My 2 cents:Wanted: Political Leader with some financial sense!

Well we are now just 32 days away from Christmas and with the current economic climate that seems more like a nightmare than something to be happy about.

Although i know the economic statistics dont full you with cheer but what really depresses me are the current crop of political leaders oh dont think i beating up gocernment i dont think any of the main opposition partes around the world are much better either.

Consumer confidence is at rock bottom and this is why i think we need real political leadership. If we had a leader who just stood up and said A,B and C went wrong so we are going to do D,E and F to fix the problem that would help solve the problem.

This i know is a very simplistic way of looking at the crisis but our main problem is people are scared to spend. if the leaders of the world were able to get ahead of events people would be abit more confident which would lead to them spending abit more in the shops.

Whatever comes from this crisis im sure it wont be a leader. We are currently seeing leaders who are more interested in claiming credit for solving the financial crisis than actually doing something big to get us out of it.

UK Inflation rate falls

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure dropped to 4.5% from 5.2% in September.

Well some good news today. A drop in inflation due to food and oil prices falling has resulted in todays fall.

BUT this has its downsides, Low inflation is a very good thing but deflation is can do great harm to the economy.

Gordon Brown has warned about this very problem and he is likely to annouce some increases in spending and small tax cuts in order to stop this problem of de-flation.

Quebec Votes- December 8th 2008

Quebec Premier Jean Charest called an early election in Quebec not long ago. In 2007 his Liberal party lost there majority in the national assembly and now with his rising popularity he is rolling the dice and going to the province in the hope he will achieve a majority.

What interests me about this election is not who will win, i think its pretty much accepted that the Liberals will come out on top but the battle for second place is fierce. For those of you who don't follow Quebec politics, in 2007 the Parti Quebecois was pushed into third place by the ADQ.

This event sent shock waves throughout Quebec and Canada, the status quo had be ripped up no longer was Quebec a two party system there was a new gang in town ready to focus on others issues instead of just the constitution and separation.

Now, politics is a funny business because the ADQs support evaporated since the 2007 election. In this Minority government the ADQ has been outflanked by both the Liberals and the PQ. The Liberals seem more effective in government and the PQ are seen as more effective in opposing the government. Quebec politics has never been dull, some of Canada's biggest political figures have come from this fine province and just when Canadians thought sovereignty was off the agenda, Quebecers throw a new reason to be captivated on to the fire.

Mr Charest will probably win this battle but who will be on the opposite of the battlefield at the next election.

CitiGroup to cut 75,000 jobs.

Source BBC

It has been annouced that CitiGroup will slash 75,000 Jobs.

Citigroup has lost more than $20bn in the past year because of the global financial crisis.

More bad news from the banking sector. Can the situation get any worse.

New Gadgets on the blog

We now have a Gadget ill tell you the current price of Crude oil. Thats on our side bar

Also at the bootm of the Blog we have a news ticker giving you the most up to date headlines from CNN.

We also have the latest news from the Canadian Broadcastiong Corporation, on our side bar.

I will keep looking for more ways to improve the blog, please feel free to send any comments of suggestions to me.

Oil Prices and Currency values for Today.

As of 10.13am BST-5.13am EST

Crude oil- $56.09 (-0.95)

1 Euro- 85pence (GBP)

1 GBP- 1.17 (Eur)

1 GBP-$1.47 (USD)

1 Euro-$1.25 (USD)

My 2 cents: Global Economic Meltdown

Call in the Calvary we now have another victim of the Global meltdown, Japan the worlds second largest economy is now in recession.

This news is not surprising but it gives us cause for concern, i am starting to wonder if there is anyway way out of this recession.

We see our world leaders running around Washington, slamming big bonuses and corperate greed all the while before this crisis came about these same world leaders were happy to allow these Bankers to lend sub prime mortgages to people who cannot possibly pay them back.

These are uncertain times, we have in the USA a president with one foot out the door along with unemployment in the UK projected to reach 3 Million by 2010. I honestly doubt the capacity of our current crop of leaders to deal with this crisis effectively.

The simple fact is the boom times we have all enjoyed for the past decade is now over, so we as a collective people must now tighten our belts and realise that this recession will be long and tough, it will certainly be a very dull, cold winter this year.

My 2 cents: Iraq war annoucement.

Todays annoucment about withdrawing troops from Iraq by December 2011 is a welcome development. Barack Obama must be sitting back with a sense of satisfaction for two reasons.

