15 February 2011

15/02/11


Courage doesn't always roar.  Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."
-Mary Anne Radmacher

144 comments:

  1. I always did like that Radmacher quote. Morning all.

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  2. @Atomboy:

    (From last night) Good comment re. the “Big Society”. Cameron’s idea may, when put alongside supportive State structures, have merit – because everyone wants to live in neighbourly neighbourhoods, right?

    But you can’t force people to volunteer – and you can’t foster a spirit of “community” where “communities” don’t exist. The State should provide the glue that binds us – for all the “volunteering” and “good works” you or I or anyone else might do, there’s no getting round the fact that the world has become a more complicated, fractured, expensive place.

    58 years ago, Brenda’s Coronation was celebrated with bunting and trifle in Sebastopol Terraces up and down the land – the next big Royal event will be marked by an indifferent shrug of the shoulders, and possibly a lie-in.

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  3. Morning campers!

    Yes, nice quote that ;)

    Shiloh:

    "the next big Royal event will be marked by an indifferent shrug of the shoulders, and possibly a lie-in"

    Or my preference - a riot!!!

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  4. Shiloh

    I imagine you mean Johann Hari's comment, quoted from The Independent - but I agree with both you and it.

    There is also some more bad news for Dave's Big Idea, which will keep being pumped up and squeezed until it suddenly pops, at which point he will, no doubt, say that it was never a central plank of his government nor did his credibility rest upon it.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/camerons-big-society-relaunch-runs-into-big-trouble-2215053.html

    Cameron's Big Society relaunch runs into big trouble

    Libraries may be run by US private firms / Non-dom to head up Big Society Bank

    ...

    As for the changing face of royal adulation, it is hard to imagine that the jelly and bunting and paper-hat celebrations all those years ago hid any real hard-core malcontents or serious republicans.

    This time, apart from the shruggers and lie-inners, I expect there will actually be some scattered, if low-level, demonstrations, probably quite a bit of media mockery and a growing feeling that the time for gawking at the antics of a circus of inbred dimwits and over-privileged no-hopers is pretty much over.

    If nothing else, it should make people wonder quite how much we are all in this together - even if they are so clumsily and obviously trying to pretend that [insert names of the two shitbags when you can remember them] are just a couple of common or garden chavs.

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  5. @LaRit:

    ”...Or my preference - a riot!!!”

    Heh, God bless the fighting Irish. Éirinn go Brách, eh?

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  6. Cracking article from Monbiot on CiF.

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  7. Choccy our lah.

    The Irish election will be interesting, not least because there's an outside chance that the Shinners might make it into government (highly unlikely and much more likely a Fine Gael/Labour coalition).

    It'd almost be worth having Adams as a Minister of State to see the attacks of the vapours it'd give people both here and in Britain.

    FFS don't give him the Minister of Defence portfolio. Just sayin'.

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  8. @RapidEddie:

    "...Choccy our lah..."

    I wouldn't bet on it.

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  9. Wybourne

    From the Monbiot article:

    To understand its position, you must first understand that the government is not managing the economy for the people of this nation. It is managing it for a tiny transnational elite, a kind of global gated community. To the people inside the gates, who fund the Conservative party, who own our politics, the media and the banks, the rest of us are an inconvenience, to be bribed, threatened or fooled.

    Didn't Paul Krugman make a similar point in the NYT a month or so ago?

    Actually, didn't many of us try to make the same type of point repeatedly over on CiF during the last two or three years - only to be summarily deleted or banned?

    However, perhaps it is heartening to note that it now seems The Guardian is wondering whether they backed the right, er, horse in this particular political donkey-derby.

    Cameron huffed and puffed and became pinker and shinier when Nick Robinson suggested he was simply Margaret Thatcher with a nastier face.

    So much hate will soon be heading his way after such a short time in office.

    Tears before bedtime all round.

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  10. Atomboy,

    to be fair to Monbiot, he's always been consistent in his criticisms of banking, economic malpractices and city influence on politics both New Labour and Conservative.

    He went a bit madcap on environmentalism IMO but he's been razor sharp on the above and also on the grand larceny which is PFI.

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  11. Anyway... I imagine that Cameron will be a bit more concerned this morning about inflation than the BS, given it’s jumped from 3.7% to 4%, CPI’s running at 5.1%, while wage settlements for the majority of us (OK, me) run at something close to zero... I’d say we’re in for a bit of a shit time over the next couple of years.

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  12. Wybourne

    Yes, I agree.

    I was not being very clear. I meant that CiF in general is now having to be less than fawning to the government and people know that the process of abuse which they are now going to have to endure or oppose has been facilitated by the LibDems - the very people The Guardian decided to cheerlead just before the election.

    The problem with Monbiot and others pointing out that governments only operate for the benefit of a tiny few is that people have been persuaded, against the odds, to believe that they are within a hair's breadth of being that rich themselves.

    Some kind of anti-rich propaganda is needed to stop people from thinking that they are going to bump into Philip Green or Nathan Rothschild when they book their £150 two week package to Torremolinos on a credit card which is already screaming, "Stop!"

