Access Accounting - Blog

Get your priorities right, Mr Brown

Gordon Brown got something right this week when he announced at the Labour conference that he wants to raise CO2 targets from 60% to 80%.  Significant climate change could decrease GDP by double digit percentages and this is a threat to our economy as well as a potential cost to humanity. 

How safe is your money?

When I thought about contributing to this blog I guessed I might add something each week.  It would seem difficult to write something topical about a subject I was interested in which would be of relevance in our marketplace.  Yesterday, I was saying we shouldn’t worry about the media, no need to sharpen that razor just yet.  But here we are, not 24 hours since I wrote that entry and Lehman Brothers has disappeared – quite literally down the plug hole.  I just learned that AIG has now been propped up by the Federal Reserve and now HBOS is in urgent talks with Lloyds about a possible merger/takeover.

The economy: would it be best to just slash our wrists?

Because that is how I feel after listening to Radio 4 for any hour of any morning right now and yet, after I get out of the car and get into work it is quite clear that for most of our clients the opposite is true.  Yes, it’s tough.  Yes, if you are buying from Europe and selling here your margins have just gone down the toilet.  Your customers moan about you trying to increase prices whilst your suppliers (particularly, it seems to me, our French colleagues) adopt a ‘can’t understand what you are talking about’ attitude when it comes to discussing exchange differences – ‘you were the ones that decided not to join the Euro’ followed by the French shrug. OK, the French have great cheese and the wines remain better than the stuff from Kent but perhaps arguably not as good as those from down under!