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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » North American pointers for John McDonnell’s growth strateg

The biopic of Steve Jobs had its premiere of at the London Film Festival last weekend. Just days before, the company he founded was in the dock in a New York court – and lost.
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You mean "The Master Strategist", surely?
https://global.handelsblatt.com/edition/291/ressort/politics/article/european-conservatives-face-down-merkel
"“We can no longer allow solidarity to be equivalent to naivety, openness to be equivalent to helplessness, freedom to be equivalent to chaos,” Mr. Tusk said in a speech. “And by that, I am of course referring to the situation on our borders.”
Hilarious.
One thing that the State is not, is entrepreneurial.
British Leyland, Blue Streak, British Steel, the National Coal Board, can all attest to that.
This also allows American companies, subsidised and protected, to become big enough to compete for business worldwide.
Sounds suspiciously like corporate welfare to me. Next they'll be expecting government to prop up failing industries.
Oh..
“These are early days to be writing off Mr McDonnell,” says Keegan. I agree.
...................................................................................................................................
The difficulty for McDonnell isn't that he's being written of. It's far worse - He hasn't even been written in.
The voters will not elect, or indeed vaguely contemplate, another Labour government until they are convinced Labour has a handle on running the economy. That scenario is as far off as I've ever known it .... and that's a mighty long time !!
Although Trudeau should not really give any comfort to Corbyn, since the latter has additional patriotism/national security perception problems that the former doesn't, Trudeau definitely ran to the Left of Ed Miliband.
By contrast to Osborne and the Tories the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) which provided a near $800 billion stimulus package – equal to about 4% of America’s GDP.
And the result?
Since Q2 2009, the UK and US recoveries in GDP have been.... identical.
See Chart 2 here:
http://uk.businessinsider.com/britain-economic-recovery-v-the-united-states-2015-8
FPT
Morris_Dancer said: People take legal highs because they want the effects of the "real" drug but are afraid of the criminal consequences.
It would be much safer all round if the real deal were legal and controlled.
FPT
Casino_Royale said (regarding isam's suggested spoon): I think the packaging needs to show both the number of teaspoons per package and per serving, or if just one then per package.
People also need to know how this translates to the recommended intake (6/7 per day)
Lincoln Chafee drops out of race for Democratic nomination for US presidential election in 2016
People also need to know how this translates to the recommended intake (6/7 per day)
No, keep it simple, otherwise like the existing nutritional info it will be ignored. Just do it on those cans of revolting sugary drinks.
Perhaps Mr Brind's BFF Mr Corbyn should be paying attention then, given he's just appointed a Stalinist as his Comms & Strategy Dir.
We are not good enough at translating that basic research into commercial products but, FWIW, I chair a committee at a university that attempts to do just that. The problem is with the unwillingness of academics to let go/finalise their research (they love to tinker).
This would absolutely not be helped by the government getting involved!
Encourage universities to commercialise more effectively - perhaps give them additional funding on a matched basis or something. But don't try and develop the ideas directly.
The man lied, lied and lied again.
That is not assured. That is lying.
Anything else you try to argue when this sort of thinking is at the heart of your piece is utterly meaningless.
I am sorry - but these Friday postings from Mr Brind are not worth the pixels.
Then it needs to be spoons per package or they'll get round it by saying that a can of fizzy-x contains 2 servings...
People also need to know how this translates to the recommended intake (6/7 per day)
It kind of already does but in a less user friendly way
The 'carbohydrates of which sugars' number divided by 4 is the number of teaspoons of sugar, I think, and this is shown per 100g and per pack on most items
I was talking about soft drinks which would just need one symbol, as would most fast foods
Sticking a hagiography de jour up doesn't do much at all.
http://www.thelocal.no/20151023/islamists-recruiting-at-norway-asylum-centres
This migrant crisis is a recipe for disaster.
On the railways, many millions were wasted on the pointless 1955 Modernisation Plan, and the hurried move from steam to diesel and electric wasted many more.
When such centralised planning fails, it fails disastrously.
What governments are good at wrt innovative industry are:
*) helping define specifications that everyone can work to, rather than wasteful, clashing specifications;
*) aiding research by producing pooled resources (e.g. Diamond Light Source) that individual organisations cannot afford;
*) start prize funds to encourage competitive innovation in directions the governments wishes to head.
Government should also try to encourage innovation through the tax system.
Sadly, it seems McDonnell may be keen on the 'picking winners' approach.
(*) Only the Type-IV Comey being a qualified success, and massive amounts of cash wasted on all the other planes.
I was disappointed too with John McDonnell’s clumsy U-turn over Gimmicky George Osborne’s fiscal charter."
Seriously? Do you write this stuff and not realise how much you come over as a Labour hack?
Anyway, sure, public investment in research is a good thing. So is top quality healthcare, a no waiting lines and a well-equipped army. But the basic tension that conservatives recognise and leftists refuse to, is that there are limited resources for governments to spend. So how would you do this research in a cost efficient manner, and what would you cut to pay for it?
As always, on these critical issues of credibility rather than having a wish list of nice-to-haves, Labour have no answers.
PS Mr Brind, the success of Apple was initially built on ideas from Palo Alto Rank Xerox allegedly. Nothing to do with the public sector.
The directors on the Boards of FTSE 100 companies are similar to senior civil servants in their entrepreneurial capabilities. Greedier but no more able to call the future and pick winners.
True entrepreneurs are in SMEs and Universities. Governments can help them.
Once your position in a market has disappeared (coal, steel, polyester fibre etc) because of differences in cost of raw materials, labour, capital then there is very little that the private or public sector can do to preserve it. Subsidy isn't the answer. Innovation is.
And also hammer them with red tape, high taxation and a command economy to trade with.
