Wednesday 15 December 2010

A sign of things to come (2) ... ?


As Christmas draws closer and the New Year fast approaches are we starting to see the writing on the wall ... and sign of things to come ...? 


Sterling devalued 25% (e.g. even against collapsing currencies like the dollar!), inflation running way above target (e.g. with petrol now heading towards £6/gallon!), interest rates set to go up, unemployment starting to increase again (before the real cuts start to bite), VAT set to rise to 20%, and the top civil servant (Sir Gus O'Donnell, Cabinet Secretary) quietly drawing up a "Plan B" for if/when the UK falls into recession again next year ...


Yet bankers (whose self interest/greed created this crisis) are celebrating and pocketing their Christmas 'bonuses', as a result of debt slavery (e.g. Fractional Reserve Banking) and corrupt profiteering/gambling using your money (where they take all the profit and you/taxpayers take all the losses) ... nb they are not focused on helping/investing in businesses, but continuing to speculate on the stock exchange, commodities, currencies and bonds instead ... forcing countries to the brink financially (e.g. Ireland) and pushing up food prices around the world so millions of people can no longer afford to eat (nb the same bankers also want to be able to speculate/trade in fresh water in the future too)!





Whilst the European Union is trying (and failing) to fiddle around with bankers pay (restricting bonuses will only elevate their basic pay), it has done nothing to stop Fractional Reserve Banking or Casino banks (investment banks) from speculating gambling using your/taxpayers money (commercial banks) ... much of this crisis was brought on by repealing the Glass-Steagall act (which was brought in after the last Great Depression) and nothing is being done to reverse this!

The banks have stolen the future from future generations, through high levels of tax needed to service (and eventually pay off) all the bailouts/debt, through the removal of EMA and the tripling of tuition fees, doubling of youth unemployment and further debt slavery as young people try to pay for a roof over their head (nb the bankers are aided and abetted here by a few very wealthy landowners who profit heavily from restricting the use of land ... instead of being taxed for the land they own)! 

If we really want to get out of this mess, we need to i) stop the corrupt practices of banks, ii) invest in education, innovation, enterprise and business, and iii) introduce a Land Value Tax, to replace the current Property Tax and to reduce the tax on jobs (income tax/national insurance) ... 


As the toxic mixture of ignorance and apathy continues to reduce ... Poweromics will be increasing exposed and challenged.

Friday 10 December 2010

A sign of things to come ...?


Police lines created to ensure tuition fees are tripled (despite all the protests)

The "Royals" - caught out, caught up, and looking at the road ahead ... ?


As the Government voted to triple student tuition fees, anger amongst the young bubbled up, a fellow blogger pointed out ...

"I reckon that most students protesting don’t really understand how the system works.

With all money (notes and coins excepted) being created as debt bearing interest, and more debt being needed to satisfy repayment of existing debt + interest, either there has to be more debt or deflation and debt default must occur.

The system is inflationary and requires an increasing level of debt to survive in its present form, but there’s a problem:

1. The hopelessly indebted will borrow till the cows come home, but can’t pay it back.
2. The modestly indebted could borrow, but are nervous of their economic future.
3. And the prudent won’t borrow per-se because they see it as the road to ruin.

Enter the poor student ... The system needs new debtors, and what better way to get them than sucking in the young with student loans. And if the system needs more money (debt), then raise tuition fees."

The banks created the crisis (and debt), were bailed out by the taxpayer, and continue to reward themselves billions in bonuses.  To generate more debt, the banks need more victims (and ones more likely to be able to pay it back) ... so the Government slash University teaching budgets by nearly 80% (over 3-4x the level of cuts to other public services), remove EMA for 16-18 year olds, and force students (the future generation) into becoming those debtors (to the tune of £40-80k)!  

Future generations will not forgive the perpetrators of this crime ... or those who renege on their election promises - so IMHO we will now see the Liberal Democrats heading towards the wastelands, along with any chance of real electoral reform  ... and for all the conspiracy theorists this will appear to be a cunning Conservative plan successfully completed!