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  13. Shiloh

    Yes, but the Big Society is the part of the long-con which distracts attention. It is the cuddly, helping-hand, you can trust me element.

    Otherwise, he may as well just pull out the knife and mug us all in broad daylight.

    At the moment, his problem will be that nobody believes the lies and they also get uppity at suddenly finding themselves to have more in common with the beggars and homeless than the lovely yacht-boys like Cameron and Murdoch and Deripaska and Mandelson and Rothschild.

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  14. Shiloh:

    Hehehe!

    I can't help myself! :)

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  15. @Atomboy:

    ”...that people have been persuaded, against the odds, to believe that they are within a hair's breadth of being that rich themselves...”

    I must be the odd man out, then, because I’ve never aspired to be “rich”. I don’t covet fast cars, crash pads in rural France, six weeks a year at Klosters, iPods, Kindles, 47” 3D TVs, spiffy little netbooks or any of that shit. I don’t lie awake at night wondering how to convert the pound in my pocket into a ten pound note on the back of someone else’s effort. I don’t regard my colleagues at work as stepping-stones to greater career opportunities. I regard the Lottery as a tax on fools.

    I do, however, worry a good deal about keeping my family warm, fed, clothed, and housed, keeping our Y-reg car on the road, and what will happen to all that if/when I lose my job.

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  16. Morning folks nay...Good morning...

    yep the psycho dwarf as his is endearingly called here is going on trial in April....but the best is that the judges in the trial are all women as they say in these parts "é cazzi suoi" roughly translate "it's his fucking problem"
    despite massive tax fraud, collusion with the mafia, blackmail etc etc the dwarf is going to trial for paying underage prostitutes and bribery

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  17. Swifty 10.41--I found this link on those inflation statistics in the Larry Elliott thread this morning. Excellent from 3 minutes in on the contortions and distortions the statisticians have been up to for years now.
    Crash Course: Chapter 16 - Fuzzy Numbers by Chris Martenson here

    The vid is based on the work of John Williams - here.

    I read the Selden and Dover BS, off to see the Moonbat! As the Duke said, he was ace on PFI, and completely ignored , of course.

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  18. swifty

    I'd be with you on that about aspiring to be rich...I just aspire to survive....

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  19. Shiloh

    Yes, I agree with what you say.

    However, you have to keep in mind that many - perhaps most - people do not live within their means and everyone has tended to live through an age where the overriding trend of thinking is that things will forever get better and, if we encounter a blip in our fortunes, we will be assisted by the state until we get back on our feet.

    We have not experienced that state deliberately cutting our feet from under us, as we all hurtle towards a brave new world in which our lives simply get worse and worse in order to ensure that a few magically chosen ones achieve a material heaven on earth.

    Everyone had to be told that the good life was available for us all to grab, elbowing others out of the way and kicking them in the teeth to get what we wanted.

    Big Society is our introduction to the new slave economy.

    In that regard, we are certainly all in this together.

    Cunningly, Dave and his pals chose not to invite themselves to participate in this aspect of the new world order.

    We are alone en masse, without the tools to equip us to cope with flying backwards into the savage arms of feudalism.

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  20. and abuse of power......considering he used his position as PM to get ruby out of jail saying that she was the niece of mubarak......

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  21. gandolfo &swifty -- on 'survival', exactly the phrase 4 minutes or so into that video, my paraphrase, -- "the cost of living stats(inflation figs) have morphed into the cost of survival>.

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  22. GeoffSoup on the food-from-Tesco-bins thread:

    Is there any possibility of finding the Police Officer involved in this incident and charging him with wasting his own time?

    Made I larf.

    Good news on Berlusconi!

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  23. Duke:

    Thanks for pointing to the Monbiot article.

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  24. Bitterweed - yep! As Gandolfo has confirmed ;)

    Sorry I missed your message t'other day - was on me course....

    Gandolfo:

    "despite massive tax fraud, collusion with the mafia, blackmail etc etc the dwarf is going to trial for paying underage prostitutes and bribery"

    In a way, it's apt, it was probably the one thing he thought he would get away with. Very heartening to hear that the Judges will all be women!!! hahahahahahahaha!

    Maybe the trials for bribery and corruption etc. will follow thereafter.... he could be in court for years.

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  25. @Atomboy:

    I’m really not fucking bothered if Cameron et al are super-duper-“caviar for breakfast”-rich – that’s a freak of birth (and marriage) in his case, and I’m not the envious type. He’s got his money, good luck to him.

    I just don’t aspire to it, is all. The weekly £3.99 bottle of white from Sainsburys ends up down the pan the same as the £78 “bargain” picked up at the hypermarket on the way back from France, after all.

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  26. good to see marty hasn't forgotten his true eloquent style in his cut and paste "journal" today's "editorial"

    "Cradle of Filth"
    "Oh look, surely we don’t have intellectually challenged visitors from the Cradle of Filth, the Cesspit of Mediocrity and the Sewers of Charisma Bypass – aka Your Fat and Ugly Mom’s Blog – do we?"

    marty
    you should be a bit more welcoming to the people that frequent your media challenge to murdoch

    ...and do stop lurking and come and impart your wisdom...

