³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

Brown turned a blind eye, no pun intended, to an unregulated, greedy and arrogant City, a Television industry full of 'Property Porn' - IMPO usually made by vested interests - programming and a banking industry offering no deposit down 8 or 9 times people's salaries mortgages. And yet he is still trying to convince everyone that the coming depression is the fault of poor people in American.

Interest-only mortgages added to the mess by allowing buy-to-let speculators to drive up house prices forcing those who wanted a house for a home to bid sillier and sillier amounts in order to buy a house. At the same time it appears that vast numbers of 25K plus cars now common-place on UK roads were only affordable due to MEW and all the above greed and speculation.

Is Brown solely to blame - no. Does Brown share a huge amount of responsibility for the mess - definitely!

If it wasn't a conspiracy to derail the inauguration or even the Presidency, it was certainly professional incompetence on the part of the officer of state administering the oath - apparently, he did not even have the words written down in front of him ! Whatever the background, all it proved (again) was President Obama's unflappable cool (again) - i.e. just the kind of guy we all need in charge at the moment !!!

- One economist put it like this:

"It's not good enough to fall asleep at the wheel, crash and then say if it hadn't been for the fact you woke up and swerved to avoid the tree it would have been worse." -

Is that really fair given how the rest of the world looks right now? We'll debate it tonight. -

Get Mark Regev on satellite link!!!

I and my fellow planners certainly warned that the whole economic system was reaching itself. To us the problems were obvious, as they now are to everyone else. However, I think it probably is unproductive to look back and allocate blame. In any case, almost everyone in any position of power accepted the basic premise: that monetarism, and with it the 'free market' (the more free the better) was the answer to all our economic problems. The establishment (if that term is still meaningful) all had too much invested in the culture of excess. Life was sweet, we genuinely never had it so good; and who was going to break that spell.

You can argue that Blair and Brown should have returned to something approaching their pre-Thatcher, pre-monetarism, roots but the magic spell was too strong for even them.

What is important now is that we must carefully plan for the best future, based on reality not dreams. In fact the disaster does offer great opportunities, as well as considerable pain.

Not least, we should no longer be tempted to worship the false god mammon! The City is desperately trying to get us to set them once more on their hugely profitable pedestal, but we must resist the idea that they can create wealth out of thin air. Though some instruments, such as options to buy, which protect against future changes are valuable, the City is already hungering after the whole range of derivatives, including options to sell, which pander to its worst herd instincts. Instead we must create a new, practically based, economics for the new times - closer to Keynes than Friedman - and at long last that possibility is now open to us.

We can also abandon the reprehensible culture of the right to spend - buy buy buy and to hell with the future - in favour of an ethically more secure future. Our children will at long last come to realise that they have responsibilities as well as rights, and may see the value of education as an investment in their future rather than as a hindrance to the culture of celebrity.

Brown said 'no return to boom and bust' whilst allowing a massive housing bubble to expand faster than Charles Clark's elastic waistline.

Then Brown tried to overtax the poorest in the country via the 10p tax hike in order to balloon public spending yet further. Ok, the people woke up to the scam and he had to retreat - but he did so only because it was a PR necessity.

He presided over a mushrooming of 'liar loans' and was the architect of the failed FSA. Then he pretended it was all the Bank of England's fault when inflation began to escape from the the bag

He sold UK gold reserves for nothing, masterminded the ludicrous PFI and is now deliberately destroying sterling.

Meanwhile, his greed for public money at any cost caused many ordinary people to rely on borrowing simply to keep pace with the rising cost of living.

He allowed mass immigration to depress wages for 'ordinary hardworking families'.

And now, even if you do have a job, its highly possible you'll have to rely on family tax credits anyway. Something wrong there shurely?

Or does Brown ultimately want an intrusive state, shackled to Europe, with all of us on the payroll and working til we drop?

And let's not forget he is allowing the unelected Mandy to virtually run the country.

