Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Profoundities
There were no chicken lumps available to add to this week's chicken soup, so decided that it was time to resume consumption of lentils, having been previously warned off on account of intestinal shortages. So in went the lentils along with white cabbage, Costcutter noodle nests and Waitrose mushrooms. Served up for tea yesterday (well, not exactly tea, but the meal we take at 1800, rather smaller than the meal we take at 1300) and finished off for breakfast this morning. All systems have remained at go.
Over breakfast turned the pages of the Economist, which prompted two thoughts.
First, I like the idea whereby we do a deal with the Argies about the mineral rights associated with the Malvinas. Our being there probably offends their Latino pride, but I imagine that they are actually more bothered about said mineral rights. We might also allow the Argies to attempt to buy the 2,000 or so islanders out. How many would trade their windblown sheep and penguins (penguin fingers to feature alongside fish fingers at Iceland?) for a few milllion in the folding stuff? While the Argies might calm down their rhetoric about filthy colonialists and give some thought to those from whom they pinched their country, not that long ago. Do they have natives in the same way as, for example, Canada does? With native rights, native parliaments and all that sort of thing?
Second, I continue to wonder about all the winners comings out of the present crisis, continuing to hold to the belief that all the losses at all the banks must be balanced by winnings elsewhere, and not just all the fancy fees earned by the professionals who worked the systems which brought us down. There must be some fat cats out there who got out at just the right time, with winnings which it would be good to slice up in aid of our public finances. One answer would be that the winners get caught by the income tax system and one answer to that would be that the winners are just the sort of people who know how not to get caught by the income tax system. Get all their money held by those nice people in Jersey or Guernsey or some other such wheeze.
And I am sure that much of the heat would come out of banker hate if there could be some public executions, as it were, of some exemplary winners. The US has managed to bang up a few formerly big cheeses; so why are we so feeble here?
Over breakfast turned the pages of the Economist, which prompted two thoughts.
First, I like the idea whereby we do a deal with the Argies about the mineral rights associated with the Malvinas. Our being there probably offends their Latino pride, but I imagine that they are actually more bothered about said mineral rights. We might also allow the Argies to attempt to buy the 2,000 or so islanders out. How many would trade their windblown sheep and penguins (penguin fingers to feature alongside fish fingers at Iceland?) for a few milllion in the folding stuff? While the Argies might calm down their rhetoric about filthy colonialists and give some thought to those from whom they pinched their country, not that long ago. Do they have natives in the same way as, for example, Canada does? With native rights, native parliaments and all that sort of thing?
Second, I continue to wonder about all the winners comings out of the present crisis, continuing to hold to the belief that all the losses at all the banks must be balanced by winnings elsewhere, and not just all the fancy fees earned by the professionals who worked the systems which brought us down. There must be some fat cats out there who got out at just the right time, with winnings which it would be good to slice up in aid of our public finances. One answer would be that the winners get caught by the income tax system and one answer to that would be that the winners are just the sort of people who know how not to get caught by the income tax system. Get all their money held by those nice people in Jersey or Guernsey or some other such wheeze.
And I am sure that much of the heat would come out of banker hate if there could be some public executions, as it were, of some exemplary winners. The US has managed to bang up a few formerly big cheeses; so why are we so feeble here?
# posted by Jim @ 1:29 AM 
