- The competition between China and the United States, specifically over technology and trade. The economies of China and the US will begin recovering in earnest in 2022, and this growth will spur new innovation and competition between these two powers.
- The integration of new, highly advanced technology into industry. New tech like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, blockchain, virtual reality and drones have the potential to totally upend the global economy.
- The digitalisation of companies. The pandemic encouraged many businesses to transition to work from home or develop some other way of going contactless.
- The growth of digital assets, like cryptocurrency.
- The environmental movement, which will transform global industries and production by changing them to fit into more eco-friendly models. Decarbonisation and green energy will play an increasingly large role in the post-pandemic energy sector.
- The growing demand for socially conscious business practices by consumers and investors.
- The ageing global population. Global industries will have to stay innovative while also catering to an increasingly older consumer base.
- The economic and political consequences of an expanding wealth gap – such as growing welfare programmes, a rise in Socialist political policies.
In The Accounts
A course for beginners wanting to understand accounts for work, play and investing
Friday 26 July 2024
WHY THE DONBASS BELONGS TO RUSSIA
Monday 27 November 2023
LOY KRATONG
Sunday 19 November 2023
FOR A WRITTEN CONSTITUTION TO MAKE OUR SYSTEM SANE AGAIN
Tuesday 2 August 2022
THE UNITED SELF
Tuesday 30 November 2021
THE FRANCE ZEMMOUR SEEKS TO SAVE (RHETORICAL TECHNIQUES)
https://youtu.be/k8IGBDK1BH8
He appears speaking behind a huge mike and in front of ancient books stacked on shelves, reminding us of De Gaulle's wartime calls for resistance (Appeal of June 18 by General de Gaulle).
He begins by telling us his mission, which is to save France from decline "so that our daughters don't have to wear headscarves and our sons don't have to be submissive"."I understood that no politician would have the courage to save the country from the tragic fate that awaited it. I understood that all these supposedly competent people were mostly helpless [...] That in all parties, they were content with reforms while time is running out. It is no longer time to reform France, but to save it.
I therefore decided to stand for the presidential election."
If you want to know more about how he uses repetition (1), insistence (2), the transfer of allegiance from "you" to "we" (3), mirroring (4), tirades of accumulation (5), assonance (a rhythm of similar sounds) (6) dramatic background music (7):
1. Repetition
Do you remember the country you knew in your childhood? Do you remember the country your parents described to you? Do you remember the country you find in the movies?
2. Accumulation, insistence
our lifestyles, our traditions, our language, our conversations, our controversies on history or fashion, our taste for literature and gastronomy
Joan of Arc, Pasteur, de Gaulle, Molière or even Notre Dame and village churches: all these figures are associated with the word "country". This word is repeated 24 times in two minutes.
The powerful, the elites, the well-meaning, journalists, politicians, academics , sociologists, trade unionists, the well-meaning religious authorities as well.
The country of Joan of Arc and Louis XIV [..] of knights and gentes dames [..] fables of La Fontaine, characters of Molière and verses of Racine
3. From "you" to "we" - pushing you to side with him
You walk [..] you look at your screens [...] you take subways [...] you wait for your daughter or your son at the end of school ...
We must give back the power to the people, take it back from minorities that oppress the majority.
4. Mirroring
You have not left your country, but it is as if your country has left you. You are exiles from within.
You were despised [...] but you understood that it was they who were baiting you, it was they who were harming you
5. Tirade
The French people have been intimidated, paralyzed, indoctrinated, made to feel guilty
For a thousand years, we have been one of the powers that have written the history of the world. We will be worthy of our ancestors. We will not allow ourselves to be dominated, vassalized, conquered, colonized. We will not let ourselves be replaced
6. Assonance
"S" and "P"
7. Dramatic music background
Rather ironic this as the music is not from French culture, it is the adagio of the 7th Symphony of the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, also used in The speech of a king, a British made film.
is.gd/mMZ3Wz
8. Black n white photos
He contrasts a past glorious France, using black and white images of black and white of Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Brigitte Bardot, Johnny Halliday, Charles Aznavour, Georges Brassens, Barbara; with scenes of violence and social unrest from today.