"Whatever we tell you about world affairs and financial collapse there will be a nagging curiosity - deny it if you will - about the return to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ of Jonathan Ross. So let's cut to the chase and start there briefly. As I write, they have just finished recording his show. It apparently begins with an apology and ends with a standing ovation. I won't say more now, but tonight we will take a good look at what this whole episode has done to comedy and to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ " writes Emily Maitlis of 'Newsnight'.

Meanwhile serious news programmes
(like Channel 4 News) continued their
coverage of Gaza with a story about
the deployment of 'flechettes' and
white phosphorous bombs by the
Israeli Defence Force - and a live
interview with the Prime Minister
of Israel's spokesperson Mark
Regev suggesting that Hamas
was responsible for all this and
Channel 4's experienced man on
the ground was being naive ......

Oh how they must be cheering in
Tel Aviv that 'Newsnight' is going
to focus instead on Wossy .........

Is this really what we pay our
licence fees to get from Auntie?
They should cut Ross's salary
- and switch the money over
to the other channel to save
Borders TV's News and Look
Around ...............................?

Bring back Michael Rodd and Alick Cleaver!

"Was it a stumble? Was it nerves? Or was it a cynical attempt to derail the entire Obama presidency before he had even become president. We like to give conspiracy theorists their due on this programme. So we will be looking at the taking of the vows and indeed the retaking of the vows. And asking if there are limits to how far the human mind will stretch to interpret what happened there " continues Emily Maitlis.

Meanwhile we in Scotland will be opting
out some of us having finally got round
to reading the US Constitution today as
a result of yesterday's coverage of this
on Channel Four's Celebrity Big Brother where those of us who tried to vote for
Tommy Sheridan after listening to him]talk about the Inauguration were not getting
through last night even after four tries?!

Why is Newsnight not covering this C4
voting scandal? Anything is better than
Tom Cruise being interviewed yet again
by overpaid simpering ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ contractees!

Bring back Simon Dee!

"So tonight we are placing the question boldly centre stage and asking whether, actually, this problem is of Gordon Brown's making. One economist put it like this: "

..... is The Pope a Catholic?

The Labour party are the DO NOTHING PARTY, twelve years in power and what did they do to prevent today's economic crisis? NOTHING!! Talk about asleep at the wheel!! Too late, closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, there is no way around this mess...we've got to go through it! After all recession is an essential part of the economic cycle as it purges the excesses of the boom.

But to get back to the Presidential vows -
I think what is interesting about this is
that Obama actually noticed that The
Chief Justice had got the wording in
the wrong order, hence the President's
hesitation. That is a really good omen?

But where were Newsnight viewers as
he took the oath the first time round?
(I was crossing The Forth Rail Bridge!)

mercerdavids (#4) "What is important now is that we must carefully plan for the best future, based on reality not dreams. In fact the disaster does offer great opportunities, as well as considerable pain."

Fair enough, what you say is widely shared. BUT...what are these people going to DO. What are all those people no longer required in Financial Services and other services which feed off the sector, going to do instead? In fact, given this sector drove so much of our Service Sector economy and economic growth over the past few decades, what's going to replace it?

The problem with Brown is he followed Clarkes spending it produced results.
He then thought he was responsable for the outcome.
This was at the sametime as China was emerging and deflating the price of consumer goods and funding the spending through their lending.
Brown absorbed the surplus in stealth taxes and sepent spent spent.

Once inflation & oil prices rose it was curtains. Exspendable income disapeared

It disturbs me that the government is so loath to try and understand the situation that that has arisen with the collapse of the economy due to bad banking practices.

There are vague comments like "we are all to blame", but as yet I do not feel that there is any real attempt to figure out what happened and therefore what to do to prevent the same thing from happening once again.

I do feel that Gordon B has a lot to answer for in all this, but we need to understand the extent to which his decisions may or may not have caused the pain we now feel, if we do not understand it we will repeat it.

Under Labour, we are now, I believe, seeing the results of the actions of the chancellor since 1997 and I think that the effects of his actions are hitting us all at once - from the fraility of the banking system to the weakness of the pound and even the failure of decent company pensions.

