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It’s been a while now since the financial world went to hell in a hand-basket but not that big a while, as we all continue to struggle with the impact how are the banks making out? Well, they’re fine to be honest, they’re back to making money & doing their best to make as much of it as possible by charging plenty of interest whilst paying almost none. To look at an average bank now you wouldn’t believe that the current economic turmoil had anything to do with them whatsoever, I had hopes that the banks might have come out of the mess with a better or at least more realistic attitude but this is certainly not the case. If anything they’ve proved that they can do pretty much as they please & that if the brown stuff ever does hit the fan again then it’s in our best interests to act in their best interests. Frankly the whole thing stinks to high heaven & anyone who wants to believe that they’ll be responsible in the future when they have no chance of suffering the consequences of their actions is a bloody fool. (continue reading…)

It’s a problem that doesn’t seem to be going away even with the banks’ share prices coming along nicely, that’s the trouble with rushing in, it might need doing but it’s just never that simple. The fact is that this country borrows too much whether it’s a good year or not & then when the brown stuff hits the fan we’re stumped, it doesn’t even matter who’s in power either, they all do it. Given that simple maths tells us that we’ve got to take a few years to sort this out & that other things are going to happen there ought to be a proper plan. That the Tories want to play hack & slash is no surprise to anyone, it’s sadly the only plan they ever have, that the Lib-Dems are going along with is slightly amusing though. Selling out is always awkward & no matter how they dress it up it has always been a case of selling out for them, it was their only chance for power. Like many people I was hoping that with the return of vast profits to the financial sector we could be spared some of the pain caused by the financial sector, this doesn’t seem to be coming though, apparently we only count when they’re broke. (continue reading…)

It depends I suppose, I mean compared to what exactly? Obviously if you’re putting a run down council estate up against a new build of executive homes then your conclusions will be dull & predictable, & meaningless. I can only speak for myself but as an estate dweller for most of my life I’d have to say that there are both better & worse places to live. I’ve lived on a number of estates & whilst some of those estates are now predominantly private due to the selling off of social housing the fact is that it’s mostly former council tenants who still live in them. The estates may be bastions of poverty but that’s got more to do with who can qualify for a council house these days rather than the estates themselves & whilst they may not be overflowing with amenities only a few of them are truly dire. Like anywhere else in the world what kind of place you live in is defined by some degree by the people who live around you, on the estates this breaks down into ” good ” streets & ” bad ” streets although to the outsider all the streets will look the same. (continue reading…)

It’s always nice for politicians to have an easy target & for the Americans right now there’s no-one easier than BP, it doesn’t matter how much money they can throw at the Yanks, they’re still going to hate them, which is stupid. Okay if you were going to pick a group of companies that could be hated even more than the banking system then the oil companies are a fair point to raise, the profits they generate are obscene & they’re forever involved in the less democratic areas of the world in their endless search for fresh supplies. On any level despising the oil industry is peachy, it’s like loving the addiction but hating the dealers & we can all relate to that, after all it’s our way of life that spawned them & continues to feed them although we intentionally ignore this because it spoils all the hating & resentment. Even amongst the oil companies themselves there’s always one that gets to be singled out for a special dose of hating due to whatever disaster it caused or was attached to, at least until one of the other oil companies causes a fresh disaster & claims the crown back that it is. Right now BP is right up there as demon number one & if the oil spill had happened anywhere else in the world I’d be right there hating the company along with everyone else, but I can’t do it, it can’t be done & shouldn’t be done, as much as I’d like to join in with the abuse it’s just not right. (continue reading…)

I get the theory obviously, if the government can drag more money in than it actually spends then the debt will have to be reduced accordingly, it’s logical but also not quite. If the cutbacks increase unemployment then the government will have to spend some of the money it’s trying to save, & if the cutbacks reduce the amount of money people have then they’ll spend less so unemployment will go up. I keep studying the figures as far as I understand them but I can’t see why this isn’t political suicide, it’s probably a worthwhile risk right now with Labour still outcasts but it remains a risk. It may well be in the interests of the UK to have some harsh medicine to swallow but when the people doling it out are rich & those taking it are not then the risk that they’ll remember come election time has to be considered. People have never liked doing things solely for the common good especially when they’re only going to feel the benefits after years & even then only in the abstract. The lottery may make a comeback but it’s hard to see anywhere else getting a boost out of austerity, I aren’t saying that the job doesn’t need doing or that I care how unpopular the Tories get, just that I thought they were meant to be brighter than this? (continue reading…)

