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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Don’t Feel like Singing Christmas Carols




2008 has been a truly Crap year! Far too many people lost their money; their pensions; their jobs; their homes; their futures; their families; their hope; and their very lives. About the only encouraging thing that has happened in my view is that George W. Bush is getting ready to move from The White House, and America grew up to shed the old mandate that only a white male could lead as president.

Barak Obama is the president-elect. It could have been Hillary Clinton. If you’re a U.S. Democrat you will no doubt have hope that the incoming president will do a much better job than the outgoing one. But, he is but a person. He might make some mistakes that turn out to be costly, or he might prove to be the best thing since peanut butter and jam. We’ll just have to wait and see.

How could 2008 have gone so terribly wrong, and will it drag down 2009 as well? So far I am one of the lucky ones. I’m retired but not immune to economic troubles. I have a mortgage and a pension, and given that whole countries have been on the edge of bankruptcy, anything is possible.

This is the Christmas shopping season and we are seeing sales that would have followed Christmas day precede the event. I also have observed shoppers looking among the bargain discount stores for items and asking that they be gift-wrapped. Times are tough indeed. I was born during a time when consumers were subject to rationing and all manner of deprivation. For me, life from my earliest recollections has been one of rising expectations. Suddenly, I get to witness first-hand the effect of what happens when the sky falls.

There was the case in the United States of Enron, also known as the crooked E, and the effects from that upon shareholders and employees that were so diabolical as to defy description. The disgraced chairman did the only honourable thing and fell on his sword. That company’s experience was so horrible that we all walked around with our mouths wide open and bug-eyed. Before that there was the collapse of Baring Bros caused by the actions of one man, and more importantly the non-actions of a whole directorate. We thought that was awful. Then came the tightening of credit, followed by the credit squeeze, followed by the credit crunch and toxic assets. This time the entire world was caught up in the mess and it continues till today.

What the hell ca we expect from tomorrow? We watch a parade of companies and countries looking to be bailed out from the mess that highly paid and respected money managers have created. The former chairman of The Federal Reserve in the United States came forward to say it’s as though he knows nothing. Well, the fact is that nobody really knows anything. Management techniques that once worked have gone out the window. Worthless! It’s a new game now. We now know how the Communists must have felt upon realising that their experiment no longer works either

So, when my wife asked me to go carolling I declined. I am never in the mood to do that, but this year singing Christmas carols and wishing everyone to have a Merry Christmas seems so very hollow.

So, the best that I can do is to wish everyone good luck, and above all good health. The chips are falling where they may and life will produce some disappointments. Our challenge is to accept such disappointments with more grace.

Copyright © 2008 Eugene Carmichael .

Sunday, December 21, 2008

The Flying Iraqi Shoe Míssiles




President George W. Bush thought that it would be a good idea if he paid a surprise last visit to Iraq where he would appear in front of the world press, with representation from the Iraqi press being prominent. One of the Iraqi press group fired off first one, and then the other of his shoes at W’s head with unerring aim. George proved a good ducker, and then said that he wasn’t too upset. When people have the freedom to express themselves that freedom might take some forms that are hard to support.

I can’t say that most reasonable thinking people would feel that America’s unprovoked invasion of Iraqi territory was an outrage and a criminal act. I can’t say that the majority of people would see it as a great misuse of power. I can’t say that the great silent majority would condemn the loss of uncountable Iraqi deaths, and the loss of Americans, and even more are still in harm’s way. I can’t say those things because I haven’t taken any kind of scientific poll that would give me a sound knowledge that most reasonable people feel like that. However, I do have a couple of cousins who feel that W’s place within the list of American presidents is at the bottom.

Americans made much of what they said was his stupidity. They should have also added that he was dangerous. Whether you would want to apply adjectives to describe him or not, one thing we do know is this: He placed his nation at war with Iraq because he said that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, although no one could find them. Even if there were such weapons he was not threatening America with them. However, that was not enough to hold back W. He decided that he was going after Saddam to wipe that silly smile off his face. His father had led a coalition against Saddam to get him out of Kuwait, but the UN would not give the green light to go to Baghdad, so that murdering regime was not toppled and punished. Baby Bush seems to have decided he would show his dad how to get the business done. The rest is now history.

In the process of making this infamous history he was the cause of so much uninvited death and destruction it’s hard to see how any pride can come from those actions. The much sought after weapons of Mass Destruction have never been found, so a new reason was given: Saving the Iraqis from the terror of Saddam. Unfortunately, an unknown number were saved through killing them.

And that brings us back to W’s farewell appearance on Iraqi soil. Why did he make the trip and go before a group other than a safe American audience?

Was he thinking that he would receive statements of appreciation and applause?

I am not an American, just one of the masses of international observers. However, I think it interesting that there is a plan that on January 20th, at the moment that W hands over the presidency to President-elect Obama, throughout America, and probably around the world, people will go into their toilets and flush. Not a very distinguished way to end one’s two-terms in the highest office in America, and some say, the entire free world. What a shame that the good things that he has achieved will be over-shadowed.

Copyright © 2008 Eugene Carmichael

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Cold Hard Cash





I recently had the task of counting a lot of cold hard cash. As I carried on with this task I got to thinking about the name and how it arose. The more I passed various quantities through my hands the more convinced I became that that name is a good one for cash.

Whether I was counting one thousand euros or 100 million, the effect is the same: cold hard cash gives back nothing personal. It’s a sad fact that you might be the world’s richest person. If you keep your money in a room-sized vault in which you can retire to count your money, the exercise will leave you cold. Taking wads of large bills in hand is not at all the same as stroking your partner’s skin. You could possibly hug a person-sized stack of money, but it will not hug you back.

Now, I admit that I’m even thinking like this because I don’t have any money, but in these very difficult times I’m glad that I don’t. If you’re someone who does have a lot of money, you had a lot more six months ago. Since then you have had to worry about your disappearing assets.

Perhaps you were a conservative investor and placed the bulk of your holdings in one company, which would have been a dopey thing to have done on principle, but you might have done that if the company was Lehman Bros of Wall Street. This is a company that was 152 years old before it suddenly went bankrupt. You would have lost your entire holding in one fell swoop.

There have been and continues to be a world of stories of people once wealthy now destitute. The problem is that usually when the investment market goes bad that is the very time that you need to cash in those same holdings. Everything turns to crap at the same time.

A rich man is one who is happy in his home life. He has a good woman who gives of her love without restriction, and he lays with her in long intimate hours just enjoying her humanity. If they do have a room full of money then that’s all well and good. But it’s the personal part that really matters, and that’s why the richest man on earth is very often he who has nothing more than a good woman to keep his company. Unfortunately, money is it’s own evil, so I hope that every rich man made their money from when they were both poor as church mice.


Copyright © 2008 Eugene Carmichael