THE WORLD SERIES

yo!... yogi berra... innit!

in palookaville today...

the virus games are really takin off...

testing times...

NOT !

If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.

DON'T TEST DON'T TELL

You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, 

because you might not get there.

germany way out in front...

testing shows the way... 

while here in palookaville...

It's like déjà vu all over again.

 poorly equiped, poorly armed, out played...

the virus game playbook...

is still to be written

GAMES WITHIN GAMES

some say itta game o two halves...

others that...

some are cheatin...

 It ain't over till it's over

 whatever games they are playin...

the score board is horrendous

HOME RUN 

the big palooka needs a hole in one...

but he left his clubs inna dugout...

refusal to provide his team...

with essential matching kit...

has caused confusion...

and mistakes...

the diamond...

has to become a field hospital...

the numbers carried off...

are scaring the crowd...

in the bleachers

Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.

games are being played by every body

but behind closed doors

this series is...

too dangerous to watch

No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.

WHAT A PLAYER

the big palooka...

has knocked the ball...

right outta a park...

his team are runnin around in circles...

try not to make a catch... 

nobody wants to be caught out

A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.

the sports personalities

are demanding their wages

for not playing the game...

the clubs are demanding...

to be bailed out...

the crowd is baying for blood...

run out, caught out, stumped!

The future ain't what it used to be

the virus as changed the game

it mutates into debt...

it's a new world...

disorder

Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting.

DANSE MACABRE

              Like influenza he walks abroad,

              He stands by the bridge, he waits by the ford,

             As a goose or a gull he flies overhead,

               He hides in the cupboard and under the bed...

              The Unknown Citizen

W. H. Auden  

1907-1973

(To JS/07 M 378 This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State)

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.

Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.

Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)

And our Social Psychology workers found 

That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.

The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.

Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,

And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.

Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare

 He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,

A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.

Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;

When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.

He was married and added five children to the population,

Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.

And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.

Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:

Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

MORE FAMOUS VIRUS QUOTES 

If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.

I never said most of the things I said.

I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. 

I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, 

I change bats. 

After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, 

how can I get mad at myself? 

You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, 

because you might not get there.

Mickey Mantle was a very good golfer, 

but we weren’t allowed to play golf during the season; 

only at spring training. 

I wish everybody had the drive he (Joe DiMaggio) had. 

He never did anything wrong on the field.

I’d never seen him dive for a ball, 

everything was a chest-high catch,

and he never walked off the field.

Take it with a grin of salt.

If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.

I’m a lucky guy and I’m happy to be with the Yankees. 

And I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary.

A lot of guys go, 

‘Hey, Yog, say a Yogi-ism.’ 

I tell ’em, ‘I don’t know any.’ 

They want me to make one up. 

I don’t make ’em up. 

I don’t even know when I say it. 

They’re the truth. 

And it is the truth. 

I don’t know. 

BACK TO THE 19 THIRTIES

Bagpipe music (1938) 

Louis MacNeice

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Links On

It’s no go the merrygoround, it’s no go the rickshaw,
All we want is a limousine and a ticket for the peepshow.

Their knickers are made of crêpe-de-chine, their shoes are made of python,
Their halls are lined with tiger rugs and their walls with heads of bison.

John MacDonald found a corpse, put it under the sofa,
Waited till it came to life and hit it with a poker,
Sold its eyes for souvenirs, sold its blood for whisky,
Kept its bones for dumb-bells to use when he was fifty.

It’s no go the Yogi-Man, it’s no go Blavatsky,
All we want is a bank balance and a bit of skirt in a taxi.

Annie MacDougall went to milk, caught her foot in the heather,
Woke to hear a dance record playing of Old Vienna.

It’s no go your maidenheads, it’s no go your culture,
All we want is a Dunlop tyre and the devil mend the puncture.

The Laird o’Phelps spent Hogmanay declaring he was sober,
Counted his feet to prove the fact and found he had one foot over.

