1. Saps said...

Britain's economy has no substance. It's all a confidence trick, hence the need to keep talking it up, like a small-time confidence trickster would do to draw in saps. Its real economy is below critical mass in the bedrock of production; manufacturing sector down to about 11.5% tops, of GDP. The 'trick' is to get everyone selling to and buying from each other, like a giant eBay, with supposedly everyone coming out a winner. Go figure. Real wealth can only come from value adding.

Yesterday's retail sales figures were false. A one-off boost from the £200m car scrappage scheme stimulating about £1bn of extra car showroom sales so far and the continual, purposely underestimating of consumer price inflation to show sales volumes higher than they ought be.

Meanwhile the Brits, of all stripes, secretly hope on a housing rebound to refloat the whole sunken ship and an overdue currency rebound, feeling sure the euro and the eurozone are bound to break. Bad news suckers Germany's way ahead in adjusting its industrial base to the circa 30% drop in Western demand, moving most of its efforts to China, South America and any other growth markets. Today comes news of increased optimism in Ifo's economic survey. Best put that banker of a euro-bust on hold a while. If I was betting would say pound is riding for a fall, once that precious confidence factor is finally smashed by the harsh reality of your Iceland/Ireland/Baltic states predicament, i.e. a bubble economy that's gone pop. At least Iceland and now Ireland have hit bottom, have faced reality and are setting about fixing it, whereas UK gets more and more deluded each passing day. Incredible, quite possibly psychotic.