Events, Dear boy, Events

It is indeed a sad indictment of the English underclass that they lack sufficient cultural sophistication to loot anything worthwhile. A stark indication of how badly the education system and prevailing economic model have failed to influence them - not least in explaining the risk/reward paradigm. This particular missing ingredient could well be instilled into the great unwashed by opening up a "Herman Goering School of Looting" in each of the more deprived metropolitan areas where a better understanding of proper English cultural values can be ingrained - leading to a, culturally attuned, economically sound, better class of looter This would be balanced by opening the "Mrs. Beeton School of Riot Control" in Chipping Norton to train police officers to inflict etiquette at the end of a baton round or water cannon. All done in the best possible taste.

Doing 6 months as a guest of Her Majesty for a bottle of water from Lidl as opposed to a Rembrandt or a Constable from the Tate illustrates a distinct absence of grasp of simple capitalist theory and belies the national cultural traditions so enshrined in being English. Rather than torching a Bangladeshi corner store for a packet of cigarettes a rampage through the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Opera House, Eton, Harrow, Barbour or Berry Bros & Rudd would demonstrate a better understanding of the true cultural priorities pervading the nation and possibly avoid the accusations of being simply dishonest, violent, unscrupulous and lawless, criminal, feral louts.  How about a bulldozer through the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club as a demonstration of ennui?

The Iraqis successfully looted their Museums and Art Galleries - why not the English? If this example is to be met what is missing is the presence of US troops on the streets of London. Fortunately the Prime Minister is looking to the USA for help in dealing with the illegal redistribution of athletic apparel and electrical appliances - it seems unlikely that US advice would protect museums and galleries. Colonel Blimps are already demanding troops on the streets, vigilante justice, public nakedness for anyone who isn't white and the death penalty for those socially inferior. All good Victorian values suited to an unequal society in which a bottle of wine or a waxed coat can cost more than a week's wages - if you get a weekly wage that is.

I find it confusing that the Prime Minister wants to take the streets back - which streets? Does he mean the streets where the untermenschen live or the ones where they like to go free-shopping. Seeing as nobody even wants to visit the streets where they live it seems unlikely that anybody actually wants them back. Putting them there was the whole point in the first place. Which makes a policy of tossing them out of their homes for rioting somewhat problematic. Where do they go? In the good old days they were sent to Australia. As that option is no longer available then under a railway bridge looks like the best location for hundreds of newly homeless convicts. They'll also have no money. Good plan, eh! Ringed by armed police teaching them the proper etiquette by pulling their hoody off while standing on their neck - a law enforcement technique taught at the Mrs Beeton School of Riot Control.

These police may have more hoodies to pull than they bargained for - as the whole country appears to be running out of money and could do so rather quickly given the present economic malaise. At which time the recent disturbances will seem somewhat low-keyed. By then Herman Goering's other unpleasant proclivities will be more like the government's chosen policy than his example to looters.

Pip, Pip.

And whose fault is this mess?

When I said hide I actually meant dig.

It appears I was out several trillion dollars on global stock markets' losses in the past week and a bit. And the only way out according to those tasked with our salvation, but abjectly failing to provide it, is more of the same. The fiction of Perpetual Financial Motion - I borrow from you to buy what you sell me - or in the case of countries, borrow from you to pay you back. Wasn't this something like what Global Crossing went to prison for?

I wish to reiterate yet again - it is the Banks. As their stock prices collapse (diminishing their capital reserves below required limits) we find that the financial origins of the GFC never went away - the chasm of debt remains. This inter-bank debt far surpasses the inter-country one which in itself is no small number - European Nations have lent huge amounts of money to each other – Italy has lent Spain $31bn, Germany has lent $238bn to Spain and Italy has borrowed $511bn from France. The UK has loaned Europe $200 billion. Now while countries can print money (leading to devaluation and inflation) the private banks can't. So unless countries do a Bank bail-out round two with fictional money - as in quantitive easing - they'll have to nationalise their failing banks - and that includes the USA. So the greater worry here is not that the odd country defaults but that in doing so the world's banks go crashing down carrying an estimated 100 trillion of assorted toxic financial instruments (CDO, CDS) with them. Quantitatively Ease yourself out of that one.

Anyway, the existing plan - austerity - isn't looking too sharp. The underclasses of London, Birmingham and Liverpool are showing the way. Not only are we seeing a fundamental financial meltdown but also a catastrophic social one. In an ever more unequal society once government threatens to, or actually does, remove the medical, unemployment, education and the rest of the social safety net then the peasants will revolt. So the present circumstances on the streets should come as no great surprise. Spouting tax breaks for business as the route to salvation in a jobless recovery isn't advisable when those presently helping themselves to free sneakers and TV sets - and the odd McDonald's - aren't included in the scope of the plan. Explaining this away as simple criminality is missing the plot. Even the Israelis are on the streets protesting the result of decades of stagnant wages and low taxes for the rich.

So it would seem that the message - "what is good for the rich is good for you" - hasn't caught on quite as well as Conservatives would have wished. When you operate a system that guarantees inequality then it behoves you to toss sufficient scraps to the dispossessed to keep them calm and allow you to keep making money without much inconvenient interference from them. Not doing so is enough to give Capitalism a bad name.

Now, while the British unwashed have turned to riot and robbery the great American unwashed have chosen the path of stupidity. In their ardour for small government they've dismissed the fact that government is the only thing with deep enough pockets that might, possibly, get them out of this mess. According to the Republicans, whose adhesion to Dogma rather than reality is seriously alarming, the solution is to remove government, slash spending, reduce taxes and the system will cure itself. This based on an laissez-faire economic theory that has recently proven unable to run itself never mind fix itself.  Also missing from this Cloud Cuckoo Land is the reaction of the people to perceived economic injustice - unfortunately in the USA this may mean arming yourself to the teeth and heading for the hills with a year's supply of Twinkies.

So we can either pretend that it'll all be right in the end if we just have "confidence" or we can do something about it before we're all living under the Chinese model - for as long as that lasts - and I wouldn't buy any shares in that either. There are none so blind as those that will not to see