Mrs Carmichael had her fifth, looked at the job with repulsion,
Said to the midwife ‘Take it away; I’m through with
over-production’.

It’s no go the gossip column, it’s no go the Ceilidh,
All we want is a mother’s help and a sugar-stick for the baby.

Willie Murray cut his thumb, couldn’t count the damage,
Took the hide of an Ayrshire cow and used it for a bandage.

His brother caught three hundred cran when the seas were lavish,
Threw the bleeders back in the sea and went upon the parish.

It’s no go the Herring Board, it’s no go the Bible,
All we want is a packet of fags when our hands are idle.

It’s no go the picture palace, it’s no go the stadium,
It’s no go the country cot with a pot of pink geraniums,
It’s no go the Government grants, it’s no go the elections,
Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension.

It’s no go my honey love, it’s no go my poppet;
Work your hands from day to day, the winds will blow the profit.

The glass is falling hour by hour, the glass will fall forever,
But if you break the bloody glass you won’t hold up the weather.

 

 

 

 


 




 

Vigilante Man

yo!..million pound note...innit!

PALOOKAVILLE FINANCIAL
capitulation day
+249...

...nobody here in palookaville...


...knows anything about bonds...




THE END OF MORAL HAZARD


...but we know about debt...


...bad debtors pay more...


...credit is...


...where credit is due...


FEAR OF 'FLATION


...he who pays the piper...


...calls the tune...


...not so good when you're in a hole...


STOP DIGGING


..."The Treasury bond sell-off is now putting pressures on other markets in the economy. We should worry most about housing where borrowing rates are rising notwithstanding the Federal Reserve purchase programme. Indeed, according to data released on Thursday, already 12pc of US households are facing difficulties meeting their mortgage payments.

Housing is still central to the stabilisation and eventual recovery of the US and global economies. Any further decline in house prices will erode the collateral many Americans borrowed against, dampen their already-fragile consumption appetite, and increase the headwinds facing a banking system that is finally regaining its footing. The US can ill-afford a further sell-off in US bonds at this stage in the economy's rehabilitation process. Yet there is no easy way for policymakers to address this challenge.

As an illustration, consider the dilemma facing the Federal Reserve. Should the central bank step up its purchases of both Treasuries and mortgages in order to stabilise interest rates, but at the risk of adding to the distortions in these markets; or should it refrain from intervening further and risk a return of widespread economic and financial disruptions?

I suspect that, when push comes to shove, policymakers will opt for greater purchases of mortgages and Treasuries – not because they really want to, but because the alternative is viewed as worse.

Believe it or not, there is a silver lining in all this. As they contemplate this difficult situation, they can draw some comfort from one thing: with the anchoring of the short-term policy rate near 0pc, the steepening of the yield curve is generating significant profits for banks.

Remember, banking is fundamentally about mobilising cheap deposits (at the short end of the curve) and, supported by deposit insurance and central bank liquidity windows, lending at the longer-end of the yield curve. Come to think of it, the smartest trade for investors today is to find a bank that, unencumbered by legacy issues, is able to take advantage of an enormously attractive environment for old-style banking."

...Mohamed El-Erian is chief executive of Pimco....

CHERCHEZ LA FEMME


...or...


...follow the money...


...me...


...I wonder about the banks, the shadow banks, and the men that run them...


...has it all been deliberate?...


...surely not...


...who would benefit...?


..." For a long time, this column has warned that the bond-market vigilantes would ultimately rebel against the Western world's profligate borrowing and spending – not least the ill-judged, cowardly and ultimate grotesque "bail-out" packages for well-connected banks that should anyway be allowed to fail...."

...Liam Halligan...

NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT...

yo!...costa packet...innit!

PALOOKAVILLE FINANCIAL
capitulation day
+134...


...nobody expected the spanish implosion.!.


...here in palookaville the traffic has ground to a halt...

...the wrong kind of money has brought the economy to a standstill...


...the brown boom...

...is over at last...

...now!...if only they can end the...

...brown bust.!.

