They asked for it

Generate your own slogan here, via Old Holborn.

Classic Chinese understatement

From Reuters:

The premier said Beijing expected to see results from President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan but expressed concern that massive U.S. deficit spending and near-zero interest rates would erode the value of China's huge U.S. bond holdings.

The Chinese people are going to go mental when it finally dawns on them what their insane mercantilist government has done with all their hard-earned money. Do the Communists have some sort of contingency plan?

"Call to ban sale of electronic cigarettes"

From The Metro:

Trading Standards chiefs are calling for a ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes to children because of fears they could ingest potentially lethal doses of nicotine.

The battery-powered "e-cigarettes" look like real cigarettes but users inhale a mist of nicotine instead of smoke. However, some of the e-cigarettes contain up to 18mg of liquid nicotine in refill cartridges which could prove fatal to children if swallowed, The Sun reported...

Anti-smoking group Ash [ahem, "fakecharity Ash", actually] said while it welcomed "safe and satisfying" alternatives to smoking, it had seen no proof that e-cigarettes are safe.

A spokesman told BBC Radio 5Live: "We're not entirely sure these products are safe and that is the problem. We haven't had the tests through yet that show they are safe and that is why the regulators are worried."

Beyond satire

I set up a group dedicated to "Pouring petrol over a pile of old tyres and setting fire to them" to celebrate Earth Hour but the warmenists over at Commit21 deleted it. HannibalLecter's group "I pledge to eat more vegetarians" met a similar fate.

Curmudgeon pointed out that "The trick, of course, is to put one up that is subtle enough for them to miss it for days."

Good point, but it turns out that Joanie from Alternative TV, Montreal, has beaten us to it: if you'd like to sign up to her pledge to "... recycle every toilet paper rolls [sic] in the office, even if they happen to end up in the trash can...", then sign up here, or use the widget in the sidebar.

UPDATE Their system for logging in is a bit flaky - it is quicker to register from scratch each time, using any old wacky pseudonym, than it is to log in again. Extra points go to the person claiming to belong to the most outlandish pressure group - something like "Gay parents for polar bears" would be nice.

NOW! That's what I call market value

I know that the whole QE thing has been done to death, but it's important to try and understand it, which many clearly don't. Here is a bit of economic numptiness from today's FT:

The Bank [of England] was pleased with the result of the so-called reverse auction, in which investors sell their bonds rather than buy them from the authorities. It augurs well for the rest of the programme, in which the Bank aims to buy up to £75bn in gilts over the next three months. It was inundated with £10.5bn of offers to sell gilts – five times more than its £2bn target, quashing initial worries from some City analysts that investors might fail to show up.

The Bank also paid close to the market price for the six bonds, which had maturities ranging from five to nine years, it had offered to buy. There had been worries that it might be forced to pay above market rates as investors demanded a big premium to sell their bonds.

Woah, stop right there! Let's have a look at how the benchmark ten year Long Gilt future shot up in price since QE was announced in earnest last Thursday morning (click to enlarge):


To cut a long story short, the price went up by about five per cent, and has stayed at the higher level. So what the BoE paid on Wednesday may have been 'market value' on Wednesday, but it was five per cent above the market value of a week ago. In other words, for every £1 of new electronic money that the BoE prints, 5p is overpayment, i.e. leads to inflation or combats deflation.

Further, let's not forget the interest rate see-saw:

1. The government can keep long term effective interest rates down by buying up gilts (long term liabilities) with cash (current liabilities). Remember that high gilt prices = low long term interest rates and vice versa. But more cash sloshing around leads to inflation, which leads to higher short term interest rates.

2. Or the government can depress short term interest rates, but this leads to inflation worries, which leads to higher long term interest rates.

3. Or the government can increase short term interest rates to combat inflation, which leads to lower long term interest rates.

And so on, but they are currently playing both ends against the middle, and they do not care any more about anything whatsoever apart from very short term political advantage. It's all well and good knowing a thing or two about economics and finance, but will they stop at £75 billion or £150 billion? The secret of successful speculation is guessing what the government is going to do - those who bought gilts before last Thursday guessed correctly and have reaped the rewards - but how on earth do you predict the actions of a bunch of maniacs?

You win some, you lose some

Bought: one June US T-Bond at 127-00 ½

Hannibal says: Eat more vegetarians

You too can sign up to this pledge to celebrate this year's Earth Hour right here.

Well, until the lily livered f***s delete it again.

UPDATE 21:00. They've now deleted Hannibal's pledge, but it took them three hours that time, they were a lot quicker off the mark this afternoon. Registering at Commit21 and setting up a group only takes two or three minutes, so feel free to pop on over...

I've set up a Group over at Commit21...

Inspired by some twattish spam in the comments to the previous post, I have set up a 'Group' over at Commit21.

If you would like to join my pledge to celebrate EarthHour by "Dousing a pile of old car tyres with petrol and setting fire to them" then please sign up here or here.

We only need eighteen members to jump to the top of the list of the most popular groups!

UPDATE 14:15. The spoilsports appear to have deleted my group, if anybody else fancies setting one up, please have a go.

Nigella is the new chocolate is the new drinking ...

From The Evening Standard:

Celebrity chefs including Nigella Lawson and Rick Stein are encouraging unhealthy eating, according to doctors and nutritionists. Their glossy cookbooks contain recipes loaded with "bad" saturated fats linked to heart disease, strokes and obesity.

A report unveiled today by The Fat Panel - an independent group of experts - shows that just one serving of some of their dishes contains more than the recommended daily limit of the fats.

Who's on The Fat Panel anyway? Experts like Chris Moyles, Beth Ditto, Nick Soames and Fern Britton perhaps? Nope. They do a nifty press release though; take a look at this one headed The Fat Panel Expands, which kicks off with "The Fat Panel is gaining even more weight..." (I shit ye not).

Chocolate is the new drinking is the new smoking

From the BBC, without any hint of irony:

A Scottish GP has called for chocolate to be taxed in the same way as alcohol and cigarettes to tackle increasing levels of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Dr David Walker, a GP in Lanarkshire, said many people eat their entire daily calorie requirement in chocolate, on top of their normal meals. The doctor said chocolate used to be seen as a "treat" but had now become a harmful addiction for some.

I suppose there's no point asking where this will end, because it will never end. The bansturbators are drunk on power and there is no stopping them.