Subprime silliness, nailed by two comedians back in 2007. (As opposed to being explained by the comedians who came up with sub-prime and were still defending it back then.) For non-UK readers, the chaps in the video are the always excellent Fortune and Bird, who often speak more the truth in their rambling obfuscations. MBEs [...]
2008
So about two years ago I got talking to a friend’s mother who had inherited Barclays shares, because I am the sort of nerdy person who talks about shares at dinner parties. She had no thoughts on the bank’s future. She simply owned a bit of it. I suggested to my friend that she might [...]
Pretty, isn’t it? Well, perhaps not if you’re a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, responsible for setting interest rates. In your case it’s a headache: a rather bloodier shade of red might be more appropriate. The graph is taken from the Bank of England’s latest quarterly Inflation Report for November 2008. [...]
Tax, schmax. Nobody likes paying taxes: from the richest to the poorest, we all think we’re getting a poor return, even if we believe in theory, as me and Warren Buffet do, that taxes are a necessary evil for the good of society. Given that I’d rather write a dinner invitation to my mistress’s mother-in-law [...]