the addict

Longer bolt and nyloc nut on the end, check them regularly though, but it saves stripping the thread out or replacing the threads.

This is one of the main reasons the EU debt cannot be fixed, the money's been spent and gone, all that's left is the massive debt, to pay off the debts you have to take existing money from the economy to pay it off which there hasn't been any for decades. The only option is to borrow more, borrow more money to pay off previous debts, back to where you started at surely? only thing that helps is you have pushed back the date a little to when it matures. The other option which thankfully the ECB and Merkel are not keen on, is to simply get the ECB tp print vast amounts of new money (trillions) and pay off the debts. This can be done tomorrow easily, but the consequences of doing so are dramatic to say the least.

As I said above, loans/debt are not a bad thing, they expand the economy so it can grow and it expands the money supply to do it. The problem with our current system is quite simple, when a loan is made, the Bank creates the money itself, it doesn't have that money in the first place. It then charges us interest on the loan which is never created at any stage? As you pay back your loan the Bank destroys the principle and keeps the interest as profit or an asset on the books. You have to find the principle payment plus the interest which does not exist. You therefore have to take a part of someone elses principle to pay the interest. With this system default is inevitable as there is never enough money created to pay principle and interest. We are in a system that is impossible to recover from by some margin, the solution which many, including governments use is to borrow more/roll over debt interest/loans with new loans? crazy. You can see this everyday, the Gilt/Bond markets, constantly selling debt for new debt that will mature in the future. If Governments created money themselves and at a very low interest rate or no interest rate at all there would be no sovereign debts, the reason countries have such massive debts is simply because they have borrowed the money from the Banks as interest bearing loans.

I'll agree 100% with that Bilc0, Debt itself is not all bad, its debt with interest that causes the problems, there is no need for it at all, all of our lives would be far better without it.

Growth - as such, pretty much ended sometime in the late 90's, what has driven economic growth (GDP) since then has been borrowed from the future, and that borrowed money has come home to roost. Again this morning I heard economists banging on how growth will return in late 2012? where from? what has driven growth in the past twenty years? borrowing to create it. It's going to take some incredible discovery of something to return to genuine growth from now on, maybe a new from of fuel or a massive oil field. All they are doing now is borrowing more to create artificial growth in the short term with the hope it will stimulate real growth in the future? where the F**k from? Yesterdays ECB giveaway, 500 billion Euro's to the banks with the aim of making loans (debt) more available to us and countries in the short term? too much debt is the problem period, creating even more is just beyond belief, these people are running things as well. The ECB creates 500 billion Euro's simply by clicking a few computer keys, (it doesn't have 500 billion Euro's) gives it to the Banks, who will then buy up sovereign bonds from countries who can't sell bonds because the markets know they can't pay it back? Creating more money, creates inflation via devaluation of the existing amount of money before new creation, wonder why we have 5%RPI today? (more like 15-20% in real terms)

Bilco, there could be some truth in that,(I have no idea) but to be honest its not really anything to do with the problems faced today. Governments borrow to get in power, the more they promise with our money and our kids money the better. There is no need for any government debt using a different system, the one we have only creates sovereign debt every time government borrows. It amazes me that governments (Nations) borrow money from privately owned Banks? who's in charge here?

Hmmmm, very poor that mate, lend it is then

Here's how f****d the current system is? the Banks are the only creators of money in the economy, money is only created via loans and mortgages, most people assume the money they loan is from savers money with the Bank? nope!!!!!!! that money is used for speculation and reserves, the money for loans is created by tapping in numbers on a keyboard (you couldn't make it up) The Banks can create (leverage) depositors money in some circumstances hundreds of times, vastly increasing the money supply, the Banks now control our economies/inflation/interest rates and deflation, not government. The Banks speculate, lose, and the tax payer has to bail them out. Government borrows the money to bail the banks out with loans from Banks that are interest bearing and gives the money to the banks to bail them out?????????????????????????// WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Banks know how close things are to collapse and how many of them are insolvent. They are no longer willing to borrow to each other to maintain the capital reserves. A few weeks ago all major central banks had to step in extremely quickly to stop a handful of Banks going tits up, they sorted it but again today we just how skint the Banks are. Half a trillion Euro's created by the ECB in a single day? makes the Fed look like small time? The days of borrowing your way out of recessions are gone, it cannot be done with the figures involved.

