#old policies

[eaglesnick]

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” – Peter Drucker

There is much confusion regarding the proposed “national wealth fund” to be created by Rachel Reeves. Many commentators who should know better  - CITYA.M, yahoo finance,  Financial Analyst, to name but three -  describe it as a “sovereign wealth fund” but nothing could be further from the truth.

“A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund comprised of money generated by the government, often derived from a country's surplus reserves. SWFs provide a benefit for a country's economy and its citizens.”  (Investopedia:20/06/24)

This is NOT what Rachel Reeves is proposing.

Reeves is creating a “national wealth fund" not a “sovereign wealth fund” and although many think that the words "national" and “sovereign” are interchangeable in this instance they are not.

The key point to remember is that  a sovereign wealth fund is set up with “surplus reserves”. These can take the form of foreign currency operations, the proceeds of privatisation, balance of payment surpluses, government transfer payments, fiscal surpluses and so forth.  There is no role for private investment in a sovereign wealth fund. A sovereign wealth fund is owned solely by government on behalf of taxpayers, and all profits go to that government for the benefit of its citizens.

What Rachel Reeves is proposing is something totally different.

Labour’s aim is to invest £7.3bn in a national wealth fund:

“to create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country...as a "central plank” of its green prosperity plan” (Labour List: 16/06/24)

Although Labours stated ambition of creating 650,000 “good jobs" is to be applauded,  if Reeves had created a “sovereign wealth fund" rather than a “national wealth fund” then the exchequer would also have reaped 100% of the profits generated by her "green prosperity plan".

Alas, this is not  the case. For every £1 of taxpayer’s money invested in the national wealth fund, Reeves expects to attract £3 of private investment. In short, 75% of Reeves "national wealth fund” will be owned by the private sector, and presumably they will be taking 75% of the any profits generated.

I am not saying a national wealth fund is necessarily a bad idea but a sovereign wealth fund would have been so much better and it is misleading and sloppy of commentators to confuse the two.

Reeves herself can also be described as being less than transparent.

“Under the government’s new plans the fund will bring together key institutions and a “compelling proposition” for investors which will mobilise billions more in private investment and “generate a return for the taxpayer.”  (FT Advisor: 09/07/24)

What those “compelling propositions” will be are at present unknown, but it is reasonable to expect some sort of tax concession or taxpayer subsidy will be available to private investors.

This really isn’t very different to what is happening now. In the 2023 Autumn Statement the Government  announced £4.5bn in subsidies for British manufacturing. In addition to subsidies, corporations also  receive tax breaks, the Financial Times informing us:

“UK businesses to receive £27bn in investment tax breaks.” (15/03/23)

How the old system of government subsidies, tax breaks and grants differs from Reeves  “ national wealth fund” remains to be seen. What Reeves should publicly acknowledge is that her new fund is NOT a sovereign wealth fund and that the vast majority of the profits generated by this fund will go to private investors not the British taxpayer.

[navree]

Incorrect, the fact that Biden has dropped out and a candidate with history of supporting medicare for all and being more receptive to a ceasefire in the I/P conflict has made me go from "I cannot morally support the Democratic nominee" to "I am voting for the Democratic nominee despite the fact she isn't perfect in every respect." I'm really happy this played out. The Dems for the most part abandoned the old Obama platform and it feels like its possible an actual progressive agenda could come to pass in my lifetime.

Kamala 2024!

If you weren't going to vote Democratic in this election before Biden dropped out you're a dorkass loser who does not care about any of the issues you're yammering about here and also a fundamentally bad person, and I hope you get run over by a bus.

But you got one thing right in all of this gibberish, Kamala 2024.

[opbackgrounds]

This is a pretty off-hand statement, but it sets up one of the most important moments of Sabaody, when Luffy makes it very clear that he wants to discover what's ahead for himself rather than be told

[itslookingback]

message to all trans people please survive

[foxgirlmoth]

Okay, lets go through this apparent list of positives that Biden is in favor of.

Trans Rights: There have been multiple laws within states to fully close off especially trans kids rights to medical treatments and more. This is extremely current. Biden puts in minimal effort to look like he's doing anything at all for trans and queer rights, and there haven't really been any efforts aside from doing one or two proposals that immediately get shot down, and he's more than okay with that, hence why there's no longer really any push for this shit still. If you're trans, you can't piss in Utah without the risk of getting a fine right now. Even though these are state laws, the fact that there's been nearly zero effort federally to address this besides the title IX rule, speaks a lot about priorities in this area.

Abortion Access: Are we just forgetting the whole Roe V Wade getting overturned thing that happened in 2022? Are you really trying to say that this is good for abortion access? Abortion access has gotten actively worse.

Environmental Reform: Biden has endorsed extreme oil drilling projects and in general oil companies still love him! Not to mention the train crashes which we'll get to later.

Healthcare Reform: Covid-19 is still around and is sadly predicted to stay around for a long while. Healthcare is still private and a competitive field in the US and that causes major issues as well. If you look this up, you see articles titled along the lines of "Biden has lowered the cost of insurance" and meanwhile it just dropped in 2020 once during the pandemic but has been growing in cost.

Prescription Reform: Reading into this, not much has changed, which isn't surprising under genocide Joe. Drugs in the US are still higher than anywhere else in the world, and with healthcare issues still abundant, this is still a big issue.

Student Loan Forgiveness: Student debt is still extremely high in the US, and while Biden has rolled out some plans for forgiveness, it's a fraction of the debt, and he primarily uses the whole thing to win over swing states. This is a dangling carrot that provides very little overall.