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  27. Awww bollucks, Gandolfo, have we bin done bin rumbled!!??

    (Does that mean I have to give my pen back?)

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  28. Shiloh

    Yes, of course.

    However, you can argue your own particular case and, as I have said, I tend to agree with you; but I was trying to give my impression of where the period since WWII has generally led us in terms of expectations and the widespread trend for living on credit and how that may be changing as from now as a fixed feature of the future.

    There will certainly be many people like you who are unimpressed with consumerism and and all the tangible tokens of success, along with the whole wobbly principle behind it.

    There will be others who buy into it hook, line and sinker and who are too young to have experienced their lives collapsing around them, who will be ill-equipped to cope with sudden reversals of fortune.

    There will be many others somewhere in the no-man's-land between riches and penury, success and failure, getting on or getting by and the thousand and one other things which make up life.

    I am simply saying that the West has tended, for the last two or three generations, measured a person's worth to all intents and purposes in material terms and perhaps the majority of people have bought into that process.

    The fact that you or I or significant numbers of others may not have done so does not mean it has not happened in general terms.

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  29. gandolfo

    Nice to see MarrakeshInEntropy soaring into the intellectual blue yonder once he finds himself unfettered by the crippling confines of mere CiF.

    No doubt he will find the letter "N" on his keyboard in due course and show the world how he can use it to reveal the hidden depths of his mind.

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  30. James

    it's a bugger isn't it.....I've already speed posted my tena lady's back...

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  31. Yeah well, he's not getting the M&S vouchers back, because I've already spent 'em!!

    (they had a special offer on Angel Delight!!)

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  32. i have just bought 2 packs of potatoes from Sainsbury's - I am advised (on the website) that they will last 4 days. They were on offer.

    My last bag of tatties lasted me a month the last ones tasted fine!

    This reminds of the oranges they burned in California in the 30's many people in the states were starving then!

    Thing is supermarkeys see food as commodities not nourishment. Commodities must of course be sold at a profit.

    They fail to understand that by giving them to charities they are giving the food away to people who couldn't afford to buy it on the first place.

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  33. @Atomboy:

    ”...I am simply saying that the West has tended, for the last two or three generations, measured a person's worth to all intents and purposes in material terms and perhaps the majority of people have bought into that process....”

    Yep, good enough, and I agree with the thrust of it, except perhaps to say that it’s not just a “Western” phenomenon, but, increasingly, a global one.

    Anyway, that loafing dilettante Ken Clarke QC is right enough about one thing – there’s a hard rain coming, and even those amongst us who thought they were waterproof are going to get a proper soaking.

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  34. Shiloh

    Again, I also agree with you about the global aspect of it, except to say that the people of the developing world probably looked t the evidence around them and concluded that it was never going to be something which was actually open to them all.

    They would have seen that most people remained poor, whereas we have tended to try to hide those casualties, both physically and by imposing a thought-crime on ourselves for thinking that poverty for many is the penalty to be paid for success of the few.

    As for Ken Clarke - isn't he playing nice-cop-nasty-cop with Cameron? Softening people up, so that they think that if they are not actually flayed alive, they have got off lightly?

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  35. annetan42

    Yes, now that we are copying the lovely American dream and consigning the casualties of success to depend on food parcels to stay alive long enough to be able to crawl into the gutter, so they do not impede the progress of the dazzling limousines of the blessed, perhaps we should all write to the bosses of our favourite supermarkets to ask them what they are doing to help to feed the poor.

    Lovely embarrassment all round if enough people publicise the fact that starvation is part and parcel of Austerity Britain.

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  36. Just wanted to park this one here, from the Monbiot article...

    Richard Murphy's comment

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  37. Hi La Rit 13.19, thanks for the link, no time to read all of long threads!

    The counter to his argument for increasing bank capital etc to survive Impending Doom Mk2 is that no way would it ever be enough.

    My original jotting on the monbiot, no time to expand and post, was-- The argument that naked shorting provides liquidity is obvious tripe. It does increase volatility , which is where the High Frequency parasites make their billions.

    It looks more and more as tho we are again well in Chuck Prince territory "You can't stop dancing while the music's still playing".

    Completely mad. I'm off down the Survival Garden.

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  38. Anne - bag of spuds lasting a month?!

    Clearly not an Irishwoman.

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  39. hello - admin question - on the punching bunnies/march hares thread it thinks that there's 201 comments but when I open the thread it's locked at 199 comments. Anyone else have this problem? What happened to the last 2 lost comments

    and does it matter?

    probably not

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  40. Good afternoon, untrusties. No mention of Egypt here for over two days now. Now that the military are running the country, have told people not to strike, have decided that there won't be elections for at least 6 months (if ever), and have emptied Tahrir Square can we find something even more exciting?

    Has the liberal cause celebre now moved on to other issues and pastures new? Have all the weeping keyboard-warriors who cried tears of joy at the brave protesters now dried their eyes and forgotten all about the noble fellahin and the media-savvy educated youth of Cairo? After all the excited talk here of 'revolution' and protestations of support for the wonderful Egyptian people, are you just going to cast them aside and jump on the latest bandwagon to prove how really concerned and caring you all are?

