Here's a bit of an article about how some/many/all/more than all(*) of the complex financial derivatives that were invented over the past couple of decades came about.
It's deeply scary because it all operates outside any notion of linear regulation and way, way, way outside any notion of democratic oversight of issues that affect us all as citizens.
I was complaining about this stuff way in the early days of VVB, well before any global financial crisis and I bet I wasn't the only poor average bloke on the street wondering the same thing: how does this all come about?
Well we know the answer to that but , fortunately, blog VVB no longer goes in for interminable rants about the violence inherent in the system but rather leans back, sips a robust red and goes wtf? A lot.
Anyway this is, I feel, a fitting subject for post number 999 - kind of a calm before the storm except it's not calm and remember Storm Financial (did I ever mention my theory about financial services companies with names that make you really wonder whether they are totally legit or rather the opposite?).
Anyway against all odds - mainly writer ennui and reader boredom - we are at 999 and I will withhold the magic 1000 for something suitable. xkcd, of course, saw this milestone somewhat differently.
(*) More than all, of course, because that's what derivatives have bequeathed us. Houses, cards, etc.
12 February 2012
as time goes by
As time goes by, I find that I understand less and less about stuff going on around me. You know, like life and stuff.
A simple example might be WWE. I followed this for a little while some 10 years ago as kind of a sociological experiment. Leave it for a period of time, come back and it appears to exist in some kind of parallel dimension where nothing that is said is as it appears. I could go on but I fear that I would end up in some kind of space-time continuum that doesn't. Continue, I mean. For one thing, I couldn't see the dozens or hundreds of John 3.16 banners that people in the audience routinely waved while two overmuscled brutes jumped up and down on each other.
All this reflection - well a lot more than what was just represented above, naturally - emanated from an article in the paper about the launch of Bob Katter's Australia Party tilt at the Queensland election. The bit that caused me to pause was this:
"The crowd, made up of Decembers and Mays, cheered."
I mean, December and May whats?
Anyway I ran it past Mrs VVB and she equally flummoxed at what the phrase might mean and from which cultural phenomenon or understanding it derived. So we remain flummoxed at VVB by the sea and this post desperately seeks your assistance to throw some light.
So, throw away.
A simple example might be WWE. I followed this for a little while some 10 years ago as kind of a sociological experiment. Leave it for a period of time, come back and it appears to exist in some kind of parallel dimension where nothing that is said is as it appears. I could go on but I fear that I would end up in some kind of space-time continuum that doesn't. Continue, I mean. For one thing, I couldn't see the dozens or hundreds of John 3.16 banners that people in the audience routinely waved while two overmuscled brutes jumped up and down on each other.
All this reflection - well a lot more than what was just represented above, naturally - emanated from an article in the paper about the launch of Bob Katter's Australia Party tilt at the Queensland election. The bit that caused me to pause was this:
"The crowd, made up of Decembers and Mays, cheered."
I mean, December and May whats?
Anyway I ran it past Mrs VVB and she equally flummoxed at what the phrase might mean and from which cultural phenomenon or understanding it derived. So we remain flummoxed at VVB by the sea and this post desperately seeks your assistance to throw some light.
So, throw away.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