Friday 26 November 2021
THE WINNER FROM THE 7-YEAR RETAIL ENERGY WARS
COMPANY RESULTS
Revenues up 6%, customers up 0.5%, total services (energy, broadband, mobile) up a fraction. Earnings down a fraction (settlement with Ofgem cost £1m). Mostly from TEP's supply contract with e.on (elec and gas). Interim dividend 27p no change yielding 1.27% at 1446p. Then add expected 30p Final would give 3.94% forward yield.
THE STORY
The little profit utilities make goes out in divis and repairing or upgrading the network. SSE or NG as examples.
But govt thought utility customers needed better deals so the utility companies were put into competition with new intermediaries who were buying wholesale and selling retail. Competition pushed pricing into the short term with switching and even utilities Co.s themselves making special offers.
All well and good? Except that now offers began to appear at below cost, with new customers being walked up to a more sustainable price.
After complaints, the regulator again intervened, thinking a price cap reviewed bi-annually would solve this.
Along came sky-high gas prices (quite why is another fascinating story) and these new intermediate suppliers came tumbling down like nine pins.
So much for govt ingerence. "Good luck with that", you'd have advised them!
LAST MAN STANDING
Where did that leave Telecom Plus? It had another strategy, not short-term switch-and-burn, a strategy it initiated 20 years ago.
Its supply side is to buy bulk long term eg the e.on contract.
Its customer side is to offer all services in one convenient bill, perhaps more expensive than if you managed things yourself, but you sign up and have nothing more to trouble you. It pulls in new customers not with screaming headline advertising, but through a network of 40,000 "partners", ie word-of-mouth.
In the current crisis, this strategy has left it as "last man standing".
TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY
This means an unexciting but competently run company providing a long-term investor with a stable income (divi) stream for their money. Not of much interest to the trader I wouldn't think. Buy, hold, put on DRIPS.
Thursday 25 November 2021
WHY IS THE UK SO ATTRACTIVE TO MIGRANTS, LEGAL AND ILLEGAL?
To question the assumptions in the question: is the UK that attractive? Turkey has three million Syrians, Australia is 10% non-White, France has over a quarter of live births to plenty both born outside the country, the States is overrun with Mexicans. So ask instead why are so many people on the hoof. It isn't, then, our wonderful culture of tolerance and welcome, nor our lax border patrols, is more the desperate push factors of I.possi ility to survive in the Sahel or Iraq and the pull of paid work and a future in the developed world
It's not just the African continental shelf pushi g into Europe, itsall the people aboard to. At least China and S E Asia isn't trying to move in..
"We're over here because you were over there". Our colonial past, language that they'll have learnt in school, family and community ties.
Then there's availability of work. Not welfare benefits except for legit. migrants, I wouldn't think. These young men want to work. France is a very racist country, UK locals welcome in the illegals - there's no movement opposing them, which I find strange as I'd be out there with my rifle.
And the hard left political elite genuinely want to break society apart and admit the migration wave whole, I cannot understand why ... what has happened to those who believe in nation, culture and family? Even though massive and unplanned immigration puts us all into third world lifestyles (housing, welfare, education, infrastructure).
Maybe decent people have given up and frankly the Woke have so confused most people and glued their mouths shut lest they be labelled white racist supremacist.
As you say intl liberal capitalists are complicit, but so is the political class (govts) as population is just what you need to increase GDP of a country's economy (not that individuals benefit of course) and reduce debt.
And remember that the power of a nation is the multiple of the population number times the wealth, putting it simply.
Who wants to take up cudgels and lose their job and be mocked and for nothing as you'll never make headway, the Indians have the wagons completely surrounded, IT'S TOO LATE MATE. Just get on with it, replace our culture, allah wakbah humbug.
