I listend to Radio 4's Any Questions? last Saturday and a question about bankers' bonuses reared its lovely head. And then the pundits fell down, one after another.
I can't answer the conundrum about the sound of one hand clapping, but I sure heard the sound of punches being pulled. Perhaps some of the speakers have banker friends; perhaps some are hoping not to alienate the Masters of the Universe in the weary stagger up to a General Election. But here's what I'd like to have said, and it proceeds from a simple question:
Did the bankers know the likely consequences of their actions?
If they didn't, they are incompetent and instead of dithering about the threat of the RBS' board to resign, the government should sack them and all like them. Doctors who are that bad at their jobs would be sued and/or worse.
If they did, they should be jailed. In my view, Max Keiser is not exaggerating when he calls them terrorists. They have wrought destruction on our economies and though the human cost may be hard to assess accurately, it is and will continue to be terrible.
So, why isn't it happening? A number of reasons occur to me:
1. It is convenient for politicians to have a few people earn (sorry, be given, legally steal) vast sums of money. The lucky recipients of this largesse can be taxed at 40% (or even 50% as under today's draft Budget proposals) and still have more than they can possibly eat, drink, wear or stick up their noses. "Tax doesn't have to be taxing", as that wretched radio advert chirrups.
2. Clapped-out politicians may one day be looking for a well-overpaid sinecure, like T--- B----. Best not to be too hard on your potential future employer.
3. Embarrassingly, the roots of the credit crunch are not (not merely) in socialist profligacy, but date back to the early 1980s. It was a so-called Conservative government, supposedly a convert to monetarism, that opened the floodgates of credit and tsunamied the economic "boom". Not a genuine boom, and now a very real bust. Criticising the present hapless bunch too sharply would beg a loud, sustained argument of "tu quoque" ("thou also didst so").
4. Just as an addict is partly responsible for the sins of the dealer, the consumer is implicated in the phoney house price rises and the spending spree. But I say that the Devil has the lowest place in Hell, because his knowledge was greater.
5. Nevertheless, if push came to shove, the bankers could point out that effectively, they were acting as the agents of a government determined to win re-election.
Very well, then. Let us have our punishment - we shall, anyway, and the next generation after us. But they must have theirs - the bankers, the politicians and the Fourth Estate that got too close and too cosy for too long.
Go for it.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Debt: UK economy worse off than USA's
This article from Credit Writedowns looks at the development of debt over a long time, in both the US and UK economies.
Two things stand out (see charts 1a and 1b):
1. US debt (as a proportion of national income) is a worse problem now than in the Great Depression of the 1930s.
2. The UK's debt burden is signficantly worse than America's.
Consumer indebtedness exploded in the early 1980s - see the the first chart on this site. Up to then, it had pretty much kept pace with the growth of the economy generally. This is a major part of how our economic problems have developed - a deliberate loosening of credit to restimulate the stagnant economy of c. 1982. The banks grew fat on the loan-financed consumer boom, and on the inflation of property prices.
Now, our governments are looking for a way out. Mass unemployment and bankruptcies will turn the voters against them, so they have tried to keep the banking system going with loans that future generations must pay off. Insiders will tell you that they don't really know what they are doing, but they are in a panic to do something.
Technically, we are experiencing deflation - the total amount of money plus credit in the economy is shrinking, as lenders and spenders have become more cautious. But just as with Dubai recently, foreign investors are losing confidence in our ability to repay debt, and the dollar and pound have become worth less on the currency exchanges.
In the UK, as in the US, we spend a lot on things that come from outside our economy, and some of them are hard to cut out - energy, for example. So while house and car prices may be coming down, other costs are still rising, in pound terms. And as economic problems continue, it is possible that the pound may have further to fall.
So a combination of a slowed-down economy with price inflation - "stagflation" - is a potential threat to the UK.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
Two things stand out (see charts 1a and 1b):
1. US debt (as a proportion of national income) is a worse problem now than in the Great Depression of the 1930s.
2. The UK's debt burden is signficantly worse than America's.
Consumer indebtedness exploded in the early 1980s - see the the first chart on this site. Up to then, it had pretty much kept pace with the growth of the economy generally. This is a major part of how our economic problems have developed - a deliberate loosening of credit to restimulate the stagnant economy of c. 1982. The banks grew fat on the loan-financed consumer boom, and on the inflation of property prices.