Unfortunately, because Gordon likes to praise himself for his good luck and global economic stability but disowns his own errors when things go wrong, I doubt that this government will even try to understand what went wrong, just so long as Gordon is seen to be doing something - anything - regardless of what it costs.

I get annoyed that Gordo will happily say that he was warning the world about the nature of global economics years ago, but then fails to say that he did nothing to protect this country from this perceived problem. To me it just sounds like a failure of duty.

Good piece on the economy although perhaps identifying that the fact the government did not see the problems earlier shows that they did not understand what was going wrong.

As they have made no fundamental changes such as improving regulation you have to assume they still don't. There is no reason for anybody to think that the problems are cured.

They were probably hoping this would all turn into a bad recession whereas its probably going to at least a slump and probably a crash.

The economy needs to see the problems identified and fixed transparently to regain confidence.

HEAR HEAR! (#14 final para)

That has been bothering me also Socs. I have watched Brown protest that he tried for ten years to get better regulation on a global basis. Against that, he did not prepare the UK 'lifeboat' when no such regulation came to be, AND he gave Greenspan an honorary knighthood for: SERVICES TO MONETARY STABILITY.

This is mendacity on a par with Blair, at his worst. I say again: we MUST look hard at how these TOXIC LEADERS arise.

A start would be to SPOIL PARTY GAMES.

#6 neilrobertson
Yes while we were glued to Johnathan Ross's return to the fold.........

The Gaza's humanitarian crisis was not helped
when the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has refused to televise an appeal by DEC to raise money for Gaza's victims.

Under present bizarre arrangements there has to be a consensus between the Channels for such appeals to be televised so the BeeB's refusal meant none of the main channels could televise it.

The reasons the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ gave for this refusal - impartiality.

Impartiality is some thing that was lost when Greg Dyke left. The bias for Israel has been quite obvious. the narrative almost written by Ragev and Livni andhostility towards Palestinian interviewees

The bias against Russia in August was also quite obvious.

The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is becoming like the U.S news stations like FOX where discussions are skewed to emphasize pre determined conclusions. They also seem to running scared of the Government after the David Kelly affair

I think they should give Ross's salary to the GAZA appeal - I personally would consider my licence money better spent.

Labour are not the only fruit
But you will never see it.
New Government
Hopefully new ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳
New editorial team
I won’t hold my breath.

Sorry its the Obama effect.

Looks to me as if Barak's wife will be running America...

and we will never escape the race issue - every thing Barak does is going to be either a victory for the black race or the fault of the white mess Barak took over.

I should think that Condaleesa Rice has in fact achieved far more in politico-cultural terms than has the mixed race son of an anthropologist who went native, now married to a hugely ambitious 6 foot lawyer in designer gear - but not a hope of matching Condaleesa's natural sense of understated chic.

Just goes to show that the way to success for women is still through men and motherhood and not through sheer ability and hard work.

My Personal Views -

Strong Mandate

I think we are getting picked on extra hard by speculators because we have a leader taking huge decisions without a popular mandate from the people.

I think we need a General Election , let someone get a popular mandate , let the speculators know the country is behind the PM's decisions and I would suggest the pressure would ease off as the speculators looked for another victim too profit from.

We would still have problems , but we would not be fighting half the worlds speculators betting against us while we are trying to sort it out.

I think Labour knew this but their timetable was thrown off course by Northern Rocks early demise in Sept - Oct 2007 and we only got the "Election that Never Was".

What would they after ?

Remember these toxic assets are only toxic if you bought them during the bubble and sold them during the downturn.
If you managed to buy them at fire sale prices (say 30% - 50% of the bubble value) you would become very rich when you sold them during any recovery period.

Quite some booty for some modern day pirates.

But there again maybe I have an over active imagination.

I didn't catch the whole of last night's programme but the questioning of the
Finance Minister of Ireland seemed a
trifle aggressive - given that Eire is
in the Euro, and we are still outside,
and they were a good deal quicker
off the mark in protecting deposits
and moving to nationalise a bank?

The question suggesting that the
only difference between Ireland
and Iceland was 'one letter and
six months' was a bit cheap not
least given that Gordon Brown's
role in using terrorism legislation
against Iceland is before courts?

