Sunday, 12 October 2008

Off Killing Things Again

Or possibly not, based on the last two years efforts.

Six day's from now, I'll be up at 9,000' in Colorado on my third attempt to take an elk.
THIS time it's going to work.
Mind you; if it doesn't I'll not be despondent, as I know the companionship will be great & the scenery fantastic (so long as I don't get lost in it.....again).

I'm off to the airport in three hours, so my postings will be zero for the next couple of weeks - unless I can blag a moment or two off one of my friends in Albuquerque.
Upon return to the UK, I have the major task of moving my business to a new home, so I'll bore you all to death with the details later.

TTFN

Monday, 6 October 2008

Banks, Borrowing & Plain Old Greed

Well the sky does indeed appear to be falling this week, with Iceland going tits up (the country, rather than the purveyor of frozen peas, that is).
I've been saying for years that the way stock markets & money markets operate is more like the World's biggest gambling house than an efficient way of financing business.

Looks like I was right.

There IS however a difference: The overpaid & patently stupid gamblers in THIS case have been using other peoples' money to place their bets - ours.

Even as their financial castles of cards were tumbling down, they were paying out MILLIONS in "performance bonuses" & "golden parachutes" to themselves'
Just look at that fucker Richard Fuld from failed bank Lehman; THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS in pay & bonuses over the last ten years.
He authorised MILLIONS in bonuses to his associates when he KNEW they were going tits up & it's fucking LEGAL!!!

So now Governments are giving them MORE of our money, so that they can get back into the casino & carry on with the game & if they lose, we pay....

...again.

Now I'm no fan of overbearing Government but when these greedy, incompetent & arguably criminal "fat cats" actually manage to destroy the World's economy, it becomes time to change the rules on a global scale & quickly.
Outlaw "derivatives", "hedge funds", "short selling", "futures" & all the other dubious methods these bastards invented that have nothing to do with investment in economic activity.
Get the Stock Markets back to investing in businesses based on their profitability & the Commodity Markets back to a system based on REAL supply & demand, not playing silly buggers with "futures".

I don't like retroactive legislation either but in this case I think a means should be found to recover the bonuses paid to those responsible for the mess we're in from the time they fucked things up.

I'm going to do my own investing this week by turning the contents of my business bank accounts into stock for the shop, leaving as little as possible in the hands of these modern day Gordon Gecko's.

Hang 'em, I say.