ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL

Following pre-Budget tradition, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne holds up his red Ministerial Box outside 11 Downing Street.

It's Friday. It's financial. It's Friday Financial with JULIAN SAYER.

The expression “Robbing Peter to Pay Paul” refers to times before the Reformation when Church taxes had to be paid to St. Paul's church in London and to St. Peter's church in Rome. Originally it referred to neglecting the Peter tax in order to have money to pay the Paul tax. In other words taking from one to pay another.

With that firmly in mind in another rambling look at the world’s economic problems, I fear that the Government's shortcomings are being pushed on to the people who least can afford it.

In essence, nearly every budget is always the same. The chancellor giving with one hand and taking with the other. In these times of austerity it's never more evident. George Osborne has to raise money in order to pay the UK’s ever increasing debt.

I could write a piece on the details of the budget, but the news and papers are full of reviews far better than I could write. If you really want the details you can find them here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26626280

MIND THE GAP . . .

It's Friday. The topic is financial. It's FRIDAY FINANCIAL with our resident expert JULIAN SAYER.

Poor people pay taxes and rich people avoid paying tax. How the hell can that be right? Read on . . .

MIND THE GAP . . .

It's killing you!

MILLIONS of people have an uneasy feeling that something is not right in the global economy –

but they struggle to put their finger on what exactly the problem is. Now pay attention and don't fall asleep, when I tell you the very root of the decay is tax, and in particular, the abuse of tax rules and regulations.

As I mentioned in last week's blog, the middle and working classes have endured ten years of a reducing real income, while the super-rich have got richer. The tax burden is forever increasing on the people who can least afford to pay, while the wealthy and multinational corporations are paying less and less. This scenario is widening the income inequality gap, and is the root cause of the social breakdown.

Governments have to raise tax in order to pay for the services a society needs. The more tax they can generate the better the services and pensions they can provide. If tax revenues start to decline, then those services have to be cut. If you really want the breakdown of how much the UK and where it raises these taxes from, you can find it here.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/receipts/info-analysis.

Tax avoidance has become a real issue of late and has to be tackled if you want an equitable society. Corporation tax avoidance is the one that has made the headlines, with companies such as Google, Amazon, Vodafone and Apple making billions in turnover but paying very little in tax.

CASTLES BUILT ON SAND

INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL FRIDAY GUEST BLOGGER

By HARRY BLACKWOOD

My blog is not yet a week old and already I've got a second guest writer.

Financial whizz Julian Sayer has been watching the world's economies go down the pan since the big crash and his prediction is that it's going to get worse. Much worse.

Every week Julian will give us expert insight into the inevitable financial crash.

Stay tuned. Here's Julian first post:

CASTLES BUILT ON SAND

by JULIAN SAYER, Guest Blogger

Make no mistake, we are living through historic times. Countries around the world are rioting, people are dying and personal freedoms are being eroded. The people of Ukraine, Venezuela

and Thailand have taken to the streets and put their lives on the line in order to protest.

This will not be a flash in the pan, this is going to be the norm, we are in worrying times. Brazil, Turkey, Egypt, have all seen mass protests and the list is growing. What is causing this huge uprising of social anger? In a word, economics. One of the dullest subjects you can imagine, but a subject that will change history. Finance, taxation and economics are inherently boring, but they are the very bedrock of the policies and deception shaping the world.