Blogometer #5

"And let's not forget he is allowing the unelected Mandy to virtually run the country."

And neither let us forget that Mr Brown is unelected. Is there a trend developing here?

'Stealth Taxes' have also been mentioned above. Have you got one of those natty little photocard driving licences (which cost you 50 quid-ish)? Well, your old paper one expired when you were 70 (with a few exceptions) now have a look at the expiry date on your new one. If you are under 60 you will notice that it no longer takes you to 70, but has a 10 year validity. After which you will have to pay another £17.50 to renew it. And there has been little or no official notification of this.

How's that for trivial when we are looking down the barrel of this global financial gun?

NATURAL CHIC

doctormisswest (#19) "Just goes to show that the way to success for women is still through men and motherhood and not through sheer ability and hard work."

Actually, it's because there are , so if and when you see equal numbers of in positions of power and influence, ask some serious questions.

Sexual dimorphism comes in many guises, height, strength, beauty,

Call it natural chic - - - but do so ever so quietly, as have been known to have their careers shortened/threatened over saying things as they really are whilst others, like Ross, Hain etc, are just lightly rebuked for saying things as they are not.

It's almost a formula for a depression.

AND THEN ZIMBABWE

Steve-London (#20) "I think we need a General Election , let someone get a popular mandate"

Isn't popularism exactly what got us into this mess? When NFER revised their CAT2 to CAT3 IQ test, why did they have to add a conversion scale? Why do average kids in school today seem to have easier tests tan those a generation ago?

Why did the USA election come across as a bit of a pantomime?

See the Kenyan elections for more extreme examples further down this line, and then Zimbabwe.

We are but frogs in a pan of water, being warmed up slowly ;-).

Erratum in (#23) Last link: "some have been known to over saying things as they really are".

Bear in mind these are population level statistical statements which have implications for what we should expect when we draw random samples. We can't hope to change this, nor should we want to, as it is largely genetic, a long period of natural selection having shaped this for a reason which is beyond the grasp of many in the PC camp, but not, I fear, beyond those with anarchism/sedition/profit in mind as 'eqality' is exceedingly good for some folks' coffers.

# 5 blogometer

Spot on!

He woke up but we did not hit the tree, we went over a cliff.

I'm very disappointed with the quality of the Ireland report and interview with Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.

The commentary referred to Anglo Irish Bank or in the words of the reporter "AIB" as one of Ireland's two major banks. AIB refers to Allied Irish Bank, which is indeed one of Ireland's two major banks but not Anglo Irish Bank which is a smaller, primarily corporate bank.

The One letter and six months comparison was indeed cheap and that quip has been going around Iceland and ireland for months now and is still clever-sounding but wholly inaccurate.

The Wild West comment does not come from Germany but from an Irish reporter Brian Lavery writing in the New York Times about an insurance scandal in Dublin's IFSC. There was no mention of Ireland's financial regulator which has been in existence since 2003.

Personally I felt the report was quite tabloid in it's delivery and I would expect better of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ but the research into the banking sector was particularly lacking.

Neal Walsh
Dublin IE.

THE PROMISED AND PROMISE ITSELF

Obama's speech lauded the pioneer spirit of blistered hands toiling to bring a future of freedom. How resonant with the Jews returning to Israel after best part of two millennia, toiling to make the land fruitful.

But Obama made no reference to displaced, oppressed, deceived incumbents. It was as if they never were. It is said the black people have now gained the rights that the whites denied them - but what of the reds?
Might this 'black' president, fired with a mission to right wrongs, look to the Native American? In this Age of Apology, that might be the place to start.

CQ CQ CQ COMPETENCE QUOTIENT

I want to say a word (or two) for the neglected Competence Quotient - a (notional?) measure of an individuals ability to BE in the world as it is. We are all familiar with 'high IQ behaviour' the geeks and savants tending to be severely limited in social competence. In contrast, those with a high CQ, go out to the world from a stable base of secure self image and belief.