    What is that new liberal bandwagon, anyway? Bahrein? Yemen? Iran? It's so hard to keep up!

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  41. parallax - I've noticed that the counter is off too. Could possibly be due to duplicates in the spam bin that have been deleted, but I haven't investigated.

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  42. thanks thaumaturge - yep, spam bin sounds right - just didn't want to miss out on either massive spats or excellent music

    I'll survive:)

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  43. hi bp good to see you - so what do you suggest? what's your latest bandwagon?

    I'll give you a moment to think about that - in the meantime I'll checkout you tube and get back to you

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  44. @Everyone:

    Anyone seen that young sixth-former “badpenny” round here recently? You know the one – spotty kid, bit of a loner, glasses... laughs at his own “jokes”... turns up here occasionally to have a heavy-handed and artless prod at the wet hand-wringers and middle-class hypocrites? I’ll admit to being slightly concerned for his well-being – I’m afraid he might have done himself a nasty injury with that blunt, rusty sword of his.

    Hey “badpenny”! If you’re around, let us know how the A-levels are going, yeah?

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  45. enough already Shiloh - I like badpenny, I also like that other bloke (luke?) who had a spat with someone (meerk?) - can't remember.

    *interlude*
    checked a few threads and can't find the spat
    */interlude*

    because they're good value

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  46. Thank you for your kind words and concern, shiloh. The A-levels went fine - I'm reading PPE at Oxford now. It's chock-full of upper-class hypocrites, which is why I like slumming it here. When I eventually disappear into the hedge-fund job that pater has set up for me, I don't imagine I'll have much time to shoot the breeze with the defensive, deluded middle-classes one finds so easily on this blog. But I appreciate your input. Really, I do.

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  47. Ah, there you are.

    Anyway, defensive? Moi? Hardly, sunshine – I’m probably marginally less popular than you round here. Thing about you is though, if you’re going to set yourself up as the scourge of the chattering classes (Cowpat Junction Branch), you should at least be funny with it. Otherwise it just looks, well, leaden, easy and a bit, errm, "meh" (sorry Philippa!).

    There – you can have that one for nothing, and refreshing to see there are some youngsters around with good manners at least. Next time, though, the meter’s running. You’ll thank me in the long run, sonny.

    Seriously.

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  48. badpenny

    Ah the liberal bandwagon. I'm firmly on the the Egyptian one as you know. You should get together with Hank/Luke you could make dual attacks on us.

    As it happens, my (ex) old man came back from Egypt early yesterday. I'd fill you in with what's going on in the part of the country where he stays if i had the time and thought you were actually interested but since you only come on here to sneer at us, I can't be arsed.

    Good article in the groan today by Hussein Agha and Robert Malley if you can be bothered to find it.

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  49. Thanks, Mr. Shiloh. I will definitely try to be funnier in the future.

    Incidentally, I've noticed that whenever selfmademan pops up here and does his very repetitive copy of the very 1980's Henry Root stuff, everybody falls about laughing and replies to him in what they fondly imagine to be a sort of selfmademan patois. Is this something you would recommend to a young and inexperienced, but enthusiastic iconoclast with a profound desire to be amusing? To just copy someone else - but who to take as a model? Benny Hill or Eric Morecambe or Jean Paul Sartre? Or should I just be myself, drop the humour entirely and just swear violently at people like montana does?

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  50. Indeed, sheffpixie. You were very vocal about Egypt for a couple of days (never before and not since). I would actually be interested in your ex-husband's take on what's been going on there. Although, being sceptical, I'll also assume that he doesn't speak Arabic and he owns/runs some sort of boarding house/hotel in the Sharm-al-Sheikh area which caters for Belgian scuba-diving enthusiasts. Please tell me I'm wrong.

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  51. parallax, i think that happens when someone deletes a post. Their post still shows on the front page as part of the count, but not within the thread itself. I could be wrong, but that seemed to me to be the pattern.

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  52. Christ, that took a while. Lucky you’ve not got an adoring audience to satisfy, eh?

    Anyway, first things first, the Very Important Question of “selfmademan”. Don’t find him particularly funny myself. Must just be a personal blind spot – plenty of others clearly do. Not going to lose sleep over it.

    Second things second – err... oh fuck it, listen, can’t you just be a bit funnier? There are so many wonderful targets on here you could skewer, and I’m sure your friend thinks you’re an absolute hoot, but really son – your last was just so anodyne I’m losing the will to... zzz...

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  53. badpenny

    You are wrong. He stays with very good Egyptian friends. His Arabic is execrable but he is forgiven as they like him.

    There is a thing called real life BP where actual things happen...am more involved with that than posting on blogs tbh.

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  54. Dave

    My original jotting on the monbiot, no time to expand and post, was-- The argument that naked shorting provides liquidity is obvious tripe. It does increase volatility , which is where the High Frequency parasites make their billions

    A good point re: increasing volatility, in light of this little gem I discovered from 2008.