The famous can’t just die it seems, because they have an army of fans & attract the intense attention of the media as they live out their lives in public mere death is somehow beneath them. Not for them the humdrum deathbed or the quiet heart attack in the supermarket car-park, there must be intrigue & doubt or else they weren’t really famous. In deference to the principle that speculation about a famous death must begin at the point the body hits the floor Jackson ticks all the boxes & everyone wants to play. Sooner or later the mystical burger joint where Elvis cooks is going to get a new waiter, conspiracies are way better for many people since without them all you’ve got is a middle aged bloke over-exerting himself. It may be fun to remember Elvis as he was in the fifties but that’s not what he looked like by ’77 & by the same token the Jackson that made “Thriller” wasn’t the guy who was about to perform at the O2 arena, that guy was long gone. As soon as for most of us at least the concept of an actual death has been accepted the logical upshot of way too many people is that he must have been murdered, real stars live forever? Maybe they do, but their bodies don’t go the distance with them, if any other 50 year old drug addict collapsed & died after spending weeks dancing the only surprise would have been that it took weeks for it to happen. (continue reading…)

It’s hardly going to be a shock that this budget is going to upset more than a few of us, it’s not an easy job to conjure up money & as that’s why we’re in this mess it’s tougher still. Not that this means that I have much sympathy for our Government, they’ve worked damned hard to be there & always knew that this was coming. It will if nothing else go someway to proving who was right on curing the deficit without crippling the country, Labour were adamant that the cuts had to be bearable whereas the Tories wanted savagery & speed. It did worry me a little though that this budget is meant to not only cure the deficit but also to bring prosperity for all, this would appear to be Disney at work. I don’t mind all the flannel but it does keep occurring to me that we were led to believe that by saving the banks we weren’t only saving ourselves but setting ourselves up for a tidy profit to boot, perhaps we didn’t listen closely enough. Anyway, it doesn’t matter all that much right now, we may be preparing ourselves for some bad news but it’s not all that complicated & is mainly focused on where the bad news will hit rather than just how bad it will be. (continue reading…)

Why? I mean really, why? What’s the point aside from card sales & the like? Do we honestly need a whole bloody day every year to thank a bloke for having sex? Blokes in general don’t object all that much to sex & there has to be the possibility that some of the blokes involved actually enjoyed the whole conception business. Okay so there’s a bit more to fatherhood than just the sex although in too many cases there isn’t but even so, it’s not something that you should have to say thank you for just because the calendar demands it. It’s a funny way to handle gratitude, birthdays may be on the calendar but they’re there because that’s where they exist & not because some card company chose a day, being ordered to be thankful may be handy for the more organized among us but it still sucks. (continue reading…)

It’s about time people, I know that moving home has been a chore & that much is different at the moment but even with so much to do it’s been hard without the net. In an insidious & invasive way it has permeated so much of my world that the wrench when it was no longer there was tough to deal with. I’m so used to being constantly informed about everything & being able to take an active part in the endless discussions about nothing that swarm forever online. I wouldn’t mind but it was the first time in a decade that I’d been without it for longer than three days & once you start becoming wistful for dial-up you know things have got out of hand. Seeing the browser come back to life was one of the highlights of today but knowing what I know now it will no longer be the everything that it was before, I may even get some work done. (continue reading…)

The all new & shiny government has begun & as expected is busy hacking & slashing at the budgets of the nation in order to demonstrate their desire to destroy the deficit. I’m not actually here to knock the attempt either, it’s needed doing for a while now & we all knew it was coming, I do think though that it wont be as easy & straightforward as they seem to believe. An economy, no matter how big or small is a sensitive animal & since any adjustments made must somehow rely on all the variables staying the same it does require a very stable future in order for the pain to be controlled. It’s also true that there will always be areas that with the best will in the world will suck up money like a sponge, predictions are tricky things & cause & effect are ever there to kick you where it hurts. This remains true wherever you are in life & no matter whether you measure your budget in billions or in pounds, the uncomfortable truth that the politicos are heading towards is that you can only ever cut so far before the branches start to break. (continue reading…)