Interview with the author - part 4

Int: welcome back to the interview, the final part, and sorry if you're tired of commercials for Bitburger and Volkswagen.

OK "innovative solutions"?

me: I am not sure that they are innovative solutions, they are more a repeat of what other people have said. Strange for me to be agreeing with a religious leader, but a few years ago the Archbishop of Canterbury told then UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, summat like there was too much emphasis upon making  money and we needed to get back to "making things"!

I agree entirely. I cannot see why we cannot make DVD players, electric razors and the like in Europe. What was needed as long ago as 1979 was industrial regeneration, we got instead industrial wipeout. The move to a mainly service based industry has been to our detriment, we need to get back to full production of the goods we need in Europe, not imported as cheap junk from China. And we should be dealing totally with countries that are fully fledged democracies, where manufacturing workers have rights and good conditions in which to work.

Int: you have raised the issues the issues on China before, do you want to repeat them?

me: see the article dated August 1st, 2012 called "Trading issues with the Chinese" - it covers all the bases.

Int: won't this drive up the cost of living though?

me: yes, in the short-term. Goods will cost more but more people will be working, so there will be more money in circulation, so more goods will be bought as a result. If you invest particularly in areas where there are serious unemployment problems, it will raise the standard of living very quickly. Less money will be needed from the public purse to maintain them, and other businesses will benefit through making greater sales. They in turn will employ more people usw.

Int: isn't there a risk of inflation though?

me: similar to that caused by gouging in the petroleum industry, one of the biggest cartels going? Maybe, but it is a risk worth taking. There is nowt better a government (or an association of governments like the EU) can do than getting as many people back to meaningful work as possible - and not underemployment NB.

Int: this won't go down well in Asia.

me: in China, maybe, but we have allowed them for years to become the second biggest economy in the world by cheating on all the regulations that apply elsewhere ....

Anyway countries like Thailand and to an extent South Korea, both democracies where workers do have rights, have suffered from the Chinese cheating as well.

And Japan I admire greatly. If we adopted their business model more, rather than the Western business model, where the management and personnel are all in it together and the gain is shared and the differences between top and bottom are nowt like we have, then we would benefit greatly.

Int: but Japan is having economic difficulties itself.

me: yes, partly again down to the Chinese, partly down to its massively overvalued currency (with the world's highest debt to  GDP ratio, there is no way the Yen should be so strong, but this is where we are sadly controlled by international speculators, who are not elected, rather than by the governments we - and in this instance the voters of Japan - put in place. Summat needs to be done to bring international speculators to heel and make them democratically accountable).

Int: and if things don't change?

me: back to the deflationary cycle. People have no money to spend, companies sell less, they employ fewer people, people are sacked, they spend less, and round and round the circle goes. We cannot afford deflation. We cannot afford to allow ourselves to be squeezed like this. We need intelligent solutions, we need innovative ideas (other people can probably do better on this than I can incidentally).

And we need to throw away the Neo-Liberal text book! That is what got us here in the first place!

Int: but you are not optimistic?

me: no! At the moment it is like trying to cure gangrene with a bent plastic spoon. The rot needs stopping effectively, not being allowed to deteriorate and deteriorate further.

Int: it is a bit of a sour note upon which to end.

me: 'fraid so.

Int: thanks anyway, and good luck.

me: the same to you, we are both going to need it.