Not sure either that the UK has such a generous asylum regime, to judge by UK well down the intl list. But that's for legals. The trouble is the coven of lawyers that stop the illegals being flown back, and the cost.
I said many years ago we would mine the Caucuses and send out fighter jets to Harry and strafe retreating illegals. There is no other answer to flows caused by poverty and climate change and brutal regimes.
Wednesday 24 November 2021
LASTING CHANGE RESULTING FROM THE PANDEMIC
Tuesday 23 November 2021
IS IT JOHNSON OR IS IT THE GREAT RESET?
If there is a problem, is it Boris? Or is it his in-tray?
This is supposedly the age of the great reset, the end of the modern world as we knew it. The issues Johnson must manage are not in the manifesto because the manifesto is hardly relevent. Instead, far more sinister existential issues have emerged.
Look at what won Johnson his 80 seat majority on and ask how relevent or priority are these commitments today, has he really broken his promises or have they been submerged, overtaken, in The Great Reset?
THE MANIFESTO
*Health - up NHS spending from £181b (£50 a week for every one of us) to £215b (£60), build 40 hospitals over 10 years, recruit 50,000 nurses and enough GPS to offer 50m more appointments, sort out Social Care once and for all.
*Environment - insulate the built environment £9b, build offshore wind farms, end plastic waste, I don't recall any controversies around COP or Greta.
*Brexit - leave the EU and get new Trade Agreement with EU, legislate for workers’ rights, environmental protections and consumer rights, replace CAP with a system based on “public money for public goods”, new office for environmental protection.I don't recall any controversies around fishing or NIP trade and customs.
*Immigration - Australian-style points-based immigration system, immigrants must contribute to the NHS and must pay in first to receive their benefits, NHS Visa to fast track entry for qualified who speak good English, seek out“leaders in their field” to come and work in the UK.
*Education and early years - Increase spending on schools to level up, support school heads and teachers on discipline, more “alternative provision” schools for excluded children, “arts premium” funding, raise teachers’ starting salaries to £30,000., better child care system and affordable childcare.
*Economy and Skills - fund operations from taxation, but borrow to invest in infrastructure, public debt to be lower than last parliament, public sector net investment not to exceed 3% of GDP and adjust change programs if debt interest exceeds 6% of revenue, priority to the environment in the next budget, £3bn skills fund for education and training.
*Tax, pay and benefits - raise NI threshold to £9,500 and ultimately to £12,500, respect the triple lock”, no increase in income tax, NI or VAT, a new deal for regenerating towns, continue the rollout of universal credit itwh psecial attention for the most vulnerable.
THE RESET
* The great warming of our planet (COP26_V.2).
* The great replacement of our civilisation, from without (how to defend our borders from survival migrations, from cyber attack, from The Virus Wars) and within (from Woke inclusivity, the Sharia takeover).
* The great and global UK comeback (to redirect our trade flows, to link the anglo-saxon world in defence against the Middle Kingdom).
CONCLUSION
These must be the most complex threats this country, the world, has ever faced imo. They arrive like hand grenades and Boris is expected to find all the pins by Christmas.
These are the very dark cloud banks through which must shine a PM's usual manifesto commitments - are Johnson's promises (above) broken? Or are they out of date?
No wonder there are calls for World Government, a USSWorld of 200 states. Seems unlikely to work.
Monday 22 November 2021
MICRO AGGRESSIONS
Already a pb in English, in the French language - which is more heavily gendered - this Woke recognition of identity is a real pb.
Example
In Fr, you have il or elle and there isn't a neutral "it".
To not hurt feelings of the sensitive, you say "iel". This recognises that the person is not just a biological unit, but also has many other dimensions of which gender, not sex, is one.
But now what ... do you say "iel est belle", or "iel est beau"? Or do you need new forms for all adjectives?
When you consider that 22% of youth 18-24 do not identify as il or elle, according to survets, that's a problem (that maybe they'll grow out of?).
