It just about sums up the poverty of ambition in the UK that 24km of new (reinstated, actually) line is the biggest development in 100 years.

Airdrie and Bathgate line prepares for December opening | Rail-News.com

Network Rail completed track laying on the new 24km stretch of railway between Airdrie and Bathgate today (Friday 27 August), making it the longest domestic passenger railway with new stations to be built in Britain for a century. 

A 200-tonne mobile track laying machine ran through the site of the relocated Drumgelloch station over the course of  two hours, completing a modern, soon-to-be electrified rail link between West Lothian and North Lanarkshire. By December 2010, the line will carry four trains an hour in each direction, opening up travel options between Scotland's two biggest cities.

Promoted by DoDo

Quiz: What is Wealth

"...a decline in H.P.'s stock price from $46.35 to $40.46 per share, of $6.21 per share, over the period Aug. 5 to Aug. 13 represents a loss in H.P.'s market capitalization of $14,469,300,000. Collectively, H.P.'s shareholders are $14.5 billion poorer than they were on Aug. 5. So here is the quiz: As a result of this event at H.P., is America now really $14.5 billion poorer than it was on Aug. 5, other things being equal? If so, where did that wealth go? Did anyone else get it while H.P.'s shareholders lost it? Does a firm's market capitalization on any given day actually represent real wealth?

In fact, what is "wealth"?  Furthermore, who is to blame for this loss of market capitalization -- Jodie Fisher, Mr. Hurd, H.P.'s board, traders on Wall Street or perhaps anyone else?

How would you answer if your bright and curious teenage offspring asked you these questions?"

One of the more thoughtful Long Room denizens 'Itzman' weighed in after a few comments with the following observation, and off we went.

(Itzman) Another way to look at wealth is in terms of it representing accumulated high density energy. A tank of fuel, a fridge full of food, a low entropy structure like a house - these are all thing that have utility because they have low entropy. Money is the social equivalent. Money can be turned into almost any low entropy product you want, or can buy energy and skill to make it.

How can you tell when a politician is lying? First check to see if his/her lips are moving. New research has revealed that despite what they would have you believe, the world's governments subsidize the fossil fuel sector far more than they do renewables and biofuels. Indeed, the assistance delivered to the oil, coal, and other fossil fuel sectors makes a mockery of claims that government is serious about reducing carbon emissions. Hey folks, that's YOUR MONEY!

The politics of the mind | LabourList.org 2.0.2 | LabourList.org

By Anthony Painter

Professor George Lakoff has had a habit of coming to prominence when the left is suffering. As Ezra Klein observed on his Washington Post blog earlier this week:

"One of my rules in politics is that whichever side is resorting to framing devices is losing. In 2004, when Democrats became obsessed with George Lakoff, it's because they felt unpopular and looking for a quick fix."

Gary Younge also mined Lakoff in launching his attack on the coalition cuts in Monday's Guardian.

FT Alphaville » Zen and the art of flogging UK banks

We live in a new era of Austerity Britain.

One must make cutbacks and maximise value where one can.

So, then. Not just when -- but how- should the UK government sell off its stakes in Lloyds and RBS, probably some time next year?

Ahead of both banks' H1 results, Seymour Price's Bruce Packard has come up with a rather philosophical answer.

Stoic, even:

We have looked at the disposal of Government stakes in banks after the banking crises in Norway and Japan. In Japan, Private Equity played a role in producing a quick turnaround, at the expense of long term value destruction we believe. In Norway, the Government wasn't prepared to sell stakes in a thin market and held on for half a decade and sold when it became clear that returns were sustainable. We also suggest that it may be better to break up banks given that there are a very limited number of buyers that could afford to take the place of the UK Government.

It's all about long-term value -- which isn't there at the moment, Packard believes.

This was followed the next day by an article by Martin Wolf - the FT's most senior economic journalist, and a regular at the Bilderberg gathering. Wolf wrote of the role of land prices in 18 year economic cycles, and referred approvingly to the journalist Fred Harrison who predicted the property crash in 2005.

Property cycle: bust will follow boom - but when? - MoneyWeek: August 5th 2005

Many think that the global real-estate bubble has nearly run its course. Fred Harrison disagrees. He thinks it has another three years to run. Here he tells us why.

Wolf went on to convincingly make the case for a tax on land rental values and followed up today with an FT Diary post which demonstrates that he understands the case made by Mason Gaffney of the Corruption of Economics Neo-classical Economics as a Strategem against Henry George

NB: For those ET'ers unaware, Henry George was a proponent of what he called a 'Single Tax' on land values, and was for a time the second best known political figure in the US. His book 'Progress and Poverty' sold in the millions.

Diageo announces 10 year funding arrangements for UK Diageo Pension Scheme

Diageo has today announced that agreement has been reached with the Trustee of the UK Diageo Pension Scheme (the UK Scheme) on a 10 year funding plan.  At the time of the triennial actuarial valuation at 1 April 2009 the deficit of the UK Scheme was £862 million. This triggered a requirement to put in place the 10 year funding plan which has been announced today.

