SKYLON an opportunity for British commercial space development
It seems that all the three main UK parties have one economic thought in common, and that is we do too much finance as a % of our GDP. What nobody seems to agree on is how we as a nation diversify our economy sufficiently so it starts to look more like Germany and less like a club for the city. I thought I would throw out a few ideas to add to the debate:
INVESTMENT
Money is the grease and the engine of the economy. Hence CAPITALism. So how does it get to small, medium sized technology/industrial based enterprises? This has been a deep concern of politicians and economists alike since the banking crisis in 2008. Quantitative Easing has been the most used indirect way of floating the system in capital and thereby hoping that investment ends up in the place it needs to. This works to a degree, but if we want to have a more directed effort the following two solutions are workable:
1 We own big high street banks now, so dictate their investment strategy to the UK. We will after all guarantee them. Politicians have been frightened to do this because they don’t want to be seen as telling the experts what to do. Well the experts aren’t that expert, that’s why we own the things in the first place. Get on and do. There are plenty of decent enterprises that need the cash.
2 You can learn something from everybody. In this case Benito Mussolini. In 1933 the Italian government created the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (or the IRI for short) it lasted until it was privatised in 1990. By then it was flawed by cronyism, but the concept was secure .So secure the current Italian Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti is thinking of reintroducing it. But what concept is it you ask?
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You can learn something from everybody. In this case Benito Mussolini. In 1933 the Italian government created the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale
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The IRI was a sovereign investment fund. It invested in lots of small and medium sized Italian business and raised capital in the international markets because it was big enough to do so and was guaranteed by the Italian state. This kind of Sovereign investment company could work here . It could be used to fund everything from big enterprises like the SKYLON project to widget manufactures in diddy light industrial estate, West Midlands somewhere.
The best thing then is that new industries are invested in by you and me, and when they got big and successful could be floated on the market for a tidy profit. It isn’t only the Italians who are re looking at this model, but the French already have one of a sort called Fond Strategique d’Invsetissement. How about the BRITISH INVESTMENT CORPORATION ( BIC) as a name?
By Mark-in-History
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