But can the Conservatives be happy ... well no, not really ... as the politicians who are probably enjoying this the most are Labour, as they see themselves as the beneficiaries of all this at the next election, when both sides of the coalition are forced out of office for failing to deal with the mess (that Labour itself created)! This did not have to be the case, but the coalition are currently letting off/rewarding the guilty (i.e. the bankers) and punishing the innocent (i.e. future generations/hard-working people) ... which make previous comments by Mervyn King (referring to those voted into power in the 2010 election being subsequently out of power for a whole generation) more and more relevant!  

Whilst this may be the beginning of the end for the Liberal Democrats, IMHO it is not the beginning of the end to all the objections, protest and anger ... as the tuition fees debacle has a long way to run, and this is just one of numerous unfair, unjust and unpopular proposals/cuts the coalition are looking to force upon us ...


Wednesday 8 December 2010

Wikileaks and the misuse of Power ... past, present and future


There are currently few stories exposing more Poweromics (i.e. the misuse of 'Power') than the saga surrounding Wikileaks ... from the leaked content itself ... through to the response of those in 'Power' ...

The hidden 'hands on power' have pressurised Governments to put in place international arrest/extradition warrants for its leader (Julian Assange) for an alleged and unrelated rape charge (nb not for releasing information), and subjected Wikileaks web sites/facilities to concerted cyber-attacks in an attempt to shut them down ... 


Assange has stated that website deserves protection and has not cost a single life despite the claims of critics.  Writing for The Australian newspaper, Mr Assange quoted its founder, Rupert Murdoch, as once saying the truth will inevitably win over secrecy.

He said: "Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public."  Mr Assange said WikiLeaks has coined "scientific journalism" that allows readers to study the original evidence for themselves.

He added: "Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest.  "WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption."

The campaigner denied he is anti-war, but said Governments must tell the truth about their reasons for fighting.  He claimed the United States, supported by its "acolytes", has attacked WikiLeaks instead of other media groups because it is "young and small".

Branding the website "underdogs", he accused Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard of "disgraceful pandering" to the Americans.  He said: "The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings."

Mr Assange highlighted some of the most high-profile revelations made by his website over the last week.  He added: "The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth."

Wikileaks has been operational for some time ... so why is it only now that it is fighting for survival ... ?

Well the some leaks have exposed the misuse of Power, to the embarrassment of those who wield 'Power' (e.g. politicians, corrupt 'leaders', bankers, landowners) but a number of people have been quick to point towards a different event ... when, at the tail-end of last month, Assange indicated to a journalist that he had information about a major US bank that would cause a scandal to rival Enron ... now every financial institution is severing the ability to finance Wikileaks in an attempt to stop it doing this (nb such relevations could indeed start to expose the real 'hands of power', as well as all the corrupt/unethical banking practices still operating in banks today).

For all the mirrors around the internet replicating Wikileaks's content, the organisation is going to find it difficult to continue without the financial resources necessary to sift through its vast repository of documents.  Corporate America has swung into action against Wikileaks, acting swiftly and brutally. PayPal and MasterCard have now withdrawn their services and Assange's Swiss bank account has been frozen. The cost to Wikileaks in lost donations is already significant, and while this isn't the first time Wikileaks has had its income threatened (nb Moneybookers, a British payments company, shut down its account back in October), this time the financial services companies are acting as one, which makes survival more difficult for a site that operates on donations from the public.

... the small minority in Power (and who misuse Power) want this to continue, and don't want anyone to see (or interfere with) what they are doing ... however the vast majority of people would like to see more openness, honesty, transparency and facts, to make sure that those in 'Power' act honorably and responsibly, and in their collective best interests (and not simply their own).

... which is what "Scientific Journalism" should be about ... 

Indeed given this definition, the world arguably needs much more "Scientific Journalism" and far less ignorance, apathy and "Popularist Journalism" (which is what prevails right now)! 

... and thanks to the internet this will continue to be the case - the Genie's out the Bottle and it will not be put back ... i.e. the internet will change everything - including the balance/nature of Power ...