    A sole wheat trader has triggered losses of $141.5m (£70.9m) at MF Global after a failure in the commodity broker's trading technology allowed him to breach trading limits.....

    The incident highlights the fragility of financial trading systems in fast-moving and volatile markets such as wheat, particularly at times of heightened nervousness in the financial system.......

    Mr Dooley is understood to have taken a large short position in the wheat futures market on Tuesday night, which turned sour when the markets opened on Wednesday morning, as volatility and prices jumped to record highs
    On the CME, soft wheat futures dropped an initial 11pc on news of MF Global's losses, but rebounded by 21pc within five minutes.


    I was going to respond to CapitalistPigg as some of the conversation had turned to Egypt on the thread.

    Do I now get a Gold Star from BadPenny?

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  55. @badpenny - don't copy (although I'm a bit disturbed by your choices - I mean hello? shouldn't there be a stepping stone between Hill and Morecambe? No problems, obviously with the existentialist Sartre connection). So toadally - be yourself - I'm listening.

    @Meerkatjie - thanks - as I mentioned to thaumaturge upthread - stressed out (not) that I'd missed out:)

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  56. La Rit

    I read both those Monbiot pieces - which were excellent. Don't know a great deal about financial speculation but my understanding is that it is more than partly responsible for the rise in global food prices recently - together with weather events that have affected crop yields. Betting on food...amazing what some people think is acceptable.

    Do I now get a Gold Star from BadPenny?

    Don't know whether BP is that generous but he/she could probably point you at a bandwagon to jump on so he/she can proceed to have a go at you.

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  57. Right, there you go, badpenny. La Rit and Sheff have obligingly given you a couple of wide-open goals to hoof the ball into, and parallax (he manages to continue living in Australia so he must have a sense of humour) will cheer you on from the sidelines while you line it up... I’d stick around myself to watch but, y’know, real life and all that... however, I’ll look in tomorrow to see what the final score was.

    Promise.

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  58. A sole wheat trader has triggered losses of $141.5m (£70.9m) at MF Global

    Bad Monkeyfish!

    Where the hell has he been, anyway?

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  59. Hello all, I hope yers are having a good 'un.

    Is that the time? I can just sneak in a song called "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side"

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  60. SheffP:

    I temped as an Administrator for a hedge fund for 10 months in 2006/7. Suffice to say, they were very interested in the wheat markets and I discovered from a visitor, that wheat prices used to be as reliable as clockwork - high prices in winter and lower in summer, but he said that increasing speculation had sent it haywire.

    For CapitalistPigg to claim that the 'markets were only responding to events' is absolute bollocks.

    As for BP - where has she/he gone? Can't take the heat, clearly.

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  61. sorry everyone - this is more upmarket

    even funnier I did the html link via Cif Waddya site and clicked post - aaaaaaaaaargghhhhhhhhh

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  62. Yes Thauma... where is that naughty Monkey?

    Heyhabib - hello ;)

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  63. parallax

    I did the html link via Cif Waddya site and clicked post -

    just listened to the track...heh...heh...

    Think I might break my resolution and visit waddya....watch the fun.

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  64. Parallaxview, it takes a special kind of idiot to do the post on Cif by accident thing... welcome to the club :-)

    You have Absolute Presidency after that blinder, though...

    Hiya, La Rit!!!

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  65. parallaxview:

    Is he the Chas n Dave of Oz? ;)

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  66. Sheff

    the article on the buying up of virtual food supplies - particularly wheat.

    I too read this earlier. Wheat production is shrinking world wide. KSA had to stop production as fossil aquivers were depleted , China is suffering lower yeilds and as article says the growing of bio fuels is cutting back production in US.

    As the noose tightens around food supplies we will all suffer from higher food costs - the poorer nations and the poorer people in the rich nations first.

    There is also a lot of speculation around the amount of oil KSA actually holds in reserve thus making peak oil a moveable feast and fuelling price hike. S Arabian people will suffer from loss of income as oil shrinks - KSA trying to move towards more mixed economy.

    Increasingly oil speculators are looking to African nations and the internats are buying up arable land across the world depriving local farmers of land and livlihood. The money men have control of all the resources and the basic essentials of life.

    The dual dictatorship of the speculators and gvts. of developed world with the wealth amassing tyrants of the Arab nations are depriving millions of access to the basics such as food and those who accuse us of 'jumping on bandwagons' over Egypt fail to understand that many of us see these things as global issues and so understand that we need to make common cause with them.

    Tackling it at the national level only will get us nowhere. National politics can , at best, alleviate some of the more accute problems for the poor within that nation but cannot reach the root of the problem.

    Any approach which leads us to be totally self protective at the expense of other nations will lead to a competitive nationalism which can take us in one direction only - to food and water wars.

    Nationalism is already on the rise - to the detriment of all.

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  67. Habib - youse in good spirits! :)

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  68. now here's a bandwagon......

    has anyone been watching "The Killing" on BBC4? i highly recommend...all episodes on iplayer....a superb danish thriller well acted and no idea who's done it still
    .....there are 20 episodes so i reckon with the aid of subtitles we could all speak danish by he end....(apart from those UT polyglots who already do....)

