blamebrampton: 15th century woodcut of a hound (Default)
blamebrampton ([personal profile] blamebrampton) wrote2010-05-09 02:22 am

Sigh ...

I discovered today that there are many people who do not know this song. Which is a tragedy, as it is truly an anthem for our times. In the face of the all fairly grim men battling to run Britain, the monkeys at BP, the Rudd govt's ETS backflip and no doubt thousands of other short sighted and moronic decisions made by elected officials and non-elected CEOs this month, and with a special tip of the hat to Greece where the average person was apparently shocked to discover that rampant corruption and tax evasion is bad for an economy, I give you Jarvis Cocker's finest hour. Warning: contains one rude word, a lot.

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2010-05-09 04:01 pm (UTC)(link)
They were not dealing solely with sophisticated investors. Indeed, their own internal emails discussed focussing on unsophisticated investors as buyers securities they themselves described as shitty. After creating an environment in which a massive fall was inevitable, they spent the end of 2007 making 'serious money' as the crisis they had been instrumental in orchestrating unfolded. The idea that it was pure luck they had taken such a strong negative position is not one that holds water.

As for Microsoft and the EU, it paid its initial fine in full despite having acted with no more passion in protecting its intellectual copyright than the Disney Corporation manages every day. It has since settled the entire case to the satisfaction of the EU.

It should be noted that Microsoft's actions hurt a small number of browser developers, while Goldman Sach's were contributory to a collapse that hurt almost every sector of every Western economy.