Zombie companies lurking?

[user not found]

March saw a big spike in insolvencies, then a sudden drop off. Concern that lots more zombie companies are waiting to go bust... 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53417948

 

 

[winkie]

How many viable well run companies all be it smaller have in the past be bought up, over expanded, leaveraged up with debt, got extremely well paid CEOs on board, sold and split assets......not surprised some companies are now looked upon as zombies, all be it a few have gained from it.?

[PaulTW]

Hooked on the government support drip. Rishi's next socialist intervention incoming.

[Warlord]

33 minutes ago, PaulTW said:

Hooked on the government support drip. Rishi's next socialist intervention incoming.

They've run out of money ... no more road to kick the can 

[Former postman]

30 minutes ago, Warlord said:

They've run out of money ... no more road to kick the can 

 

[Warlord]

3 minutes ago, Postman said:

 

Then they will face the same dilemma as the Federal Reserve... either raise rates or  let inflation rip through the economy.

There is no free lunch.

Countries cannot just print money without consequence...

Edited July 29, 2020 by Warlord

[Social Justice League]

The current Tory government is more socialist that Labour these days.

Keeping useless, zombie companies alive with taxpayers money.....ffs.

 

Why not just nationalised the whole fooking lot of them and be done with it.

[Social Justice League]

[kirstieb]

34 minutes ago, Social Justice League said:

The current Tory government is more socialist that Labour these days.

Keeping useless, zombie companies alive with taxpayers money.....ffs.

 

Why not just nationalised the whole fooking lot of them and be done with it.

Yes they all come cap in hand demanding bail outs as soon as something goes wrong. The Tories are so far from the free market these days- is there one industry that won't get schemes and vouchers these days. God forbid someone makes a loss on business

[Warlord]

They can't keep kicking the can.. eventually you run out of road and the gov't does not  have the resources to bailout everyone without the BoE crashing the economy and putting up rates 

Edited July 29, 2020 by Warlord

[kirstieb]

They are building more road- HS2 and bridges to the moon

[Warlord]

Gov't has some options:

 

• Raise taxes (not going to be popular)
• Borrow more money  (we're already  maxed out pretty much)
• Print money (Works for a while until the value of the £ is eroded then the Bank has to raise rates or inflation takes off)
• Slash gov't spending (arguably the easiest thing to do i.e close quango's, fire civil servants, scrap foreign aid budget etc.  but they will never do this due to VI's)

As you can see none of the options are good particularly when GDP is falling up to a THIRD and tax revenues collapsing. The government does not have many good options!   The best thing they could do is slash spending but I doubt they will do this.Government always does the most stupid and moronic thing so I'm expecting more printing and higher inflation.  Protect yourself as best you can!

 

Edited July 29, 2020 by Warlord

[msi]

HAHA we are f*cked.  For those who wailed against 'Red Corbyn', how's Red Rishi working out for you?

 

1 hour ago, Warlord said:

Gov't has some options:

 

• Raise taxes (not going to be popular)
• Borrow more money  (we're already  maxed out pretty much)
• Print money (Works for a while until the value of the £ is eroded then the Bank has to raise rates or inflation takes off)
• Slash gov't spending (arguably the easiest thing to do i.e close quango's, fire civil servants, scrap foreign aid budget etc.  but they will never do this due to VI's)

As you can see none of the options are good particularly when GDP is falling up to a THIRD and tax revenues collapsing. The government does not have many good options!   The best thing they could do is slash spending but I doubt they will do this.Government always does the most stupid and moronic thing so I'm expecting more printing and higher inflation.  Protect yourself as best you can!

 

Raise Taxes - Doesn't work.  Debt is a future claim on work, Taxes just claim ahead of that so the debt becomes worthless

Borrow more - Doesn't work.  Despite 'official' figures, we are already redlining 100%GDP - there's no more future work to borrow against

Print More - Doesn't work.  You've already seen asset prices skyrocket as the smart money moves out

Slash Spending - Doesn't work. Nice soundbites, but the majority of Government spending is on NHS, Pensions, Social Security, and Debt management. Cut the former and you need the army on the streets, cut the latter and the army has no bullets.

[PaulTW]

The moral of the story is to save during the good times for the bad times.

I have a concern that the government will end up being asked to prop up everything and anything. People screaming for the government to do something but they are the same people who hate red tape, regulations and, most ironically, Corbyn.

