UK riots were product of consumerism and will hit economy, says City broker
August 22, 2011 No Comment
Analyst’s report points to ‘deeply flawed social ethos’ and calls for a shift of emphasis ‘from material to non-material values’ The recent riots in London and other big cities were the product of consumerism and will have profound impacts on the UK economy, a leading City broker has said. Unusually for City analysts, the report by Tullett Prebon focuses on social and political rather than economic issues. It says: “The consumerist ethos, in which a materialist vision is both peddled and, for the vast majority, simultaneously ruled out by exclusion, has extremely damaging consequences, both social and economic.” The report, by Tim Morgan, the firm’s global head of research, is part of a series in which the broker analyses bigger issues for the UK. Last month, Tullett Prebon issued a report on the UK’s economic situation as part of Morgan’s Project Armageddon. The latest report details recommendations to resolve what it sees as a political and economic malaise: new role models, policies to encourage savings, the channelling of private investment into creating rather than inflating assets, and greater public investment. “We conclude that the rioting reflects a deeply flawed economic and social ethos, one which acts as a common skein running through the themes of generational theft, recklessly borrowed consumption, the breakdown both of top-end accountability and of trust in institutions, and severe failings by governments over more than two decades.” The note pinpoints consumerism as the philosophy behind the riots. “Consumerism is the underlying message of the advertising and marketing industries, and huge budgets are devoted to pushing a message which, updated from Déscartes, is: ‘I buy, therefore I am.’ ” The typical internet user is subjected to one hundred advertisements an hour, the report says, and the underlying message received by many is: “Here’s the ideal. You can’t have it.” That has been accompanied by an inflation of government and private debt, a key theme of Dr Morgan’s other work. “The economy has been subjected to repeated ‘boom and bust’ cycles, above all in property. The overall pattern has been that an over-consuming West has borrowed and spent the surpluses of the increasingly productive and under-consuming East. “The dominant ethos of ‘I buy, therefore I am’ needs to be challenged by a shift of emphasis from material to non-material values. David Cameron’s ‘big society’ project may contribute to the inculcation of more socially-oriented values, but much more will need to be done to challenge the out-of-control consumerist ethos. “The government, too, needs to consume less, and invest more. Government spending has increased by more than 50% in real terms over the last decade, but public investment has languished. Saving needs to be encouraged, and private investment needs to be channelled into asset creation, not asset inflation.” Role models need to change, too: “A young person who tries to become the next Alan Sugar or James Dyson is as likely to fall short as if he or she sets out to become the next global football star. But… failure to become the next Alan Sugar can still leave a person well equipped for a career in management, finance or accountancy. Failure to emulate James Dyson will leave the aspirant with useful engineering or technological skills.” Economics UK riots US economic growth and recession Global economy David Cameron Alex Hawkes guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …UK riots were product of consumerism and will hit economy, says City broker
August 22, 2011 No CommentAnalyst’s report points to ‘deeply flawed social ethos’ and calls for a shift of emphasis ‘from material to non-material values’ The recent riots in London and other big cities were the product of consumerism and will have profound impacts on the UK economy, a leading City broker has said. Unusually for City analysts, the report by Tullett Prebon focuses on social and political rather than economic issues. It says: “The consumerist ethos, in which a materialist vision is both peddled and, for the vast majority, simultaneously ruled out by exclusion, has extremely damaging consequences, both social and economic.” The report, by Tim Morgan, the firm’s global head of research, is part of a series in which the broker analyses bigger issues for the UK. Last month, Tullett Prebon issued a report on the UK’s economic situation as part of Morgan’s Project Armageddon. The latest report details recommendations to resolve what it sees as a political and economic malaise: new role models, policies to encourage savings, the channelling of private investment into creating rather than inflating assets, and greater public investment. “We conclude that the rioting reflects a deeply flawed economic and social ethos, one which acts as a common skein running through the themes of generational theft, recklessly borrowed consumption, the breakdown both of top-end accountability and of trust in institutions, and severe failings by governments over more than two decades.” The note pinpoints consumerism as the philosophy behind the riots. “Consumerism is the underlying message of the advertising and marketing industries, and huge budgets are devoted to pushing a message which, updated from Déscartes, is: ‘I buy, therefore I am.’ ” The typical internet user is subjected to one hundred advertisements an hour, the report says, and the underlying message received by many is: “Here’s the ideal. You can’t have it.” That has been accompanied by an inflation of government and private debt, a key theme of Dr Morgan’s other work. “The economy has been subjected to repeated ‘boom and bust’ cycles, above all in property. The overall pattern has been that an over-consuming West has borrowed and spent the surpluses of the increasingly productive and under-consuming East. “The dominant ethos of ‘I buy, therefore I am’ needs to be challenged by a shift of emphasis from material to non-material values. David Cameron’s ‘big society’ project may contribute to the inculcation of more socially-oriented values, but much more will need to be done to challenge the out-of-control consumerist ethos. “The government, too, needs to consume less, and invest more. Government spending has increased by more than 50% in real terms over the last decade, but public investment has languished. Saving needs to be encouraged, and private investment needs to be channelled into asset creation, not asset inflation.” Role models need to change, too: “A young person who tries to become the next Alan Sugar or James Dyson is as likely to fall short as if he or she sets out to become the next global football star. But… failure to become the next Alan Sugar can still leave a person well equipped for a career in management, finance or accountancy. Failure to emulate James Dyson will leave the aspirant with useful engineering or technological skills.” Economics UK riots US economic growth and recession Global economy David Cameron Alex Hawkes guardian.co.uk
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Deputy prime minister argues Syrian president is as ‘irrelevant’ to the country’s future as Muammar Gaddafi is to Libya’s Follow all the latest developments in the Middle East live blog The deputy prime minister has said Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, is as “irrelevant” to the country’s future as Colonel Gaddafi is to Libya. In a speech on Monday afternoon setting out how he believed the UK should support developments in the Middle East, Nick Clegg issued tough words for leaders he acknowledged the west had once been wrong to support but should now turn their backs on. Echoing new tough language from the US president, Barack Obama, towards Assad, Clegg said: “For the sake of the Syrian people, it’s time for Assad to go. He is as irrelevant to Syria’s future as Gaddafi is to Libya’s.” He said while some regimes in north Africa and the Middle East had fallen, there remained urgent need for reform in Bahrain, while Yemen suffered a stalemate and Syria was in the grip of a single family which “continues to wage war on an entire nation”. “Different states were always going to move at a different pace, and in different ways. Oppressive regimes were never going to tumble like dominoes. Nor were they going to change their ways overnight,” said the deputy prime minister. “The picture is very mixed and there is uncertainty over where things will go next.” Instead the UK stood “shoulder-to-shoulder” with protesters in all Arab countries: “We believe in the same things these activists are fighting for: freedom, self-determination, human rights, the chance for people who work hard to succeed.” He was speaking as events moved rapidly in Libya with the prime minister returning from his holiday to monitor the rebels’ advances on Tripoli. Clegg suggested the international community would be unlikely to unite to put together another UN resolution that would see military action to remove the Assads from power in Syria but welcomed the progress made through the EU to tighten sanctions on the regime. Clegg was speaking very shortly after David Cameron made his own statement on developments in Libya, in which he refrained from triumphalism and emphasised how fragile he still believed the situation in Libya to be. Clegg said the UK “should learn the lessons from Iraq” and that the rebels’ advance into Tripoli was merely the beginning. “Today’s scenes should give heart to all of those struggling for their freedom … [But] Gaddafi’s departure will not be the end. It will be the beginning and we should not underestimate the challenges ahead,” he said. “The advances made by the Free Libya Forces in Tripoli would have been unthinkable just a few months ago. Unimaginable, even, for the generations of young Libyans who have never known a world without Gaddafi. Now that world is within their reach. “The momentum for change is breathtaking and, for the cynics who said change wasn’t possible, who had written off the Libyan uprising, written off the Arab spring, clearly, they were wrong.” He added: “The decision to support military intervention in Libya was not one the UK took lightly. Particularly not by those of us who opposed the invasion of Iraq. “We went to Libya with a clear humanitarian mandate. And tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of lives have been saved since. But, we also knew that inaction would have threatened the Arab spring as a whole. “And now, as the colonel’s fate closes in on him, what message does that send to other dictators who ignore their people’s demands?” Bashar Al-Assad Syria Middle East Nick Clegg Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi Libya Foreign policy Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
