Kev, I agree that R&D is the motor of development. I trust we also agree that the Western world these past 60-70 years has been the source of most R&D, and its efficient application (think planes, computers, medicine).

This is mostly due to the freedom to profit from one’s work, and increasing integration between countries resulting in greater stability. This allows one to focus on one’s research and/or company (rather than planning on escaping a country’s regime / tax authorities / collapsing currency) and benefit from efficiency (avoiding having to deal in/with dozens of currencies, air traffic control authorities, tax authorities, electrical regulations, health guidelines, etc).

I hope you appreciate that doctors, engineers, operational managers and others (even finance people) need to collaborate ever increasingly – both within their fields and across different fields.

Politicians need to simplify the working environment, strengthen institutions, and (as you rightly said) restore trust. Politicians who give up on the big picture (the EU) because it’s easier to focus on their own country (blaming il-barranin u ‘l-barunijiet internazzjonali) will hopefully be rejected by each EU country’s electorate.

By the way, if you were exposed to the finance world just a fraction of your exposure to the political world, then I’m sure you’d see conspiracy theories for what they are: a simplistic inflation of real-world conspiracies (RWC).

RWC include castration of regulatory bodies by commercial companies (vide oil companies and environmental agencies, banks and Glass Seagall repeal, etc.), suppression of media by political classes (vide football & soap operas and the all-white ’80s Brazil government), etc. These are always temporary due to human nature being what it is, such that the conspirators start in-fighting, or the public wisens up.

To end on a light note (or to try pull wool over your eyes, your pick!), go through the trivia in the examples listed in
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories?from=Main.ConspiracyTheory

Hmm, it seems we’re closer than we thought. I agree that R&D is the motor of development.

I trust we also agree that the Western world these past 60-70 years has been the source of most R&D, and its efficient application (think planes, computers, medicine).

This is mostly due to the freedom to profit from one’s work, and increasing integration between countries resulting in greater stability. This allows one to focus on one’s research and/or company (rather than planning on escaping a country’s regime / tax authorities / collapsing currency) and benefit from efficiency (avoiding having to deal in/with dozens of currencies, air traffic control authorities, tax authorities, electrical regulations, health guidelines, etc).

I hope you appreciate that doctors, engineers, operational managers and others (even finance people) need to collaborate ever increasingly – both within their fields and across different fields.

Politicians need to simplify the working environment, strengthen institutions, and (as you rightly said) restore trust. Politicians who give up on the big picture (the EU) because it’s easier to focus on their own country (blaming il-barranin u ‘l-barunijiet internazzjonali) will hopefully be rejected by each EU country’s electorate.

By the way, if you were exposed to the finance world just a fraction of your exposure to the political world, then I’m sure you’d see all your CT for what they are: a simplistic inflation of real-world conspiracies (RWC).

RWC include castration of regulatory bodies by commercial companies (vide oil companies and environmental agencies, banks and Glass Seagall repeal), suppression of media by political classes (vide football & soap operas and the all-white ’80s Brazil government), etc. These are always temporary due to human nature being what it is, such that the conspirators start in-fighting, or the public wisens up.

To end on a light note (or to try pull wool over your eyes, your pick!)…
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories?from=Main.ConspiracyTheory

I thought you had taken up Purdie’s challenge, Homer. Sadly, no reply from you either. Indeed, you betray your knowledge by saying nothing.

CT is a tool for the imbecile to wave off an argument he’s clueless about. Trust is your only hope, Homer. But trust comes with a price.

The ‘wealth’ you see, by the way, is the result of technology and, especially in the past four decades, computerisation, which multiplied production to extents previously unheard of.

By the way, I consider myself a poltiical activist, not a financial guru ike yourself. But I do save my money wisely, and even at times invest it soundly, but then you wouldn’t be able to distinguish between ‘saving’ and ‘investing’ since you don’t believe in theories that prove conspiracy.