[Warlord]

23 minutes ago, msi said:

HAHA we are f*cked.  For those who wailed against 'Red Corbyn', how's Red Rishi working out for you?

Slash Spending - Doesn't work. Nice soundbites, but the majority of Government spending is on NHS, Pensions, Social Security, and Debt management. Cut the former and you need the army on the streets, cut the latter and the army has no bullets.

You can save £100bn by ,closing quango's and unnecessary gov't departments 

This is from 2008 it is likely bigger now!

Quote

 

Researchers uncovered 1,162 quangos set up by the Government, including obscure bodies such as the Potato Council and the Government Hospitality Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine.

The quangos employed an army of more than 714,000 pen-pushing staff and are receiving grants worth more than £63billion: £2,550 for every household in the UK.

The cost of Britain’s unelected “hidden state” was revealed by the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

Policy analyst Ben Farrugia said: “Government in the UK is now so large, diverse and complex it is impossible for anyone to manage effectively, let alone ministers.”

The research showed total expenditure by UK quangos – quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations – and other unelected bodies was £101billion last year, with nearly two-thirds coming directly from the Treasury.

The rest – more than £40billion – came from other sources, particularly charges to businesses. Many oversaw huge budgets. The Housing Corporation had a 2007 budget of £1.64billion.

The Carbon Trust employs 126 staff and pays its chief executive £200,000 a year, more than Gordon Brown.

 

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/44930/Fury-at-100bn-bill-for-quangos

How about scrapping the £13bn foreign aid budget for a start?  We don't need that and no one would feel any pain just like if we closed quango's .

We do not need MORE taxes we need to cut the size of government

Edited July 29, 2020 by Warlord

[AAA]

57 minutes ago, msi said:

HAHA we are f*cked.  For those who wailed against 'Red Corbyn', how's Red Rishi working out for you?

Rishi is just a pure capitalist who uses our money to make his rich mates happy.

37 minutes ago, Warlord said:

How about scrapping the £13bn foreign aid budget for a start?  We don't need that and no one would feel any pain just like if we closed quango's .

We do not need MORE taxes we need to cut the size of government

Probably only negligible part of Foreign aid are direct grants to the foreign governments. I think it is mostly spent on salaries of Foreign Office personnel, their contractors or subcontractors or purchasing stuff from the UK based companies. So most of these money stays within our economy, although foreign countries also benefit from it.

[Warlord]

37 minutes ago, AAA said:

Rishi is just a pure capitalist who uses our money to make his rich mates happy.

Probably only negligible part of Foreign aid are direct grants to the foreign governments. I think it is mostly spent on salaries of Foreign Office personnel, their contractors or subcontractors or purchasing stuff from the UK based companies. So most of these money stays within our economy, although foreign countries also benefit from it.

You sound like a civil servant ... ?

'But minister we can't possibly cut x because of y' ... 

In the end NOTHING gets cut.  Which is why we have  bloated, quangocratic state. There is so much fat that can be cut without touchin front line services. To suggest otherwise is propaganda.

 

[msi]

32 minutes ago, Warlord said:

You sound like a civil servant ... ?

 

You sound alike  UKIP'er.  Happy to wail and point, but impotent when called up to do something about it.

The 'Tax Payers Alliance' is a wailing mob of disgruntled Tories and 'Libertarians'. They were challenged to write a budget cutting manifesto that wouldn't touch the front lines and refused to do so despite 'it being so bloated'.  If there really was £100Bn just waiting to be cut without affecting any front line service, do you think a Government of any hue would let that slide?  (Hospital or Wine Tasting committee - give me a break). 

Of course, there is the ability to cut the state - but you need to cut with a objective - to redefine the nature of the state and what it does. That's why Thatcher was so effective. She was undone by the Poll Tax, because it had turned dogmatic and her party couldn't take the flak.

A significant part of UK spend is also 'off the books' in the form of Guarantees (Student Loans), PFI, and PPPs.  Nice earners that avoid any scrutiny - whilst the mob think they can save by moving from Claret to Prosecco.

[Warlord]

@msi I keep telling you i'm not a member of any political party or organisation (not a UKIP'er).. I am independent who can think for himself! 

Spending needs to be slashed sooner or later we don't have much choice.  

[Bluestone59]

5 hours ago, Warlord said:

@msi

Spending needs to be slashed sooner or later we don't have much choice.  

Spending will be slashed to enable more funds to be diverted to the essential task of making the world's worst value for money housing ever more expensive.

You know it makes sense.