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Deputy prime minister argues Syrian president is as ‘irrelevant’ to the country’s future as Muammar Gaddafi is to Libya’s Follow all the latest developments in the Middle East live blog The deputy prime minister has said Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, is as “irrelevant” to the country’s future as Colonel Gaddafi is to Libya. In a speech on Monday afternoon setting out how he believed the UK should support developments in the Middle East, Nick Clegg issued tough words for leaders he acknowledged the west had once been wrong to support but should now turn their backs on. Echoing new tough language from the US president, Barack Obama, towards Assad, Clegg said: “For the sake of the Syrian people, it’s time for Assad to go. He is as irrelevant to Syria’s future as Gaddafi is to Libya’s.” He said while some regimes in north Africa and the Middle East had fallen, there remained urgent need for reform in Bahrain, while Yemen suffered a stalemate and Syria was in the grip of a single family which “continues to wage war on an entire nation”. “Different states were always going to move at a different pace, and in different ways. Oppressive regimes were never going to tumble like dominoes. Nor were they going to change their ways overnight,” said the deputy prime minister. “The picture is very mixed and there is uncertainty over where things will go next.” Instead the UK stood “shoulder-to-shoulder” with protesters in all Arab countries: “We believe in the same things these activists are fighting for: freedom, self-determination, human rights, the chance for people who work hard to succeed.” He was speaking as events moved rapidly in Libya with the prime minister returning from his holiday to monitor the rebels’ advances on Tripoli. Clegg suggested the international community would be unlikely to unite to put together another UN resolution that would see military action to remove the Assads from power in Syria but welcomed the progress made through the EU to tighten sanctions on the regime. Clegg was speaking very shortly after David Cameron made his own statement on developments in Libya, in which he refrained from triumphalism and emphasised how fragile he still believed the situation in Libya to be. Clegg said the UK “should learn the lessons from Iraq” and that the rebels’ advance into Tripoli was merely the beginning. “Today’s scenes should give heart to all of those struggling for their freedom … [But] Gaddafi’s departure will not be the end. It will be the beginning and we should not underestimate the challenges ahead,” he said. “The advances made by the Free Libya Forces in Tripoli would have been unthinkable just a few months ago. Unimaginable, even, for the generations of young Libyans who have never known a world without Gaddafi. Now that world is within their reach. “The momentum for change is breathtaking and, for the cynics who said change wasn’t possible, who had written off the Libyan uprising, written off the Arab spring, clearly, they were wrong.” He added: “The decision to support military intervention in Libya was not one the UK took lightly. Particularly not by those of us who opposed the invasion of Iraq. “We went to Libya with a clear humanitarian mandate. And tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of lives have been saved since. But, we also knew that inaction would have threatened the Arab spring as a whole. “And now, as the colonel’s fate closes in on him, what message does that send to other dictators who ignore their people’s demands?” Bashar Al-Assad Syria Middle East Nick Clegg Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi Libya Foreign policy Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
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‘The Glee Project’ finale ends first season with a twist; ‘The Help’ sweeps top spot at the box office; Kim Kardashian ties the knot to Kris Humphries. (Aug. 22)
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‘The Help’ tops the box office in its second week out as new movies fail to find an audience. (Aug. 22)
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‘The Help’ tops the box office in its second week out as new movies fail to find an audience. (Aug. 22)
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Eleven-year-old Bailee Madison talks about her starring role in Guillermo del Toro’s gothic thriller ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.’ (Aug. 22)
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Marie Antoinette, the glamorous last queen of France, was notorious for many things–most of which she never did or said. Because history is written by the winners and she was the French Revolution’s greatest victim, much of the information handed down about her lies somewhere between gross exaggeration and outright lies. Many people think she just went from heedless to headless, a bubble-headed spendthrift who was responsible for the revolution. So here are seven busted myths about the woman who became Marie Antoinette and the truth behind the propaganda. Want more on Marie Antoinette? Check out my book “Becoming Marie Antoinette.”
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Marie Antoinette, the glamorous last queen of France, was notorious for many things–most of which she never did or said. Because history is written by the winners and she was the French Revolution’s greatest victim, much of the information handed down about her lies somewhere between gross exaggeration and outright lies. Many people think she just went from heedless to headless, a bubble-headed spendthrift who was responsible for the revolution. So here are seven busted myths about the woman who became Marie Antoinette and the truth behind the propaganda. Want more on Marie Antoinette? Check out my book “Becoming Marie Antoinette.”
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