Double Dip - Double Quick ?

Following on from my previous posts (1,2 for instance), take a look at these recent reality checks from other groups today ... about what we may see in the future too.

Recovery - House prices rising ...? irrelevant ...? a false dawn ? ... and the TUC rejecting claims of recovery too, suggesting we could see a "double dip, double quick" ... with unemployment escalating to 4,000,000 (not 3,000,000) ...

... and there is nothing to say this won't happen, or in fact for it to get much worse than this, unless the Government starts to invest effectively in innovation, creativity and enterprise that can add real-value in far more effective/sustainable ways (e.g. not gambling, investment banking, and property speculation), which can also support public services, as many of my additional posts (e.g.1,2) have also pointed out (including the one below) ...

"... 21st century management practices double the value-adding capability and halve costs both at the same time - but because it's 'lean' in terms of management (and 180 degrees different to traditional management!), most 'leaders'/'managers' either fail to understand it or choose to ignore it, and prefer to stick to what they know* ... most 'leaders' and 'managers' don't mind change, so long as it doesn't change how they lead and manage ... but unfortunately that's what's now needed ... don't expect to see it in a hurry ... but you'll see successful nations/enterprises doing it ... Sir Gus O'Donnell (head of the Civil Service) has known this for years, but has failed to do anything about it ..."

Posted on Stephanomics blog (post 31).

'Cutting' your way to 'success' is flawed

Supporting enterprise that creates value for others (and wealth for the nation) would be a good idea - as the revenues, and hence the taxes paid for by corporations / workforce, is what's actually needed to fund any public services in the future ... yet little mention / action by politicians with regard to this ... they all show they have no real policy/ideas on this at all ... hence their focus on cutting costs ... and they haven't really got a clue about that either.

What we see is current 'leaders' failing to 'lead' ... the government gave hundreds of billions of taxpayers money to financial institutions ... who prefer to i) make money from money (i.e. wealth manipulation'), to ii) gamble using other peoples' money, and to iii) profit from the good times and get bailed out by us in the bad ... nothing has changed, and we are continuing down this road again ... but with very little to show for it, except a massive debt to pay off, higher taxes and less & less cash to pay for public services.

Investment in entrepreneurship and real enterprise is needed to rebuild a sustainable economy and to fund future public services ... instead of trying to get investment to return into property again (alongside gambling) in the hope that international markets believe people in the UK will be prepared to take on more debt so that they can take a disproportionate chunk of people's salary in the process (for adding little/no value at all) once again ...

If the UK still plans to go for the latter, don't expect it to last for very long, as debt will continue to spiral out of control, more unemployed will need to be supported by the state due to the lack of enterprise, and many more enterprising/hard-working people will make a different choice on where they would like to live (e.g. remember EU borders are all open now)- and they will be unlikely to choose here (e.g. because of high property prices, high taxation and imploding public services ...)

Simply 'cutting' your way to 'success' is a flawed strategy. Innovation and value-added enterprise, supported by freeing up more resources to allow more value to be created, is far better (e.g. robust & sustainable) ... but current 'leaders' haven't got a clue ... fail to understand this ... and unfortunately the chicken's will eventually coming home to roost.

Posted on the Stephanomics blog (Post 17), and links to chapter 1 (page 9) of my book!