credit crunch
Match report
Who will be relegated?
In the post - An interesting match 12th December 2008, we wrote about the tension between the UK and Germany over the way out of the current fiscal crisis and started off with a reference to the 1966 World Cup. Those of you who know their football will be aware that the match went into extra time. So much has be written in the last few days about the Anglo German spat since the original post it seemed sensible to allow more time to play on. I hope you like the final result and to make it easier to read the post Extra time 16th December 2008 should be read after An interesting match, all clear? .Then play on and be grateful I did not mention seagulls and trawlers!
The EU sails on
busybodying as normal
Sailing on
While the world's financial system is in meltdown our government in Brussels has been busy keeping to its timetable.
There's been more bullying of Eire regarding its NO vote and a couple of remarkable quotes arise from this. Jean-Luc Dehaene, former Belgian Prime Minister, has declared that the Irish government should simply ratify the Lisbon Treaty in Parliament, claiming that the legal ground on which Ireland has to hold referendums on EU treaties is disputable. He said:
"whoever thinks that a vote in parliament is less democratic then a referendum has a lifelong problem with democracy".
Safe as houses - part 3
Taxpayer beware
One year old
There's blossom on the trees so Spring is here. Soon the sub-prime crisis will be one year old, an ideal time for the last of the three part postings on the sub-prime/Northern Rock saga and, as before, it is also in date order. And what a year it has been. As pointed out in the first post on this subject:Safe as houses - part 1- In the beginning the origins for all of this lay far away in the South and mid-West of the USA. Here in spirit sub-prime was born and raised, or was it? Perhaps the desire to have more in general and, in particular, to own property at any cost is more global in nature and not just part of the American dream. But it was in the US that the flaws in this desire gave way to pressures impossible to contain, so cracks began to appear.