Infrastructure Funding: Train crashes from 2020-present, worldwide, but notice the amount of US crashes! Neat! Quite literally just look up train crashes in the US during his presidency, there's too many to link here. It is also important to remember that Biden signed a bill to prevent rail strikes, preventing a lot of pressure to the government and the economy, which would have been a GOOD THING. Seriously, this guy has fucked up our environment and our rights in multiple ways.

Advocating Racial Equity: Structural racism within the US is still a huge problem, Biden hasn't addressed much. Also people are still in cages on the Mexico/US border (Which has been maintained by every president in office since it was established), with a very recent crackdown on the border.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Just. Look at the racial equity and trans rights sections above. Biden does the bare minimum, loves focusing on swing states, and all around uses the ol' carrot on a stick.

Vaccines and Public Health: Once again look above at sections on healthcare, abortion access, and prescription reform. Its bad. Remember how Covid-19 vaccines aren't being continued for free?

Criminal Justice Reform: This is just structural slavery still. Disproportionate amounts of black people are incarcerated, police are still heavily funded under Biden. He does not care about reforming the justice system, he even supports cops breaking up campus protests! Cool!

Military Support for Israel: Yup! Both sides suck! Biden has a very long history of sure hating Arabic countries though! He's done nothing but ship weapons and participate in the genocide of Palestinian people. Would Trump also do this? Yes. Does this mean this is an issue you should just drop and call a non-issue? No, what the hell are you talking about.

Israel/Hamas Ceasefire: Netanyahu has no plans to accept any actual ceasefire, yet Biden still provides weapons and support. Wow! That sure is weird? I wonder if Biden really cares about a ceasefire or how he just looks publicly.

Biden is not a good president, much less a good human being. You provided such a flimsy chart with zero resources or support behind you, and it just feels like people are just making shit up at this point. Get your heads out of the liberal cesspool you grew up in.

[not-so-superheroine]

[cozylittleartblog]

new button sets

feddy || bemdy

[lavendertarot]

ngl despite how much I love art that follows awful people in bad situations, I think my favourite theme in mouthwashing has gotta be the ways in which blue collar jobs not only involve intense amounts of physical labour but also mental and emotional labour, especially in the face of an uncaring and supposedly familial corporate sheen. like it's surface level, but it's good and it's real.

[imageingrunge]

“Im against all support for murderous hamas” okay well I’m not. No one is born a terrorist they are made, what other course of action is there to take when you see your family members hunted for sport because you are Arab. Where the very government you live under bans all political parties that do not support the existence of Israel as an ALL Jewish state (1), withholds funds against institutions that recognize the forced displacement of 750,000 Palestinians in the establishment of said state (2), places video cameras in Arab only polling stations (3), whose very own citizen laws restrict the ability of Palestinians from Israel to marry individuals from the West Bank or Gaza (4) If your grandparents were expelled from the land after 1948 you cannot legally return nor can any of your future descendants (5). Even the UN described the control over Gaza as nothing short of a “medieval military blockade”. By 2021, Gaza had a 45% unemployment rate and a 60% poverty rate, with 80% of the population dependent on some form of international assistance. (6) What else is there to do? No human being should be expected to peacefully put up with such abuse

[daily-xisuma]

[177] Either I come out of this experience a murderer or very sad

[allthecanadianpolitics]

For Gwich'in on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border it's a major victory, even if it isn't set in stone.

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced it's cancelling seven oil exploration leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area that includes the breeding grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd.

Gwich'in people consider the area "the sacred place where life begins."

"It's a step in the right direction for this administration to make," said Bernadette Dementieff, executive director of Alaska's Gwich'in Steering Committee. "We still have a lot of work to do to permanently protect [the refuge], but I'm really enjoying the news."

Pauline Frost, chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation in Old Crow, Yukon, said the decision allows Gwich'in "breathing space" to organize further efforts to put the refuge forever off-limits to oil and gas development, something that would require an act of Congress. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[atariakana-art]

Brett Yang

Uploading some of my old Twoset fanarts to tumblr :^) This one just turned three a few days ago, actually! Based on a photo from their Tirade World shoot.

Program: Procreate Time elapsed: ca. 16 h Finished: October 13, 2021

Reference photo under cut.

Please do not repost to other platforms! Thank you!

[booasaur]

Today in Gaza (May 11, 2024), a small fraction of the many reports tonight:

(Blurring mine:)

[yandere-daydreams]

Helloooo out of curiosity, how do you deal with hate? Like on or off anon? Sorry if you’ve answered something similar before but yeah. I’m just starting out as a yandere writer (inspired by you and this blog!!). I posted a fic and it didn’t even have over 200 notes when I got my first hate comment (not on anon). My fic wasn’t even on the main tags lol.

honestly the only advice i can really give is not to interact with it. discourse in any form is very draining and unpleasant, so while there is that knee-jerk reaction to defend yourself, you'll be better off just deleting the ask/comment and moving on. it's also much worse for newer/smaller blogs without established followings, so with a little time, you do eventually grow out of being an easy target for people with simply nothing better to do. just kinda weather the storm for a while and it'll get better quickly.

[st4rstudent]

I think almost everyone's aware now but for anyone who isn't; TTCC has moved wikis.

The new wiki (please do use it) is Here !

There is also an extension to help remove fandom wikis from search results which is linked Here! There is also another extension Here that links to other independent wikis.

You can also find the reddit post about the move Here.

[communistkenobi]

“detrans” people have literally nothing valuable to say about the trans experience just as people who identify as “ex-gay” have nothing valuable to say about being gay. when you people stop being mouthpieces for mainstream violent transphobic rhetoric, when you stop taking interviews and participate in documentaries whose sole purpose is to argue that trans people need to be restricted from seeking medical care and social support, when you stop framing transition as mutilation of the “natural” human body, is when you can start being treated with anything other than hostility by the trans community. but until that point do everyone a huge favour and shut your fucking mouths