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  69. Hi Leni ;)

    "The dual dictatorship of the speculators and gvts. of developed world with the wealth amassing tyrants of the Arab nations are depriving millions of access to the basics such as food and those who accuse us of 'jumping on bandwagons' over Egypt fail to understand that many of us see these things as global issues and so understand that we need to make common cause with them.

    Tackling it at the national level only will get us nowhere. National politics can , at best, alleviate some of the more accute problems for the poor within that nation but cannot reach the root of the problem."


    Brilliantly put.

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  70. Thauma I live on my own and I don't have a very large appetite!

    I also do eat a lot of rice nd pasta.

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  71. Gandolfo:

    Me Ma's addicted to "the Killing" - I'm going to have to start from the beginning, tried to watch 4 back-to-back episodes on Sat night, but kept conking out I was so shattered.

    Agreed - it's excellent though (the bits I saw!)

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  72. Thank Christ Arec's on a roll - maybe people will just scroll on by (Dionne Warwick)

    I've seriously fucked my pc credentials with that misspost

    Pfffffft - woteva

    oh look it's 5.30 in the morning - no wonder I'm fucked - better be off then :)

    ReplyDelete
  73. Anne - I also eat rice or pasta with some meals but struggle to make one bag of spuds last a week.

    On the other hand, I do have a good appetite. ;-)

    parallax - clicked on your link, found some horrid countryish thing, closed it as quickly as poss....

    ReplyDelete
  74. La Rit, I is not in good spirits, gal, but if there's a laugh to be had along this miserable road, I'm having it.

    Parallax made me laugh, Sheff has, too:
    "Wjat pc credentials parallax?"

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  75. Regarding the miserable road, Leni's post is quite perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  76. This is worth a read too badpenny - if you can find the time

    Revolutionary Prospects After Mubarak

    ReplyDelete
  77. Here's something Egypt-flavoured that I'm sure badpenny would approve of.

    It does come with a warning however, Left-wing Jewish satire can be extremely funny, not sure if that's acceptable to our honorary 'serious' agent secateur-cum-miserablist.... however, someone with Ms Penny's creds, I'm sure it will cheer her up, getting in touch with her antecedents.

    It's entitled 'Democracy - is it good for the Jews'?

    JEWDAS

    ReplyDelete
  78. Leni's right Habib...its depressing but not inevitable although its hard to be optimistic. She didn't mention the Chinese who are all over Africa.

    A small example Chinese chicken farmers ruffle Zambian feathers

    ReplyDelete
  79. Habib - we'll talk later. Sorry you're not in good spirits... check out Jewdas' website... it will cheer you up ;)

    OK gotta go out for a bit, with a vile cold, but a friend has turned up and I've not seen her for ages.

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  80. La Rit, that JEWDAS article was interesting, seemed to express opinion and be happy to do only that, not claiming factual analysis one way or another.

    Don't know the origins of the site, but I hope many read it to consider it's viewpoint

    Take care, La Rit x

    ReplyDelete
  81. Sheff, interesting to know, are the Chinese farmers subsidised by their state?

    If they're not, they are just continuing an old tradition. Of course, in past times, they have been used as serf labour, in America and in Japanese colonies.

    ReplyDelete
  82. I don't know about subsidies but they reckon it costs about £25.000 to set up in Zambia as chicken farmers

    ReplyDelete
  83. Just pasting this from an e-mail I received today.

    Well at least they had the decency to reply, most people don't bother.

    And the Tory Scum have the fucking nerve to spread malicious diarrhoea about people being being too bone idle to go out and work.

    Don't know about you guys but I don't know anyone who doesn't want (or indeed need)a job.






    Dear Sir,


    Many thanks for your job application, which is greatly appreciated.


    However, we have been completely inundated with applications, to the point that we are struggling to deal with the sheer volume.


    Therefore, sadly, I have decided that we will stop taking any further applications at this time.


    My sincere apologies, but I really do wish you every success in your search for employment.




    With Regards

    ReplyDelete
  84. Habib

    Just a flying visit.Sorry you're not feeling so good.Hopefully this track from STEVIE will help you feel a bit better.Take care!

    ReplyDelete
  85. chekhov

    That is so depressing - I find it hard to imagine how people feel when everything they try gets a negative response. It takes courage to persist day after day in what must often seem like a hopeless task.

    ReplyDelete
  86. chekhov
    indeed at least you got a response i suppose...re emails

    saw a story about 38 of the army's most experienced being sacked by email....defence minister fox was said to be "furious" and found it all "unacceptable"...not about the sackings obviously, as his government invoked them, but the fact that it was done by email....

    "This is a completely unacceptable way to treat anyone, not least our armed forces," said Fox


    oh the irony of it all.......

    ReplyDelete
  87. One for the tweeters round here: the Twitter 100.

    You could follow Johann Hari (20) or Umar Haque (5).

    (Where's the hash key on this bloody keyboard?)

    ReplyDelete
  88. 37. Sunny Hundal. "Writer, activist, feminist and environmentalist".

    *splutter*

    Feminist?

