Pound up the spout.

Looking at the UK economy, I don't think I'm the only one who's completely agog at our government trying to tell us that borrowing money is the answer to our debt problems. 

Financial services has been the backbone of the British economy for a fair while now. It's sad that it has taken problems of this magnitude to bring to people's attention that real economic prosperity is based on production and not on shuffling paper. Every true economic powerhouse, be it China, Taiwan, Japan or others has become so on the back of production. As soon as production dies, so does the economy.

Might I suggest big tax cuts on all companies that generate the majority of their revenue from exporting goods. We need money coming in to the UK from abroad, not the government spending money that's already in the UK. 

The Iranian Christmas Message.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Christmas message yesterday really caught my attention. 

The thing that struck me most was, while there were a moderate number of oblique references to Middle Eastern grievances with the western world, actual recrimination was entirely absent.

His points on the prophets being forgotten, speaking as a person not committed to a religion, made me think about their message in general and it's certainly true to say, putting religion aside, that without doubt our economic problems would not be what they were if usury hadn't been embraced with such abandon. Sadly, while many could see the pitfalls years ago, those in a position to do anything about it were benefitting from it too much to have the will to address the issues that now leave us in such a mess. He is also correct that an absence of trust, honour and a lack of tolerance also accounts for much of the world's problems, both socially and with regard to international security. I've no intention of going to a mosque or a church tomorrow or any time soon, but I've long believed that we could all benefit if people would only start applying these values in their lives, in business and in diplomacy.

The most exciting part of the speech came right at the start, however, with his congratulations to all of the Abrahamic faiths. Implicit in that is a gesture of good will to the Jewish religion as well as Christianity and Islam. Could an Iranian acceptance of Israel be in the offing? If that gesture came to pass then I think that the Western world would have to respond by starting to address the grievances of the Arab world.

The coming year has been looking like a bleak prospect for some time, but I'm beginning to think that there may be hope for 2009 yet! ;-)