Feb 25 2009

Drinking Songs of London and New York

February 25, 2009

Make yourself up a cheering song… – Robert Frost

The Anglo-American banking system, insolvent, is lucky to have a mill of Op-Ed writers and TV commentators working overtime, cranking out defenses on its behalf. While the British press has been substantially out in front of the New York press in confrontation of the problem, even London routinely shoo-shoos away the severity of the mess. The two most common tropes I see are 1. blame of political leaders, even one’s that only came to office 40 days ago. And 2. self-delusion that other nations and capitals, outside of the London-New York axis, will suffer even more. As if that would alleviate pain, if true. http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/05MP2IN00997N/610x.jpg

In this regard I’ve identified a number of balms and salves, now produced regularly by the London-New York media, that sound to me like drinking songs. Here are the new standards:

The Dollar’s Still King. It’s Empire Bling.

My Depression’s bad, But Your Depression’s Worser.

We Accept the Blame. But You Get the Pain.

-Gregor

Further Reading:

An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Debt Repudiation, by Randall S. Kroszner

Gregor.us Monthly: Saving Hugh Hendry: How the Coming Bear Market in Global Sovereign Debt Will Drive Capital Back into Real Assets

Road to Ruin: Final Stretch – A Bull Market in Chaos, by Eric Janszen

• Comments
Author: Gregor Macdonald   Posted in: Psychology   Tagged:  
  • hankmehle
    I am laughing and crying it's so painfully true. Listening to politicians and the media talk about the economic crisis it occurred to me that if hypocrisy was money the global recession would be over today. We'd be slurping surplus...and merrily singing along.

    Cheers
  • Joe Pisarcik
    I'm new to your musings, so i'm curious to know what media outlets in New York aren't taking the financial crisis seriously enough. Nouriel Roubini is on TV so often he might as well have his own cable channel. Paul Krugman writes a couple times a week in a state of high dudgeon about the impending doom of the financial system and has argued forcefully for nationalization. David Leonhardt has written many astute articles for the Times. And believe me, the effect is being felt: New Yorkers walk the street in a state of bug-eyed panic and won't buy a thing if it's not marked down 75 percent, and usualy not even then.

    Is the London press really doing that much better of a job? What are you reading besides the FT? And besides, they ought to be more dire -- the UK banks have lower capital ratios and worse loan books than their US counterparts, and the UK economy underneath the financial services industry is basically a bunch of bed and breakfasts. So i would be pretty alarmed if I were them, too.

    Don't worry, this is my last comment. In my 2 days of reading your site, I don't see any evidence you've got your feet planted in the real world. You clearly spend too much seeking out arguments that you already agree with.
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