Kev clearly knows the definition of many economic terms & acronyms, but understands them not.

If kev were a successful person in the world of finance, he’d have the capacity to step back and see the big picture: which is simply that no other significant region of the world can boast of living standards anywhere near those of the Western world these past 60-70 years.

Is the region today possibly facing a great depression? Yes. Are the counter-measures being adopted defective? Yes. However, unfortunately for kev and others of his ilk, this does not validate conspiracy theories (“CT”) – though now they are more likely to attract attention (naturally from idiots, or people who are in distress and will grasp at straws).

The vast majority of sane people will still recognise CT – which is why kev & co. will rarely find the capital to back their silliness (hence their bitterness).

Kev claims foresight (“I warned you!” he says), but a broken watch is right at least twice a day – and ‘foresight’ without timing is worth zilch. Ditto re investment without timing. Pray kev, how much money did you make thanks to your excellent forecasting skills?

The euro, as we know it, is doomed to failure. It was doomed ab initio.

It was not conceived on a sound financial basis, but was designed by Europoliticians as a political exercise. A single currency with seventeen ministers of finance, seventeen different national work ethics, seventeen different levels of tax compliance, seventeen too many different things to mention, will never work.

It’s only too late the day after the elections. Between now and then there is enough time for the so labeled ‘floating voters’, ‘ex-PNs’ and ‘disgruntled Nationalists’ to come to their senses and compare the peace of mind of the last decade to the ‘unknown’, or rather the ‘expected catastrophe’ should Labour be elected.

Dreadful thought, let alone the dire situation Malta will go through should the nightmare come true.

I had warned you, in 2008, that this “financial crisis” is not another one of those temporal “business cycles” but a foreseen protracted COLLAPSE for which we will pay dearly.

‘Protracted’ because they are solving a Keynesian problem with Keynsianism. You cannot solve a debt crisis by monetizing more debt. That should be clear even to oblivious morons.

I had told you then that the dollar will eventually collapse (at the expense of the American taxpayer) and that they will save the euro at our expense (saving a fiat currency is not that difficult when one considers that the Soviets kept the zombie rouble alive for over 70 years). We see today (well, you see nothing) the EU’s power grab over national budgets and the collapse of debt-enslaved nation states.

Four years have passed since you’ve been warned, but what have you gained? You’re still nowhere near understanding the causes of the crisis because you’ve been reading the same swill. And for the past four years you’ve been repeating the same dishwashing bull as if a joke becomes funnier with constant repetition.

It is you who have nothing to say, Purdie, and it is you that yearns for my nuggets. Sadly for you, I don’t waste time on morons, which is why links (usually for dummies) is all you’ll get from me. You can read them and learn something, or you can stick to your uninspiring drivel which stands for ‘being funny’.

But let me ask you a question. Forget the bailouts, the ESM, the EFSF, the fiscal treaty, and let’s focus on the LTROs (that’s Long Term Refinancing Operations) that the ECB makes available to banks from time to time – in other words cheap loans (at 1%) for the crony banks to re-lend at 4, 5, 6% or more to bankrupt states. There were so far two rounds of LTROs totalling over €2 trillion. Tell me, Purdie, where did that money come from? Why is there never a shortage of money to borrow (yet of course always a shortage of money for interest)?

Give me an intelligent answer and I’ll respect you a notch higher than I respect ciccio2012.

@Angus – what is unfortunate is that he will be dragging us with him.

‘The mystery surrounding Homo Riduculus, is how he presented himself perfectly conserved upon discovery.

Traces of colour on his hair denote attention to appearance, a first in such remote times, as do the perfectly manicured teeth. The skin, unusually supple, indicates Jeffrey to be a young man. A parchment, aligned to his lower back, could denote noble descent.

This find also reignites hope into the discovery of the legendary, albeit elusive, elixir, said to exist in the valleys in the north of the main island, Malta.’

In English the saying goes: If the cap fits, wear it.