    ReplyDelete
  89. another irony/hypocrisy of this world.... Hils Clinton has stood up for people in the ME and China who are pursuing "democracy"* via the internet,,,,,,funny that they are trying to silence wikileaks in their own backyard....

    "History has shown us that repression often sows the seeds for revolution down the road," she said.

    maybe they will turn out to be prophetic words Hilary...watch what you say now......

    *american govt definition...

    ReplyDelete
  90. Most companies only accept applications by e-mail these days, they don't even give a phone number.

    No doubt they have a computer generated filtering process but I'd doubt it gets them the best candidate for the job.

    BTW; I was musing the other day about how I managed to get through the last recession at the back end of the 90's when it dawned on me that the bloke whose house I was working on was an insolvency practitioner!

    ReplyDelete
  91. mschin

    lot of it going around.....must be the onset of spring.........he's taken on the mantra of "our man in europe" (well, ok croydon)...the one and only martyn

    ReplyDelete
  92. Sheff,
    "they reckon it costs about £25.000 to set up in Zambia as chicken farmers"

    I think you could just about start up a business in Britain, with that amount. Must be a bucket load of cash in Zambia.

    Are the wealthy Chinese like the early Europeans who exploited the Americas? Started off with comparatively little, but made full use of their power.

    ReplyDelete
  93. "That is so depressing - I find it hard to imagine how people feel when everything they try gets a negative response. It takes courage to persist day after day in what must often seem like a hopeless task."

    Ah Leni, you've been rumbled; now we all know you are one of "call me Dave"'s secret advisors!;-)

    ReplyDelete
  94. chekhov

    I am in charge of the tapes we put in Dave's head. I have put the BS tape on a loop to run over and over again until its time to relace it with the 'we're all in this together' one.

    Might give that one a rerun next week.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Paul

    Just released your 20.20 to habib from the spambin.

    habib

    You have post!

    ReplyDelete
  96. gandolfo

    "must be the onset of spring........"

    Indeed, they pop up with the daffodils every year. Must be the sight of those thrusting leaf spears, rising erect from the ground. Or something.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Nick: "err Dave, I think they've sussed that "we are all in this together = they are all in the shit by themselves."

    Dave: Oh thank God for that. What took them so long? Open another bottle of Bollinger dear chap and phone Liam to put the water cannons on standby...oh and then go and warm the bog seat for me....



    If it wasn't so tragic it would be funny!

    ReplyDelete
  98. Thanks folks. You've given me msny links to read. I will read them all and comment tomorrow. I do take this seriously you know.

    btw, sheff - you haven't denied my guess that your 'source' in Egypt (ex-husband) isn't just a capitalist cunt making money out of Western tourists. And has now hurried his sorry, scared ass back to England.

    Would you like to share?

    ReplyDelete
  99. Seems like it's your turn to be in the firing line now sheff. Courage my friend,courage!

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  100. "And has now hurried his sorry, scared ass back to England."

    Penny, if this is you offering to go to Egypt and be our own on the spot reporter, I'd be delighted to take the lead on the whip around.

    ReplyDelete
  101. Paul

    sheff did a stint at the women's camp at Greenham Common and was visible at Orgreave in the miners strike, so I wouldn't worry too much!

    ReplyDelete
  102. badpenny

    Sorry to disappoint but my ex old man is an artist and has made his living, or scraped it would be a better description, as a bronze caster.

    Whether or not he's a cunt is a moot point. He is though, the one person on the planet I know I could trust with my life, so on balance I would say not. I really don't think I would trust you for the time of day judging by your posts.

    ReplyDelete
  103. And badpenny, I believe sheff's ex is a sculptor and windsurfer extraordinaire, so no, not a tour operator.

    ReplyDelete
  104. @badpenny: you'd do well to get tooled up with some ammunition coz Sheff will wipe the floor with you if you don't!

    ReplyDelete
  105. oops, I'll stop jumping in now, sheff, and leave you to do it for yourself!

    ReplyDelete
  106. And to prove my point we immediately have supportive/defensive posts from Paul, meerkatje, sheffpixie and mschin.

    Keep them coming, folks! Middle-class wankers should stick together! And working-class Egyptians should be quickly forgotten!

    ReplyDelete
  107. chekhov

    As you said in your earlier post you're lucky you even got a reply from your job application.

    Agree with you regardingt Tory propoganda about the 'idle poor'.Is reminiscent of Tebbit in the 80,s telling the 3 million or so unemployed to get on their bikes to find work.Work which didn't exist.Classic case of blaming the victim.

    However they only get away with it because of the active role the media play in spewing out such garbage.Plus in all fairness New Labour used to spout off about the benefits of working then undermined the position of the unemployed and under employed working classes in this country by flooding the British labour mmarket with easy to exploit migrant workers.Migrant workers who were too often over qualified to do the jobs they came here to do and could only make ends meet and send money back home by living in overcrowded sub standard private sector accomodation.

    ReplyDelete
  108. I've been called some names but no-one's ever mistaken me for middle class before. How astute.