Key points of the agreement include:

·     £197 million which was agreed under the 2006 funding plan has been transferred to the UK Scheme.

·     A pension funding partnership will be formed (the PFP), which will hold maturing whisky spirit as assets. This structure will generate an income to the UK Scheme which is expected to total £25 million each year over the term of the PFP. The PFP is expected to be in place for 15 years after which time the Trustee will be able to sell its PFP interests to the company for an amount expected to be no greater than the deficit at that time, up to a maximum of £430 million.

·     The company will further underwrite the reduction of the UK Scheme deficit through an agreement to make conditional cash contributions into escrow totalling £338 million if an equivalent reduction in the deficit is not achieved over the 10 year term.

·     It is expected that the annual payments to the UK Scheme of £25 million together with payments which are anticipated under the agreement currently being negotiated in respect of the Guinness Ireland Group Pension Scheme will be broadly cash flow neutral against the £50 million per annum which has been paid in respect of the UK Scheme since 2007. These arrangements will have no impact on the value of Diageo's net assets.

Further details:

It's amazing what a bit of austerity can do to shake things up, and good old pragmatic Ken Clarke is in his element.

BBC News - Justice Secretary plans 'radical' prison policy change

Vast sums are being spent "warehousing" people in outdated prisons without any proof it protects the public, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has said.

He said he was amazed at the growth of the prison population in England and Wales and demanded a radical new approach to cut reoffending.

It will involve paying private firms and voluntary groups according to how many prisoners they rehabilitate.

Mr Clarke said his approach made the most financial sense.

'Victorian England'

In his first major speech since taking office, Mr Clarke said prison had too often proved "a costly and ineffectual approach that fails to turn criminals into law-abiding citizens".

"My first priority is the safety of the British public," he said.

"But just banging up more and more people for longer without actively seeking to change them is what you would expect of Victorian England."

The prison population in England and Wales reached a record high in May of 85,201.

There is then an absolutely magnificent piece of hypocrisy.

Earlier, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Clarke said a sentencing review based on punishment and protecting the public was needed.

Criticising the increase of the prison population under Labour, he added: "David Blunkett and John Reid had a chequebook in one hand and a copy of the Daily Mail in the other."

It was the hang 'em and then deport 'em tendency of the Tories driving all of this via their cheerleaders in the Press. Of course, the irony is that it is probably only a Tory government who can take such an approach and get away with it.

(Chris Cook) Those who say that our bank created money is debt have the polarity reversed: it is a claim over debt.

Asia Times Online : Henry Liu

Credit drives the economy, not debt. Debt is the mirror reflection of credit. Even the most accurate mirror does violence to the symmetry of its reflection. Why does a mirror turn an image right to left and not upside down as the lens of a camera does? The scientific answer is that a mirror image transforms front to back rather than left to right as commonly assumed. Yet we often accept this aberrant mirror distortion as uncolored truth, and we unthinkingly consider the distorted reflection in the mirror as a perfect representation.

In the language of finance economics, credit and debt are opposites but not identical. In fact, credit and debt operate in reverse relations. Credit requires a positive net worth and debt does not. One can have good credit and no debt. High debt lowers credit rating. When one understands credit, one understands the main force behind the modern finance economy, which is driven by credit and stalled by debt

das monde:

Hmmm. That money is neither debt or claim on debt.

Is there something inherent within a capitalistic framework that is harmful/toxic to society as a whole?

I answered the following....

No mention in the programme yet about the promised free towels at all swimming pools, or the expected arrival date of the promised polar bear at the zoo, but it's an interesting start.....

Iceland Review Online: Daily News from Iceland, Current Affairs, Business, Politics, Sports, Culture

Jón Gnarr has been sworn into office as the Mayor of Reykjavík, ruv.is reports. Outgoing mayor, Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir of the Independence Party, was unanimously elected city council chairman.

Sóley Tómasdóttir, leader of the Left-Greens, was elected deputy council chairman and Björk Vilhelmsdóttir, a councilor for the Democratic Alliance, was elected second deputy council chairman.

Road Pricing via sateliites etc is fundementally stupid.

A much better way IMHOP is:

1.  Mandate all vehicles to permanently be required to be a minimum distance behind the vehicle in front - the faster you go, the greater the distance - your radio devices could automatically measure the proximity and fine / charge users when they get too close- this would automatically ration road space without hte need for satellite tech and apply to any congested area automatically.

2. Mandate a minimum average speed (with no banking of over speeding) again your devices would automatically charge people for travelling too slowly - this would deter people from travelling in congestion unless they had to (and no, it wouldn't encourage people to speed - they would get charged for that as well of course). and again it would apply to any congested area automatically.

What are the views of the ET think tank?

The first problem was that despite having lots of lake frontage

there is virtually nowhere to sit by it and have a drink.

So we went to our favourite watering hole - the Bonsyde Hotel

 which has magnificent views over Linlithgow.

So far so good. I was wearing a hat, and also sheltering under a parasol, but my hands and arms - which were holding the FT - were exposed to the sun, but quite comfortable in a pleasant breeze.

Or so I thought.

