Greece is having a referendum on whether it should change the retirement age from 55 so it can pay back Germany billions of dollars
Protesters don't see why Greece should pay any money back
Germans don't retire till about 66 and they are the richest nation in Europe
Jesus said it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter ther kingdom of heaven. St Paul was the first Christian. The church is helping the City of London to throw out people protesting about the rich on the steps of.... St Paul's Cathedral
America is owned by the Chinese
Europe is about to be owned by the Chinese
America and Europe are so poor they may soon be in recession, if not depression
China needs both continents to be strong and successful, otherwise they will never see a dime back
China keeps its currency so weak that nobody can export into its country
America fought its fiercest and most divisive war against North Vietnam, backed by...The Chinese
Sons brothers and fathers, daughters, sisters and mothers are losing their lives In a war that nobody understands and nobody can win. That's how they described the Western Front in 1916.
Soon it will be remembrance Sunday when we commemorate the War to end all wars...
Harold Wilson invented a University which would have free access to all, with just a nominal charge. It's called the Open University, where fees are now £5,000 per year
George Osborn says we are all in this together
Signor Berlusconi has the responsibility of ensuring that Europe's 3rd biggest country doesn't collapse!
How bout we all just start again!
Lewis Caroll for President
!
Monday 31 October 2011
Thursday 1 September 2011
The "Eat me Pill" - essential for understanding this Financial Crisis. Part II
THE EAT ME PILL -PART TWO
THE ALICE IN WONDERLAND WORLD THAT IS THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
So Mr Hanky Banky has told Mr President , that the banks will do all they can to lend to small businesses to avoid the recession becoming a depression.
Then he speaks to Mr Ben Bernanke, head of the US Federal Reserve "The Fed", and he promises Mr Bernanke that his bank will only lend to top quality firms with little risk that the borrower will default. So this rules out many, if not most smaller firms.
Finally Mr Hanky Banky makes his most dangerous visit of the day - he attends the shareholders' meeting of his own bank, The Bank of Dispepsia. How could this meeting be dangerous when it takes place in the opulent surroundings of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York? It is the answer to THIS question that explains the start of the greatest financial crisis since 1929.
The shareholders are angry; furious actually. And why wouldn't they be? They bought shares in his bank at a price of $36.50 just two years ago, and now the share price of the very symbol of American Capitalism, The Bank of Dispepsia, has slumped to 36 cents. Before I explain how this happened I have to assure you , that everything in the explanation that follows, ACTUALLY happened on many occasions. Gradually, you will begin to understand the mess that we are in right now.
SIX MONTHS PREVIOUSLY ....
It starts in the city of Detroit - Motor City. In the horrendous slums of Downtown, men in $1,000 suits are knocking on doors. Their Target - "NINJAS". People with NO Income, NO Job, and NO Assets.
"Mr Winston, Sir, would you like to move to a brand new house in the suburbs?"
"Man, I'd like to spank J Lo's beeehind but that just aint gonna happen"
"No Sir, I am going to give you a brand new house with a 130% mortgage, and you just have to promise me that you will use the extra 30% to pay the mortgage loan payments. Come with me and I'll show you your new house...
One hour later Mr Winston returns from his new home having passed a Maserati showroom on the way back.
He calls to his wife,
"Mama, we're gonna move to a brand new house tomorrow, and you should just SEE my noo auto..."
"Leroy, I TOLD you come off that weed..."
But Leroy hasn't gone back on the weed, and his family and many others, move into lovely new homes in the suburbs, until....
With no incomes and no jobs, they cannot pay the mortgage. In the middle of the night, one by one, they leave their homes, put the keys through the front doors, and disappear into the night.
BACK EAST
While all these poor people, are leaving their homes, on the 57th Floor of The Head office of the Bank of Dispepsia, on Wall Street NY NY ,The Chairman, George Madison III, brings his Board Meeting to order. Around the huge Rosewood Table, 27 Vice Presidents of the Bank are hearing a very optimistic Annual report, and one particular area of their accounts is showing extraordinary growth: everywhere the word is CDO's (Collateral Debt Obligations). Now, sad to say, not one person in that room really understands what a CDO is, but one thing they do most certainly understand is this: their $1.5 million bonus which now resides comfortably in their UBS managed Portfolio, has resulted from the massive profits being generated by these CDOs. This certainly must be good news!
