global financial crash yay!

DJ PIMP

Well-known member
Good soundbite from a chilly Zuccotti Park..

“We knew this would be tough. We didn’t start this as a sort of summer of love, it’s the winter of discontent,”

kASkb8pWfXbJ.jpg


Couldn't resist...
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Shouldn't euros be worth slightly less than shiny pebbles at about this stage? Meself and Alison are off to the continent at the end of next week and it'd be really convenient for us if it got on with it and collapsed...
 

Sectionfive

bandwagon house
Absolutely loving the worldwide reaction to the thought of Greek citizens having a say.
Exceptional trolling from Papandreou.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Should read:

I lend you $1,000,000
You lend me $1,000,000
We each now have £1,000,000 in cash and $1,000,000 in debt
Invest cash in sub-prime mortgage lenders
Interest earned on invested money grows faster than interest incurred on borrowed money
Repeat for infinite $
PROBLEM, ECONOMY?
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Has anyone who lives in London been to the St Paul's Occupy camp? Went there yesterday and was massively impressed by what I could only describe as a 'knowledge centre' - hundreds and hundreds of thoughts and articles about the economy and the government pasted to pillars around St Paul's churchyard.

One particularly excellent one pointing out that Britain's debt has been greater in 200 of the past 250 years than it is now, including when Britain 'owned' a quarter of the world, and that austerity measures are the worst possible solution to debt anyways, as demand collapses and the economy remains stagnant/goes into permafrost (in the terms of some HSBC bod). Also apparently Japan's debt is three times bigger and they still get good terms on financing (haven't checked this out vs other sources though).

Ah ok, twas Johann Hari who wrote that, just Googled it. Plagiarist he may be, but his facts seem to be on the ball.

Edit: Hmm, actually it seems he confused the debt and the deficit. God, I have more reading to do... Either way, it's clear that not baling out banks would've cleared up whateevr needed to be cleared up without the cutbacks on silly trifles like the NHS.
 
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luka

Well-known member
yeah actually baboon vimothy mixed up those two terms too and made the same mistaks hari did earlier in the thread (my sister worked for chatham house doing economics and i showed her th thread and she was a bit bemused and a bit amused). also japans debt is owned by the japanese which makes a difference.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
That's why I never say anything about economics, the fear he'll repeat what I've said to his intelligent sister.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Whatever happened to Vimothy? Haven't seen him in ages. Did he finally toke himself into utter oblivion while reading some colossal tome on neo-liberal economics and listening to Now That's What I Call Nordic Despair 5?
 
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Sectionfive

bandwagon house
Well, barstool economics is the new national pass time so I can't help it.

Good post here on mediabite
Introducing Greece’s new PM Lucas Papademos

Papademos has an interesting CV, one that is lovingly glossed over by the BBC:

BBC: “As head of the Bank of Greece, he oversaw his country’s move from the drachma to the euro in 2002.”

Alternative: “Papademos was head of Greece’s Central Bank when Goldman Sachs were helping “the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules“.”

BBC: “More recently, as an adviser to outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou, he took part in the negotiations between Athens and the “troika” of international creditors (the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank) bailing out the Greek government.”

Alternative: “Papademos served as ECB Vice President, before taking advisory roles, firstly with the IMF as part of it’s “Regional Advisory Group: Europe” and then with former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou. Writing in the Financial Times recently, Papademos said ‘Forcing Greek restructuring is not the answer’.”

BBC: “After a stint at Columbia University in New York, Mr Papademos returned to Greece where he joined the central bank as its chief economist in 1985.”

Alternative: “Papademos served as Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 1980.”
 

luka

Well-known member
you cant go wrong talking about economics. no one knows why things happen. whatevere bollocks opinion you come up with you can find an expert to back it up.
 

vimothy

yurp
Whatever happened to Vimothy? Haven't seen him in ages. Did he finally toke himself into utter oblivion while reading some colossal tome on neo-liberal economics and listening to Now That's What I Call Nordic Despair 5?

Lol--Still here, occasionally--just a bit busy at the moment. Went back to uni to study economics, and it turns out that postgrad study in economics is basically a kind of applied maths boot camp for mentat drones. Nowadays I tend to spend all my spare moments learning to programme MATLAB or memorising theorems from calculus or topology and separation (bluergh).

I feel like I ought to defend myself but I'm not sure that it is possible to confuse the national debt with the deficit, so no idea what Luka is on about there.

BTW, as any fule kno, the national debt has almost always been greater than it is now (as a % of GDP):

ukgs_line.php


And Japan's debt really is (almost) 3x the size of the UK's, but I think it's safe to say that no one wants to emulate them...

Amusing to learn that Luka's sister works for Chatham House, though. Chatham House! Should I be worried or reassured?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Lol--Still here, occasionally

...as if summoned from the very depths of Ginnungagap! :D

Hey mate, good to see you again. Been messing about with MATLAB a bit myself as I might be using it in my new job. Though I've just been transferred to a project that's mainly Python-based. Postgrad economics sounds tough, man.
 
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vimothy

yurp
Ah, I love it really.

So where are you working at the moment? I kind of had it in my head that you were tutoring kids but obviously I'm a bit out of the loop...
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
That was yonks ago. I'm in the Netherlands working for Freakin' Laser Beams, Inc. Only started a couple of weeks ago but it seems quite cool so far. You studying full time?

Edit: luka, clear your inbox. Or whatever, I've got your email address somewhere.
 
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