1-Global Energy Money: Overview - Global Energy Money

GLOBAL ENERGY MONEY is a new form of currency, backed by energy resources, and self-funding due to a process called demurrage. The pages linked below describe the currency and how it operates, and also set it in a broader theoretical framework.

The HOW DOES IT WORK page explains in detail how the currency operates, as both an inflation-protected investment vehicle and as a method of payment

The CURRENCY ENGINEERING page gives a theoretical framework of how debt-based currencies operate and the long-term inevitable result of our using them. It compares GEM with debt-based currencies and demonstrates how a widespread use of GEM as currency would significantly buffer our economy against shocks while bringing it into a sustainable relationship with our environment.

Labour are leaderless, fractured and knackered. Moreover, quite a few of them think it's a good election to lose.

One of the most interesting aspects of this election for me has been the resurgence of Labour at local level, particularly in urban locations.

Labour wins at local level show party still strong | LabourList.org 2.0.2 | LabourList.org

Labour has made significant gains in some of Thursday's local council elections, taking back a number of councils across the country.

Labour won 51% of the vote in Liverpool, winning the council back from the Lib Dems.

In Barking, Labour won all 51 council seats, while the BNP - who previously held eleven council seats - were able to return none.

In Hackney, Labour won a landslide over the Lib Dems, 50 seats to 3.

In Islington, Labour won twelve new councillors, and defeated the Lib Dems comprehensively, by 35-13. 

Enfield was won back from the Tories, and Coventry, Doncaster, Hartlepool, Oxford and St Helens were all won from no overall control. Camden was also won back from a Tory/Lib Dem coalition.

Across the country, Labour gained 249 new seats, while the Tories lost 78 and the Lib Dems lost 62.

Nathan Yeowell, head of the Labour group at the Local Government Association, said:

"The fightback has to begin at the grassroots level and in local councils. This is a platform from where we can fight back if there is a Tory administration and prove we are a viable alternative capable of providing services and protecting the needy and vulnerable who might be put at risk by cuts."

In my view the serenity of Labour is because everything is proceeding in accordance with their scenario planning, and with a preliminary (verbal) understanding already agreed with Clegg.

What we are seeing is a form of political kabuki proceeding in accordance with a typically Mandelsonian `grid', and the footprints are all over No 10′s briefings to the press.

"The Country has Spoken: we just don't know what they've said".

I disagree, I think that as the dust clears and the final results trickle in it's immediately obvious that no party has a mandate to govern the UK and that the public have effectively said: "Time for a Change"

And yet as the financial storm clouds gather over Greece, Portugal and Spain, and the US financial market shows all the stability of a Roll On Roll Off ferry with water swilling about the car deck, there is a need for a Unity government of all the best talent UK politics has to offer.

Q&A with Niall Ferguson - Vancouver Sun May 1st

Q Do you think China's threats to sell U.S. T-bills to inflict financial pain are real?

A I don't think they are going to pull a lever as harsh as that over Taiwan. I think if the stakes were high enough, they might very well. If China announced tomorrow `we're selling our Treasuries,' the effect on the bond market would be explosive. And it would cost the Chinese because their dollar reserves would be worthless. But you have to remember most of China's wealth is not in dollars, it is in renminbi. So they would lose on their international reserves, but they would gain on every other asset that they own. I think the question is: What issue is big enough to play that card?

Q What would prompt them to play it?

A There would need to be a major breakdown over something. For example, let's conjure up a scenario where the United States finds itself having to support Israeli attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. Now, the Chinese would have some good options there. One would be to just let it play out and watch. Another would be to very publicly seek to [exert] their leverage over the United States by saying `no, no you can't do this.' And that would be a very high-risk strategy, but I could imagine how that would work

So, I think at some point, the currency issue and the U.S. debt issue does give the Chinese real power, just as the currency issue and the debt issue gave the United States power over Britain in the 1950s, particularly at the time of the Suez Crisis. So, you have to imagine a Suez Crisis -- where the U.S. does something and the Chinese just decide `we're not going to support that because by not supporting it we will make many friends.' [T-bills] are a strategic lever and they can be used to deter military and other actions.

Q Is it one of their most powerful levers to deter action?

A Yes.

However, the major obstacle for the Fed is that quarterly total debt service of the unemployed has surged from $18 billion to $34 billion over the same period and has a direct correlation with foreclosures in the U.S..

According to Equifax close to 4.5 million first mortgage loans - 9% of 49 million first mortgage loans outstanding − are currently in the foreclosure process or at least 90 days delinquent.

There are only two ways to solve the problem of the unemployed regarding their debt crisis. Firstly, the economy must grow at a rapid pace to re-employ most of those people as soon as possible. The second alternative to avoid large-scale hardship and increasing poverty is through mortgage debt forgiveness.

There's another way, actually, and that is a Debt/Equity Swap through the refinancing of unrepayable loans by 'unitisation' of rentals.

Firstly, this would make housing more affordable - since there is neither capital repayment (although there are depreciation and maintenance costs) nor compound interest.

Secondly, unitisation would release development credit necessary for the unemployed to become economically active again.