Now, our governments are looking for a way out. Mass unemployment and bankruptcies will turn the voters against them, so they have tried to keep the banking system going with loans that future generations must pay off. Insiders will tell you that they don't really know what they are doing, but they are in a panic to do something.
Technically, we are experiencing deflation - the total amount of money plus credit in the economy is shrinking, as lenders and spenders have become more cautious. But just as with Dubai recently, foreign investors are losing confidence in our ability to repay debt, and the dollar and pound have become worth less on the currency exchanges.
In the UK, as in the US, we spend a lot on things that come from outside our economy, and some of them are hard to cut out - energy, for example. So while house and car prices may be coming down, other costs are still rising, in pound terms. And as economic problems continue, it is possible that the pound may have further to fall.
So a combination of a slowed-down economy with price inflation - "stagflation" - is a potential threat to the UK.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Beware the stock market boom
Another commentator I follow is an American called Warren Pollock. Here he says you should think twice about investing at this time. Companies raise cash from you by offering shares; now they have money, and you have hope.
In 1999, I attended a monthly meeting for brokers where a representative from one of the investment houses gave his views on the boom in technology shares. According to him, what we we were seeing was nothing to what would come after - the "super-boom". This was what we were to think, so we could advise our clients to buy into his company's technology fund.
Fund management companies earn a percentage of the money invested with them, so according to them it is always a good time to invest - the bigger their fund, the bigger their earnings.
If you are an investor who bought your shares through a stockbroker and you got in at the right time (low price), you need to get out at the right time (high price), so you need another buyer who thinks the price will go even higher. If you bought via a collective investment (e.g. the unit trusts that underpin most ISAs), then you can simply sell your units back to the fund - which means the fund has to find the cash to give you. And if the fund doesn't find new investors, it will shrink. So, maybe, that's the time to send their rep round to the brokers.
So you can see that at least two groups of people have a vested interest in encouraging optimism in you, even when they may not feel it themselves.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
In 1999, I attended a monthly meeting for brokers where a representative from one of the investment houses gave his views on the boom in technology shares. According to him, what we we were seeing was nothing to what would come after - the "super-boom". This was what we were to think, so we could advise our clients to buy into his company's technology fund.
Fund management companies earn a percentage of the money invested with them, so according to them it is always a good time to invest - the bigger their fund, the bigger their earnings.
If you are an investor who bought your shares through a stockbroker and you got in at the right time (low price), you need to get out at the right time (high price), so you need another buyer who thinks the price will go even higher. If you bought via a collective investment (e.g. the unit trusts that underpin most ISAs), then you can simply sell your units back to the fund - which means the fund has to find the cash to give you. And if the fund doesn't find new investors, it will shrink. So, maybe, that's the time to send their rep round to the brokers.
So you can see that at least two groups of people have a vested interest in encouraging optimism in you, even when they may not feel it themselves.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Can we trust government information?
This snappy clip from the Mint.com blog (tip of the hat to Nathan's Economic Edge) examines official U.S. unemployment criteria and argues that the real jobless rate is not 10% but 17%.
As governments on both sides of the Atlantic continue to flounder, perhaps we can expect more misleading information and carefully-biased definitions. The inflation rate looks like another good candidate for this kind of treatment.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
As governments on both sides of the Atlantic continue to flounder, perhaps we can expect more misleading information and carefully-biased definitions. The inflation rate looks like another good candidate for this kind of treatment.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Britain faces stagflation, says Walayat
Sheffield-based market analyst Nadeem Walayat argues that Britain's debt burden will continue to increase, accompanied by inflation as the government prints more money and the pound weakens against other currencies. Interest rates will have to rise to attract further lending to the UK, and the result will be economic stagnation.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
Friday, December 04, 2009
China takes the long view
From Pension Pulse:
Keith thinks that all this talk of excess capacity in China is missing the bigger picture. He told me that China is planning and preparing for the future so they have every reason to over-invest now and build up their infrastructure aand stockpile the resources. It makes sense when you think about it; they saw all the mistakes the Western world made and decided its best to be better prepared for the future.