A salesman drove into a small town where a circus was in progress. A sign read: 'Dont Miss Big John The Amazing Scotsman'. The sales man bought a ticket and sat down. There, on centre stage, was a table with three walnuts on it. Standing next to it was an old Scotsman. Suddenly the old man lifted his kilt, whipped out a huge willy and smashed all three walnuts with three mighty swings! ... The crowd erupted in applause as the elderly Scot was carried off on the shoulders of the crowd. Ten years later the salesman visited the same little town and saw a faded poster for the same circus and the same sign 'Don't Miss Big John The Amazing Scotsman'. He couldn't believe the old guy was still alive, much less still doing his act! He bought a ticket. Again, the centre ring was illuminated. This time, however, instead of walnuts, three coconuts were placed on the table. The Scotsman stood before them, then suddenly lifted his kilt and shattered the coconuts with three swings of his amazing member. The crowd went wild! Flabbergasted, the salesman requested a meeting with him after the show. 'You're incredible!' he told the Scotsman. 'But I have to know Something. You're older now, why switch from walnuts to coconuts?' 'Well laddie,' said Big John, 'Ma eyes are nae wht they used tae be.'

Its one of those very clever jokes mate, you can alter the last line to suit.

How it is, and unfortunately the only way the system works. Steve Martin confused

The shrinking of the money supply is a depression, less money circulating around the economy, less money available to pay off debt. Hope is at hand though, your Central Bank has been printing new money to replace the lost money in the system, it does this by buying the **** Banks bought and can't sell on. The Central Banks prints new money, gives it to the Banks and at some stage it finds itself into the money supply to us, although by the time it gets to us its been so devalued via inflation we see little benefit from it. Mervs speech a few weeks ago was very concerning, he's been predicting 2% inflation for years and been massively wrong, he then said he is now expecting a rapid fall in inflation possibly well under his target of 2%? A rapid drop in inflation is an extremely bad sign, its a sign of a huge shrinking of the money supply, massive defaults and unemployment will be the norm within weeks. It always make me chuckle when the RPI goes down abit in a month, its reported on the news that the cost of living is dropping/coming down? no its not, its still rising, a drop in the cost of living would be a negative inflation figure (deflation) a terrible outcome.

Monty, its a depression not a recession, although they'll tell you we still have growth so not even recession. From what I see from people I know, Retail is well down, and those selling are discounting (sure sign of a depression) construction/building, although some are flat out, others feck all to do. Banking's doing well, I really should have gone into that years ago, pretty much no lose career.

Bilco, lol, yes, he may well be a **** but what a time to get out, you have to admire him for that. I felt the time was up in 2007 when I heard the introduction of a mortgage you took on for 60 years, your children would take on the final payments? I remember saying to my wife, this is going to end very soon. I'd like to know at what stage the Central Banks actually realised things were heading to disaster? 04/05 I expect, by which time it was too late or many of their friends were making so much money they coudn't/dare stop it.

Yes, but not on the scale we have seen in the past ten years, we've become used to easy money increasing our standard of living, those days are diminishing quickly and we don't like it much, many have no understanding of why.

The standard of living is going backwards by the day, could you have said that in 2007 though? many could of said then, their standard of living has increased dramatically in those ten years. All false though, wiped out in the next 4 years and going back and back all the time, the ability to feel wealthier has been removed, most cannot borrow to increase income today? as they did previously. What you earn is what you earn, you struggle to earn more by borrowing to increase it. The future looks like depression or massive inflation, I can't see much else to be honest, both eyewatering bad outcomes.

