Oily

"How Big Oil's Lobbyists Contributed to Big Finance's Crash"

So I'm watching the news this morning... apparently - after going up and up and up- and Mr Bush asking the OPEC countries to increase production to bring prices down... Now because prices have been coming down because of the economic slow down, they're cutting production by 1.5 million barrels to - er... keep prices high. Well, they'd say at a level that's profitable for them. Those diamond-encrusted ipods oil sheiks buy for their daughters don't pay for themselves.

It's funny how monopolies work isn't it? No sign of any greed there then.

Meanwhile in this part of the country bus fares are set to go up - because of the high fuel costs... why? when fuel prices have gone down... oh because they buy stocks ahead of time and they bought it when it was more expensive... *sigh*. Isn't anyone looking into bringing horse-drawn carriages back yet?

Bradford and Bingley

I just found this entry in one of my notebooks written a month or two ago...

God – I can't stand that new Bradford and Bingley TV ad. How to make something as utterly dull and boring as mortgages and banking and savings – interesting? Oh, let's have a very pretty girl dressed in green (the colour of money? Except most UK currency isn't green any more – it's brown, or purple, blue or whatever – not much green) and have her wearing a bowler hat (the logo of B&B was two bowled hatted men) and have her whittering inanely on - while lots of magical fairy lights swoosh around all over the place. Yup. We're deep in gah-gah fantasy land now. That's exactly what you want from a financial institution. Magic dancing lights – pretty girls and utter gibberish.

---

Then a few days later. The bubble bursts. Bradford and Bradley prove to be in such deep trouble that the Govt. has stepped in and nationalised it – sold off it's assets to a Spanish Bank – and blah blah blah.

“Dreams and hopes are so fragile..” yes, there are B&B – yes, they are – pity you didn't know that a few years ago.

Working Harder for Less

Mmmmm. Once upon a time one working man's wages could support a whole family with the 'wifey' being able to stay at home... Now it takes both partners to be out working. Now even that isn't enough?

Somethings been going wrong here - and has been going wrong for a very long time...

What's even more distressing is the fact that a quite large chunk of the working class will still vote for the Republicans. The same happened and still happens here - in the 80s so many working class people voted for Thatcher even as she was closing down mines and declaring war on the Unions. The right wing are just so good at their propaganda - they can get turkeys to vote for Christmas - every time.

Working Harder for Less Mocks the American Dream

Repossession Repossession Repossession on ITV 1

Ah. At last. So now I finally get why over the years I've seen people around me getting seemingly richer and richer - while I've struggled on in at the same level of poverty. Not when I couldn't see the UK making much of anything - (isn't nearly everything in the world made in China now?) - even 'Brit pop' is a distant memory. We don't even have Saddam Hussein to sell arms and devices of torture to anymore. So apparently most people have been living off credit from them borrowing against their vastly over-valued houses. Which they're paying for - with a mortgage - but, but isn't a mortgage a type of loan in itself? Surely no one really actually owns their home until they've paid that off do they? Oh. So in fact they're borrowing against something they're already borrowing to pay for something they don't yet own...

Human beings are f*c*ing morons aren't they?

You see, I've lived through recession after recession through the Thatcher boom-bust-boom-bust years - and I've always secretly preferred the recessions because they've been the periods when people have behaved a lot less stupidly than they normally do. For the past decade or more I've seen the general population behave very stupidly like they've never done before. It's been frightening.

Repossession Repossession Repossession

Bursting the House Price Bubble

UK borrowing is worst in 10 years.

UK sees decline in factory output.

Bleak prospects for UK job market.