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What you in Britain might not understand is that Obama does NOT consider himself to be BLACK--rather, he considers himself to be "post-racial." Alone among prominent African-American politicians, he is not descended from slaves. He is not a product of the civil rights movement, but a beneficiary of it.

Red/blue, white/black, male/female, gay/straight: these are anachronistic distinctions that Obama and many liberal thinkers of his generation believe should be consigned to the dustbin of history. Perhaps so--but are the majority of Americans prepared to do so JUST YET???

I am British.
I do not see how the American elections can be of interest to me.
We in the UK certainly cannot have a vote on the matter.
Up to now the supposed 'special relationship' has brought nothing but grief to us, take Iraq as a prime example.
Where was this relationship at the time of Suez or the Falklands.
In both WW1 & WW2 the Americans waited two years before being forced into the conflict.

I am British, I have no interest in American politics, I do not believe in the so called 'special relationship'. All it has brought us is trouble, with idiots like Bush.
Where was America at the time of the Suez or the Falklands. No support there.
They even arrived two years late for both world wars.

I am British, I have no interest in American politics, I do not believe in the so called 'special relationship'. All it has brought us is trouble, with idiots like Bush.
Where was America at the time of the Suez or the Falklands. No support there.
They even arrived two years late for both world wars.

Nothing could better illustrate the inbuilt tendency of Democracy to malfunction, than the virtual disappearance of the Native Americans since Democracy arrived on their shores. I say virtual, because of course they are still there, they just don't seem to count or be represented but are instead engaged in suing for the return of their lands in every federal court in the States.

Ironically, it is probable that the word "caucus" is of Native American origin, coming from the Algonquin word for "counsel", cau-cau-as'u, and brought into politics along with many other Amerindian words by the (white) Tammany Hall political movement around 1760-1780.

In 1760 there was still some sympathy in America for the Natives, and certainly back in Britain it had been realised that the Natives were suffering enormously from colonisation. King George III's Proclamation of 1763 prohibited settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains. But many land speculators like George Washington violated the Proclamation by claiming vast acreage in western Virginia. Violation pushed on westwards, and the Amerindians also fell victim to the war over their heads between the British and the British-American "Revolutionaries" (how can you have a revolution outside your own country, over possession of someone else's?).

The United States today is exactly what one might expect of a country founded on broken promises, outright fraud and deception, and indeed outright theft of land and livelihood - all cemented by violence and superior arms. In other words, it is its own worst enemy, and riven by conflicting ethnic groups, none of which actually belong there.

The next thing that will cause a big shock to the uk economy will be an old-fashioned run on the pound. A large fall in the exchange rate will create huge inflationary pressure. The Bank of England won't know whether to raise base rate or cut it. To some extent inflation might help to rescue the house market speculation. On the other hand if house prices fall in real terms by 50% to 70%, there is widespread unemployment and what little is left of the industrial economy near terminally stagnant. Then what? Frankly the party is over. So much for Gordon Brown's prudent handling of the economy. What people should really be asking themselves is how could the politicians, the economists, the bankers and the finance industry be so stupid for so long. Where did they think it would end?

Isn't it odd that having a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya makes you "black".. The sooner we realise we are all one race, which we are, the better. A lot of people are taking a new look at Obama. He pushes "Hope" a lot, but as he says - "I鈥檓 a black guy running for president named Barack Obama. You gotta have hope."

The next thing that will cause a big shock to the uk economy will be an old-fashioned run on the pound. A large fall in the exchange rate will create huge inflationary pressure. The Bank of England won't know whether to raise base rate or cut it. To some extent inflation might help to rescue the house market speculation. On the other hand if house prices fall in real terms by 50% to 70%, there is widespread unemployment and what little is left of the industrial economy near terminally stagnant. Then what? Frankly the party is over. So much for Gordon Brown's prudent handling of the economy. What people should really be asking themselves is how could the politicians, the economists, the bankers and the finance industry be so stupid for so long. Where did they think it would end?