But where is schooling for social competence? Indeed, I suggest a high CQ derives from a good experience from gestation to puberty - and what government in living memory has attended to that?

I want to get a way from IQ as a measure of human worth and viability. We are, fundamentally, human BEINGS (not human doers) and only the ability to BE, in a contented state, will advance humanity from war waste and want to some sort of sustainable future.

Emily Maitland's interview last night with Robinson and Lilley was appallingly badly done. At no point did she ask those two former somebody's what they would do now. Instead it just wittered on about the past to no real conclusion. It is the present and future we are concerned with in a programme like Newsnight — you have to remember to use the standard ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ question with politicians -- how bad is it and what can be done?

barrie (#28) "How resonant with the Jews returning to Israel after best part of two millennia, toiling to make the land fruitful."

Stalin tried that back in the late 1920s. Hitler tried it in the 1930/40s (though it's a bit controversial, for some, the prospect of being a toiler (proletarian) setting one free doesn't go down at all well). One mifgr ask why, given it didn't work out in Birobidzhan, or Germany, or Italy, or Russia, or England, France, Spain.... why Marxist Ben Gurion and his successors ever thought that SETTLEMENTS (i.e colonies) would work out in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Stamford Hill, New York...

What is it about the pernicious nature of 'we do our own thing' enclaves which some people just won't get?

barrie (#29) "We are all familiar with 'high IQ behaviour' the geeks and savants tending to be severely limited in social competence."

Careful Barrie, I know what you mean, but you risk peddling/reinforcing an all too prevalent myth here. Ignorant people don't like what they do not understand. Bright people don't like ignorant people abusing them when the latter clearly show they don't know what they're talking about and want everything which requires hard work and time to grasp, 'simplified'. If it were that simple, why would anyone spend so many years having to study and research? There's no evidence that bright people are more "severely limited in social competence" than others, on the contrary in fact, the evidence is that bright people are more socially competent and that's why they essentially run the world. The problem lies in other dimensions of behaviour like narcissism and its more ugly variant, psychopathy (a subset of Anti-Social Personality Disorder). We may be helping to make that more of a problem. We may even be selecting for and reinforcing those traits!

I suspect there's a higher prevalence in the lower half of the ability distribution than in the upper.

What about an update by Paul Mason on Credit Default Swaps following on from his piece last year?

Are they with us to stay? Will the value of CDS always be far higher than the "real" money available to pay default values?

If they are likely to be replaced by what, "toxic insurance"? I assume Browns insurance scheme reduces the need for CDS for banks and their loans to large corporates?

Also nobody saw this crisis coming. Are we any closer to deriving a system that would set red lights flashing an awful lot earlier?

If this crisis goes on into 2010 and beyond is there going to be credible amounts of money available to use fiscal stimuli after that point i.e. do we fix the problem by 2010 or does the problem then fix us?

If non-executive directors were to be cited, as by Geoffrey Robinson last night, for causing the "global problem" is that partially because we need to change the credit risk analysis tools and measures to a standard system? Presumably then the tripartite regulation would function better.

At the moment it seems like plenty of talk from decision makers and very little real action beyond being forced to bail out the banks.

To save time none of the serious problems above mean that the UK population is going to lobotomize itself in order that they could adopt race "realism" and a planned economy 30's style etc - so the goose steppers will have to dream on.

ARE YOU SURE JJ?

"the evidence is that bright people are more socially competent and that's why they essentially run the world."

Do I read you right? BRIGHT PEOPLE ARE RUNNING THE WORLD?

My whole thesis in ruins. No further questions.

thegagofone (#34) "My whole thesis in ruins. No further questions."

You had a thesis?

