2015 — 10 February: Tuesday
I half-listened to the elderly1 "news" that's trickling out about cuddly giant bank HSBC. It seems to have been kindly looking after (some might say "sheltering") "murky" piles of cash on behalf of "murky" folk "engaged in a spectrum of illegal behaviour, especially in hiding hundreds of millions of dollars from tax authorities". The "murky" clientele apparently includes criminals (of course), traffickers of various, erm, commodities (aren't they also criminals?), the aforementioned tax dodgers (aren't they also criminals?), politicians and celebrities. (I'm almost sure some of them may have been known to fiddle the odd expense claim or enjoy the occasional junket, too.)
Poor old HSBC has, of course, already coughed up the odd $1,900,000,000 or so for laundering Latin American drug cartel money. Wonder if they raided one of their Swiss accounts?
I was more taken...
... by this simple list of three cardinal rules, or dangerous "givens", in the real world of finance:
- Banks are not free market institutions, but dangerous wards of the state that must be strictly regulated and supervised lest they gamble recklessly with depositor funds, investor capital and the various insurance and safety net schemes of the state
- Politicians must face the true economic cost of borrowing or they will be endlessly tempted to perpetuate their power and prerogatives by dispensing free lunch entitlements, subsidies and tax subventions to organized interest groups and crony capitalist plunderers
- Financial markets are the vital core of capitalism, but by their very nature they attract gamblers and risk-takers. Accordingly, the most dangerous enemy of capitalist prosperity is not really the political left. Instead, it is the insuperable "moral hazard" that results when agencies of the state — including the fiscal authorities and central banking branches alike — bailout the mistaken wagers, soured bets and excesses of reckless greed that inexorably arise in the financial markets
Greed and stupidity wherever one goes, in other words, the whole world over. (Source.)
Is it any wonder...
... that, on balance, I find I still very much prefer listening to music? And supping tea?
Meanwhile, I see that...
... the Grauniad has caught on to the lovely chap (Joel Salatin) I mentioned after hearing him espouse his organic farming philosophy in "Food, Inc." Ahead of the curve, that's me :-)
Dismal science?
What happens on a planet where nobody can even agree2 on what "debt" is? Let alone what to do about it or if it's a Good Thing. (Link.)
Spot...
... the oxymoron, or do I mean "insane reality"?
"Include me out."
Excellent...
... though this just-delivered jazz gem is (and it certainly is) I can't say that "modern" is still entirely appropriate when applied to the 44 minutes of sheer bliss contained in this September 1968 session:
But never mind that; just look at the list of players! (Click the pic.)
I mentioned...
... an ongoing, erm, problem I have with "elegant tottering heaps" of stuff in Technology Towers yesterday. I've just dealt with one of the heaps, assigning the CDs involved to their new Home in the 12th (and last) of the CaseLogic folders so far dedicated to the things. All very well (even better if I remember to update my database) but that now leaves me with just three vacant slots.
Much as my...
... cultural sympathies and interests have tended, over many years, to be more aligned with the outliers and the underground denizens...
... I'm finding Robin Bougie's collected and reprinted "Cinema Sewer" fanzine fairly hard work, not least because the tiny sample above captures the style, the visual appearance, and the approximate size (14cm wide, in this case).
Taking my life...
... in my hands, I've just reached round behind the Philips 40" monitor to the fiddly OSD control 'joystick / button' that's in the one position I can't reach (naturally) and duelled with it until it gave in and allowed me to dial the brightness down to 80%. I'm sure the corneal burns will fade. And, I must say, black looks rather more like black now. Excellent.
Also excellent...
... is the upgraded Raspberry Pi2 webserver.3 It's a little weird to see the thing sitting quietly next to, and dwarfed by, my Netgear 8-port Gigabit switch, and to know that I could easily connect mouse, keyboard, and display and have a full-fat tiny Linux desktop machine at my fingertips with two USB ports to spare. But then, I already have a Linux laptop to spare. Let's not get carried away.
I paused...
... this NASA video animation montage 43 seconds in, to capture this lovely image:
Pink Floyd were clearly not up on their astronomy!