Monday 5 January 2009

Way on Down

With thanks to Co-op Historian for the fantastic pic!

I'm heartily sick, I have to tell you, of these mass market explainers, like the dreadful City Boy of the incredibly irritating Martin Lewis, who patronisingly explain to us dumb fucks on our morning commute why we are all deeply embedded in a puddle of excrement on Shit Street.

On the shite theme, does anyone really buy this bullshit about the whole credit crunch (I have been trying to avoid using this trite cliche, but had to admit defeat in the end) thing being caused by bad mortgage loans in the USA? It all seems a bit too convenient for my liking. In the febrile run-up to the festive season, the Madoff story broke - relatively quietly it has to be said - and I couldn't help but smell a rat. I mean, I know the USA is helluva big, with a motherfucker of a population, but surely there can't have been that many bad loans made - to lead to the virtual collapse (watch this space) of the entire world economy? Where were all these so-called experts and economists when one august institution after another crumbled into so much dust?

Where are they now that Adams (crap shops anyway, if you ask me. It's also intriguing that their website has no reference whatsoever to the stores going into administration) joins Woolies, Zavvi (the major disappointment for me on this one is that that twat Branson seems to have managed to worm his way out of trouble. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than the vultures of Fleet Street being able to let loose a Branson Pickle headline) Whittard and the others on the scrap-heap of the global economic slump?

Aside from the huge holes in the country's high streets (thank god for that, some might say - especially the good people of Exeter) there is of course the impact on the jobs market and the slow death of so many smaller communities to think about. I know, from experience of Oswestry, that life is hard out there, and it ain't getting any easier. For a lot of people, those few hours' work in the shops would have made the crucial difference to their lives.

So far, incredibly, the coffee chains seem to have been relatively unscathed by the whole process. I am of course aware that Starbucks has been struggling, but this is in relative terms to the retailers mentioned above, and there still seem to be new coffee shops opening up all over the place. I am as guilty as anyone else of (over)indulging in the overpriced stuff they peddle, but there surely must come a time when it all falls down?

Meanwhile, in an alternative universe, the football continues. And may god help us all.

7 comments:

kerstin said...

You've got a point there. Yes it is all a bit strange and a bit conveniant.
Starbucks is a ridiculous place anyway, £2.50p for a cup of coffee?
Astrologically this has all been predicted for a long time though.
I can't help feeling like a few people are going to get very rich from this.

Myeral said...

Astrologically, eh? Do tell

Michael said...

I think a few people have already got very rich. The amount of money never changed, just three quarters of the population are no longer able to spend what they haven't got.
I think the US sub-prime shit was just the straw that broke the camel's back: booms built on people spending money they haven't yet earned are always going to collapse sometime.
The football: Scott Parker on a hundred grand a week??

Myeral said...

I think you're right Michael. But where will it all end?

As for Scotty Boy, well - words fail me, they really do. Hughes was always going to build a team in his own Blackburn image, and we can never lose sight of the fact that he's a Red through & through.

Relegation would be a worthwhile price to pay...

Michael said...

I think it'll end back where it started. The money is still there somewhere, just not anywhere that's immediately apparent to the likes of you and I. Especially me.
It might take a few years but soon we'll be back in a boom, listening to a prime minister tell us that he's solved the boom-bust cycle once and for all...

Myeral said...

I think the major difference this time is in the basic resources that we have left to turn into profit, for the boys in EC4 and Wall Street to gamble on and hence rake in their bonuses to buy the Lambos and riverside apartments. I remember last year seeing a speeded up graphic of all the flights in the world over a 24 hour period, and the thought of all that fuel burning away was incredibly sobering.

Michael said...

You could be right. Goes without saying, I hope not though.
Not that I give a shit about city boys and their Lambos but this kind of thing seriously limits my choice of jobs.