THE MEN WHO SOLD THE WORLD

Whether it's Spain, Greece or the United Kingdom, once proud nations have had their strategic state industries, wealth, assets, cultures and futures systematically stripped and sold-off to pay for the damage wreaked by greedy investment banksters and their friends in politically low places.

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

Banksters have stripped countries of their assets and brought misery to millions.

In every region of the world I can think of, the sovereignty and wealth of each nation is being sold to the highest bidder.

The once proud people of each country are having it sold from beneath them. Each nation, and the people within it, are under attack, not from the so called terrorists we hear so much about, but from within the financial markets that demand their pound of flesh.

In every country, the people who run the Government have largely decided they no longer wish to serve the country's best interests, but prefer instead to serve the interests of the chosen few; the billionaires, the hedge funds, and the investment banks. They are in the process of gorging themselves on the sales of assets, houses and nationalised industries all around the world. The general public is being short changed in every respect.

Here in the UK whether it's the Royal Mail or LloydsTSB, the taxpayers' assets are being sold to help keep the nation's debts under some sort of control. You can argue the rights and wrongs of selling all the state's assets, but when you do, at least get fair value.

There is no doubt that the Royal Mail sale reeks of desperation and mismanagement. Royal Mail shares are currently more than 70% higher than the 2013 sale price. The investment bank that advised the Government made millions, even Mr Osborne’s best man had his finger in the pie. Everybody involved made a nice little turn, with the exception of the taxpayer who lost out to the tune of £750m. A full breakdown of the sale can be found here;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26819971

IS IT WORKING?

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

Any healthy economy needs a full and skilled workforce. It benefits employers and more importantly, gives a lot of spending power to a service driven economy.

Five years of austerity and we owe roughly £69,000,000,000 more than we did, while the

average income fell from £24,100 to £23,200, a percentage drop of 3.8%! In the meantime we are being told the economy is recovering and unemployment is coming down. This is true, unemployment has been reduced from its peak of 2.7 million in 2011 (2008-2014) to today's figure of 2.33 million. I could argue about how these figures have been compiled, but in today's article I want highlight the effects of these changes in our economy and then discuss future trends.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal the depths of low pay and the grotesque chasm between a rich one per cent and the other 99% of the country.

Four in five new jobs are in sectors averaging under £16,640 for a 40-hour week. Working full-time on the £6.31 hourly minimum wage would gross just £13,124 in a year, and an explosion of part-time jobs shows millions of workers can’t even earn that pittance. This isn't good for a consumer based economy. Remember, in the UK 78% of our entire GDP is service based, and any fluctuations in our spending habits has huge ramifications.

Then comes the issue of the kind of jobs that are being created? Part time and zero hour contracts have ballooned since the start of this recession. The scale of the use of zero-hours contracts has been revealed after official figures showed that nearly 583,000 employees – more than double the government's estimate – were forced to sign up to the controversial conditions last year. Almost half of zero-hour contract workers have had their shifts cancelled without any notice, according to the first in-depth study of the way more than 1 million people on the controversial contracts are treated.

Two out of five workers on the contracts said they had been informed only hours before starting work that a shift had been cancelled. A further 6% had been told as their shift was about to begin. The study also found that 20% are sometimes or always docked wages or penalised in some way if they are not available for work. These contracts, which allow an employer to hire staff without an obligation to provide any minimum working hours, are used widely in the care industry, hotel and leisure sector and by many retailers. In the last two years public sector organisations have transferred staff to zero-hour rotas.

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