Wednesday 24 November 2010

If you think education is expensive ... try ignorance



One picture is worth ten thousand words ...


and given Nick Clegg (and the Liberal Democrats) pledged before the election not to raise tuition fees, but on entering power is overseeing the process of tripling them ... it is no surprise he regrets such actions, but which ones ... pledging not to raise them ... or for tripling them ...?


This one decision, by yet another rich millionaire (made from banking/property just like David Cameron), could result in the demise of the Liberal Democrats, and casts further doubt that anyone in the corridors of Power really has the future of this country, and hard-working people's best interests, at heart ... 

Students wanted to protest outside Liberal Democrat headquarters today but were stopped from doing so ... and why was this ... what has happened to free speech?

Ignoromics (Type 1 is Ignorance, Type 2 is Apathy) is what allows Poweromics to flourish ... and denies a better future for everyone ... which IMHO makes the placard held by the student above so poignant ... 


to be continued ...

Monday 22 November 2010

'Crash Gordon' handing keys to 'Etonian Cameron'


One picture is worth ten thousand words ... but IMHO the one below is priceless!



and will Cameron be the man to successfully turn things around (with the help of all his wealthy and privileged friends) ... ? 

to be continued ...


Thursday 11 November 2010

A nation ... held back by vested interests?



Here's just one fundamental reason for introducing land value tax ... "In a world of internationally mobile capital and people it is counterproductive to tax personal income and corporate profit to uncompetitive levels ... but a progressive alternative is to shift the tax base to property and land which cannot run away and represent, in Britain, an extreme concentration of wealth" (Vince Cable, Business Secretary, 22nd September 2010).

But there is one fundamental reason why they will not do it ... and that's the self-interest/greed of a very small minority, who own the vast majority of land, and wealth, in the UK.  Over 69 per cent of the UK is owned by 0.6 per cent of the population, or more pertinently 

  • 158,000 families own 41 million acres of land, whilst
  • 24 million families live on the four million acres of the urban plot. 
    No other country in Europe, apart from Spain, has such an unequal concentration of land ownership. The single wealthiest landowner is the Duke of Westminster, who owns hundreds of acres of prime real estate and land in Belgravia and Mayfair ... and the "cousinhood", a secretive network of 6,000 aristocratic families and their relatives who, through intermarriage, continue to own much of the land of the British Isles, still exert influence and control through the political parties, the House of Lords, Oxford and Cambridge, the Crown and the armed forces.

    And, contrary to popular belief, there is no shortage of available and uncultivated land in Britain - the landowners' estates are vast and, in areas such as the Cotswolds and parts of Scotland, say, omnipresent. What Britain suffers from, especially in the south-east of England, is a shortage of land on which houses are allowed to be built (e.g. the "green belt" around London massively inflates the prices of property in London ... which the Duke of Westminster has profited very well from). 


    As a result, the urban plot becomes ever more congested, land values and property prices continue to grow - because scarcity of land attracts a premium value - and our young people, many of them debt-burdened from their university years or struggling to find work in a recession, cannot afford to buy a flat, let alone a house. This forces them into the twilight world of short-term rents and disreputable landlords.

    Given that there is a direct correlation between land scarcity and high house prices, why isn't land reform more urgently debated today? Why are our political and media elites so reluctant to investigate new ways of taxing unearned income, especially at this time of extreme austerity, when Britain already has the fourth-highest marginal tax rates?

    Because those same people, who sit in the shadows (but quietly wield their power) also exert   influence and control over most politicians and those in mainstream media too ... n.b. it is also massively inflated house prices that allow bankers to profiteer from driving young people and families heavily into debt, whilst allowing 'speculation' to continue (at taxpayers expense) from money 'created' out of thin air too (resulting in the 'growth' of 'financial services' using 'fractional reserve banking') ... so not so hard to answer really ... however, they do not control the internet (although they a trying to do so)!

    Tuesday 2 November 2010

    Turning the economy around ... by REDUCING untapped talent!