Yes, I'm sure of it. They are selected for it as eduction systems are selection programmes. However, being a bright person does not, sadly, guarantee being a good/benevolent/philanthropic person. That's a different individual differences (diversity) dimension to 'intelligence', and is measured (not so well alas) as 'personality'. What I was referring to above werepersonality extremes, the (Axis II, specifically Cluster B) Personality Disorders.

thegangofone (#34) What you really need to take on board is the concept of Differential Fertility. To understand that, you need to understand a) the shape and parameter of the Gaussian ('normal') probability distribution which models, approximately most polygenic characteristics such as is presumed to be the case with intelligence (and height for instance) b) and how its mean can be skewed or shifted left or right by changes in the birth-rate at different ends or sides of Measures of Central Tendency. If one starts losing bright people thrugh their reproducing at a lower rate, and the rate of reproduction amongst less able people continues to be above replacement level (or even just higher than the brighter people - this just affects rate of change), there will, in time, not be enough bright folk to run services/country effectively, and one gets the consequences of dysgenesis (see Sub Saharan Afrcia and S Asia for instantiations, or Rome a couple of thousand years ago). Nobody seems to be able to arrest dysgenesis in the Liberal-Democracies and those nations with non Liberal-Democracies trying to cope with dysgenesis sometimes violently resist having Liberal-Democracy thrust upon them by those who claim be trying to help as they see it's just likely to make matters worse. Hence my admonition: 'DON'T KNOCK THE 'GOODSESTEPPERS' (e.g. The People's Republic of China).

I too was appalled at the interview and piece about Ireland. It came across as though we in the UK were in some sort of superior position. How patronising can you get?Many of the questions being asked would have made more sense if asked of our own dear leader.Yet I at least am not aware of anyone asking him why our debt bubble was so inflated and encouraged, why our house price inflation was so incredible marked and why he was so in thrall to bankers, hedge fund managers etc. He tries so obviously to blame the banks/Americans when it suits him and encourages a hysterical atmosphere in tabloids etc and then paints himself as some sort of guru or as Mandy said in The Guardian as Moses.You couldn't make it up.

#35 and 36 Jeany you're talking to barrie, not no 1!!! ; )

Jean do you belong to a political party? If not why not, you should! You have many ideas that should be discussed in the open, then others can argue face to face with you. And all of you can come to some solution to all these problems. I don't say you are wrong in what you say, but surely it has to be out in the open arena and not just on a blog. Hhhhmm but then perhaps it is!

ecolizzy (#38) To be honest, I'm not saying an awful lot which hasn't been said by others who do research in these areas. Sadly, they are largely unheard because they have been censured/censored. That's why I am saying it here (and in earlier years, The Guardian's Comment is Free, where sometime several days or weeks later, data supported posts critical of the author's PC pieces, would just disappear). One is lucky to keep on's job in academica or public service if one says such things even though they are clearly true, and supported by HMG's published data - take note, such is the impact of the RRAA and other 'equalities' legislation - it's subversive.

Today note how we have the media celebrating even though we know from a decade of UK education data that the rank ordering of mixed heritage children is, year on year, between that of their respective parents' group means. Miscegenation is, whether one approves or not, statistically at odds with assortive mating trends globally and nationally. This is like celebrating homosexuality, which does nothing for the birth-rate or demography.

So as not to put this point in an awkward black-white perpective, interested readers should look to the frequency of mixed heritage children amongst the a) British Chinese/British Indians/British Jews as groups all do better than b) White British pupils in our Maintained Schools SATs (who in turn do better than c) Black African, d) Bangladeshis/Pakistanis and then e) Black Caribbeans.

Some groups may well celebrate Mixed Heritage as it means that their progeny get 'better' genes, and statistically, better lives, but by the same token it also means that half the pairing gets 'worse' genes and worse lives does it not? When one hears that the fastest growing group is Mixed Heritage, one has to bear in mind that we have a very low indigenous TFR, and high differential fertility! So what's being celebrated here? All that's really happened is that the Politically Correct, highly verbal, Trotskyite Marxists have undermined (some) assortive mating, and thousands of years of planned parenthood, to further their anarchistic, anti-state agenda. Whilst the media reports the economy (and much else) nose-diving as a consequence, they all shout "Yay!!!!!".

It beggars belief.

ecolizzy (#38) Barrie? As he suddenly started writing like thegagofone I got confused ;-)

Ecolizzy #38

"You have many ideas that should be discussed in the open, then others can argue face to face with you. And all of you can come to some solution to all these problems. I don't say you are wrong in what you say, but surely it has to be out in the open arena and not just on a blog. Hhhhmm but then perhaps it is!"

