Thursday 27 October 2011

A Glass of Misadventure - Long Life (Unsecured)


Singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her room with five times the driving limit of alcohol in her blood; an inquest recorded a verdict of death by misadventure. I have a couple of glasses of misadventure every evening with dinner.

I hear Nokia is developing a phone with a battery that lasts longer than half a day. May just go for that the next time my contract is up for renewal!

Listened to an interview with George Soros on Radio 4 yesterday (the programme was called Stephanomics, for anyone who is interested to look it up on Listen Again) talking about the current depression. I feel even more inclined to withdraw my stash from the bank now and keep it under the mattress for the next year or so; it's all going to be spent on the house anyway.

Interestingly, Soros put the blame on credit, not just debt. Credit is usually unsecured, whereas debt is usually secured against something. The problem today (besides no-one saving for a rainy day anymore) is unsecured credit.

Oh, and he also put the blame on economists and world self-delusion that the good times would continue.


7 comments:

Martin said...

Oh, to have the razor-sharp mind of an economist. "The problem today is unsecured credit." No, really?

Chairman Bill said...

Ah, but listen to Soros - much of what we consider to be secured credit is illusory, and it's part of the self-delusion problem - specifically artificially high house prices.

If you have a mortgage, chances are it's secured against something which is over-priced.

Chairman Bill said...

To explain a little further and risk being told I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs - the cost of a house is the cost of the land and the cost of building it. The market price is 2 or 3 times this, which is clearly daft and self-delusional, but the basis of the mortgage and its security.

Alan Burnett said...

What gets me about the current situation is how we are all breathlessly awaiting what comes out of the Euro-zone summit because it will have such an impact on the UK economy. And I thought we were all celebrating the wonderful decision not to join in with the single currency because that means we have still maintained control of our economy and have been left unaffected by the current crisis. Contradiction? (There, that will have to do for mt European post - I am retired you know)

Chairman Bill said...

Alan: Yes - but we do have the ability to printo our own money, which the Greeks and Italians don't. Remember devaluation?

Alan Burnett said...

CB : Quantitative Easing is not combined to Britain alone.

Chairman Bill said...

Alan: I agree, but QE is not exactly the same as printing money. Even then, the Greeks and Italians cannot print Euros - but they can print as many Drachmas as they wish.