Post Budget Blues

Another day, another $800 billion dollar rescue plan announced in the US. The US government is going to start buying mortgage backed assets to get cash back into the system.

The credit markets reacted to yesterday's pre-budget announcement by taking the price for UK government credit protection to 86 basis points. For those of you not in the market, what it really means is that the view of "the market" is that Britain is significantly more likely to go bankrupt than the US, Germany or France. That will be reflected in the interest rate that the government will have to pay in order to raise all the gazillions of pounds which they need to borrow and announced yesterday. The bottom line from yesterday's announcements seem to be that anyone earning more than £40,000 per annum will be worse off. Not much of a stimulus is it? Vince Cable, a leading Liberal Democratic Party politician revealed that the cost to business to reduce the VAT from 17.5% to 15% will be £50 million. Not much help there either.

In the aftermath of yesterday's Pre-Budget Borrowing Bonanza, our "colourful" mayor Boris Johnson described Gordon Brown in the following way:"He is like some sherry-crazed old dowager who has lost the family silver at roulette, and who now decides to double up by betting the house as well"

Still, I'm unemployed - should I be better off today? I don't feel it and on the basis that I hope to be employed again some day, I am not looking forward to the increased National Insurance and tax increases that will be needed.

Today I finished writing a blog for a trade magazine that will be published Thursday. Not getting paid for it of course, just trying to keep my name out there. I got interviewed by a journalist for an article she is doing, not getting paid for that ... do you sense a pattern developing here?

Tomorrow is another day of thinking time. Today was very good as I achieved some tangible results.