Buggered if I know…

“We hear you Tranquillity Base, let’s solve it by borrowing more money…”

Is this the madness we are currently seeing?

I must disclose that I saw/heard some commentator make the very tongue in cheek observation that went something like:

“isn’t this clever – the original problem was caused by debt – so lets borrow more money to fix the problem”

(which might turn out to have more than a thimble full of partial wisdom in it in due course)

Hence my opening (and if someone can credit the source do let me know)…

Call me a masochist but I seem to have absorbed obscene amounts of cross-the-world media lately.  I’m fairly sure  that the space where my synapses use to hide out is feeling so ‘swamped’ at the moment that they’ve moved to some (other) higher ground.

I use to think that I didn’t know very much about the globalised world financial system.  The only thing that has changed in the last 3 months is now I am certain that I don’t know shit about the globalised world financial system. Take for example the current situ – when the problem apparently was just initially a big pile of bad debt – exactly where are the governments borrowing the money from so that they can allegedly sort this problem out?

“Beats me batman” I hear myself say…

You could do worse than ‘bone up’ on what the Bank of England does, what legal tender is, or what promissory notes are etc et al etc…

But, trust me, if there’s a really depressing World War II doco on the tele I recommend that as better way, comparatively, to positively lift your spirits…

I guess you could just remain ‘surfing’ at the computer… in which case for your amazement and amusement I present one of the most outstanding (oops, poked another hole in my cheek…) Internet resources created by man… Catchy name too – Her Majesty’s Treasury’s weekly (yes! weekly..) Pocket Data Bank (an Excel spreadsheet, about 1Mbyte).

Having spent precious moments of my life actually looking through this thing it has at least answered one important international finance question I had languishing about in the back of my – by now, swamp turning to biochemical hazard – mind…

You’ll have to admit – I reckon anyway (if you were actually game enough to get through more than 2 or 3 worksheets of the Weekly Pocket Data Bank) – that it is now patently clear why bank executives need to be paid exorbitantly high bonuses.  As far as I can tell it’s essentially danger money – lest they die of boredom – looking at, making guesses about, and getting stressed about what next weeks numbers may bring…

This might be an appropriate juncture to suggest that there may be times when the saying “ignorance is bliss” contains enough partial truth and wisdom in it to be useful…

Alternatively, in answer to all globalised world financial situation discussions, you might excuse yourself – on the way to the bar – with an expressively up-beat airy gesture and the well thought out reply of….

“Buggered if I know!”

Image: Wikimedia Commons “Challenger Explosion”
alternatively, at a US Federal Reserve meeting sometime
in 2002 discussing the Enron crisis:
“Do you think we should tell them about the Financial System O-Ring?”…
“Nah, she’ll be right!”…