There are still problems in China, most notably the disparities between the rural and urban population, but they're making leaps and bounds in almost every area, including clean energy where China is securing first mover advantage in the market for renewable energy.
Keith thinks that all this talk of excess capacity in China is missing the bigger picture. He told me that China is planning and preparing for the future so they have every reason to over-invest now and build up their infrastructure aand stockpile the resources. It makes sense when you think about it; they saw all the mistakes the Western world made and decided its best to be better prepared for the future.
There are still problems in China, most notably the disparities between the rural and urban population, but they're making leaps and bounds in almost every area, including clean energy where China is securing first mover advantage in the market for renewable energy.
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Could Japan inadvertently start a run on America's credit?
Florida-based professional investor Karl Denninger comments on a rumour that Japan is considering selling U.S. government bonds ("Treasuries"). He reflects that such a move could begin a run on U.S. Treasuries, and the largest holder by far is China, who some think may have up to $1 trillion of U.S. debt.
A selloff would put pressure on the U.S. to raise interest rates, and this could have a domino effect in other countries. Higher interest rates make businesses' finance tougher, as well as hitting their customers' disposable income and therefore reducing demand for goods and services. So a crisis of faith in America's ability to repay its debts, and to maintain the exchange value of the dollar, could plunge the world economy back into recession. The investment outlook in this scenario would not be positive.
Denninger is a long-standing Cassandra on the U.S. economy, but he has a fairly sizeable following in the American personal investment community and despite his tendency to express himself in stark terms, his views and information should not be lightly dismissed.
A further reason to take him seriously is what has been happening between China and its U.S. debtors. It's been said some time ago, that China has been selling the debt of U.S. States and corporations in favour of U.S. Treasuries, because the latter are fully backed by the American Government. In retrospect, this seems to have been a very prudent move, since a number of U.S. States are now having significant difficulty in balancing their budgets, owing to a shrinking tax income and rising bills for unemployment benefit. It's understood that China has also been selling longer-term Treasuries to buy shorter-dated ones, because the latter offer an earlier exit should America's credit rating and currency weaken. So the notion that China might suddenly need or want to sell off Treasuries, is not entirely implausible.
On the other hand, America is China's best customer and if the dollar fell sharply or consumer spending reduced even more severely than it has already done, this would hit Chinese exports and increase unemployment in China, which is already a significant problem. It is in both parties' interests to manage the situation. The wider picture, many believe, is a long economic decline in the West as the East develops markets closer to its home, but at this stage everyone will prefer an ebbing tide to a tsunami in reverse.
Perhaps we should instead expect a slowing in the rate at which U.S. debt to China is increasing; and maybe an increasing reluctance on the part of the Chinese to purchase new Treasuries when the old ones mature.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
A selloff would put pressure on the U.S. to raise interest rates, and this could have a domino effect in other countries. Higher interest rates make businesses' finance tougher, as well as hitting their customers' disposable income and therefore reducing demand for goods and services. So a crisis of faith in America's ability to repay its debts, and to maintain the exchange value of the dollar, could plunge the world economy back into recession. The investment outlook in this scenario would not be positive.
Denninger is a long-standing Cassandra on the U.S. economy, but he has a fairly sizeable following in the American personal investment community and despite his tendency to express himself in stark terms, his views and information should not be lightly dismissed.
A further reason to take him seriously is what has been happening between China and its U.S. debtors. It's been said some time ago, that China has been selling the debt of U.S. States and corporations in favour of U.S. Treasuries, because the latter are fully backed by the American Government. In retrospect, this seems to have been a very prudent move, since a number of U.S. States are now having significant difficulty in balancing their budgets, owing to a shrinking tax income and rising bills for unemployment benefit. It's understood that China has also been selling longer-term Treasuries to buy shorter-dated ones, because the latter offer an earlier exit should America's credit rating and currency weaken. So the notion that China might suddenly need or want to sell off Treasuries, is not entirely implausible.
On the other hand, America is China's best customer and if the dollar fell sharply or consumer spending reduced even more severely than it has already done, this would hit Chinese exports and increase unemployment in China, which is already a significant problem. It is in both parties' interests to manage the situation. The wider picture, many believe, is a long economic decline in the West as the East develops markets closer to its home, but at this stage everyone will prefer an ebbing tide to a tsunami in reverse.