    The CIPD has today highlighted how the private sector will be hit harder by the cuts than the public sector.  Their research suggests that government's spending cuts and the rise in VAT to 20% in January will result in more than 1.6 million job losses across the public and private sectors by 2016 ...  



    Spending cuts     725,000 public sector job losses
    Spending cuts     650,000 private sector job losses 
    VAT rise            250,000 private sector job losses
    Total              1,625,000 jobs

    The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said the impact of the Spending Review had been "understated".  John Philpott, chief economic adviser to the CIPD, said the number of public sector job losses cited in the Spending Review looked like "an underestimate, given what most public sector managers are telling us".

    Some business groups, such as the CBI, have said that job creation in the private sector will be able to compensate for losses in the public sector.  Yet the CIPD said that the private sector would be hit harder than the public sector.  Can both be right ...?

    If a concerted effort is made to apply 21st century management practices in both the private sector and public sector then the economy will create a tidal wave of innovation and successfully turn itself around ... if this does not happen then all the honest, hard-working people of this country will have been betrayed by their 'leaders' ... and should never be forgiven.

    ... and do we currently have the progressive, forward-looking 'leaders' applying 21st century management practices in charge of our largest Corporations now ...  well I'm afraid the answer to this question unfortunately in the vast majority of cases is 'no' ... as currently many only understand 19th Century practices and 'Poweromics', e.g. reducing staff and rewarding themselves with big pay rises (e.g. a phenomenal 55% increase last year)!

    21st Century management practice is about trust, honor and respect for people, and releasing all their untapped talent/creativity to create growth ... whilst 19th Century practice drives self interest and head-count reduction to create short-term profit ... 


    ... and our economy will fail to recover in any sustainable way if levels of untapped opportunity and talent continue to be systematically wasted as much as they are now (90%+), and it'll rapidly collapse if these become even worse!

    Monday 1 November 2010

    Scrap the targets ... says Exams Chief



    Following on from demands to scrap SATS tests (e.g. by the 'Cambridge Primary Review') ... and the need to remove the target driven culture ... more leaders appear to be speaking out ...

    For example the head of England's exams watchdog OfQual, Isabel Nisbet, has said that Official targets on the number of good GCSEs teenagers should be scrapped, and that the current league tables are too "simplistic".

    Schools are currently measured on the proportion of pupils who achieve five GCSEs at grade C or higher, including maths and English. The new government has said it wants to overhaul the league tables and Education Secretary Michael Gove thinks parents should be given more information.

    Asked what she would do if she were education secretary for a day, Ms Nisbet said: "I would get rid of the targets related to the number of passes at grade C at GCSE."

    At the Cambridge Assessment conference last week she also questioned the format of league tables: "The question is, is it simplistic to measure a very small number of indicators, sometimes drawing false conclusions? I think the answer is it probably is."

    Ms Nisbet, who is leaving Ofqual next year, said parents should be given more information about schools, and that most people understood there were different schools serving different communities (nb one could hypothesize why such comments have not been forthcoming sooner).

    Mr Gove has said he would like to see an "English Baccalaureate" - where pupils would study five GCSEs including English, maths, a science, a language and a humanity such as geography, history, art or music.

    Let's see whether a little common sense (and 21st century management practice) will prevail, with the target systems being scrapped and league tables being replaced ... and let's see whether measurement systems are instead used to support front line staff more ... to help them identify and continuously improve our children's education ... by systematically removing the 'real' barriers to learning and student development.


    The dismantling of the fundamentally flawed and outdated (19th century) practices, put in place by the last Government (nb mainly Gordon Brown - hence the picture), will take a little time and the UK is suffering badly as a result of such mistakes (e.g. the cost of failure in terms of wasted investment, opportunity and  talent) ... and will the current Government turn things around or make things worse ... well we're about to find out ...!


    Thursday 21 October 2010

    Is Global Warming the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud ...?'



    Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Here is his letter of resignation to Curtis G. Callan Jr, Princeton University, President of the American Physical Society.

