needsleep

Absolutely right.

Not true. Nouriel Roubini. was very vocal about it in 2005 predicting a catastrophic housing bust. He very publicly warned the IMF in 2006.

That's a fair point. Though having worked with (but not for) government in the past I tended to see a lot of very frustrated worker bees at the bottom levels of the civil service. Frustrated people who just want to get on with the job. Granted you also see a lot of duffers too but no more so than what I've experienced in the private sector. Where it all goes wrong is at management and policy level. You get some idiots sitting in HQ devising policy that ties the front line workers in knots and makes the job difficult to do. At management and policy level you see those people devising ways to justify their own continued jobs. If they can keep their jobs by sacking lower level workers they will do it. They will outsource. They will offshore. They will devise new organisational structures and processes. They will build up empires and mini fiefdoms to protect their own positions. They will do anything. They have the power to do all this even within a centralised organisational structure. I think if anybody gets angry with the people at the bottom levels of the civil service they are getting angry with the wrong people - the problems lie in the management tiers and right through to the core of ministries. Peversely unlike the majority of HPC posters who have an issue with civil servants I think ministers probably get angry with the right people - the career idiots at HQ they have to interface with every day. Unfortunately when the axe falls that anger is vented on the little guys.

You can buy multiples of certificates up to £15,000 from any one issue. So yes in theory you can apply many times until you hit your £15000 limit, e.g. 5 applications x £3000. You can do this for each individual person in your household so if you have 2 people you can invest up to £30k in one issue spread over many separate applications. At least that is the way it used to be. That said the indicators are that this one will sell out more quickly than in the past so don't bank on a leisurely climb up to your limit over the course of a few months. Or, talk to you bank and tell them you want to do a £15k transaction just to warn them. I've done that to avoid problems with big transactions in the past

What sort of things did he steal? How did he know that the coast was clear? Love stories like this. Reminds me of this thalidomide lad we knew - he was a complete nutter. Never let anything hold him back despite only having tiny little arms and legs.

Chilling viewing. They were only focused on one thing and that was the survival of their institutions that are profiting from the financial chaos. After watching that I'm not sure they actually view the public as real living people. How have we got to the point where private banks are blatantly stealing from the public, stripping countries of assets.

Indeed. The only thing that will solve the problem is haircuts all round. And soon. Not more debt. Or one of these countries needs to take the lead and step out the Euro and start again.

Feck. What a mess. But the bailouts will continue. The debt will increase. The taxpayers will foot the bill but only after all the assets of the weaker countries have been transferred to banks and bond holders. After ever last drop has been squeezed then the pretend money, created out of thin air, will be monetized. Then the banks and bond holders will present the public with a bill they can never, ever pay.

You haven't read the report obviously. It says that adjusted for differences in age, qualifications, gender mix etc... the median pay premium is 8.8%, up from 4.3% in two years. We already know the possible reasons for that. It isn't 43%. The author even he admits that he arrived at that figure by banging a premium for pensions on top of the raw data. The author doesn't state clearly how the pension premium is calculated. Finally, the author goes on to say that the public sector pay freeze will narrow the premium anyway. If you want to continue with your ridiculous free market chest beating be my guest.

I think you've ended up on the wrong thread. There's other ones on here about private sector internships.

If like for like salaries in the public sector were 43% higher why would anybody work in an equivalent job in the private sector? Seriously. Ask that simple question to work out whether the Policy Exchange report is ********.

Figures on whether it's a Conservative think tank or not?

So the answer is you don't know. They're just saying what you want to hear. Think for yourself fella.

How do you know they earn 40% more. Because the study said so?

Not ignoring anything. I challenged other posters to make the comparisons. They haven't. I'm interested why they might think the 43% figure is correct.

Nope. It's a Conservative think tank.

I'm trying to keep it balanced. Another poster gave a poor example. I pointed out the mistake. Now what are the equivalents?

Explain why such things are a waste of money? Do you think it is right to discriminate against people in the workplace if they are black, disabled or whatever?

So private companies do not invest anything in complying with race legislation, disability legislation, equal opportunities etc... Yet another myth I'm afraid and unfortunately for you one area where you will find equalivalent roles in public and private sector.

Clutching at straws now.

It's completely meaningless in most cases. There are many jobs where there are no equivalents between the two sectors.

I do as it happens

The mean salaries don't look too different to me and if you look at the rate of increase since 2008 then the difference can be easily explained. 3% per year public, virtually stagnating for private. But you have to be careful not to get too bogged down with the reasons for public sector increases since 2008. It's likely to be almost wholly explainable by collective bargaining by unionised employees - you can have a separate argument elsewhere about whether that is fair on private sector employees. As for looking at median incomes which is what these silly studies are usually based on you will see bigger differences. But that doesn't mean much apart from giving certain interested parties something to hang a wholly misleading headline on.

It does say that but I ignored it because it patently isn't true. It is a Conservative think tank. Nothing more. Nothing less.

I work in the private sector. My wife works in the public sector though. She's a sister in intensive care.