Current mood: Quiet....
Category: Quiet.... News and Politics
You might wonder why I have such a hardon for the financial disaster zone that is the free world in late 2008 AND a recurring interest in the idea of money???
Well, at least part of the reason is because the financial world fascinates me...
It fascinates me on many levels...
For one, I'm truly amazed how people can get so hung up on small details like money - about how an offshoot like cash can so easily and commonly become the mainstay of peoples lives when it is so inherently meaningless...
I've concluded most people simply don't like too much meaning - it's hard work, they'd rather have comfort and certainty and money often promises both...
I'm also fascinated that economic and statistical theory is so completely fucking abstract.
Have you tried reading it??
I've got two minor qualifications in economics and I understand the basics, but it gets to a certain level and the concepts soon fly right off the friggin handle?!?!
It's way more abstract than contemporary art and that's a good part of the reason why no-one really knows what's happening now, and where and when it will all end...
It's also the reason why most contemporary art will have no longevity - it simply isn't good, wierd and thorough enough...
Another reason for my interest is because economics and statistics is a family concern.
Yes boss, my Uncles David and Colin have both studied economics a great deal...
Uncle David is a very staid and prudent man who I see once every 2 or 3 years at a wedding, a christening or a funeral.
He was Pro Director of the London School of Economics and he's guest taught at Harvard. He's written unintelligible books on the links and differences between statistics and religion with titles like.
'God and Risk'
'The Goodness-of-fit of Latent Trait Models in Attitude Measurement.'
(The full book list is more or less here on Amazon...)
Though I read a lot of books, I've never read one of Uncle Davids books in full.
I've seen one called 'Let's look at the figures'..
It's published by Pelican.
My mum has a copy and I've occasionally browsed it, but got nowhere near it's contents or meaning - it's way too complex..
Uncle David is an economist of the old school - the kind of man who believes in saving and not borrowing. I would imagine he invests very carefully and is by now pretty well off - though not anywhere near as rich as he could be with the brain he has.
He's the kind of person who got into maths and statistics because it interests him on a very fundamental level - not because it was the quickest and best way to buy an island...
He's never been extravagant - he's a part time Methodist Preacher.
And I've never heard him once talk about his work.
Uncle Colin is also a statistics professor, but I don't think he's quite as into the stats as his brother. He hasn't written books and has generally held down fewer less research based lecturing positions.
He now lives in Newfoundland near Greenland where he until retirement he lectured at the University of St Johns.
Uncle Colin has lived La Dolce Vita.
When he was in his early 30's he married the 18 year old head girl of the school he was teaching at in the Bahamas.
I understand this move was a touch controversial at the time, but 40 years later they're still married, are very happy and have 2 more statistics professors as kids, so it's difficult to argue it as being a bad move...
Well, Uncle Colin is currently visiting Uncle David at his house in Suffolk
I figure I could call them and get a good 2 for one on all this - but I reckon it's best not to break the work/talk silence.
Yes boss, they might start asking me about what I'm doing and I always hate having to explain that question..
I'll therefore have to imagine they're both probably as appalled by the idiocy of modern day economics which has fallen from being a science to being nothing more than strategies to explain and promote gambling.
It's not their angle at all..
Yes boss, when anything becomes big and lucrative, you always get the mercenaries in - the folk, who are only ever interested in the money, chickability, status and power. They have no real talent or unique skill other than a certain cleverness to lust after cash and what it brings any which way, whilst they maintain 'respectability'....
No boss, these people don't have the balls to be drug dealers or gangsters. Instead they choose the 'best' career at school because that's where the money and prospects are. Their parents encourage them along into it because they are also in love with the idea of status and prospects, and if they're clever enough, the golden ladder descends...
The music and art businesses are always completely loaded with such people and banking has been full of these opportunists for some time now...
Well, now, if you listen carefully, you can hear the screech of u-turn breaks, as these folk the world over do a swift about turn AWAY from Merchant Banking and Financial Services....
Which leaves me wondering what the next BIG BOOM bloodsucking business will be???
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