Perhaps we should instead expect a slowing in the rate at which U.S. debt to China is increasing; and maybe an increasing reluctance on the part of the Chinese to purchase new Treasuries when the old ones mature.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
India: reasons to be cheerful?
A briefing from SimplyBiz (the IFA support company) gives reasons why India may be an economy worth watching in years to come.
The demographics are in favour (half are under 25), the system is entrepreneurial and there is a large class of well-educated people.
The country has not yet adequately developed the infrastructure to support a booming industrial economy, but the government intends to spend $500 billion in the next five years to remedy this - and half a trillion dollars buys a lot more in India.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
The demographics are in favour (half are under 25), the system is entrepreneurial and there is a large class of well-educated people.
The country has not yet adequately developed the infrastructure to support a booming industrial economy, but the government intends to spend $500 billion in the next five years to remedy this - and half a trillion dollars buys a lot more in India.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
Is inflation on the way?
According to one commentator I follow, Japan has been pumping extra money into its system, seemingly with a view to making its currency weaker, which would make its exports cheaper and so stimulate extra demand.
If that was the plan, the first part of it seems to have worked, except in weakening the Yen vs the US dollar. The dollar went lower on world currency exchanges and Mr Pollock's reading is that the markets have started to wonder whether America will seek to do the same as Japan.
Pollock compares this situation to the beggar-thy-neighbour system between the two World Wars, when countries imposed tariffs on each other's exports to protect their own industries. Devaluing currencies was not so easy when they were backed by gold; now, nations can more easily expand their money supply to create inflation.
If other countries follow suit*, then the relationship of money to real things will alter and people will look to get rid of cash and buy things that will hold their value. Perhaps this is one of the factors behind the rise in the price of gold, but there's lots of other ways we could invest our money. Few are guaranteed to counter inflation, except products like National Savings Index-Linked Certificates; and even there we have the question of how the Government calculates the rate of inflation.
It is unsettling for the ordinary saver. Just when it seemed that "cash is king" and the prudent, frugal person was going to be rewarded by seeing prices drop (look at houses, cars, cruises, TVs and computers etc), the value of his/her money may be hit by inflation once again.
UPDATE (1st December):
* North Korea has just done something far worse. It has replaced the old currency with a new one, but only allowing a certain amount of the old to be changed into the new - effectively, a robbery of the larger saver.
UPDATE (4th December):
Koreans burning old money in protest, Korean government easing restrictions on converting currency (BBC) - (hat-tip to Credit Writedowns)
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
If that was the plan, the first part of it seems to have worked, except in weakening the Yen vs the US dollar. The dollar went lower on world currency exchanges and Mr Pollock's reading is that the markets have started to wonder whether America will seek to do the same as Japan.
Pollock compares this situation to the beggar-thy-neighbour system between the two World Wars, when countries imposed tariffs on each other's exports to protect their own industries. Devaluing currencies was not so easy when they were backed by gold; now, nations can more easily expand their money supply to create inflation.
If other countries follow suit*, then the relationship of money to real things will alter and people will look to get rid of cash and buy things that will hold their value. Perhaps this is one of the factors behind the rise in the price of gold, but there's lots of other ways we could invest our money. Few are guaranteed to counter inflation, except products like National Savings Index-Linked Certificates; and even there we have the question of how the Government calculates the rate of inflation.
It is unsettling for the ordinary saver. Just when it seemed that "cash is king" and the prudent, frugal person was going to be rewarded by seeing prices drop (look at houses, cars, cruises, TVs and computers etc), the value of his/her money may be hit by inflation once again.
UPDATE (1st December):
* North Korea has just done something far worse. It has replaced the old currency with a new one, but only allowing a certain amount of the old to be changed into the new - effectively, a robbery of the larger saver.
UPDATE (4th December):
Koreans burning old money in protest, Korean government easing restrictions on converting currency (BBC) - (hat-tip to Credit Writedowns)
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Vent for the Day
In a discussion thread was this gem. What do you think?
'Innovation requires imagination, which requires an atmosphere where people can do that freely. That's why freedom is always better and leads to the "great ideas."