But is this the real concern? Or are people, especially younger voters, more concerned with the great warming up of our planet and, possibly older voters, the great replacement of our civilisation by another?
There is so much fundamentally structuring items in our lives that are changing, that perhaps we can say, with data and without drama, in agreement with SAGE and scientists more widely, that this epoch, call it the modern world, is now finished and we must find something else.
Now, it is not just about daunting changes in the grammaire, not just about respecting individuals whatever their background, now we have to find ways to deal with end of the modern world and help the planet and our species to survive, find ways to secure our borders and deal with migratory flows, find ways to identify unambiguously who we are and protect our civilisation, while keeping good relations with neighbours and others, on whom we depend, in an interlinked world, without breaking social cohesion at home.
Friday 26 March 2021
TOP PICK IN THE FRONTIER MARKETS
Saturday 6 March 2021
2 Credits and Debits
2 Credits and Debits 2
1.1 What are Debits and Credits? 2
2.2 When Cash Is Debited and Credited 6
3.1 Revenues and Gains Are Usually Credited 8
3.2 Expenses and Losses are Usually Debited 9
3.3 Permanent and Temporary Accounts 9
4 Bank's Debits and Credits 11
2 Credits and Debits
1.1 What are Debits and Credits?
Debits and credits are terms used by bookkeepers and accountants when recording transactions in the accounting records. The amount in every transaction must be entered in one account on the left as a debit and in at least one other on the right as a credit. This is double-entry bookkeeping – for accuracy in the accounting records, used for managing the business and producing the financial statements (for investors amongst others).
But which account gets the debit entry and which the credit entry? First, let’s look at the accounts where debits and credits are entered or “posted” and T-bars that aid communication….
1.2 What Is An Account?
Account are a way of organising all the transactions into groups, or “accounts” or “ledgers”. When a company's accounting system is set up, the accounts most likely to be needed are identified and listed out in the chart of accounts.
Within the chart of accounts the balance sheet accounts are listed first, followed by the income statement accounts:
1.3 Double-Entry Accounting
“Double” because every business transaction affects at least two accounts.
For example, when a company borrows 1,000, the transaction will hit the company's Cash account (as a debit) and Notes Payable account (credit). Then monthly repayments will come out of cash (credit), debit Notes Payable to reduce the balance due, but also there will be a third account: Interest Expense to increase, debit.
Accounting software will automatically reduce your Cash account and the prompt you for the other accounts.
1.4 Debits and Credits
To debit an account means to enter an amount on the left side of the account. To credit an account means to enter an amount on the right side.
Generally, these accounts are increased with a debit:
Dividends (Draws)
Expenses
Assets
Losses
D - E - A - L are increased with a debit.
Generally, the following types of accounts are increased with a credit:
Gains
Income
Revenues
Liabilities
Stockholders' (Owner's) Equity
G - I - R - L - S are increased with a credit.
The abbreviation for debit is dr. and the abbreviation for credit is cr.
ASSETS |
LIABILITIES |
EQUITY |
REVENUE |
EXPENSES |
|
DEBIT |
↑ increase |
↓ decrease |
↓ decrease |
↓ decrease |
↑ increase |
CREDIT |
↓ decrease |
↑ increase |
↑ increase |
↑ increase |
↓ decrease |
DC ADE LER
After doing a few T-bars, it will come intuitively.
Up to you how you remember …
2 T-Accounts
T-bars are a great visual aid to see the effect of a transaction or journal entry.
Take out and repay a loan – hits accounts Cash and Notes Payable.
1. Receive a loan, increase cash, increase loans repayable - Debit Cash, Credit Notes Payable:
2. Repay the loan, decrease cash, decrease notes payable – Credit Cash, Debit Notes Payable
2.1 Journal Entries
Those are T-bars, but you can visualise business transactions vy writing general journal entries. Look at what is required for a JE.
