tea first

Sometimes there is nothing for it but to cut out a chunk of time to do the household paperwork. Its amazing in a week or two just how much can build up. Salient features involve tax authorities and things to do with keeping cars on the road. It always starts as a random pile of paper, collected from the various flat surfaces and put into a heap.

Then several smaller heaps which have the effect of moving away some of the reading material and the rubbish, leaving a few items for proper filing and a lot more needing some kind of action.

I'm around the action stage right now. Maybe after I've made a cup of tea.

blown

Cover blown with this mono shot. Euro rustic. French cafetiere, Zassenhaus grinder, Italian balsamic and a Spanish garlic squisher. All lurking on the windowsill and part of a casual test shot. Didn't really notice until it came out of the camera. Gulp. Not so London Streets now. I'd better post a picture of a red bus quickly, to compensate.

gone in 3 seconds

I gather George Bush took over the television schedule yesterday in America to explain about the need for $700 billion of extra economic support for the US economy. Add that to the previous $300bn or so and we have the first Trillion of repair funds. I was looking around for some Trillion sized objects to get a sense of proportion.

Where to look: Fortune 500 maybe: Walmart turnover : $378bn, Exxon : $372bn, Chevron $210bn, General Motors $182bn. Close enough. Thats about a trillion. The entire revenue of the four biggest US corporations. The two biggest Banks (Citi and BoA) are around $280bn combined.

Then I noticed the Iraq war as a US Congressional budget line item.

The stats are probably highly political, and this source is Congressional Research Service cost data graphed by zFacts, so suitable caution etc, but the figures suggest somewhere north of $550bn since the start. Thats just over half of the trillion thats being allocated to rescue the US economy in the last 6 weeks or so.

My example above shows circa 3 seconds spending towards consuming a trillion in a year. Thats a lorra wonga in any language.

Victorian moment

Normally I'd look at 'fun going forward', but I've recently received back the 21 cans of old film, which I sent away to be processed, which cues some retrospective moments.

Quite interesting to see the random nature of the returns, with scenes and haircuts that just don't seem probable. There's also some interesting chemical effects from the ageing of the unprocessed films. A small set from Scotland look positively Victorian.

fatality

Docklands today, with a speedy trip across on the Jubilee Line but a later much slower transit involving the Overground railway network.

Sadly, a fatality at Earlsfield had stopped the trains for what became hours. They'd appear on the board, edge towards getting a platform, become delayed and then finally get cancelled. One train even had a platform allocated and we all sat on it until it too was cancelled. Of course one's mind flicks to the sad cause and its human impact but there is a kind of commuter parallelism about these 'incidents' which often don't get any detailed references at all. In fact, the Network Rail announcements and management of the entire situation was about as bad as it can get. No compassion or leadership, unclear and incorrect messages, muffled explanations and all the apprentice platform helpers shrugging their shoulders.

Earlier I'd been watching the dials and arrows in Canary Wharf, where Reuters and various large plasma screens flickered out further messages of general economic doom. I waited by the big ticker that scrolls around the edge of a building to look for an uptick. Long wait, with most companies again drifting downwards. Then across to the television screen. More negativity.

So whilst waiting for trains, I spotted today's Evening Standard referring to Gordon's speech. He was implying the need for experience rather than 'apprentices'. Unfortunately, I couldn't help thinking of the parallel between the handling of the rail incident and those of the recent economic situation.

Large Hadron Rap

The LHC was superfly until it got a puncture.

Or maybe the rolled up superdimensions that hide the rest of the force of gravity will unravel and create persistent micro black holes. You decide.

reality is an obstacle to hallucination

Sometimes everything unravels in some kind of exotic cosmic thread. Maybe we could see the space station tonight as we looked into the otherwise ink-black sky, which appeared in the time between daylight in north London and darkness a few twinkling tube stations later. It had seemed so simple when we started the afternoon, with even a plan and some documentation, but events contrived to land us instead in a dim sum restaurant in Gloucester Road with way more dim than any sum person could eat. Happiness. Longevity. Health. Peace.

tv on the radio as a personal soundtrack

The plans just slid sideways during mid evening. We were talking about having personal soundtracks one minute and the next it had flipped to being very late. Somehow we didn't make it to the Italian restaurant. I blame the Bison Grass.

Fortunately we had some comfortable chairs and were able to pull them it a circle. Much later or by now it could be called 'very early', we wandered the streets around parts of the City before winding the evening to a close. Past the ex Midland Bank headquarters which is now a wine bar, a financial office block with the doors taped across and crossing the street near the fully lit London AIG building, which I suppose is now a US Government subsidiary.

My soundtrack for the evening would have to be Dear Science by TV on the Radio, but heres an old one. Club Lupus.

a lock-in at the vault

A gang of us converged on the City of London on Friday evening and took refuge in an underground bank vault a few moments along from the Bank of England.

No ordinary vault, we had to pass a roped off security line first and pass through the early evening buzz of a thriving bar. I arrived by taxi, cellphone to ear and headed straight for the front of the line to be waved in, to the consternation of others standing in the long line behind me. But of course I knew the secret word.

Fortunately, the vault itself had been prepared for our arrival and there was a useful bar on hand as well as someone shaking all manner of cocktails. As we chatted together, there was something slightly odd about mixing vodka cocktails in an ex mainstream bank vault in the heart of the City, whilst financial shenanigans were occurring all around us.

Heard any good rumours lately? I have - but I'm afraid they have to stay locked in.

dimeless

Thanks, Pat, for the idea to add this

silver top hat and an old boot

What a difference in a day. More banking sector turmoil almost joining the dots from the last couple of days. Some banks still seem to be sidestepping the problems, whilst others are disappearing in flames.

The US Government has effectively nationalized AIG to stop it from sinking. That means they've put around $300bn into rescuing a variety of financial organizations over the last few weeks. I make that somewhere around $2,400 for every citizen of the USA.

And it looks as if a well known horse logoed bank is about to rescue the ailing singing bank. Based upon a recent friendly lunch between Gordon and some senior bankers, it appears that all of the normal monopoly investigations can be bypassed.

Could there soon be a UK superbank with 1/3 of all UK financial arrangements held within it?

how to short the market

It looks as if the traders are still finding ways to make a turn even during the demise of once famous financial institutions.

It's easy really, borrow something you don't have. Sell the thing you've borrowed. Wait for it to devalue because of the market conditions. Buy it back with the money made when it was sold. Hand it back to the person who loaned it and pocket the difference in value.

Its called shorting, and there's a lot of it about.

It can bring down banks. Or governments.