Economics and similar, for the sleep-deprived

Does anyone have any idea what might be done about the pointless blob of white space above this paragraph? It seems to be resistant to all my efforts. Update haha, it succumbed.


Monday, December 14, 2009

 
Grasping reality with one hand and my wallet with the other ...

After the "first hundred days" in the term of a new Democratic President comes the next stage; the almost impreceptible transition among his supporters from saying

"of course, he's been hampered by all sorts of obstacles to date, but he's about to start delivering on all those promises he made to his supporters on the left"

to saying

"well, he never really promised anything and it's terribly naive to think he was ever going to deliver anything to his supporters on the left"

Apparently we've reached it. It's rather like, although not quite the same phenomenon as, that by which literally millions of people who all evidence suggests were highly likely to have been U2 fans in the past, have reconstructed a version of history in which they always hated U2 (I am entirely guilty of this last one myself).
posted by the management 12/14/2009 12:33:00 AM 31 comments

Sunday, December 13, 2009

 
Taliban pay, again

At least now it's fallen from the Times adverts' $15 a day to $350 a month, but still more than any other occupation in Afghanistan, apparently. I still, frankly, don't believe this.

Back in the day, I used to win bets against people who didn't believe that the most junior rank of full-time counter staff at a couple of UK high street banks were paid less than the most junior rank of full-time counter staff at McDonalds. (True at the time and quite possibly still). The trick was that McDs were, of course, big users of part time staff for the grunt-work, and so the most junior rank of full timers were still about halfway up the food chain. Maybe something similar is going on here, because I still don't see the sort of payroll logistics that would be needed to transport tens of thousands of USD in cash around Helmand.
posted by the management 12/13/2009 12:52:00 PM 31 comments
 
Arseholes, a taxonomy

Number 12,052: The type of arsehole who waxes nostalgic about the particular kind of distortion introduced by the recording technologies of his own youth, while bemoaning that anyone else could prefer the type of distortion introduced by recording technologies of their own youth

Labels:


posted by the management 12/13/2009 09:34:00 AM 25 comments

Saturday, December 12, 2009

 
Embarrassing questions, an occasional series

Now that we've got that matter of the Laboratoires Garnier (not real laboratories, have never produced any PhDs, no significant research carried out) sorted out, perhaps you can help me with another one.

"Popping a cap in your ass". Does this mean shooting someone specifically in the arse, or just generally shooting them?
posted by the management 12/12/2009 06:59:00 AM 18 comments

Friday, December 04, 2009

 
Quotations relevant to investment and other matters

I think this insight was originally from Henry Kissinger, but I can't source it. The quote I can't find was on the effect on a politician of being elevated to power and attending confidential briefings for the first time. The experience of getting information that is not generally available tends to put up a barrier between the politician and others outside the circle - newly elevated politicians go through a period in which they stop listening to anyone without their level of clearance because they can't stop thinking "but you don't know what I know".

"Inside" information puts up a communicative barrier between you and other people; it makes you view the world in a different way from everyone else, and it impairs your ability to evaluate the reliability and importance of different sources. In other words, it has a similar effect to that of hallucinogenic drugs.

In general, it is a bad idea to make investment or foreign policy decisions while under the influence of psychedelic drugs.
posted by the management 12/04/2009 02:34:00 AM 13 comments

Monday, November 16, 2009

 
Things which are dead

Punk. Jazz. Scots Gaelic. Variety. The Independent.

More to come, as various attacks of spleen affect me through the day.

Update: Not really related to the theme, but a commercial idea that struck me over the weekend - would anyone (poss. David Bowie? He seems to have time on his hands) be interested in a project to re-record the entire works of Neil Young with a less whiny and irritating singing voice? Then we could move on to Billy Bragg (poss. Hugh Cornwall?)
posted by the management 11/16/2009 12:55:00 AM 34 comments


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