It's the idea that's important. Whoever has the idea can always get the geeks to actually create it.'
That's nice. Have someone else do all of the work, and get none of the credit. That's why the US and UK are overrun with technical talent.
'Innovation requires imagination, which requires an atmosphere where people can do that freely. That's why freedom is always better and leads to the "great ideas."
It's the idea that's important. Whoever has the idea can always get the geeks to actually create it.'
That's nice. Have someone else do all of the work, and get none of the credit. That's why the US and UK are overrun with technical talent.
Charitable giving - is it cost-effective?
As money gets tighter, charities have to compete more for what we are able to give them. How do we know that our contribution is being used effectively?
In the United States, you can log onto Charity Navigator and get financial information and ratings on U.S. charities, but unfortunately there is no sister site for the UK, so we have to check our charities with other sources.
For example, let's take a worthy-sounding UK-based cause called the World Children's Fund. This is attractively presented on its own website, and I have had several slick mailshot approaches from them which made me feel emotionally coerced. But are they value for money? I could look them up on Charity Choice, which says "WCF ... has minimal overhead costs". However, this may merely be a wording supplied by WCF itself, so we turn to the accounts submitted to the Charity Commission, where it transpires that 29.1% of the funds raised have been spent on "Generating voluntary income". Compare that with the British Red Cross Society, which only spent 13.7% on the same category.
But that's only one way to do the figures. Calculating the proportion that goes on "charitable spending", I see that WCF manages 70% as against the Red Cross' 76%; and the Red Cross is a massively bigger outfit, so it might benefit from economies of scale. Yet according to Charity Navigator, Action Aid International achieves 84.9% for "program expenses", despite having a turnover less than half that of WCF's.
Well, we get down to complexities of accounting again. How many hands touch the money as it goes past, how much sticks to their fingers, how much ends up where it's needed? How detailed, transparent, honest are the accounts?
And it also gets philosophical: what are the needs you're trying to address? How well are you succeeding? And don't the people involved in running the charity have needs, too? Should they work for nothing?
UK-based Intelligent Giving tries to give a subtler approach to weighing up the performance of charities, and how well they report on what they're doing - see here for their judgment on the Red Cross, for example. Intelligent Giving also features a page listing other evaluation sites and foundations that screen beneficiaries and projects.
New Philanthropy Capital is another UK-based organisation researching charities; and their blog argues that we can be too easily diverted by expenditure issues and should re-focus on what we are trying to achieve.
In short, think about and research your giving carefully, as you would do with other important spending.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
In the United States, you can log onto Charity Navigator and get financial information and ratings on U.S. charities, but unfortunately there is no sister site for the UK, so we have to check our charities with other sources.
For example, let's take a worthy-sounding UK-based cause called the World Children's Fund. This is attractively presented on its own website, and I have had several slick mailshot approaches from them which made me feel emotionally coerced. But are they value for money? I could look them up on Charity Choice, which says "WCF ... has minimal overhead costs". However, this may merely be a wording supplied by WCF itself, so we turn to the accounts submitted to the Charity Commission, where it transpires that 29.1% of the funds raised have been spent on "Generating voluntary income". Compare that with the British Red Cross Society, which only spent 13.7% on the same category.
But that's only one way to do the figures. Calculating the proportion that goes on "charitable spending", I see that WCF manages 70% as against the Red Cross' 76%; and the Red Cross is a massively bigger outfit, so it might benefit from economies of scale. Yet according to Charity Navigator, Action Aid International achieves 84.9% for "program expenses", despite having a turnover less than half that of WCF's.
Well, we get down to complexities of accounting again. How many hands touch the money as it goes past, how much sticks to their fingers, how much ends up where it's needed? How detailed, transparent, honest are the accounts?
And it also gets philosophical: what are the needs you're trying to address? How well are you succeeding? And don't the people involved in running the charity have needs, too? Should they work for nothing?
UK-based Intelligent Giving tries to give a subtler approach to weighing up the performance of charities, and how well they report on what they're doing - see here for their judgment on the Red Cross, for example. Intelligent Giving also features a page listing other evaluation sites and foundations that screen beneficiaries and projects.
New Philanthropy Capital is another UK-based organisation researching charities; and their blog argues that we can be too easily diverted by expenditure issues and should re-focus on what we are trying to achieve.