Car sales plunge in worst figures since 1974

"Luxury car sales suffered most, with sales falling 65 per cent, compared to a year ago.

Fleet sales, which account for 60 per cent of the total market, fell by 35 per cent as the economic downturn forced companies to cut back on transport for staff.

It was the ninth successive month that sales have fallen compared to the previous year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said.

The continuing slump in car sales comes after months of cutbacks within the industry with a wave of redundancies and extended factory closures...."telegraph

THE NOBEL PRIZE IS NOT WHAT IT WAS



...anatole is predicting a nobel prize for brown...

...after all not many enelected prime ministers have a patsy chancellor...

...our nobel dictator has created a spectacular bust...


...and should get some sort of recognition for it...


DEPRESSIONISM : THE ART OF THE BUST


...when peter the paintpallet started a new art movement...

...he did not realise that he would get a show so soon...

...now all the world is joining in the fun...

...currencies are out doing each other to debase themselves at his feet...

...zombie banks are casting out the demon hearsts...

...and hanging the painted one's depressionist masterpieces...

...from their atrium roofs...


DOWN IN THE JUNGLE, GOT THE BELLYACHE...


...down in the vaults the canvases are stacking up...

...toxic and unpredictable art for the new, bust millenium...

...their value rises as the other toxic assets deflate...

...paint is the future...

...for the new bust...


FORCAST NEWS


...suckers are still bettin the bust is past it's sell by...

...they think itz all over...

...normal service will be resumed and the paintings of doom...

...will be cast out of the galleries...


...but the fat lady is still waiting to sing...

...and she will not be denied...

...you can dance the danse macarbre...

...and drink the night away...

...talk yourself up till dawn...


...but...


...she will sing...

US Treasury in plans for record debt sale

"The US Treasury on Wednesday opened the floodgates of government bond issuance, revealing plans for a record debt sale in February and more frequent auctions in the months to come.

The announcement came amid growing fears about US government deficits and sent the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rising to 2.95 per cent, up from just over 2 per cent at the end of December.

The rise in Treasury yields has been pushing mortgage rates higher, complicating efforts to revive the economy. The US Federal Reserve said last week it was “prepared to” buy Treasuries if that would be a “particularly effective” way of reducing private borrowing costs.

“The Fed has to be troubled by the fact that mortgage rates have been rising and the buying of Treasuries by the Fed may come sooner than the market expects,” said William O’Donnell, UBS strategist"...FT

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE


iain martin..."When a great many lies have been told, the antidote is usually truth. This can hurt, but without it the possibility of recovery and future happiness is remote. And so it is with today's crisis of capitalism.

If an excess of debt built with cheap money was the cause of the crisis – and it was – then more debt is not the answer. Aligning their party with this most basic but vital of insights was, as the essential Tory website Conservative Home put it, "Cameron and Osborne's bravest and loneliest decision". When the Tory leadership decided to oppose Gordon Brown's plans to borrow and spend his way out of the "Depression", as the Prime Minister called it yesterday in a revealing slip of the tongue, they were virtually alone in the western world." times

LOOK BACK IN AWE

yo!...look forward in fear...innit!

PALOOKAVILLE FINANCIAL stardate : capitulation day+86


"2008: A year to forget, but one we won't be allowed to for a long, long time

This year has been a simply stunning one in financial markets."

terry smith : ..."I think that the downturn will be much more prolonged than usual. The average for the USA for 1854-2001 was 17 months, but the Great Depression of 1929-33 lasted 43 months and the grandaddy of recessions in this period was one which lasted 65 months from 1873-79. It would be wise to prepare for a long siege....

... This is why the next battle will be over the creditworthiness of governments and the strength of currencies. We have already seen the collapse of Iceland caused by its banks having liabilities which its economy couldn't guarantee. It may be tempting to see Iceland as an isolated and extreme case, but don't be fooled. Any country and currency is at risk which has guaranteed bank liabilities which are large in relation to its total economy....

