Vivaldo Report post Posted May 7, 2006 (edited) I haven't been posting recently as work is v busy but keep the posts coming - HPC is fantastico and going from strength to strength! And oh my GOD, even the Observer is mentioning the HOUSING BUBBLE http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/st...1769093,00.html Frank Kane Sunday May 7, 2006 The Observer EXTRACT: I hate to leave you with bad news, but ... When I first wrote this column some five years ago, the Twin Towers were still standing, Enron was a highly respected global corporation, and Gordon Brown was assuring us all that he had brought an end to the 'boom and bust' era for the British economy. Today, as I write my last commentary as business editor of this newspaper, only the last of these still holds. The Chancellor maintains that he has ironed out the kinks in the UK economic cycle, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Maybe he is right, but the pessimist in me cannot help but fear there is a mighty fall to come. Surely the mountains of personal debt under which we each labour, the housing market bubble, and the super soaraway stock market, will combine in a terrible triple-witching hour to come. The other lessons of the last five years are symbolised by the World Trade Centre attacks and the Enron scandal. Globalisation has ceased to be a concept and become a reality. Whether in the form of an international terrorist nexus, or of a fraud sans frontieres like the Texan debacle, business is conducted in an increasingly interdependent world where national boundaries are beginning to look irrelevant. As P&O, Rover, BAA and the Stock Exchange testify, what happens in Dubai, Nanjing, Madrid, Sydney and New York has a powerful immediacy for us in British business. Without a doubt, the biggest news story of the last five years - and it will remain so for the next five decades - is what is happening in China. The explosive growth of the world's most populous country is going to change all our lives for ever, and has maybe produced an economic system to replace American free-market liberalism - central, state-planned capitalism. How business comes to terms with the new economic superpower of the Orient will determine whether or not that change is to our benefit or detriment. But it is impossible to ignore, and for that reason isolationism and protectionism are dead-end ideologies. And on that note, I say goodbye - so long, au revoir, sayonara, zaijian - to you all. Edited May 7, 2006 by Vivaldo Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mags Report post Posted May 8, 2006 I haven't been posting recently as work is v busy but keep the posts coming - HPC is fantastico and going from strength to strength! And oh my GOD, even the Observer is mentioning the HOUSING BUBBLE http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/st...1769093,00.html Frank Kane Sunday May 7, 2006 The Observer EXTRACT: I hate to leave you with bad news, but ... When I first wrote this column some five years ago, the Twin Towers were still standing, Enron was a highly respected global corporation, and Gordon Brown was assuring us all that he had brought an end to the 'boom and bust' era for the British economy. Today, as I write my last commentary as business editor of this newspaper, only the last of these still holds. The Chancellor maintains that he has ironed out the kinks in the UK economic cycle, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Maybe he is right, but the pessimist in me cannot help but fear there is a mighty fall to come. Surely the mountains of personal debt under which we each labour, the housing market bubble, and the super soaraway stock market, will combine in a terrible triple-witching hour to come. The other lessons of the last five years are symbolised by the World Trade Centre attacks and the Enron scandal. Globalisation has ceased to be a concept and become a reality. Whether in the form of an international terrorist nexus, or of a fraud sans frontieres like the Texan debacle, business is conducted in an increasingly interdependent world where national boundaries are beginning to look irrelevant. As P&O, Rover, BAA and the Stock Exchange testify, what happens in Dubai, Nanjing, Madrid, Sydney and New York has a powerful immediacy for us in British business. Without a doubt, the biggest news story of the last five years - and it will remain so for the next five decades - is what is happening in China. The explosive growth of the world's most populous country is going to change all our lives for ever, and has maybe produced an economic system to replace American free-market liberalism - central, state-planned capitalism. How business comes to terms with the new economic superpower of the Orient will determine whether or not that change is to our benefit or detriment. But it is impossible to ignore, and for that reason isolationism and protectionism are dead-end ideologies. And on that note, I say goodbye - so long, au revoir, sayonara, zaijian - to you all. Very interesting. Thanks for the link Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