Exactly what McDonnell is planning, in other words.
One thing many American companies can enjoy is a de facto local monopoly, simply because the country is so large. Sure there's another furniture store or car dealer in the next town, but the next town is hundreds of miles away.
PS Mr Brind, the success of Apple was initially built on ideas from Palo Alto Rank Xerox allegedly. Nothing to do with the public sector.
It's much more complex than that. If anything, it was based around the computer clubs where enthusiasts got together to build there own hardware - Jobs and Wozniak met at such a club. Where dreamers met talent and money. And yes, it was nothing to do with the public sector.
Apple was just one of hundreds of firms setting up around that time, and many of them, with a little luck or a few different throws of the dice, been Apple. The same can definitely be said for Microsoft.
If the US government had tried to pick companies as a winner, IBM would have been that winner. And that company only made one Don Estridge.
The Government chooses to borrow through the French and Chinese public sector e.g. for Hinkley C and pays the interest through subsidised energy prices over the next 35 years. We believe in transparency in public sector capital investment and will never again support off balance sheet and PFI schemes which disguise the impact on public finances and pushes the cost onto future generations.
Unfortunately the Government is not allowing any amendments to its Fiscal Charter motion so regretfully we have to vote against it in its unmodified and dangerous form."
Not embarrassing at all.
Apple was just one of hundreds of firms setting up around that time, and many of them, with a little luck or a few different throws of the dice, been Apple. The same can definitely be said for Microsoft.
If the US government had tried to pick companies as a winner, IBM would have been that winner. And that company only made one Don Estridge.
Yes I should have narrowed it to "windows". IBM thought itself untouchable when I first worked there in 1977.
It is noteworthy that the motto of the German development bank is "Germany first".
That makes sense re: full time writer/part time editor (or editor of such a small production that the stipend is low).
My objection, I suppose, is whether the state should subsidise what is in most cases a lifestyle decision. I really doubt the only competitive advantage of that author is in writing. I'm sure she could get a higher paying job. I could get most people with her qualifications a job in the book trade paying more than that.
The tried and tested argument is why should someone slugging their guts out doing a lowish paid manual job that they detest, who is ineligible for the tax credits, pay for the life choices of others - whether it is having children they cannot afford to sustain, a life of leisure that they cannot afford to sustain, or a pleasant job that they cannot afford to sustain....
LOL. Howe defeated inflation and laid the basis for the 1980s recovery. Lawson delivered a budget surplus and cut taxes. Both trended the structural deficit down, which is surely the definition of fiscal responsibility. The sole basis for the above quote is one chancellor, nearly half a century ago. Keegan might have mentioned Clarke and Osborne are more pertinant reference points but then again that wouldn't have suited his case would it?
But he didn't
You don't like his columns? You don't have to read them.
In reality:
In an email to Fairfax Media on Thursday, Mr Crosby denied involvement.
"The 'niquab [sic] issue' was something I learnt about when I read the media like most people," he said adding, "I have watched with bemusement suggestions I was running the campaign or somehow on the campaign team. I wasn't".
Mr Crosby said that he had only ever been to Canada once in his life, but didn't specify when.
"I wasn't engaged on the Canadian election and wasn't there during the election campaign. It follows that the strategy wasn't 'mine'," he said.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/lynton-cosby-bemused-at-reports-of-involvement-in-canadian-elections-20151022-gkfp35.html
However, while pure research is certainly a legitimate role for state-sponsored universities / programmes, innovation is a rather different beast as innovation is usually delivered with an aim to some specific end. To what end should the state engage in that research? It's not a black-and-white issue and there will be times when the state should encourage innovation through prizes, commissioning or government-run programmes but in general, picking winners is not something that governments are good at.
But, entrepreneurship really isn't the business of the State.
. @GeorgeOsborne congratulates the Labour leaders sitting next to him for "courage and foresight"
Just as the economy took off.
The US kept going with QE on a vastly greater scale than we did for far longer essentially abusing their position as the reserve currency of the world and making everyone else contribute to their growth. They have actually exploited their shale reserves in a massive way and are very close to becoming a net oil producer again whilst we faff about. They have used restrictions on the export of oil and gas to rig their domestic energy market in such a way that industrial production in the US has become highly competitive again (compared with us killing our steel industry by ecological tariffs) and they still only had the same growth as us.
The correct conclusion to draw is that McDonnell's theory that faster growth driven by higher public spending is somehow the answer to our structural deficit is completely stupid. Not just illiterate and wrong but stupid.
Serious and sustained growth kicked in from 2012 onwards according to that growth. Which is not under Darling.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/10/canada-conservatives-lynton-crosby-election
But it looks as though the story was much exaggerated, and in fact Crosby-Textor were not significantly involved at all.
No doubt, though, the myth will be repeated ad nauseam.
The most important economies for UK trade (China, the USA, Germany and France) are all, to one degree or another, far more protectionist and mercantilist than our own. We are losing out and this is now starting to bite us on the arse.
Inward investment is to be welcomed as long as it is investment (a la Nissan and Honda). When it is disguised asset stripping and simple takeovers with the concomitant export of the nation's wealth and future we should be far less happy about it.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/australian-political-strategist-isnt-the-conservatives-sinister-mastermind/article26764940/
If foreign owned companies are nationalised they're only operating in the UK thanks to full and free competition and not because of being the civil servants pick as its state owned.
If the UK opened its doors to 5 million new residents our economy would grow, if HMG printed 20 squillion pounds our economy would grow. The average person would be no better off, and in fact probably poorer, in both cases.
It really is time this fixation with GDP stopped.
Mark Textor @AGFchairman
That's not a kangaroo. Apparently it's a moose. #canadaelectionsNOT.
12:56 PM - 11 Sep 2015