...However, for me, the $64,000 question is not how long the recession will last or whether one or more currencies or governments' credit will be severely damaged; it is whether we will get deflation or inflation as a result of this crisis...

...To put it simply, a government can always raise interest rates until they have stifled inflation. But you cannot cut rates below zero. Japan's long deflation and recession after its asset bubble burst in the late 1980s shows how ineffective government policies can be against deflation. But one thing is clear: both inflation and deflation are pernicious, and we're definitely heading for one or the other, or maybe both in succession. sunday telegraph


"Experts can only guess as we head into the unknown"

irwin stelzer : ..." But we have moved beyond the range of what we know about credit crunches. All we know is that the results so far have not matched the predictions of the proponents of these policies. Which is one reason why Paulson decided not to use the second half of his $700 billion, and to leave it to the next Congress and the incoming president to decide whether it might not be better to pass the remaining $350 billion direct to homeowners who are falling behind with their mortgage payments. Surely that would reduce foreclosures and repossessions, thereby easing the glut of unsold homes, raising prices and helping to bring the recession to an end. Surely? Better, perhaps....

...the following opinions are best guesses based on the imperfect analytical tools in this economist’s tool kit, and a good deal of real-world experience.

So here goes: the second tranche of $350 billion should be aimed at easing credit markets rather than specifically at the housing market; the GM bailout will fail because the parties won’t give up enough to make the company competitive; the dollar won’t sink because there are few places investors can trust as much as the United States, even a heavily indebted United States. That much I know — well, think I know. sunday times

petey : ah really laks irwin man...

beulah : he such a gent...

spider : he a head...man!

zooneh : i reads im alla time

opkin : go! irwin...

laverne : other dude ok too...innit..!

BEULAH'S DAY OFF

yo!...honey i shrunk yo stash...innit!

PALOOKAVILLE FINANCIAL stardate : capitulation day+78


...in the loft...no one can hear you scream...

...the only sound is that of the gently fallin dust...

...petey anna crew is gone ta town...

...anna loft is empty...except of course fo beulah...who is takin this opportunity ta...

...check out petey's mac...fo cheatin or gamblin or...WTF is appnin ta her pension stash...


beulah : hi!...it me...BEULAH..!...that painty bastard be gone xmas shoppin atta 5 an dime...

laverne : (aht inna yard...firin up a still)...cheap n lazy...cheap an lazy bastard...

beulah : at somebitch gotta be upta sumpin...allas onna mac an chattin wi iz mates...

laverne : wot fo i gotta chop wood fo a still?

beulah : caint see no cheatin emails...an he aint gamblin...poker faced git!

...lets see if he don f**ked up me stash?...click...click...click...

beulah : WTF..!...wottit all mean?...wots me stash in?...
beulah : damn me eyes an blast me stupid curiosity...killed a cat...innit...

...caint let the git know i wuz spyin onnim... but mebbe i wuz...

...better off not knowin...hope ta God he...hedged my bets...


peteypainty : y'all don pay no tention ta lil ol beulah nah...she don mean no harm...

...she jus lak alla pension suckers out there...hopin fo a best...

...while...fearin fo a worst...

...fact is...alla suckers gotta watch they own backs...an guard they stash...

...nuthin stays the same fo long...

...ya gotta know when ta hold em...an when ta fold em...

...the politix gotta index linked guaranteed stash...so they don care...

...the proper bollox...they jus gotta fill column inches...

...an deliver suckers ta a advertisers...

...that jus leaves you...sucker!

charts from equitable life are used as an illustration of sector performance comparisons only
and not as a commentary on their investment performance. no opinion is offered here either for or against equitable life as a pension company...

...they just happen to have these charts...
...which i find very helpful...
...when comparing sector fund performance...

...THEY IS A DISCLAIMER AT THE TOP O THE PAGE...

...THIS AINT ADVICE AN WE AINT IN BUSINESS...

...WE JUS SUCKERS LAK YOU...

...PISSIN INNA WIND...

THE FUTURE IS NOT WHAT IT WAS

yo!...crystal bollox...innit!


