London's Burning (& Birmingham, Leeds, Croydon...)

[mooncliff]

Re: London's Burning (& Birmingham, Leeds, Croydon...)

Titled “Austerity and Anarchy: Budget Cuts and Social Unrest in Europe, 1919-2009,” the study assembled masses of data on historic protests, riots, assassinations and revolutions, and uncovered what the authors called “a clear positive correlation between fiscal retrenchment and instability.”

Economic downturns in themselves are not enough to spark riots, they found. The tinder box is government fiscal retrenchment, and its relation to social eruption is causal. “Once you cut expenditure by more than 2 per cent of GDP, instability increases rapidly in all dimensions, and especially in terms of riots and demonstrations,” Prof. Voth wrote on his blog this week

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...0/?from=sec431

[oddlots]

Re: London's Burning (& Birmingham, Leeds, Croydon...)

In my youth, we had many in our local communities that had made a great success of themselves and were clearly visible in each and EVERY community. Today, our High Streets are all the same and all those "Shopkeepers" have been assimilated into a "Tesco" or a "Boots". Yes some are franchises; but by far the majority can see no clear, well defined future for themselves nor for anyone surrounding them.

I think you've hit on a key element of the problem here. When I visit England every high-street is the same. Same collection of Boots, Tesco... etc. If you look at it from an ecological angle it's like some horrid weed that has crowded out any local talent or commitment. It's similar in North America with Big Box retail. There are entire town centres in my neck of the woods that are vacant, which kind of makes the average English high-street look like an improvement... And I really think it's a symptom of a finance-centred economy. Every asset has been levered up to the point that the only players still in the game are those with the scale and corporate depth to off-set the bidded-up prices (i.e., rents), i.e., large conglomerates.

But still somehow I think there's something about the "backwardness" of Canadian banking that allows for small scale entrepreneurship to thrive still. As an odd example, Toronto is a magnet for French bakers by some odd twist of fate. The city is awash with disgruntled, small-scale French entrepreneurs.

I wonder what they see?

[makimanos]

Re: London's Burning (& Birmingham, Leeds, Croydon...)

The danger is that the crisis affects heavily the middle class. And only the middle class can start a revolution since police and army belong to them. It is obvious that the mutiny is a class warfare.We have to wait.

[Chris Coles]

Re: London's Burning (& Birmingham, Leeds, Croydon...)

The city is awash with disgruntled, small-scale French entrepreneurs.

I wonder what they see?

The chance to better themselves from their own efforts and remain free. It is freedom that is the most important aspect.

Until you live a lifetime, as I have, within a feudal economy, you will not be able to see the long term effects. I well remember a conversation at breakfast in the Lasham Gliding Club restaurant where a wealthier member came out with the standard mantra: "everyone has choices, some people just made the wrong ones". By making such a statement, they can ignore their own refusal to understand the deep seated problem of a lack of access to the equity capital to create new jobs where you remain free.

Modern FIRE economic models all result in immediate loss of freedom to gain access to capital. You simply cannot gain access to capital in any form without being enslaved in one form or another. The end result is an economy centered upon Mergers and Acquisition, (M&A) where all new business initiatives are ALWAYS gathered into a larger existing company or other source of funding. No one is left free to make their own way.

Human beings always wish to be free spirits. Modern FIRE economies totally suppress that freedom.

[touchring]

Re: London's Burning (& Birmingham, Leeds, Croydon...)

The chance to better themselves from their own efforts and remain free. It is freedom that is the most important aspect.

Until you live a lifetime, as I have, within a feudal economy, you will not be able to see the long term effects. I well remember a conversation at breakfast in the Lasham Gliding Club restaurant where a wealthier member came out with the standard mantra: "everyone has choices, some people just made the wrong ones". By making such a statement, they can ignore their own refusal to understand the deep seated problem of a lack of access to the equity capital to create new jobs where you remain free.

This lack of freedom is not a problem for as long as you have jobs. But when that job goes, the people will riot. London has started to riot. America will be next. Will what happen in Europe 1930s repeat itself? That is Karma, what goes round, comes round.

[Chris Coles]

Re: London's Burning (& Birmingham, Leeds, Croydon...)

Yes, I totally agree. except for the BIG smile!!!

[don]

Re: London's Burning (& Birmingham, Leeds, Croydon...)

As the French Revolution played itself out, the possible outcomes were three:

Restore the Monarchy (rule by birthright)

Succeed in a new Republican state (unfettered capitalism)

Be led by a Despot (Napoleon)

Unrest in Paris was endemic throughout the process.

[Starving Steve]

Re: London's Burning (& Birmingham, Leeds, Croydon...)

To quote Oddlots' post above: "Every asset has been levered up to the point that the only players still in the game are those with the scale and corporate depth to off-set the bidded-up prices ( i.e., rents ), i.e., large conglomerates."

Starving Steve believes that high-density city planning is the reason for bid-up rents. When the dreaded "urban sprawl" is forbidden and urban development has occur on the same land as before, naturally that land is bid-up. Naturally, only the large conglomerates can afford to do business.

But one can not even speak about this in the planning circles of to-day's arrogant, elitist, politically-correct, and rather corporate-friendly urban and regional planning departments. In these planning circles, everything is seen through the prism of "preventing urban sprawl", habitat preservation, killing the car, killing development, making the planning process as cumbersome as possible, destroying small business, and in fact destroying individual freedom and initiative.

LEAN FORWARD.