Actually its the worst news the capitalist system has ever heard, and some years later it threatens to bring down each and every major bank in the world.
So what is a CDO, and how was it that these bankers had received such large half year bonuses on the back of them? CDO's are packages of hundreds of loans, just like those given to Mr Winston, bundled up and sold on to other financial institutions as AAA Debt.
AAA Debt is the description given to loans that are so solid that there is simply no realistic chance that the borrower will miss a single payment, let alone default completely. So if Barclays lends money to Bank of America, over night, that might be called a AAA Debt. If the UK Government borrows money from UK Pension funds - those are AAA debts. But Banks all over the US were bundling up the most risky debts in the history of lending, hiding their true nature and selling them on from one bank to another.
The most immediate result, was the second major failure of a US bank - the fall of Lehmann Brothers in 2008 and the difference between THIS collapse,and the earlier one (Barings), was that it was about to bring the whole world down with it. -Forever after, these loans became known as the NINJA loans and they continued to be disguised as CDOs.
SIX MONTHS LATER
So now you can understand why Mr Hanky Banky, is not looking forward to his Annual Shareholder's meeting in Mid Manhatten.
Next time I'll explain the link between Detroit City in 2008, and the European Debt crisis which is still buffeting our shores like a Hurricane.
POLIT BLOX
THE ALICE IN WONDERLAND WORLD THAT IS THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
So Mr Hanky Banky has told Mr President , that the banks will do all they can to lend to small businesses to avoid the recession becoming a depression.
Then he speaks to Mr Ben Bernanke, head of the US Federal Reserve "The Fed", and he promises Mr Bernanke that his bank will only lend to top quality firms with little risk that the borrower will default. So this rules out many, if not most smaller firms.
Finally Mr Hanky Banky makes his most dangerous visit of the day - he attends the shareholders' meeting of his own bank, The Bank of Dispepsia. How could this meeting be dangerous when it takes place in the opulent surroundings of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York? It is the answer to THIS question that explains the start of the greatest financial crisis since 1929.
The shareholders are angry; furious actually. And why wouldn't they be? They bought shares in his bank at a price of $36.50 just two years ago, and now the share price of the very symbol of American Capitalism, The Bank of Dispepsia, has slumped to 36 cents. Before I explain how this happened I have to assure you , that everything in the explanation that follows, ACTUALLY happened on many occasions. Gradually, you will begin to understand the mess that we are in right now.
SIX MONTHS PREVIOUSLY ....
It starts in the city of Detroit - Motor City. In the horrendous slums of Downtown, men in $1,000 suits are knocking on doors. Their Target - "NINJAS". People with NO Income, NO Job, and NO Assets.
"Mr Winston, Sir, would you like to move to a brand new house in the suburbs?"
"Man, I'd like to spank J Lo's beeehind but that just aint gonna happen"
"No Sir, I am going to give you a brand new house with a 130% mortgage, and you just have to promise me that you will use the extra 30% to pay the mortgage loan payments. Come with me and I'll show you your new house...
One hour later Mr Winston returns from his new home having passed a Maserati showroom on the way back.
He calls to his wife,
"Mama, we're gonna move to a brand new house tomorrow, and you should just SEE my noo auto..."
"Leroy, I TOLD you come off that weed..."
But Leroy hasn't gone back on the weed, and his family and many others, move into lovely new homes in the suburbs, until....
With no incomes and no jobs, they cannot pay the mortgage. In the middle of the night, one by one, they leave their homes, put the keys through the front doors, and disappear into the night.