PALOOKAVILLE FINANCIAL stardate : capitulation day+56


...show me the way to go home...ahm tired an i wanna go ta bed...

...the story so far...

...a Christmas song is jangling inna background as George Baily careers across the slushy boulevard of Bedford Falls...

...he wishes he hadnay been born...

...harry Potter wants ta rename Bedford Falls...PALOOKAVILLE...

...Potter has magicked away the credit from the thrift that Baily runs...

...the stupid shmuck thought that ordinary people could profit from home ownership...

...wotta dunce!

...the wand was really the handle of the one armed bandit from the Vegas FED...

...Potter made it lever up the mortgage market...credit became the oil of the economic machine...

...then, at holiday time, while every one was out buyin stuff...
...potter waved the wand an the credit disappeared...

...puff went the smoke an mirrors...sh*t went the bloggers...jingle went the mail...

beulah : aye...we're aaalll...doooooommed......dooommed ah tell ee..


THE FUTURE THAT WAS

...people believed in the bubble an cashed in their paper gains on their homes as if they would keep on growing forever...

...Potter has now got them by the short an curlies an is lookin forward to explosive rental growth...

...he has been helped by the governments as they needed him to run this sh*t in order to maintain the illusion of prosperity upon which the voters smoked...

...now down has come cradle...baby an all...the keys is inna mail a jinglin an a janglin...

...an a further a property values fall...the further a debts rise...the bollox believe that things will bottom without the value of houses bottoming...

...well...good luck with that!...

peteyMacNeice : ..."the glass is fallin hour by hour, the glass will fall fo evva...

...but if you break the bloody glass...you'll no hold up the weather...

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

Y0! f*ckin freezin...innit!

PALOOKAVILLE FINANCIAL stardate capitulation day+31

...Admiral Brown has won the battle of the media...

...he has arranged for our money to be given to the BANKERS so that they can sit on it and feel warmer...

...evvabody happy innit!..bollox!

...itz bankers 10 - taxpayers 0... inna contest ta see who guz BONUS or BUST...

...they think itz all ovva...

........MASSIVE TEMPERATURE DROP..!...

FINANCIAL WINTER : ECONOMIES FREEZE OVER

mish : ..."

• US leading indicators have biggest weekly plunge in 37 years.
• US leading indicators are at 33-year low.
• US Consumer sentiment drops most on record to 57.5 from 70.3, the biggest decline since monthly records began in 1978.
• US big-ticket purchase sentiment slumped to 58.9, the lowest level ever, from 75.
• Canada Consumer Confidence Drops to 26-Year Low.
• German investor expectations slumped to minus 63 from minus 41.1 in September.
• French manufacturing confidence slumped in September to the lowest in 15 years.

edmond : " Britain faces deflation for first time since 1960

Britain will slump into deflation next year for the first time in half a century, experts have warned.

For the first time since 1960, the cost of living will start to shrink next year, in a worrying parallel of the Japanese "disease" of the 1990s, according to new research.

The news comes amid growing speculation that the Bank of England will soon be forced to cut borrowing costs to 2pc or below, taking them to their lowest level since it was founded in 1694.
Telegraph

700 BILLION BONUS BAILOUT

guardian : Wall Street banks in $70bn staff payout

"Pay and bonus deals equivalent to 10% of US government bail-out package"

FANTASY ISLAND

simon : ..."As we reported on Friday, Mr Brown has promised to maintain his spending pledges on capital projects and public services. This is despite the fact that the economic prospects predicted at the time these pledges were made are now fantasy. Growth is non-existent, tax revenues are tumbling, borrowing is ballooning, yet Mr Brown thinks it is business as usual.

I have quoted Jim Callaghan before and, for Mr Brown's edification if no one else's, I do so again: you can't spend your way out of a recession.

Mr Brown thinks he knows better. Having also borrowed money to bail out the banks - and who is to say that will work, or that more banks might not need assistance? - the total borrowing this year is predicted to be £90 billion- £100 billion.