this is a comment regarding today's discussion on the economy. i am originally from russia having moved over here during the Gorbachev's perestroika era, having witnessed an economic collapse on an unimaginable scale totally unexpeced by anyone, including the CIA of the US. for the last few years i have been gradually growing more and more anxious as to where the uk economy was heading.. by july this year in fact i lost my sleep confident that massive banking defaults where around the corner and the pound was about to nosedive. I exchanged all my savings into a number of currencies and opened accounts with several banks to split my saving in the chunks of no more than 拢35k in the event of the banks going bust. I therefore was not at all surpirsed that Northen Rock defaulted and still think other banks will follow.
I am not an economist but it is plain for anyone to see that since 2000 the house prices have balooned c.250%, the value of UK plc has increased by 30% purely through this for no apparent reason. Worringly, these house price values are not always a reflection of "pure" supply and demand, a large proportion of properties on the market outside "hot areas" can't ever be sold for the prices that are being asked. Astonishingly it is the banks who stepped in ready to remortgage at those imaginary values on a massive scale helping to sustain the illusion. 2-3 years ago i checked some statistics on the BoE website to discover that in the middle of the supposed housing boom we actually had the same number of transaction as in mid-90-es, at the bottom of the housing slump. Moreover over half of all transactions were remortgaging, meaning that the true new house sales were less than half in number compaired to the level of the 90-ies housing slump! At the same time the property stopped making any sense as an investment, when the anual capital growth was taken out of the aquasion.
I know many people who have been unable to sell their properties for the last several years at their supposed values. yet their banks were more than happy to remortgage. A huge number of people now have been continuously remortgaging year after year to release more and more cash to make ends meet. As soon as this process stops, as it appreas to have done, we will have mass defaults in the mortgage repayments in UK. These mortgages are not even currently thought to be sub-prime, but i suspect that the portfolios of most major morgage lenders in UK are infested with these loans currently classified as high quality. these loans, along with the expiring dodgy fixed rate deals, may well become the source of UK's own sub-prime morgage default crisis. This UK crisis is likely to be much more serious than the one in the US, as the house prices in US went up by only c.75% as opposed to c.250% in the same space of time in UK. UK borrowers therefore had much greater opportunities for the capital release. In addition the british banks will have to absorb all losses themselves as they didn't chop the loans up and sold them on around the world like the americans.
It will not surprise me at all if 25% of the total money lent through remortgaging over say last 5 years will have to be written off, say c. 拢150 billion. Can Uk banking system absorb this without disintegrating and what will happen to the overall economy?
and how on earth could UK financial regulators have slept at night when they saw a totally abnomal cancerous buldge of the size of the entire value of all UK companies put together, growing out of the housing market, feeding itself through massive capital release, and did nothing?
is it time for me to go back to russia, i wonder?:))

this is a comment regarding today's discussion on the economy. i am originally from russia having moved over here during the Gorbachev's perestroika era, having witnessed an economic collapse on an unimaginable scale totally unexpeced by anyone, including the CIA of the US. for the last few years i have been gradually growing more and more anxious as to where the uk economy was heading.. by july this year in fact i lost my sleep confident that massive banking defaults where around the corner and the pound was about to nosedive. I exchanged all my savings into a number of currencies and opened accounts with several banks to split my saving in the chunks of no more than 拢35k in the event of the banks going bust. I therefore was not at all surpirsed that Northen Rock defaulted and still think other banks will follow.
I am not an economist but it is plain for anyone to see that since 2000 the house prices have balooned c.250%, the value of UK plc has increased by 30% purely through this for no apparent reason. Worringly, these house price values are not always a reflection of "pure" supply and demand, a large proportion of properties on the market outside "hot areas" can't ever be sold for the prices that are being asked. Astonishingly it is the banks who stepped in ready to remortgage at those imaginary values on a massive scale helping to sustain the illusion. 2-3 years ago i checked some statistics on the BoE website to discover that in the middle of the supposed housing boom we actually had the same number of transaction as in mid-90-es, at the bottom of the housing slump. Moreover over half of all transactions were remortgaging, meaning that the true new house sales were less than half in number compaired to the level of the 90-ies housing slump! At the same time the property stopped making any sense as an investment, when the anual capital growth was taken out of the aquasion.
I know many people who have been unable to sell their properties for the last several years at their supposed values. yet their banks were more than happy to remortgage. A huge number of people now have been continuously remortgaging year after year to release more and more cash to make ends meet. As soon as this process stops, as it appreas to have done, we will have mass defaults in the mortgage repayments in UK. These mortgages are not even currently thought to be sub-prime, but i suspect that the portfolios of most major morgage lenders in UK are infested with these loans currently classified as high quality. these loans, along with the expiring dodgy fixed rate deals, may well become the source of UK's own sub-prime morgage default crisis. This UK crisis is likely to be much more serious than the one in the US, as the house prices in US went up by only c.75% as opposed to c.250% in the same space of time in UK. UK borrowers therefore had much greater opportunities for the capital release. In addition the british banks will have to absorb all losses themselves as they didn't chop the loans up and sold them on around the world like the americans.
It will not surprise me at all if 25% of the total money lent through remortgaging over say last 5 years will have to be written off, say c. 拢150 billion or more. Can Uk banking system absorb this without disintegrating and what will happen to the overall economy?
and how on earth could UK financial regulators have slept at night when they saw a totally abnomal cancerous buldge of the size of the entire value of all UK companies put together, growing out of the housing market, feeding itself through massive capital release, and did nothing?
is it time for me to go back to russia, i wonder?:))