In short, think about and research your giving carefully, as you would do with other important spending.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Société Générale: how to invest if the credit crunch worsens
A new report (fourth quarter of 2009) from French investment company Société Générale (SocGen) looks at the potential threat to the world economy of mounting debt. It may be that the credit crunch is far from over.
On page 12, the report looks at how investments could be affected, in the worst case. If the scenario is correct, then over the next 12 months SocGen predicts the best gains will come from long-term government bonds, and agricultural commodities.
On page 12, the report looks at how investments could be affected, in the worst case. If the scenario is correct, then over the next 12 months SocGen predicts the best gains will come from long-term government bonds, and agricultural commodities.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Could Dubai be the trigger?
Warren Pollock points out that the real danger lies, not in Dubai possibly deciding to default on its sovereign debt, but in the credit default swaps surrounding the debt, which may magnify the problem by 10 - 100+ times. If some of these huge side bets are wild ones not adequately backed by the gamester's capital, off we go - and off Pollock goes, for his well-earned beer.
Incidentally, he gives a lovely description of a quantitative analyst: a schizophrenic with an IQ of 160 who belongs in a rubber room, but since he's working for a financial firm and "no-one understands him, what he's doing must be right". Only a brighter quant could spot his colleague's errors. Quis custodiet, eh?
Incidentally, he gives a lovely description of a quantitative analyst: a schizophrenic with an IQ of 160 who belongs in a rubber room, but since he's working for a financial firm and "no-one understands him, what he's doing must be right". Only a brighter quant could spot his colleague's errors. Quis custodiet, eh?
Don't know why, but this made me smile:
If you're feeling a little down today, and looking for something to be thankful for, be thankful you have not lent money to Dubai. Unless, of course, you have lent money to Dubai.
If you're feeling a little down today, and looking for something to be thankful for, be thankful you have not lent money to Dubai. Unless, of course, you have lent money to Dubai.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Breaking News - "Debtman" sunk
The following extract has been taken from news agencies, though Internet reception is currently poor on account of flooding and there may have been some scrambling of information. For the full story, click here.
British 'Debtman' Gordon Brown ditches in Atlantic
Not Philippe Naughton
The British political adventurer Gordon Brown found himself in deep water today after a failed bid to make the first long-range economic flight using a debt-powered wing attached to his back.
Brown, 58, planned to fly 7 years from the 2008 Credit Crunch to the 2015 General Election, at a speed of almost £120 million per hour, a flight that should have taken about 80 months.
Only a year into the flight, however, the British "Debtman" disappeared from TV feeds. Live pictures shortly afterwards showed him up to his neck in it, swimming around beside his Parliamentary pension golden parachute, while the IMF prepared to winch him to safety.
The reason for his failure was not immediately apparent to anybody except the blogosphere, but the British premier seemed to be unhurt and waved at a passing TV crew.
British 'Debtman' Gordon Brown ditches in Atlantic
Not Philippe Naughton
The British political adventurer Gordon Brown found himself in deep water today after a failed bid to make the first long-range economic flight using a debt-powered wing attached to his back.
Brown, 58, planned to fly 7 years from the 2008 Credit Crunch to the 2015 General Election, at a speed of almost £120 million per hour, a flight that should have taken about 80 months.
Only a year into the flight, however, the British "Debtman" disappeared from TV feeds. Live pictures shortly afterwards showed him up to his neck in it, swimming around beside his Parliamentary pension golden parachute, while the IMF prepared to winch him to safety.
The reason for his failure was not immediately apparent to anybody except the blogosphere, but the British premier seemed to be unhurt and waved at a passing TV crew.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
My hero!
Banks: "parasites... financial bastards... should never have lent the money in the first place... bankrupt them... nationalise them... cancel debt... or the economy will die... never-ending Depression."
Straight-talking Aussie economist Steve Keen, talking to teeth-clenched grinning, gonzo (but still on the money, in my opinion) "Wall Street are terrorists" Max Keiser.
Straight-talking Aussie economist Steve Keen, talking to teeth-clenched grinning, gonzo (but still on the money, in my opinion) "Wall Street are terrorists" Max Keiser.
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