    Anthony Watts describes it thus:

    "This is an important moment in science history. I would describe it as a letter on the scale of Martin Luther, nailing his 95 theses to the Wittenburg church door. It is worthy of repeating this letter in entirety on every blog that discusses science".

    It’s so utterly damning that I’m also, like others have done, going to run it in full without further comment ...

    Dear Curt:

    When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago). Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence—it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be?

    How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d’ĂȘtre of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.

    It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well). I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

    So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it. For example:

    1. About a year ago a few of us sent an e-mail on the subject to a fraction of the membership. APS ignored the issues, but the then President immediately launched a hostile investigation of where we got the e-mail addresses. In its better days, APS used to encourage discussion of important issues, and indeed the Constitution cites that as its principal purpose. No more. Everything that has been done in the last year has been designed to silence debate.

    2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer “explanatory” screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is. This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vast fractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Society as a scientific society is at stake.

    3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and the machinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. It was a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words to describe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all. This is not science; other forces are at work.

    4. So a few of us tried to bring science into the act (that is, after all, the alleged and historic purpose of APS), and collected the necessary 200+ signatures to bring to the Council a proposal for a Topical Group on Climate Science, thinking that open discussion of the scientific issues, in the best tradition of physics, would be beneficial to all, and also a contribution to the nation. I might note that it was not easy to collect the signatures, since you denied us the use of the APS membership list. We conformed in every way with the requirements of the APS Constitution, and described in great detail what we had in mind—simply to bring the subject into the open.

    5. To our amazement, Constitution be damned, you declined to accept our petition, but instead used your own control of the mailing list to run a poll on the members’ interest in a TG on Climate and the Environment. You did ask the members if they would sign a petition to form a TG on your yet-to-be-defined subject, but provided no petition, and got lots of affirmative responses. (If you had asked about sex you would have gotten more expressions of interest.) There was of course no such petition or proposal, and you have now dropped the Environment part, so the whole matter is moot. (Any lawyer will tell you that you cannot collect signatures on a vague petition, and then fill in whatever you like.) The entire purpose of this exercise was to avoid your constitutional responsibility to take our petition to the Council.

    6. As of now you have formed still another secret and stacked committee to organize your own TG, simply ignoring our lawful petition.

    APS management has gamed the problem from the beginning, to suppress serious conversation about the merits of the climate change claims. Do you wonder that I have lost confidence in the organization?

    I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people’s motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don’t think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I’m not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.

    I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends.

    Hal


    Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, former Chairman; Former member Defense Science Board, chmn of Technology panel; Chairman DSB study on Nuclear Winter; Former member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Former member, President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; Chairman APS study on Nuclear Reactor Safety Chairman Risk Assessment Review Group; Co-founder and former Chairman of JASON; Former member USAF Scientific Advisory Board; Served in US Navy in WW II; books: Technological Risk (about, surprise, technological risk) and Why Flip a Coin (about decision making)



    Tuesday 19 October 2010

    Money & Banking: The Root Cause of Debt, Crisis and Poverty ...?



    Does the fundamental design of the banking system automatically lead to an unstable, unproductive, unfair and unsustainable economy and society ...?

    If the answer to the above question is yes, then the logical next question to ask is will society take the opportunity to truly fix the problem now...? or will it resort to superficial changes and start saving up for the next bailout ...?

    If the best minds in the world were to get together to design a new banking system now ... could they create something better than what we've got ...? could they create something fair (the current system throws millions into debt unnecessarily) ...? could they create something stable? (the current system triggers a recession every few years) ...? could they create something sustainable (the current system requires infinite economic growth) ...? could they create something productive (the financial crisis is throwing millions of people into unemployment) ...?

    More and more people are starting to believe money & banking is the root of most of our social and economic problems.  For instance, due to outdated/flawed banking laws, Fractional Reserve Banking currently allows private banks to legally generate 'money out of thin air' from debt, and use it to drive individuals, economies and nations further into debt (and debt slavery).  Is this true? ... Can this be right ...?  Is there a better way ...?  