Given how wildly inaccurate most earlier predictions have been, we can assume that is a conservative estimate. Mr Brown has learned nothing. The debt will take generations to pay off. I hope our grandchildren will be grateful for this unwarranted imposition on them...."Telegraph

IT IS NOW..!

...bond market fat lady still waitin ta sing

petey : winter draws on!..

THE LOST WEEKEND

RED DOLLARS

yo!...film noir innit!...The Lost Weekend...suckers all hooked on credit...

PALOOKAVILLE FINANCIAL : stardate capitulation day+9

peteypropertalk : the story so far... suckers are goin cold turkey this weekend as credit has been withrawn...

...alone in a condo in the land of the free is a sad economy that is hooked on credit and can't break the habit....but the banks is now BUST and Admiral Paulson is down on his knees begging the politix to fix the market with
THE MOTHER of all BAILOUTS....

sh*t sticks...

...the politix, though, are baulking at the idea!.. as the workin stiffs are onna phone...anna email...an inna streets...marchin. this is because they do not want RED DOLLARS...
that is...anti-money - DEBT...

...the politix are scared that if they vote for the BAILOUT, without BLUE DOLLARS for their voters, they will be smeared with the same sh*t as the banks...

...during this lost weekend, when the politix should have gone home to bed, the bollox are having a field day sayin as how a wurl is gon end if the markets arn't fixed...
fear is being created along with the ponzi-money to force the MOTHER PLAN through...

...the dollar is now available in three colours and nobody wants the red ones...everyone wants the blue ones, you know...the ones with EQUITY the ones with some VALUE...

...trouble is, the bankers have run off with the blue dollars inna BONUS an now the red ones are destroying the blue and soon the dollar will be BLED WHITE..!


WHITE DOLLARS

this is what happens when you get addicted ta DRUGS...the first hit is always free...!

WHO TF is gonna want to hold the WHITE DOLLAR..?...a shadow of itz former self..

peteythepreacher : power, influence, status...a whole washday shot to hell...


FT : Need for action on the banking panic

"Banks are not to be trusted. This is not just the view of the public and policymakers, but that of the banks themselves. Spreads on unsecured inter-bank lending have reached unprecedented levels, particularly in dollars and, to a lesser degree, sterling. Such stresses cannot continue for long, without serious damage to both the financial system and the economy. Something has to be done. The question is: what?"

peteythepension : sooner or later this has to stop! and asset prices have to return to fair market value...in my view the propping up of asset values is just an attempt to fix the markets until after the election and will only delay the inevitable...think Japan in the 90's...

think zombie economics...

WEEKEND A LONG TIME INNA NEBLA

Weekend could be a long time in finance

John : This column is called the Long View. It is meant to have a long time horizon and to have a broad scope. That is a problem.

This column is being written, in New York, on Friday morning. As far as many traders across the world are concerned, a "long view" at the moment is anything that goes much past Sunday evening...They appear to believe that it is safe now not to provide government money for whoever buys Lehman, and that the market can survive without it.....

.........This would entail a bet that the worst scenarios of a systemic meltdown have been averted. Wall Street and the rest of the world would instead have to take the consequences, which will probably be a few years of much slower economic growth than had been hoped, and some truly horrible times for those who work in the financial services industry.

Much therefore depends on exactly what is decided over the weekend and how the market responds next week. The "long view" could change a lot in the next few days."... FT

pickardthe painter : nah back in PALOOKAVILLE

Large Hardon Collider: Why we're all in love with the 'God particle' machine

"The Large Hardon Collider (LHC) is the biggest and most expensive BUST ever built, and the bankers are not going to put it into top gear for some time. Indeed, the first real experiments are unlikely to happen for weeks, if not months.

When the economists do finally turn all the knobs to max and allow two beams of sub-atomic currencies to collide head on, they might still generate a black hole that could end the economy, but the odds are millions to one against. You are much more likely to win the lottery.