Getting back to Monty's original post, There will be no growth, I can see nothing on the horizon to create it non artificially, zilch!! unless there's a sudden world changing invention or discovery. There hasn't been real growth for at least ten years, the only growth we have seen is from the massive rise in money supply world wide artificially creating it. There are estimates that during the 2008 crash, 50 trillion Dollars was wiped off the globe, the Central Banks switched on the presses to put it back in as quickly as possible causing the inflation we see today. If Central Banks hadn't printed money (still doing it by the Billions today) what would the World look like now? doesn't bear thinking about. They did what they had to do quickly to sort the problem (they should have spotted it coming in at least 2005 though), what they should have done soon after was to totally change the system so it wouldn't happen again. They didn't and its happening again, although much much worse. The global monetary system only works with constant growth, when growth disappears, the whole system comes to a grinding halt as we see today. Ever asked yourself why we have to have growth in an economy? why is it so important? why is 2% growth great news when 0.1% is catastrophic? The answer is the way money is created in the first place, nothing more, the system we use has in my view come to the inevitable end of its term (thank God) and we have to turn to a different way before its last breath cripples everything.

Quantitative Easing, some of you may have heard this term on the news over the past three years, many will have switched off as soon as it was mentioned. If you listened though, its sold as asset purchase to boost economic growth, a good thing then I hear you say? Well, what's Quantitative Easing?, its the Central Bank (BoE) creating money via magic or rather pushing a few computer buttons and giving it to the Banks to buy the Gilts they bought previously. The Bank then gets new clean money, and sells the Bonds to the BoE, it also buys up Gilts elsewhere helping government. "For every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction"! they reaction is QE causes the money supply to increase, devaluing all of the money that existed before QE, that money in your wallet or Bank/savings account, little by little worth less than it was before. You see prices rising and are told it is the commodity markets pushing prices up and greedy companies, what it really is, is you now need more units of money to buy the same things you did before, the price has not gone up as such, Central Banks have taxed you secretly via inflation they caused via stimulus.

Greg, as Airwaves said, now is as good a time to buy that digger if you're sure you have work for it. With the endless printing of money going on globally, it may be twice the price this time next year. Policy of the day, if you can't create growth, print, if that doesn't work, print more.

The Banking system was given the green light to loan to everyone, they have created trillions in currency and all that's been created is debt, we've spent all the money, its gone, all that's left are the debts. The figures are totally ridiculous, they will never be paid back, its impossible.

Granted India has a long way to go, but is attempting to head in the right direction, can you honestly say that of the UK ? Next you'l castigate me for daring to criticize the UK, it might serve you well, but for many the future here is fairly bleak. Bleak definitely The Uk is heading towards some huge problems, the only thing providing growth since 2008 has been the devaluation of Sterling, nothing more. Billions and billions pumped into the Banks to generate what? 0.6% of growth for 2011, next year will be terrible, where is future growth ever going to come from? a decade of massive debts to increase income and very little growth generated even in those times.

Bilco, you are joking? the only thing keeping us from a bailout is the markets perception of us, we are lucky to have low Gilt yields, Germany and France have recently seen rises in their bonds, and a recent German Bond sale was a disaster.

Bilco, the recession isn't that bad? we are in a depression not recession, the only reason they are calling it recession is the endless printing of money to hide the fact. I saw a report Merv will go for QE3 possibly as early as January due to the money supply shrinking. You would not believe just how much money has been pumped about since 2008, its in the trillions, all of it debt.

Airwave Banks lend between themselves to stabilise capital ratio's they must keep to. These ratio's in the fractional reserve banking system are pretty low, possibly 5%. The Banks create money for loans and must maintain a ratio of 5% as a safeguard against a run. If there is a run on a Bank, the Bank calls in the Central Bank to raise cash immediately. I have noticed the reduction in withdrawl amounts lately, as well other small changes, they are definitely preparing for somkething? The gap bewtween the rich and poor is now huge, the difference being, as inflation reduces our spending power the rich just get paid more to compensate, you only have to look at CEO wages rises in the past few years and Bank bonuses. Its possible Sterling has been devalued as much as 35% since 2008, this gives the impression to us all that prices are rising, they are not, our money is becoming worth less. Merv has chosen to use high inflation and low interest rates as his plan of attack, we are seeing inflation way too high today (you feel it at 15-20% not 5%) Inflation has been caused by QE and various other stimulus plans over the past three years devaluing the Pound. Bilco, the UK is possibly in the worst position of any G20 countries today, the only thing holding it together is the Gilt yields being so low.