    Well the latest Zeitgeist movie starts to address such issues, and there are many groups now also demanding change ... e.g. one such group, Positive Moneyis holding a conference next month in London (entitled "Banking Shapes the World"), on the 13th and 14th November 2010. 

    Monday 18 October 2010

    Increasing untapped talent and stress: A disaster waiting to happen ...?



    Almost one million jobs could be lost in the UK because of government cuts in public spending, a report suggests.  The knock on effect of public sector cuts upon private sector firms is rarely mentioned or taken into account, but this report does attempt to do so.

    Accountancy firm PwC said that about 500,000 of those job losses may be in the private sector due to the impact on firms supplying the public sector, with business services and construction would be among the industries hardest hit.

    The impact of this is in fact already starting to be seen, with contracts not being renewed, renegotiated or withdrawn altogether (e.g. the building schools for the future programme), and the PwC report puts the total number of job losses arising from the public sector spending cuts - including the knock-on effects in the private sector - at about 943,000.

    It also suggests the output of private firms may well fall by £46bn per year by 2014-15.  PwC chief economist John Hawksworth said the predicted levels of job losses would be a drag on the pace of the economic recovery "but should not derail it altogether".

    The report said that in absolute terms, the areas worst hit would be the south east of England, the north west and Scotland.  But PwC added that in percentage terms, Northern Ireland would suffer most with one in every 20 jobs set to go.

    A Treasury spokesman said "a decisive plan" was needed to "reduce the UK's unprecedented deficit and restore confidence in the UK economy ... and not taking action to tackle this problem would put the economic recovery at risk," they added, saying this was a view shared by many organisations including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Bank of England.

    The question that's never asked (or answered) is where new jobs are going to come from for the economy to start to recover.  For a more prosperous and sustainable future, levels of untapped talent  need to reduce (not increase), and creativity needs to increase to create growth, reduce the deficit and pay back the debt ... and releasing staff without any plan of action for this could make matters worse, not better, with more people without any work and wholly dependent on the state.

    The application of a simple, effective and more holistic 'economic' test (of overall 'well-being'), known as "BUTS" test, where:

    B = Borrowing
    U = Untapped talent
    T = Trade deficit
    S = Stress

    rapidly highlights how well-being in the UK in the future is likely to get much worse, with any reduction in borrowing likely to be at the expense of increased taxes and reduced public services ... as well as growing levels of untapped talent (e.g. unemployment) and increasing levels of stress.

    There is growing concern about unemployment, not just from a financial perspective, but from an individual point of view too, as more people lose self-confidence, belief and self-worth. People's natural ability/desire to help others, add value, and make a difference to other people's lives reduces ... reducing the overall well-being of the community, as well as the nation's economy too. There is also the risk of growing frustration & anger, particularly from younger generations, as youth unemployment rates are much higher, they have been saddled further with debt (e.g. due to tuition fees) and given little prospect of a job, house prices still being expensive to rent/buy and they are also the ones who'll have to pay most of the Government current borrowing back (through future tax rises).

    Shockingly, the official figures of 2.4 million unemployed are a gross underestimate, as there are in fact over 8 million people of working age able to work but classified as 'economically inactive' ... and even this figures represents just the tip of the iceberg, as levels of untapped talent within the workplace lies at around 90%, due to outdated management practices failing to harness the talents of those in work too!  No economy will ever be successful with such shockingly poor foundations, and outdated leadership and management practices are also generating further unnecessary stress too.  

    Outdated leadership and management practices (19th/20th century) primarily rely upon extrinsic motivation, self interest and personal gain ... where management primarily involves managing budgets, telling staff what to do and ensuring they meet internal/arbitrary targets ... rather than going to the front line, listening to customers actually want and supporting front-line staff in their quest to continually improve how value can be provided to customers (nb this is what 21st century leadership and management practice is all about - take a look at my book for instance) ...