2.2 When Cash Is Debited and Credited
To set off on the right foot, memorise the following:
- Whenever cash is received, debit Cash.
- Whenever cash is paid out, credit Cash.
Imagine that a company receives $500 from a customer who was given 30 days in which to pay. (Previously, the company had recorded the sale and an accounts receivable.) So the company will debit Cash, because cash was received. The amount of the debit and the credit is $500. The general journal format is:
Which account is to be credited? Since this was the collection of an account receivable, the credit should be Accounts Receivable. (Because the sale was already recorded, you cannot enter Sales again.)
Whenever cash is paid out, the Cash account is credited (and another account will have to be debited).
3 Normal Balances
Where would you look in an account to see how much is in it? When looking at an account in the general ledger, or GL, you would normally find the debit or credit balance here:
3.1 Revenues and Gains Are Usually Credited
Revenues and gains are recorded in accounts such as Sales, Service Revenues, Interest Revenues (or Interest Income), and Gain on Sale of Assets. These accounts normally have credit balances that are increased with a credit entry. In a T-account, their balances will be on the right side.
However, the exceptions to this rule are whare called “contra accounts”, contra = against. Sales Returns, Sales Allowances, and Sales Discounts - these accounts have debit balances because they are reductions to sales.
For example, if you perform a service and immediately get paid the full amount $50:
The asset account Cash is debited and the revenue account Service Revenues will immediately be credited, increasing its account balance, because you completed the service and were paid all at the same time.
But if a company performs a service on credit? (i.e., the company allows the client to pay for the service at a later date, such as 30 days from the date of the invoice).
At the time the service is performed the revenues are considered to have been earned and so they are recorded in the revenue account, Service Revenues, with a credit. The other account involved cannot be the asset Cash as cash was not received.
The account to be debited is the asset account Accounts Receivable, en attendant. If the amount of the service performed is $400, the entry in journal entry JE format is:
Accounts Receivable, as an asset account, and is increased with a debit; Service Revenues, a revenue account, is increased with a credit.
3.2 Expenses and Losses are Usually Debited
Expenses normally have debit balances and are increased with a debit entry. Since expenses are usually increasing, think "debit" when expenses are incurred. (We credit expenses only to reduce them, adjust them, or to close the expense accounts.) Examples of expense accounts include Salaries Expense, Wages Expense, Rent Expense, Supplies Expense, and Interest Expense. In a T-account, their balances will be on the left side.
For example, pay $800 to the landlord for rent:
(Debits before credits in JE format, credit is indented.)
Cash is credited and Rent Expense is debited. (If the payment was made in advance of the month, the debit would go to the asset account Prepaid Rent.
To increase an expense account, debit the account.
3.3 Permanent and Temporary Accounts
Asset, liability, and most owner/stockholder equity accounts are referred to as "permanent accounts" (or "real accounts"). Permanent accounts are not closed at the end of the accounting year; their balances are automatically carried forward to the next accounting year.
"Temporary accounts" (or "nominal accounts" they are also called) include all the revenue accounts, expense accounts, the owner's drawing account, and the income summary account. Usually, the balances in temporary accounts increase throughout the accounting year. Then at the end of the accounting year the balances are transferred to equity - the owner's capital account or a corporation's retained earnings account.
By transferring out the balances on temporary accounts at the end of the accounting year, each temporary account will have a zero balance for when the next accounting year begins. Ie, the new accounting year starts with no revenue amounts, no expense amounts, and no amount in the drawing account.
It is by having many revenue accounts and many many expense accounts that a company is able to report detailed info on revenues and expenses throughout the year.
4 Bank's Debits and Credits
When you hear your banker say, "I'll credit your bank account," it means the transaction will increase your checking account balance. Conversely, if your bank debits your account (e.g., takes a monthly service charge from your account) your account balance decreases.
We learned that debiting the Cash account in the general ledger GL increases its balance, yet your bank says it is crediting your bank account to increase its balance ???
