Unemployment hits 1.82 million

As expected, unemployment for the three months to September has risen above the 1.8 million mark.  The figures just released by the Office for National Statistics put it at 1.82 million - the highest level for 11 years.  The expectation now - as Ken Clarke says - is that it will rise steeply in the New Year, as the recession bites deeper and companies undertake post-Christmas lay-offs.

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The worst of the markets

Ever wondered which of the world’s stock markets has fared the worst during the recent financial turmoil? Thanks to Stan Secrieru wonder no more. The winner is Russia (cue sounds of Russian national anthem). Helped by a brutal war, market-rattling commentary by Prime Minister Putin and a belligerent state-of-the-union address by President Medvedev, Russia’s RTS fell by 68 percent.

A close second is China, whose dollar-packed treasury can do little to keep up China’s economic growth if Western demand slumps. Beijing’s leaders can take comfort in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, which “only” saw a 49% drop.

In...

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Did Roosevelt prolong the Great Depression?

Well, yes, it seems that at least some of his actions did.

Which is something that we really rather want to take note of. The two sets of policies which did indeed make things worse were his agricultural and industrial policies. And as people are now insisting that we need to have an industrial policy to get us out of our present troubles (that idea of building a green energy system is indeed an industrial policy) perhaps we might learn the lesson?

Roosevelt's interventionism makes him a hero to many Statists. But even that doesn't mean that we have to repeat his mistakes.

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This isn't terribly reassuring

Talking about Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway and derivatives:

Second, it helps that Berkshire doesn’t borrow much. The company doesn’t have to post collateral on its derivative positions – provided, among other things, it doesn’t lose its strong credit rating. With little leverage, there’s enough of a buffer that even much bigger paper losses won’t trigger that. American International Group, for one, found out the hard way that a vulnerable credit rating plus huge mark-to-market losses can quickly lead to downgrades and a life-threatening outflow of hard cash.

I'm afraid I just don't find that very reassuring. As the...

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Give me your money!

Alan Rusbridger over at The Guardian talks about how local newspapers might benefit from an injection of public funds.

Well, yes, I'm sure that many businesses would like to have free money flow their way.

But with ITV threatening to bow out gracefully from the scene two new words enter the debate: public money. Is there any reason why local newspapers - whether in print, on broadband or broadcast - shouldn't compete with the broadcasters for some form of subsidy in return for providing the public service of keeping a community informed about itself?

If you had asked...

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