At the risk of boring you, this is what is happening to your future

In one of my helpful marketing ideas I quote the French Artist, Writer and Film Director Jean Cocteau who once began a speech by saying, “I have said this many times before, but nobody listened, so I will say it again.”

I have been saying for a long time that what politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are doing is short-sighted madness. Last week while she who loves to shop with friends was on a nostalgic trip down the King’s Road I spent a little time resting in the Chelsea Library, a haven I love.

In there I read The Spectator which has some comments about what it calls “perhaps the biggest financial gamble in British economic history.”

They refer to the fact that the little gnomes at the Bank of England are busy printing another £50 billion. Their contributor Bill Jamieson believes Quantitative Easing has pulled Britain into a Zero Era: low interest rates, low growth and low employment.

The price is to be paid by savers, pensioners and consumers. “This is not scrutinised because Sir Mervyn King is seen as being above politics, and his great gamble comes with a long and boring name.”

Nassim Taleb, the author of ‘Black Swan’ whose admirers include David Cameron, has a few choice words for the government: Osborne’s five-year plans are ‘bulls**t’, debt-fuelled growth is ‘a Ponzi scheme’ and QE is ‘a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.’

Mr. Taleb is careful to say that he remains an admirer of Cameron. I wonder why.

By the way, if you want to see a very good film, go and get Beauty and the Beast by Cocteau. Then when you’ve watched that there is a newly remastered version of Les Enfants du Paradis – Children of Paradise, a wonderful film made in the last days of the German Occupation.

How I have loved my time in France!

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

3 Comments

  1. Martin Dearden

    It’s now Mark Carney rather than Mervyn Davies and the QE in America, $89Billion per month for nigh on three years is credited with providing them with a boost to their economy and rising employment and growth. Not an economist (thank God). Just saying.

  2. Martin Dearden

    You? Boring?

    1. Drayton

      Absolutely. Just pour in enough wine and I can bore with the worst

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