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They Have A Day; Why Shouldn't I?
Feb. 18th, 2008 08:30 amAnd so, it's President's Day. There used to be a Lincoln Day and a Washington Day, but the pair of them inconsiderately had birthdays rather close to each other, so Nixon merged the two federal holidays into President's Day.
The puritan ethic that runs through much of the American collective unconscious seems to demand that you "do" things on public holidays. "From idle hands doth evil spring". If you had a holiday in the US where everything was shut and no-one did anything (not even travel home, because the transport system would be closed) I suspect that you might well have a revolution, televised, by teatime.
My proposal is that there should be an "Update Day". This would be the only day of the year that any software company would be allowed to update the software on your computer (so they had better get it right!). The rest of the year, you leave it alone. It would also be the only day that you could update Bibo, Facebook, MySpace, your Outlook contacts book, your mobile phone, your landline phone, your Friends Reunited page, your Genes Reunited page, your "preferences" on any software, your laptop, your desktop, your car, your house, and your partner.
Then we could spend the rest of the year in peace, not worrying about doing all that shit, because it wouldn't be possible until next Update Day.
I've got a better idea. Make it February 29.
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The rest of the papers are going gaga over Northern Rock (even the front pages of the South China Morning Post and Singapore Straits Times) so no need for that here. After all, you read it all here ages ago.
I will just recommend Martin Wolf's piece in today's FT:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/beacc3ba-dd82-11dc-ad7e-0000779fd2ac.html
In particular, top marks for this;
The first is over how generously to compensate shareholders. There is no good reason to compensate them at all. The question to ask is what would have happened if the government had not been willing to provide the finance private markets refused to offer.
followed shortly after by:
Shareholders live and die by the judgment of the market. In this case, they have died. That is what “risk capital” means.
Having come to the right decision by mistake, the Chancellor will quickly balls it up by taking "social factors" into account when any economic decision needs to be made. Now, social factors have their place, but that place is not on the board of a struggling company you are trying to nurse back to financial health. The first "social factor" will be job losses. Unless Northern Rock is subsidised (er, by us taxpayers, who are meant to be Darling's main priority) then the company will have to shrink by at least 50%. That should mean 50% job losses. Will that happen?
No.
_____________
The puritan ethic that runs through much of the American collective unconscious seems to demand that you "do" things on public holidays. "From idle hands doth evil spring". If you had a holiday in the US where everything was shut and no-one did anything (not even travel home, because the transport system would be closed) I suspect that you might well have a revolution, televised, by teatime.
My proposal is that there should be an "Update Day". This would be the only day of the year that any software company would be allowed to update the software on your computer (so they had better get it right!). The rest of the year, you leave it alone. It would also be the only day that you could update Bibo, Facebook, MySpace, your Outlook contacts book, your mobile phone, your landline phone, your Friends Reunited page, your Genes Reunited page, your "preferences" on any software, your laptop, your desktop, your car, your house, and your partner.
Then we could spend the rest of the year in peace, not worrying about doing all that shit, because it wouldn't be possible until next Update Day.
I've got a better idea. Make it February 29.
++++++++
The rest of the papers are going gaga over Northern Rock (even the front pages of the South China Morning Post and Singapore Straits Times) so no need for that here. After all, you read it all here ages ago.
I will just recommend Martin Wolf's piece in today's FT:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/beacc3ba-dd82-11dc-ad7e-0000779fd2ac.html
In particular, top marks for this;
The first is over how generously to compensate shareholders. There is no good reason to compensate them at all. The question to ask is what would have happened if the government had not been willing to provide the finance private markets refused to offer.
followed shortly after by:
Shareholders live and die by the judgment of the market. In this case, they have died. That is what “risk capital” means.
Having come to the right decision by mistake, the Chancellor will quickly balls it up by taking "social factors" into account when any economic decision needs to be made. Now, social factors have their place, but that place is not on the board of a struggling company you are trying to nurse back to financial health. The first "social factor" will be job losses. Unless Northern Rock is subsidised (er, by us taxpayers, who are meant to be Darling's main priority) then the company will have to shrink by at least 50%. That should mean 50% job losses. Will that happen?
No.
_____________