BACK EAST
While all these poor people, are leaving their homes, on the 57th Floor of The Head office of the Bank of Dispepsia, on Wall Street NY NY ,The Chairman, George Madison III, brings his Board Meeting to order. Around the huge Rosewood Table, 27 Vice Presidents of the Bank are hearing a very optimistic Annual report, and one particular area of their accounts is showing extraordinary growth: everywhere the word is CDO's (Collateral Debt Obligations). Now, sad to say, not one person in that room really understands what a CDO is, but one thing they do most certainly understand is this: their $1.5 million bonus which now resides comfortably in their UBS managed Portfolio, has resulted from the massive profits being generated by these CDOs. This certainly must be good news!
Actually its the worst news the capitalist system has ever heard, and some years later it threatens to bring down each and every major bank in the world.
So what is a CDO, and how was it that these bankers had received such large half year bonuses on the back of them? CDO's are packages of hundreds of loans, just like those given to Mr Winston, bundled up and sold on to other financial institutions as AAA Debt.
AAA Debt is the description given to loans that are so solid that there is simply no realistic chance that the borrower will miss a single payment, let alone default completely. So if Barclays lends money to Bank of America, over night, that might be called a AAA Debt. If the UK Government borrows money from UK Pension funds - those are AAA debts. But Banks all over the US were bundling up the most risky debts in the history of lending, hiding their true nature and selling them on from one bank to another.
The most immediate result, was the second major failure of a US bank - the fall of Lehmann Brothers in 2008 and the difference between THIS collapse,and the earlier one (Barings), was that it was about to bring the whole world down with it. -Forever after, these loans became known as the NINJA loans and they continued to be disguised as CDOs.
SIX MONTHS LATER
So now you can understand why Mr Hanky Banky, is not looking forward to his Annual Shareholder's meeting in Mid Manhatten.
Next time I'll explain the link between Detroit City in 2008, and the European Debt crisis which is still buffeting our shores like a Hurricane.
POLIT BLOX
Tuesday 30 August 2011
The "Eat me Pill" essential for understanding this Financial Crisis
The current crisis would be readily understandable to Alice, the rest of us just have to be inside the minds of the people at the Mad Hatters's tea party
Whose at the table?
Mr Opodopolis - outside his cafe in Paleokastritsa, drinking thick coffee, wondering what Mrs Opo is making for supper and looking forward to retirement at 42 . he has a wonderful quality of life all paid for by....
Mr Fritz Konigsburg of Hanover, who last had fun in 1961 and that was listening to a German versionof Suzanne by Leonard Cohen. he works all day, pays loads of tax, hasn't seen the sun all year, and just can't understand why he should be paying for Opo to sit in the warm sunshine. Enter our next friend
My Hanky Banky. Hanky has a problem too. But its a bit bigger. well about 2 billion Euros bigger. he has something called Dissocoiative Identity Disorder - usually called D I D or multiple personality syndrome
So, when he's seeing Obama in the Rose Garden, he's saying "sure we'll lend more to small businesses Mr President, you csn count on us" Then
Whose at the table?
Mr Opodopolis - outside his cafe in Paleokastritsa, drinking thick coffee, wondering what Mrs Opo is making for supper and looking forward to retirement at 42 . he has a wonderful quality of life all paid for by....
Mr Fritz Konigsburg of Hanover, who last had fun in 1961 and that was listening to a German versionof Suzanne by Leonard Cohen. he works all day, pays loads of tax, hasn't seen the sun all year, and just can't understand why he should be paying for Opo to sit in the warm sunshine. Enter our next friend
My Hanky Banky. Hanky has a problem too. But its a bit bigger. well about 2 billion Euros bigger. he has something called Dissocoiative Identity Disorder - usually called D I D or multiple personality syndrome
So, when he's seeing Obama in the Rose Garden, he's saying "sure we'll lend more to small businesses Mr President, you csn count on us" Then
Wednesday 24 August 2011
Patronising Polarity
PATRONISING POLARITY
What type of world is it where multi billionaire heirs to the throne, wearing £800 blouses offer solace to people in deprived areas who have suffered at the hands of rioters? Am I the only person to feel the irony churning out of the chimney like pollution out of a badly fitted exhaust?
It is surely the equivalent of the zoo keeper sympathising witht the elephant in the cage. It is just not possible to escape cause and effect. Our Monarchy, Dickensian Pantomime, spraying privilege like a garden sprinkler, is in no small part responsible for the discontent in our inner cities.
