Just between ourselves.....

In reviewing the current and ever changing financial markets it is difficult not to bring to mind the remark of John Maynard Keynes when he was askedin 1932 if there were any precedent for what had happened to the world’s economy. He replied , "Yes, it lasted four hundred years and was called the Dark Ages."

Wealth cannot be spread before it is created. The increasingly academic views that previal have confused the notion of the figures attached to the Gross National product with national wealth.

Certainly in the UK, but also in the US a larger and larger share of what is calculated and called the Gross National Product is the product , not of labour, of industry, of endeavour but of actuarial artifice.

We have sat back comfortably transferring wealth making activities either by despatching them overseas, or inviting investment within our shores.

Academics believe that industrious Asia needs the consumer markets of the EU and the US to sustain their burgeoning growth. The fail - or worse still - refuse to see the immense markets building up for them at home.

We neglect the immense sophistciation , combined with prodigious human energy and effort that
now produces the sophisticated tools of modern living. The ubiquitous mobile phones and hand held devices, lap tops, are the product of growing , highly educated, inventive and industrious nations.

They are also a market for good precision engineering - for example China is undertaking amassive upgrade to their railway system.

Tienjin - Peking is a 2 hour drive. The new 35o Km per hour Commuter train undertakes the 115km (72 miles) journey takes 25 minutes and trains run every 3 minutes for 180 services per working day on the 600 seat trains - for which each seat is bookable..

French engineering company Systra provided project management services in combination with the China Academy of Railway Sciences . The US$1.6 Bn rpoject started with the construction of 100 Kms of concrete viaduct using pre-cast concrete sections for speed, and uses techniques supplied in a technology transfer agreement with German engineering company Max Bogel.

Siemens CRH 3 high-speed trains based on technology first used in Deustches Bahn's ICE 3s have been supplied incorporating new technology based on Velaro units which entered service with RENFE in Spain in 2006.

MORAL

Deutches Bahn own what was British Rail Freight see Monday, July 02, 2007 Krauts undertake railway robbery in daylight - CPNI examines it's arsehole , A private Spanish company own British Airports Authority (although this may be dismantled).

It is worth noting that Bank Santander who own Abbey have finally been given approval to buy Alliance and Leicester on the same day that Alastair Darling threw caution and common sense to the winds and allowed Lloyds TSB to takeover HSOB over a weekend without any concern about competition rules.

So a Spanish bank now provides some 30% of UK mortgages.

Just a small reminder that other forces within the EU are doing quite nicely thank you.