First off, this war now has an exit strategy and he know that when he goes for his second term this wont be an issue. Secondly this vindicates what he has been saying all along that there should be a timetable for withdrawal funny how a man who most of his detractors labelled as not qualified for the job has got another war strategy right.

BUT i am not surprised, this terrible war has seen the establishment who are meant to know more about issues of war and peace than the rest of us get it terribly wrong. It is these Neo-cons who labelled anti war protestors as anti-american or liberal nutjobs who are now having to eat there words.

This is not an occassion for an "I told you so" because with so much death for so little reward there is nothing to be smug about.

I will finish with this thought, The annoucment today symbolises the past 8 years of failure as well as sheer incompetence. I speak as somebody who liked Bush and like many others i was let down by his broken promises, I watched W. over the weekend and it struck me when Bush writes his biography he should call it "The West Wing in wonderland"

French Socialist Party Fail to agree on a leader

The French Socialist Party congress today failed to agree on a new First Secretary.

This means that a vote of all the party members will take place on Thursday.

The Contest is a three way between- Former Presidential candidate Segolene Royal, Lille Mayor Martine Aubry and Euro MEP Benoit Hamon.

My 2 cents: I think Royal will probably win the vote but you really have to ask yourself why would you want the job. This party is deeply divided, many in the party dislike Royal which could make it hard for her to modernise the party.

Many in the Socialist party believe that Royal had her chance last year and lost so she should now step aside but Royal has huge support throughout the party and she is betting that she can win this contest.

I think whoever wins on Thursday needs to address the greater problem with the European left. For years most leftist parties in Europe have struggled to deal with Globalisation and this has in turn lead them to years in the wilderness.

The current economic environment should be a leftists dream with the failure of the markets the Socialist party should be miles ahead of its UMP rivals in the polls but the Socialists are more focused on there own infighting than the problems facing the French people.

My 2 cents: Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State?

Lets recap 6 Months Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were clawing each others eyes out for the Democratic nomination for President.

She said he wasn't qualified to answer that phone call at 3 am and he said that she was the old guard and it was time for new ideas.

We now learn that President-Elect Obama is considering Senator Clinton for Secretary of State.

This is were my political senses start tingling, how can Obama possibly pick a person who openly wants his job. It is said never hire somebody you cannot fire and Mr President Elect you cannot fire Senator Clinton. Now i am not questioning Clinton ability which is substantial but how can she world under a president who she said was not qualified to do the job.

I appreciate Barack Obama has pick a mixture of people for his cabinet, he cannot just pick his own people but i do remember that if you voted Obama you were told you would get Change. I am starting to get a little a bit worried that Obama is forgetting the main argument that got him elected.

So far we have Joe Biden as VP- 6 term Senator

Hillary Clinton as a possible Secretary of State- been around since the Clinton administration

Robert Gates Possibly staying on as Defense Secretary- Bush administration.

Hmmmm- so were is this change we have spent the past 2 years hearing about. I do appreciate Obama has to work with others but he got 66 million votes so on there behalf i ask were is the Change. The only bit of Change i have seen so far from Obama is the new puppy he is bringing to the White House so i suppose that's the Change We Can Believe in.

Programmes Of Note.

On the Australian Broadcasting Network on Monday 17th November at 8.30pm AEDT an interview with Former Prime Minister John Howard and other cabinet colleagues.

Here is a preview video

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PFnFEF_5lbo

Also

On RTE-Ireland the final part of a documentary about Former Taoiseach (PM) Bertie Ahern is on at 9.35pm BST

More information can be found at this page

http://www.rte.ie/tv/bertie/prog3.html

My 2 Cents:Liberal Party of Canada Leadership race.

Well asuming the Liberals continue with there Francophone-Anglophone tradition of picking a leader then we will be looking at an Anglophone. My 2 cents This Liberal race i think wont do a great deal more than the last one. The Liberals in my mind still have there old 1990s mindset of we are born to govern BUT i dont know if they got the memo that there is a united conservative movement these days.

My money is on a Ignatieff/Rae showdown at the convention and i honestly wouldnt know who to pick between the two of the them, what will be more interesting is who will play the Gerard Kennedy role this time of king maker, i think the race for that position will probably be more exciting than the acutal leadership race.

One thing is for sure the recent election in Canada showed the world that the Liberals can be beaten and any new Liberal leader must realise that for the time being Conservatism in Canada isnt going away.

Welcome-Welkom -Bienvenue-Willkommen-Willkommen

Welcome all to the World Political Forum.

I will be posting my views on world political events on this blog.

Please feel free to comment on any issues raised in the blog.