    The former systematically generates frustration and stress, for customers and front line staff alike. It also drives people to manipulate 'the system' in order to meet their targets & goals; deflecting people away from the real purpose of the enterprise (i.e. to create value for customers) which destroys teamwork, morale, and the future of the enterprise too. Such practices have also been shown to systematically generate between 40-90% waste in terms of both time and resources as well - i.e. traditional enterprises spend most of their time (and resources) wasting time, effort and money, for their customers ... whilst stressing them out in the process too ...

    ... and the traditional response to this ... "it's just the way work is" ... and "let's send everyone on a 'stress management' course - to help them to process stress" (and to also reduce the risk of being sued!) ...

    The problem with the traditional management statements above is that they are both wrong - and flawed. 21st century management practices do not involve helping people to 'process stress' - they focus on systematically 'eliminating stress'! ... so there is no need for stress management courses at all ... (i.e. such courses are a 'cost of failure', and they do not reduce the risk of leaders/managers being sued either).

    Enterprises applying 21st century leadership and management practices do not just transform the performance of the enterprise, they transform the lives of people - forever, and for the better. Most enterprises applying such practices quickly transform their capability (e.g. improvements of between 40-1000%) and change out of all recognition. Staff moral is positively transformed and stress is systematically reduced. People are naturally motivated to innovate, to add value and to help others. They are also more than capable of finding new ways to improve current products/services and to find new products/services that would allow even more value to be created too (given the opportunity). All they need is clear direction, as well as trustworthy leaders & managers who support them on the front line, who listen, learn, and help them to systematically improve how value is provided. Again not rocket science - just rarely practiced in traditional enterprises.

    Stress, and the impact of stress, on people is heavily responsible for the 'eighth waste' in 21st century management practice ('untapped talent') - as it destroys people's desire/ability to contribute, to be creative or to think rationally (e.g. take a look at Ch. 8 of my book). It also impacts on people's overall well-being, as well as the well-being of those around them ... which impacts on communities/nations as a whole too (NB hence it's inclusion in the 'BUTS' test).

    The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has said the cost of work related mental illness was £28bn - a quarter of the UK's total sick bill, and it also made clear that the stress created as a result of bad management/managers was the single biggest cause of problem. The 'economic loss' of stress goes way beyond the £28bn referred to here too ... this is literally just the tip of the iceberg, with actual figures more likely to be around 80-90% (and growing).  




    Those leaders who believe stress management courses will 'protect them' from 'being sued' are I'm afraid also sadly wrong ... as 'ignorance' is 'not bliss' (or a defence - nb landmark cases are already occurring - but are mostly settled out of court to avoid publicity). The writing is on the wall now that 21st century leaders & managers have demonstrated the capability/outcomes created from applying 21st century practices ... which highlight the way forward, as well as the fundamental flaws in traditional practices ...

    21st century leadership/management practice and examples will no doubt be used in evidence against those continuing to apply outdated traditional 19th/20th century practices ... and as millions of law suits start to get filed, yet more traditional private enterprises will go bankrupt ... and yet more taxpayers money will be diverted away from providing front line services (to pay for millions of out-of-court settlements) ... joining all the taxpayers money already being diverted to service Government debt, as well as the colossal (and unfunded) civil service pension liability ...

    A 'Double Dip" is on the way I'm afraid ... and a 'triple dip', and a 'quadruple dip', may well follow too I'm afraid ... unless current leaders/managers change course quickly ... as it's also the adoption of 21st Century leadership/management practices that will harness and unleash the untapped potential within our society, and systematically uncover the plethora of world-class solutions people around the globe are looking for and more than willing to pay a premium for ...

    A 'political response' which goes ahead and slashes millions of jobs, without any clear understanding or robust plan to harness untapped talent/potential to systematically provide the future product/services the world needs, is in fact not a 'solution' at all, but a short-sighted and flawed act, which will have a huge, negative and corrosive impact on individual/community well-being ... and will not provide any robust foundation for reducing borrowing (or reversing the massive trade-deficit) in any sustainable way either.  It is a systematic change the UK now requires, not a political one.