A Conservative Budget for the Nation - Budget Day

H M Treasury: Here are the main points of the Conservative Budget of 2015, " Introducing a new National Living Wage of over £9 an hour by 2020.   From April 2016, a new National Living Wage of £7.20 an hour for the over 25s will be introduced. This will rise to over £9 an hour by 2020.  The tax-free Personal Allowance will be increased from £10,600 in 2015-16 to £11,000 in April 2016 The tax-free Personal Allowance – the amount people earn before they have to start paying Income Tax – will increase to £11,000 in 2016-17.  Protecting defence spending.  The government will meet the NATO pledge to spend 2% of national income on defence every year of this decade.  Reforming the welfare system to make it more affordable.  The welfare system will be reformed to make it fairer for taxpayers who pay for it, while continuing to support the most vulnerable.   Taking the family home out of Inheritance Tax, The family home allowance will be added to the existing £325,000 Inheritance Tax threshold, meaning the total tax-free allowance for a surviving spouse or civil partner will be up to £1 million in 2020-21.   Ending permanent non-dom status, Permanent non-dom status will be abolished from April 2017. From that date, anyone who’s been resident in the UK for 15 of the past 20 years will be considered UK-domiciled for tax purposes.  "

Lets Get Real:

This what a REAL Consercative Budget looks like, fair for those in work and helping business to hire more people.   Those on living wage should be happy, it is wise to restrict it to those over 25, how much can those who have left school or college have really paid in to the system.   Lets see how Labour reacts, they living wage threw them and the BBC.  Good day to be a Conservative.

Are Greek Banks under THREAT - Greek Crisis

Guardian - Greek Live: Reports in its 7.16pm the following post on the ECB decision, " And the ECB has maintained the cap on emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) at €89bn, but crucially it has “adjusted” the haircuts it applies to the assets which Greek banks hand over in return for funds.    In simple terms, that probably means the ECB is treating Greek government bonds as riskier, and valuing them as such when it calculates how much liquidity it can provide.  "

Lets Get Real:

The European Central Bank, the lender of last resort can see Spain, Italy and others coming for money if they throw the rule book out to help Greece.    The value of Greek assents has to been in the context of a corrupt political structure, they have gone back on agreements, they play games, and so what is the worth Greek  collateral.  This blog would rather take collateral from the Assad Government in Syria and the Baghdad Government, yes this blog does not trust the Greeks.   The Greek crisis could become a cancer for the whole Euro, this would damage the UK economy, thus it would be better to cut off the damaged part, that is Greece and make sure that the rest of the Euro goes on. Tough outcomes are sometimes hard. 

NO MORE MONEY FROM THE ECB - Greek Crisis

ECB: Press release:  " ELA to Greek banks maintained

• Emergency liquidity assistance maintained at 26 June 2015 level
• Haircuts on collateral for ELA adjusted
• Governing Council closely monitoring situation in financial markets

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank decided today to maintain the provision of emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to Greek banks at the level decided on 26 June 2015 after discussing a proposal from the Bank of Greece.

ELA can only be provided against sufficient collateral.

The financial situation of the Hellenic Republic has an impact on Greek banks since the collateral they use in ELA relies to a significant extent on government-linked assets.

In this context, the Governing Council decided today to adjust the haircuts on collateral accepted by the Bank of Greece for ELA.

The Governing Council is closely monitoring the situation in financial markets and the potential implications for the monetary policy stance and for the balance of risks to price stability in the euro area. The Governing Council is determined to use all the instruments available within its mandate.  "

Lets Get Real: 

BBC News - Greece Live: Reports in its 7.04pm post the following on the above, " The European Central Bank (ECB) will not be adjusting the amount of funding available to Greek banks.. "  In other words the Greek banks will need to get a new rich sugar daddy to keep them going, could this allow Russia to come to the support of the Greeks, that would make Putin even more of a threat to the EU and the West. 

Germany and Greece - Greece Crisis

Telegraph - Greek Crisis Live: Reports the following on the visit to Paris, France of Germany's Chancellor Merkel, " The German Chancellor is done with dinner and given a very short statement.   She says she awaits new reform plans from Mr Tsipras tomorrow, but says now is not the time to talk of new deals as government's are still reacting to last night's vote. "

Lets Get Real:

It is clear that Chancellor Merkel is not putting HER head on the line to save Greece at the expense of her own political future, that is the problem with any new call for a bailout of Greece, there are other leaders within Euro who will have to go back to their Parliaments to ask for more money for Greece, also there elections coming up in Spain, any relaxing of the Euro rules would mean that the extreme left could run on anti austerity message and get the Germans to pay the cost.   Thus expect tense days ahead, Germany is no push over, the Chancellor has to worry what her own Party might think if she tries to push another Greek bailout. 

Shares will tank tomorrow - Greek Crisis

Telegraph - Greek Crisis Live: Reports in its 8.10pm post the following, " Markets have remained reasonably sanguine about Grexit up until now. But expect tomorrow to be a day of flight for equity investors... "

Lets Get Real:

The first signs should be the Asia markets, it can be expected with the trouble with China markets to add to the pressure, the UK and US markets should see a sell off due to the Asian results and the latest news from the EU and Greece.   The Greeks are deluded if they think that their banks will be open on Tuesday, they will be lucky if they are opened at the end of the week.   As stated the final decision is down to the ECB, do they throw out their tough rules on lending or do they throw the rules out of the window.   The Germans might have problems with the French, the French left it can be argued has more in common with the Greek left than mainstream French politics.   Also the Countries that have done austerity will be asking why Greece is given a pass when they went through tough economic reform.   Interesting days ahead. 

Greek PM looks for political lifeboat - Greece Crisis

Guardian - Greek Crisis Live: Reports in its 8.10pm post the following, " Greek television are reporting that Alexis Tsipras has spoken with several European leaders, starting with the French president Francois Hollande.    There are also suggestions that ECB president Mario Draghi has also been contacted.  "

Lets Get Rea:

The Greek PM will try to split France from Germany, also Italy, the government in Paris is left wing, thus one can expect that the Greek PM will play that up, one doubt that Paris will go against the will of Germany, it knows who has the cash in that relationship.    The European Central Bank could decide the fate of Greece, if the Bank does not give more money to the Greek banks they will go bust, thus the call for the return of the Greeks to a native currency.   The EU/IMF will not allow themselves to be blackmailed by Athens, there are tough rules for the problem of Athens, if the above throw them out then Spain and Italy will be next, then the whole system would go bankrupt.  Time for the Germans to stand tough against Greece. 

The Result of the Greek Referendum - Greek Crisis

BBC News - Greece Live: Reports the following it its 7.25pm post, " The Greek government will have a battle on its hands to persuade the Eurogroup to meet urgently. Reuters reports there are no plans for an emergency meeting of eurozone finance ministers in response to the 'No' vote. "No way. (The ministers) would not know what to discuss."

It is worth remembering that Greece's prime minister called the vote while his negotiators were still trying to eke out a deal in Brussels. "

Lets Get Real:

The Greeks might find that the Referendum was the easy thing to get pass, the German political class and the voters do not want to to get their wallets out to bailout the Greeks, the Greeks have to be thrown out of the Euro, its a murky toilet with no clean water in sight.   The Greek economic system needs a total reform from the role of the State to when people retire.  This will be harsh on the Greek in the short term, but in the long run it will benefit Greece.