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by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 06:44:57 AM EST
Connecting up Debord with my incoherent comments both in this diary and others - there's a big element of "morality play" in a lot of the "bond vigilante" stuff...

Ritual punishment of transgressions... in public... enforcing the religion...

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 07:20:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Heh. Here I was about to make my comment on "the markets'" demand to be front and centre stage, symbolising their importance and precedence over political personnel. Grand Guignol politique.

No longer shadowy transactions running the world. The markets are bidding to run the world before our eyes, putting on a show that will institutionalise their power. Over governments, of course, we know that now - and aren't we being told here that governments are no more than companies in which the markets are shareholders? And that the real business this week in Britain is how much the markets will bet on the result of an election in a democracy?

We're going to need the guillotine and the tumbrils again. Now that was le Spectacle.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 08:58:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The markets are bidding to run the world before our eyes, putting on a show that will institutionalise their power. Over governments, of course, we know that now - and aren't we being told here that governments are no more than companies in which the markets are shareholders?
What does it take for the governments to say basta?

The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 09:01:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Greece may be about to find out.

It's going to be interesting to see where we are a year from now.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 09:03:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
AP via google: 3 dead during Greek riots
Greek fire officials say three people have died in a blaze that broke out at an Athens bank during rioting over government austerity measures.

...

Protesters were hurling Molotov cocktails at police and buildings. At least two buildings were on fire, while hundreds of people were involved in the clashes.

The government agreed to drastic budget cuts to win bailout loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.



The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 09:08:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I think your sig line needs updating: "The brainless should not be in banking. Neither should the spineless. And certainly not the brainless and spineless." Were that injunction heeded it should generate lots of openings in banking.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 09:19:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I keep telling you people we should start our own bank.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 06:18:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm game.

The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 06:20:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I believe it's been discussed, informally, on a number of occasions.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu May 6th, 2010 at 10:50:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Now we just have to decide what kind of a bank it should be. ;)

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Thu May 6th, 2010 at 11:53:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]
How could this be done practically? Wouldn't we need massive capital to start with?

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Thu May 6th, 2010 at 12:12:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
No, you need investors to provide the cash, and a management team with a track record - or at least a name or two - to run it.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu May 6th, 2010 at 12:35:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I think the biggest barrier to entry is not capital but regulatory compliance.

Basically, I think you would have to run a business for a few years which would not be a "bank" and after accumulating a number of operational records for maybe 5 years you could become a "bank".

The easiest way to start a new bank is to buy a failing one, possbly.

The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat May 8th, 2010 at 05:28:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
On a related point we really should increase ESA's budget. Finding out how this all turns out from a hollow asteroid somewhere near Jupiter has a certain charm to it.

Wait this is important. Someone is wrong on the Internet.
by generic on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 09:33:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
What does it take for the governments to say basta?

A spine? Statesmanship?

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 09:15:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Statesmanship and backbone are in short supply, for sure. But "the markets'" advantage is that they are global. Only major international decisions could face them down. Hence the neolib insistence on member states' sovereignty (ha, choke laughing on that word, sovereignty of the markets, yes...) within the EU, hence its absence of economic and fiscal governance.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 09:51:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The markets are global only by government fiat.

They could be made un-global in a heartbeat.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 03:17:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
One government's heartbeat?
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 03:52:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
If it has a balanced or surplus foreign trade and is populated by white people who speak English, yes.

If it has a foreign trade deficit it will be subjected to economic hit men, and if it is populated by brown people or Russians, it will be subjected to the more old-fashioned kind of hit men.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 09:39:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
JakeS:
If it has a balanced or surplus foreign trade and is populated by white people who speak English, yes

The Germans are going to have to work hard on projecting themselves as Angles and Saxons, then.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu May 6th, 2010 at 02:41:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Europe English

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phase-in plan that would be known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e"s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru! And zen world!



The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu May 6th, 2010 at 02:48:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
finerly sumwun kun spel rite.

next: grama and sintaks. 2 masta langwidj iz tu masta de mynd!

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu May 6th, 2010 at 05:40:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You know, that's not such a bad idea.
by Zwackus on Thu May 6th, 2010 at 07:09:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I love it.  It will also help with texting.

"I said, 'Wait a minute, Chester, You know I'm a peaceful man...'" Robbie Robertson
by NearlyNormal on Thu May 6th, 2010 at 05:48:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Practically, it will take majorities of electorates in key countries or collections of countries enforcing their will on governments so as to wrest control of policy making away from self-interested financial elites and re-directing it in the interests of the whole population and maximizing the survivability of that population. The sign that this is actually occurring will be that large numbers of very rich people go to jail and have much of their ill-gotten wealth confiscated as restitution for the damage they have inflicted on society. Needless to say, accomplishing the above will be an extremely daunting task, but any thing less will be "just kicking the can down the road".

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 04:01:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]
ARGeezer:
large numbers of very rich people

Along the Paris streets, the death-carts rumble, hollow and harsh. Six tumbrils carry the day's wine to La Guillotine.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 04:36:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Or a wall and a machine gun, a la Tsar Nicolai and family. But I hope we can do something effective while stopping short of that. The dynamics that were involved in The Terror and The Bolshevik Revolution both degenerated into wretched excess, the sort you or I or people in our extended families, who had little, if anything to do with creating the problem.

But yes, I have imagined scenarios where gatherings of the ultra rich are targets of opportunity. The tip of Manhattan at 10:00 AM on a triple witching could be one such, for those so inclined. Far better that people are brought to their senses via the law, but.....

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 07:08:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The dynamics that were involved in The Terror and The Bolshevik Revolution both degenerated into wretched excess, the sort you or I or people in our extended families, who had little, if anything to do with creating the problem.

Your convoluted period is missing a verb, I fear.

The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 07:12:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It is an oracular pronouncement and therefore does not have to be a complete sentence.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Thu May 6th, 2010 at 04:18:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
And, you know, people who have known me for a long while will tell you that when I am the voice of restraint, things are getting pretty bad.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 07:12:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Like when Keith Richard tells you we've had enough.

"I said, 'Wait a minute, Chester, You know I'm a peaceful man...'" Robbie Robertson
by NearlyNormal on Thu May 6th, 2010 at 05:50:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Another book to add to my "therapy through reading" pile.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Wed May 5th, 2010 at 01:40:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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