, at this point in time, most Britons realise this and are opposed to the single currency. We all know this, so why even bother going to the expense and hassle of a referendum?

Think and Grow Rich

Given the huge amount of government taxation and control of our lives by the nanny state, a lot of us could do with a bit of self-reliance and self-determination of where we are going in their lives.

Over the years, there have been a lot of great minds encouraging us to help ourselves, but no book has had as big an effect on me as Think and grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

In fact, 37 years after the bloke died, he's on the verge of a major comeback, with loads of new Napoleon products out there. My advice to anyone is to read this amazing book.

How to Protect Yourself from the Hidden Tax of Inflation

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