Why has the LHC switch-on generated such massive interest? Is it just that frisson of about the possible fear of the end of the world? Perhaps it's more that Radio PALOOKA chose to devote a whole day to it - indeed, Big Bang Day spread over a week, for some reason best known to the DJ.

But there have been energetic rumblings elsewhere, too, and the sheer excitement of the scientists at BUST (the BANKERS, USURERS and SUCKERS TRUST based in Geneva) seems to have penetrated the consciousness of millions of ordinary people who had never heard of a RECESSION until this week.

So what is the allure of investment banking? Partly it is simply a question of human curiosity, and that starts young. In PALOOKAVILLE, a week before Big Bang Day, I gave a talk about the history of boom and bust as part of the Palookaville Association's Festival of Investment...."

Will the switch-on of the LHC reawaken a public passion for saving? I hope so. It has been built to look for answers to some of the deepest questions that occur to us. Where did the money come from? Why is it here? Will it last? Every one of us wants to know the answers.

Shortly after the LHC switch-on, I was interviewed on Radio Palookaville. A reporter in Airstrip 1 asked a schoolgirl why she was so excited by it. She said that in 20 years' time people would still be talking about the BUST, and she was here, now, witnessing the start of its journey.

Let's hope she's not right and that, enthused by this week's flirtation with the BAILOUT, the public will stay in love with big GOVERNMENT...."

pickardywhich : some folks nevva appy man!....

Hackers attack Large Hardon Collider

"Hackers have mounted an attack on the Large HARDON Collider, raising concerns about the security of the biggest experiment in the world as it passes an important new milestone.

The POLITICIONS behind the £5.8bn BAILOUT had already received threatening emails and been besieged by telephone calls from worried members of the public concerned by speculation that the machine could trigger a black hole to swallow the economy, or earthquakes and tsunamis, despite endless reassurances to the contrary from the likes of Prof. ben bernanke....

....Bankers working at BUST, the organisation that runs the vast smasher, were worried about what the hackers could do because they were "one step away" from the computer control system of one of the huge detectors of the machine, a vast magnet that weighs 12,500 tons, measuring around 21 metres in length and 15 metres wide/high.....

....The BUST team of around 2,000 bankers is racing with another team that runs the 'flation detector, also at BUST, to find the CRUNCH particle, the one that is responsible for misselling....

....BUST relies on a 'defence-in-depth' strategy, separating control networks and using firewalls and complex passwords, to protect its control systems from malicious software, such as denial-of-DROOP attacks, botnets and zombie machines, which can strike with a synchronised attack from hundreds of QUANTUM machines around the world....

Large Hardon Collider: Scientists launch competition for a funkier name

The Large Hardon Collider may do exactly what it says on the tin but, in an unusual move, bankers have asked members of the public to come up with a catchier name.

The members of BUST - perhaps motivated by a little professional jealousy at the media attention given to the investment experiment - has launched a competition to find a new moniker for the dollar smashing machine buried beneath Geneva.

Dr Richard Pike, its chief executive, has said that the name "fails to reflect the drama of its mission, or the inspiration it should be conveying to the wider public".

The organisation has launched a competition, with a $500 prize, to find what it considers to be "the best alternative name ... which most effectively captures the imagination of both young and old, whether interested in economics, or merely sceptical onlookers."

The LHC is the world's largest and most powerful dollar accelerator.

Its function is to get different currencies whizzing in different directions around the 17-mile long circuit at the speed of light, to make them collide head-on.

Results obtained from tests should, theorize the scientists, help to answer some of the most fundamental questions about the nature of the world economy.

While most people without a working knowledge of sub-atomic economics have struggled with what it actually does, a large proportion have also had problems with the basic spelling of Large Hardon Collider.

Web users have had particular trouble with the unfamiliar "hardon" - the collective name for the particles used in the experiments.

Their misspellings have given rise to a range of alternative websites [warning: explicit content] that have nothing to do with the multi-billion pound device or the search for the so-called 'God particle', the elusive Higgs BONUS.