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A kaleidoscopic picture

I must confess that, on occasions, I have resorted to the largest picture library not on earth, Google images, to illustrate this blog. To make my offense worse, I have then sometimes attached rather facetious captions to them. In this way I may be contributing to the peculiar muddling of knowledge and history effected by the web.

When one searches Google images one sometimes finds some rather unexpected results. Not only is one provided with the expected western  Christian images of the heavenly father, along with Thor in his chariot, Osiris and others, but also portraits of Charles Darwin, George W Bush, Bob Dylan, Osama Bin Laden, Richard Dawkins and Barack Obama. It may be unlikely that anyone is lead into a false belief that the second coming has already taken place, although some of the above mentioned, including Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins do have an uncanny resemblance to our stereotypical views of the deity.

Richard Dawkins

Thor in his chariot

Osiris and friends

Yet, in more recondite areas, misattribution amongst the ignorant (such as myself) is highly likely and must certainly have taken on the false authority of publication.

Tower news

Goldman Sachs, which used to do God's work for him in sepulchral silence but has now been unwillingly brought into the public eye, is in need of a new European cathedral and is in talks with a number of architectural practices to see whether they might possibly consent to design a new head office building for them. It will be little surprise to learn that Goldman Sachs already own the site in London: only a few grade-two listed murals by Dorothy Annan on the exterior of what was once the largest telephone exchange in London stand in the way of redevelopment. Annan's murals are highly regarded but have mostly disappeared as the buildings on which they were located have been demolished to make way for ever greater architecture. Only three of her major public murals are believed to survive – the largest single example, the Expanding Universe at the Bank of England, was destroyed in 1997 a good decade before reality caught up with art, presumably in case the public, by looking at it, got wind of what the financial world was up to.

Amongst the architectural firms so honoured with Goldman Sachs's enquiries are Foster and Partners, who, unlike the other two, American behemoths, can be relied upon to raise anyone's cultural credentials. 

Top up now

Once upon a time, when pigs spoke rhyme
And monkeys chewed tobacco
And hens took snuff to make them tough
And ducks went quack, quack, quacko...

Following recent government advice to motorists to top up their tanks and jerry cans, thus handily, for some, bringing about the effects of a petrol tanker drivers' strike before there actually is one, the Secretary of State for Communities has issued further guidance on the mass pre-emption of possible industrial action.

All citizens are urgently advised to:

1. immediately pay their Christmas visits to aged relatives in anticipation of railway workers striking against the public using formerly public transport on public holidays;
2. compile for themselves a digest of future world events likely to occur over the next twelve months (a template is available on the government website) in anticipation of a jornalists' strike against the Leveson Inquiry;
3. go out and commit a felony now in anticipation of a police strike against the reduction in police numbers;
4. remove from bank accounts and spend now any money they may have in anticipation of a bankers' strike against victimisation of bankers;
5. get ill and die now in anticipation of a health workers' strike against the privatisation of the health service.

The Secretary of State also made clear that none of these anticipated strikes could possibly be justified by the unions who were playing with the fate of the nation without proper democratic mandate; said that it was 'one hundred per cent certain' that many people would die during such strikes; and called upon the Leader of the Opposition to condemn in advance any form of industrial action anywhere.

Further advice will be issued as soon as it occurs to anyone. The current advice applies only to England; misleading the public is a devolved matter in Wales and Scotland.

Death on a pale horse

How big is too big? Bigger than ever.



In 1970, the top five banks controlled only 17 percent of the country's assets; by 2010, the top five banks controlled 52 percent of assets.  In Mr. Fisher's letter, he notes that the top 10 banks now control 61 percent of commercial banking assets, up from only 26 percent 20 years ago.  To put the size of these assets into perspective, the assets of the top 10 banks alone are equal to one half of the nation's GDP.  On top of the concentration of assets, the number of smaller institutions has dropped markedly from 12,500 in 1970 to 5,700 in 2010.  These smaller institutions which were generally well managed prior to and throughout the crisis, controlled 46 percent of banking assets in 1970; this fell to a meagre 16 percent in 2010.  Basically, this data is telling us that not only have banking assets been concentrated in the hands of fewer bigger banks but that the assets controlled by fewer smaller banks have decreased by a disproportionately large amount.

Beyond the dreams

Risky Rich banker

The US recovery had been far stronger than Europe's, Geithner said, and the US was ahead of Europe on "nearly every measure". In part this was because "Europe's financial system became much larger, much more leveraged and much riskier, even than the US financial sector," he said.

http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2012/03/a-rumour-concerning-e1-trillion-in-german-bad-debt/