this is a comment regarding today's discussion on the economy. i am originally from russia having moved over here during the Gorbachev's perestroika era, having witnessed an economic collapse on an unimaginable scale totally unexpeced by anyone, including the CIA of the US. for the last few years i have been gradually growing more and more anxious as to where the uk economy was heading.. by july this year in fact i lost my sleep confident that massive banking defaults where around the corner and the pound was about to nosedive. I exchanged all my savings into a number of currencies and opened accounts with several banks to split my saving in the chunks of no more than 拢35k in the event of the banks going bust. I therefore was not at all surpirsed that Northen Rock defaulted and still think other banks will follow.
I am not an economist but it is plain for anyone to see that since 2000 the house prices have balooned c.250%, the value of UK plc has increased by 30% purely through this for no apparent reason. Worringly, these house price values are not always a reflection of "pure" supply and demand, a large proportion of properties on the market outside "hot areas" can't ever be sold for the prices that are being asked. Astonishingly it is the banks who stepped in ready to remortgage at those imaginary values on a massive scale helping to sustain the illusion. 2-3 years ago i checked some statistics on the BoE website to discover that in the middle of the supposed housing boom we actually had the same number of transaction as in mid-90-es, at the bottom of the housing slump. Moreover over half of all transactions were remortgaging, meaning that the true new house sales were less than half in number compaired to the level of the 90-ies housing slump! At the same time the property stopped making any sense as an investment, when the anual capital growth was taken out of the aquasion.
I know many people who have been unable to sell their properties for the last several years at their supposed values. yet their banks were more than happy to remortgage. A huge number of people now have been continuously remortgaging year after year to release more and more cash to make ends meet. As soon as this process stops, as it appreas to have done, we will have mass defaults in the mortgage repayments in UK. These mortgages are not even currently thought to be sub-prime, but i suspect that the portfolios of most major morgage lenders in UK are infested with these loans currently classified as high quality. these loans, along with the expiring dodgy fixed rate deals, may well become the source of UK's own sub-prime morgage default crisis. This UK crisis is likely to be much more serious than the one in the US, as the house prices in US went up by only c.75% as opposed to c.250% in the same space of time in UK. UK borrowers therefore had much greater opportunities for the capital release. In addition the british banks will have to absorb all losses themselves as they didn't chop the loans up and sold them on around the world like the americans.
It will not surprise me at all if 25% of the total money lent through remortgaging over say last 5 years will have to be written off, say c. 拢150 billion. Can Uk banking system absorb this without disintegrating and what will happen to the overall economy?
and how on earth could UK financial regulators have slept at night when they saw a totally abnomal cancerous buldge of the size of the entire value of all UK companies put together, growing out of the housing market, feeding itself through massive capital release, and did nothing?
is it time for me to go back to russia, i wonder?:))

Brossen99 (#19) The 'Nazi' Party was in fact a left wing 'Stalinist' party which implemented many Roosevelt New Deal like policies. This was why Stalin didn't rush to the aid of the Trotskyite German communist party in the 1920s (Trotskyites always subvert the welfare state in pursuit of anarcho-capitalism). The nazi-party was anti-capitalist and pro-welfare.

It is just the clever post-war propaganda of the 'Trotskyite' victors which has made almost everyone think otherwise. Look at who Hayek (and Thatcher/Regan) vilified. It was done via horror stories and exaggeration. See the Morgenthau Plan.

On whose behalf was this done? Follow the money.

Hi brossen99 - happy new year. Your gloomy forecast has cheered me up - at least there is some truth in it.

Cameron's Brixton plan, to be launched on Tuesday, derives from a report by David Freud, a City troubleshooter, which was actually commissioned by Tony Blair a few months ago. Gordon Brown has praised Freud's ideas but is not convinced they will work. Neither is the Child Poverty Action Group.

The picture you paint of the future reminds me of descriptions of Germany in the 1920s - conditions which gave rise to national socialism. Will Cameron, Blair and Freud go down in history as the triggers for national socialism in the U.K.? It is up to them.

Actually, I am not convinced there was anything wrong with national socialism in itself. It did not have to lead to Nazism, anymore than communism had to lead to Stalinism, or christianity to the Inquisition. It has to be better than champagne socialism anyway.

Sir, America is not ready for a mixed race President nor a woman, they have a few more evolutionary years to put in before they get to the European model. Their only hope for salvation would be Edwards, but he won't doff his cap to big business and if he did make it would be another Dealy Plaza job.

I'm beginning to wonder if Hilary Clinton's problem is having stood by her man when he dallied elsewhere. Women voters would see that as a weakness. She'd have been stronger had she dumped him and stood for nomination on her own terms.
The outcome of these elections affect us in the UK a great deal. Iraq is testimony to that.