Do I condone the rioting? Perhaps not, much of it was opportunistic theft. Do I condemn it? What right do we, in our middle class homes, have to sit on high and condemn people sentenced by architects and social polarity to live in disgusting estates, if they protest in a manner considered disgraceful by the Daily Mail?
It reminds me of the diners in Dr Zhivago watching thepre revolutionary Bolshevik bread marchers passing by, and mocking that they will "sing better after the revolution"
The youth leader working on the estates, the GP with a Peckham Practice, the Case Worker visiting the people in the area, these people may have a right to comment on the situation and perhaps to console those who have suffered.
Please don't tell me that the lah de dahs who fly in for a voyeristic visit and photo opportunity, and then return home for a Polo Match and a Pimms have any right to be there or comment.
There can be no doubt that social alienation is enhanced to a significant degree by the idea that wealth and power is conferred by birth and privilege, and not by sweat and grind. That the quintessential upper class monarchs to be, should pay a token visit to an area that must look as familiar to them as Avitar, is patronising and provocative, not soothing and helpful.
JOB NO 1 THAT I WOULD LIKE
Up the stairs, down the corridor, past the cafeteira, in a little attic deep in Swansea, in the DVLA estate, is a happy man indeed. He has a wonderful job and he enjoys it every day. Its importance knows no bounds. His job is to return licence application forms, to people who need a new Driving Licence, if their signature has crept out of the prescribed box. He holds on to the incorrectly signed forms for 2 weeks, and then with a gleeful smile he sends them back to the recipients who think they have received their new licence.
POLIT BLOX
What type of world is it where multi billionaire heirs to the throne, wearing £800 blouses offer solace to people in deprived areas who have suffered at the hands of rioters? Am I the only person to feel the irony churning out of the chimney like pollution out of a badly fitted exhaust?
It is surely the equivalent of the zoo keeper sympathising witht the elephant in the cage. It is just not possible to escape cause and effect. Our Monarchy, Dickensian Pantomime, spraying privilege like a garden sprinkler, is in no small part responsible for the discontent in our inner cities.
Do I condone the rioting? Perhaps not, much of it was opportunistic theft. Do I condemn it? What right do we, in our middle class homes, have to sit on high and condemn people sentenced by architects and social polarity to live in disgusting estates, if they protest in a manner considered disgraceful by the Daily Mail?
It reminds me of the diners in Dr Zhivago watching thepre revolutionary Bolshevik bread marchers passing by, and mocking that they will "sing better after the revolution"
The youth leader working on the estates, the GP with a Peckham Practice, the Case Worker visiting the people in the area, these people may have a right to comment on the situation and perhaps to console those who have suffered.
Please don't tell me that the lah de dahs who fly in for a voyeristic visit and photo opportunity, and then return home for a Polo Match and a Pimms have any right to be there or comment.
There can be no doubt that social alienation is enhanced to a significant degree by the idea that wealth and power is conferred by birth and privilege, and not by sweat and grind. That the quintessential upper class monarchs to be, should pay a token visit to an area that must look as familiar to them as Avitar, is patronising and provocative, not soothing and helpful.
JOB NO 1 THAT I WOULD LIKE
Up the stairs, down the corridor, past the cafeteira, in a little attic deep in Swansea, in the DVLA estate, is a happy man indeed. He has a wonderful job and he enjoys it every day. Its importance knows no bounds. His job is to return licence application forms, to people who need a new Driving Licence, if their signature has crept out of the prescribed box. He holds on to the incorrectly signed forms for 2 weeks, and then with a gleeful smile he sends them back to the recipients who think they have received their new licence.
POLIT BLOX
Monday 22 August 2011
Polit Blox
An Anarchic, paradoxical, out of body look at issues, left of centre, but a chocolate with no centre and a view with no uniformity
A mixture of Charles James Fox, Aneurin Bevan and Alice in Wonderland -
Polit Blox starts September 2011
PB
A mixture of Charles James Fox, Aneurin Bevan and Alice in Wonderland -
Polit Blox starts September 2011
PB
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