4.1.1 Transaction #1
Let's say that your company, Debris Disposal, receives $100 of currency from a customer as a down payment for a future site clean-up service. When the money is received, your company makes the following entry:
(Debris Disposal's journal entry)
Debris Disposal increases Cash account with a debit of $100. Since the company has not yet earned the $100, it cannot credit a revenue account. Instead, the liability account Unearned Revenues is credited - Debris Disposal has a liability to do the work (or to return the $100). Note: an alternate title for the Unearned Revenues account is Customer Deposits.
Now let's say you take that $100 to Trustworthy Bank and deposit it into Debris Disposal's bank account. Since Trustworthy Bank is receiving cash, the bank debits its general ledger Cash account for $100, increasing the bank's assets. The rules of double-entry accounting require the bank itself to also enter a credit of $100 into another of the bank's general ledger accounts. Because the bank has not earned the $100, it cannot credit a revenue account. Instead, the bank credits a liability account such as Customers' Bank Accounts, reflecting the bank's obligation/liability to return the $100 to Debris Disposal on demand.
In general journal format, these are the JEs the bank makes to record this transaction:
As the entry shows, the bank's assets increase by the debit of $100 and the bank's liabilities increase by the credit of $100. And in the bank's detailed records, Debris Disposal's current account is the specific liability that increased.
4.1.2 Transaction #2
Now let's say Trustworthy Bank receives a $1,000 transfer on your company's behalf from a person who owes money to Debris Disposal. Two things happen at the bank:
The bank receives $1,000, and
The bank records its obligation to give the money to Debris Disposal on demand.
Trustworthy Bank's journal entries:
The debit increases the bank's assets by $1,000 and the credit increases the bank's liabilities by $1,000. (And the bank's detailed records show that Debris Disposal's current account is the specific liability that increased.)
At the same time, the $1,000 transfer is received at the bank, Debris Disposal makes the following entry into its general ledger:
(Debris Disposal's journal entry)
As a result of collecting $1,000 from one of its customers, Debris Disposal's Cash balance increases and its Accounts Receivable balance decreases.
4.1.3 Transaction #3
Many banks charge a monthly fee on checking accounts. If Trustworthy Bank decreases Debris Disposal's current account balance by $13.00 to pay for the bank's monthly service charge, this might be itemized on Debris Disposal's bank statement as a "debit memo" – the bank gets the money so it is a debit from the bank’s point of view.
The entry in the bank's records will show the bank's liability being reduced (because the bank owes Debris Disposal $13 less). It also shows that the bank earned revenues of $13 by servicing the checking account.
The Bank's GL general ledger:
On your company's records, par contre, the entry will look like this:
Debris Disposal's GL general ledger:
Debris Disposal's cash is reduced with a credit of $13 and expenses are increased with a debit of $13. (Note: if the amount of the bank's service charges is not significant a company may debit the charge to Miscellaneous Expense.)
4.2 Bank's Balance Sheet
Accounts such as Cash, Investment Securities, and Loans Receivable are reported as assets on the bank's balance sheet. Customers' bank accounts are reported as liabilities and include the balances in its customers' checking and savings accounts as well as certificates of deposit. In effect, your bank statement is just one of thousands of subsidiary records that account for millions of dollars that a bank owes to its depositors.
4.3 Recap
Recapping so far:
· Debit means left
· Credit means right
· Every transaction affects two accounts or more
· At least one account will be debited and at least one account will be credited
· The total of the amount(s) entered as debits must equal the total of the amount(s) entered as credits
· When cash is received, debit Cash
· When cash is paid out, credit Cash
· To increase an asset, debit the asset account
· To increase a liability, credit the liability account
· To increase owner's equity, credit an owner's equity account
· To increase revenues, credit the revenues account
· A credit to a revenue account also causes an increase in owner's equity
· To increase expenses, debit the expense account
· A debit to an expense account also causes a decrease in owner's equity.