    ReplyDelete
  109. badpenny, still avoiding being humorous then? Oh come on, you must have a "knock, knock" joke at least? Here's one:

    "knock, knock"
    "who's there?"
    "badpenny"
    "we're not in"

    ReplyDelete
  110. MsChin

    I know sheff's a tough cookie.And sheff knows that i know she's a tough cookie:-)

    Cheers for getting me post out.Don't think i'll bother posting links in future as most of them end up in the spam bin.Bastard thing clearly ain't got good taste in music.

    ReplyDelete
  111. She's found a little friend over on whaddya, too. How nice for her.

    ReplyDelete
  112. Paul

    BP seems to be on a (failing) mission to wind me up - it's a bit of a mystery why he/she bothers as it won't work which must be obvious by now..

    ReplyDelete
  113. Right that's me out for the night, off to my middle class bed in my middle class home in middle class suburbia to dream middle class dreams of middle class mediocrity.

    NN.

    MsMiffed

    ReplyDelete
  114. And another thing ..

    What some may view as "supportive/defensive posts" may be seen by others as challenging assumptions.

    NN again

    MsMiffed

    ReplyDelete
  115. @badpenny


    "And to prove my point we immediately have supportive/defensive posts from Paul, meerkatje, sheffpixie and mschin.

    Keep them coming, folks! Middle-class wankers should stick together! And working-class Egyptians should be quickly forgotten!"

    Have you migrated from "Dribly"?

    This site doesn't have any truck with bullshit.

    Keep on posting it though coz you won't be "modded" and as far as I'm concerned it's all grist to the mill of "giving enough rope"!

    ReplyDelete
  116. sheff/badpenny

    I'm just a bit concerned that the more we respond to badpenny the more s/he will get his/her rocks off.Not that i'm suggesting you're a wanker badpenny.God forbid!

    ReplyDelete
  117. I've been called some names but no-one's ever mistaken me for middle class before. How astute.

    heh..heh..MsC.

    ReplyDelete
  118. @Meerkatjie:

    You're a psychologist. Do you have any insight into what goes on in the mind of someone like badpenny or luke -- showing up on a blog, insulting everyone who posts and demanding explanations and justifications from them for their lives and interests, always with the presumption of their own moral and intellectual superiority but without ever giving any explanation or justification for themselves?

    I find it fascinating and amusing, really.

    ReplyDelete
  119. Well obviously everybody piles in here. I'm humbled and crushed by the sheer weight of midddle-classs indignation.

    My question to sheffpixie still stands. Mschin, meerkatje, paul, chekhov, heyhabib have all stepped up to the plate to ridicule me.

    But I still think that sheff's ex-husband doesn't speak arabic and makes his money out of western tourists (before he fled back to the UK). Perhaps sheffpixie should say unequivocally that he's a great guy (who nevertheless bailed out of Egypt as soon as it got a bit difficult.)

    ReplyDelete
  120. Heard this cover of inner city blues by Joe Cocker.Pretty good imo although no match for Marvin Gaye.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Paul

    There's an outside chance BP might not be a complete 100% dickhead - after all even bitey can be fairly reasonable these days and it has to be said, knows how to deliver a good tune.

    Saying which: Kid Koala does Basin Street

    ReplyDelete
  122. Badpenny

    Perhaps sheffpixie should say unequivocally that he's a great guy (who nevertheless bailed out of Egypt as soon as it got a bit difficult.)

    Can't be arsed and have little interest in what you think. Post whatever dribble you like.

    Heres another tune before I turn in

    Gary Moore being romantic

    ReplyDelete
  123. Do you have any insight into what goes on in the mind of someone like badpenny or luke

    Meerkatje might know but I haven't the faintest idea Montana - weird really.

    Absolutely last tune

    Lena and Stormy weather

    ReplyDelete
  124. @BadPenny,

    I'm a fan of your work.

    ReplyDelete
  125. @Dan,

    I'm a fan of your sycophancy.

    ReplyDelete
  126. badpenny

    "Mschin, meerkatje, paul, chekhov, heyhabib have all stepped up to the plate to ridicule me."

    I haven't ridiculed you, I've just pointed out that you are ridiculous. Aside from me, that's a fairly good line-up to suggest that you are just silly.

    ReplyDelete
  127. By the way, the list of names thing - you've done it a few times now - means you just crave as much response as you can get, but I'll respond because
    I feel sorry for you, in a way, badpenny.

    ReplyDelete
  128. @badpenny: one thing we are not short of on this site is enough rope. Feel free to hang yourself with it...and yes, that applies to me also!

    ReplyDelete
  129. playlist

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETw4jR0xL64

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bev4H57si2E&feature=relate

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jZ8bxghB9E

    Nite

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  130. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  131. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  132. Hi Paul

    Just quick "Hello" as this nightshifter is just off to bed.

    NN x

    ReplyDelete
  133. Hi Leni

    I was actually writing a post to you about the Palestinian issue but deleted it as the brains in overload right now and i wasn't making much sense.Will try again later.Hope you're well.

    Nite x

    ReplyDelete
  134. Navro, three songs that meant a lot to me. You've got to be around 41. Superb, cheers.

    ReplyDelete