Just yesterday we highlighted the sad, albeit not at all surprising fact that Abenomics is destroying [5] Japan’s middle class as the BoJ’s relentless bid for all financial assets coupled with non-existent wage growth is increasing the disparity between the haves and the have-nots just as one would expect from a set of policies which center around the relentless printing of fiat currency in order to inflate the assets most likely to be held by the wealthiest citizens. This is the same dynamic we should expect to play out in any country which deploys such policies and as such, we weren’t surprised to read the following from BBC [6]:
The NASUWT teachers' union says schools and teachers are increasingly having to deal with the consequences of poor housing and poverty.
Teachers reported bringing in their own food to school to give to children.
Claims about poverty in the school-age population were heard at the NASUWT teachers' union annual conference in Cardiff.
It was not a representative sample of teachers, but among those replying more than two in three reported seeing pupils come to school hungry.
"Children in 2015 should not be hungry and coming to school with no socks on and no coats - some children are living in Victorian conditions - in the inner cities," said one unnamed teacher.
Almost one in four of the teachers who responded said they had brought in food for pupils who were hungry, and an even higher proportion had seen the school feeding pupils.
More than three in four had seen pupils arriving at school with "inappropriate clothing" such as no socks or coats in bad weather.
Similar numbers claimed that a bad diet meant that pupils were unable to concentrate on their work.
More children were being sent home with letters about unpaid school meals and pupils who were sick were still being sent to school because parents could not afford to take time off work, claimed teachers.
And while some children may indeed be doing poorly when it comes to socks, investors are doing just fine when it comes to stocks (which we all know is the only true measure of economic health in the new paranormal) with the FTSE sitting near record highs. And as government officials were happy to explain to teachers, everything is fine no matter what those children are telling you:
Speaking at her own union's conference in Harrogate, National Union of Teachers president Philipa Harvey said: "Many of us will have provided breakfast for children so that they can cope with the demands of a school day as well as the teachers and other staff who are providing school uniform, books, coats."
"Because of our policies, there are more jobs than ever before, wages are rising faster than prices and with the lowest inflation on record, family budgets are starting to go further.”
"The NASUWT should recognise how the Conservatives have rescued the economy, and through that, delivering the jobs that secure a better future for families."
Perhaps, but consider the following projection [7] from Deutsche Bank and ask yourselves: what happens to the privileged children of the country's wealthy citizens if the value of financial assets stops rising? We suspect they'll still have socks...
What outcome to May’s General Election should investors be hoping for? Well, according to Europe’s biggest investment bank, it doesn’t matter – you’ll be feeling the pain either way.
In a research note released on Friday, Deutsche Bank said asset prices would be threatened by either a Labour or a Conservative government.
“For investors, there may be no good outcomes at this general election,” said Deutsche’s Oliver Harvey and George Buckley. “It is likely that growth will have to navigate the Scylla and Charybdis of fiscal tightening and less accommodative monetary policy whatever government takes office.”