I keep saying that to JJ but JJ must remain anonymous so it's up to others to take those ideas and air them. Then we get 'labeled' ;-)

I also keep saying, "On the Newsnight blog, no-one can hear you scream". I suppose I am getting boring and predictable in my old age.

I don't watch Newsnight much now - it's past my bedtime in this cold weather.
But I still read the blogs to find out what the intelligentia - and others are thinking.

There's not a lot I can do to change things at age 76, except write my life story with my views on this age for my descendants.

One view I've written on extensively is the hope that nature will prevail with humans, as with all other species. The 'unfit' will not survive despite gov't regulations that say we are all equal. A dose of hardship should be good for the human race world-wide; in UK less money should result in less house- building and concrete; less cars ruining our landscape and environment, despite gov't and big business trying to get us back into unnecessary spend, spend, spend; UK may become less attractive to the world's hordes, particularly if the benefits system is tightened up the jndolent may develop their own spines again.
My immediate family will get by; my son has been smart enough to emigrate with his kids, my daughter is an executive, despite little formal education (the exception that proves JJ's rule) or is it in the genes? I'm married to a caring Filipina, half my age and I'm helping lots of her relatives to better themselves through example and training.
I don't have a god to worry about and constrain my thinking, and I've spent most of my career working in 3rd world countries, so I'm happy with my lot, and so, deep down, are many of those who are poorer than me financially. Sorry for those bloggers who get stressed up about things beyond their control, but I'm still following the arguments, so keep it up bloggers, softies and and goosesteppers alike. I'm still listening.

Q7: DEFINE 'HUMAN PROGRESS' USE GRAPHS, PLAIN ENGLISH, ABSTRACT ART AND ABUSE - AS APPROPRIATE.

Marks will be awarded for clear indications of (a) where we are (b) where we should wish to be (c) why. Show all working.

Time allowed: one lifetime. Those needing more time should have thought of that.

I am not a number - I am a twig too far on the Tree of Life!

I'll get me certificate.

IS IQ WISDOM?

If, as I have long suspected, Mankind's cleverness is a maladaptive trait in times of climatic planetary ease (idea stolen from Robert Ardrey) a drift towards less cleverness (lower IQ) might actually be conducive to less destructive over-organisation and 'technological pollution'.

Further, the application of cleverness, to preserve cleverness might, arguably, be the most UNWISE move we could ever make, in view of our our sick planet and it causation.

Reprise:

OF BEDS (The clever inventor)

As the oyster yields a pearl
man invents.
Neither realises their fecundity
is rooted in irritation:
of one - the body
of the other - the mind.
Man kills the oyster
for its pearl.
And kills his own World
for that eureka moment of invention.

barrie (#43) If you look at some of the things which Paul Mason has posted in his blog, you might ask why he keeps repeating the same general theme in different ways. I suggest it's because there is that telling it as it is is met with a peculiar 'silent treatment'. A few years ago I remarked to a friend who also works in this field (and who's livid), "we're not saying much today which wasn't being said back in the 1930s - we're just crossing ts and dotting is - why is it still having to be said?'

Same reason Paul keeps hammering away - people don't want to be told what's true, they want to be told what they want to hear, like children. If you tell them something which clashes with what they want, they throw tantrums hoping that these will change what's true because it stops them hearing what they don't like. Give into them and one ends up with a world full of spoiled, deluded, oppositionally defiant brats acting out in places where they shouldn't be - see Hollywood.

That's what we are now dealing with - well, some of us.

barrie (#45) One reproductive strategy in nature is to go for a large number of progeny and leave some to survive, another is to go for a small number but invest a lot time in parenting that small brood which is largely protective. We humans have a long gestation and maturation period. Ponder the high negative correlation between TFR and IQ, and how early maturation is NOT a sign of higher IQ (human females mature earlier, as do some ethnic groups).

For what it's worth, higher I personally reckon that higher SPATIAL IQ is the true mark of intelligence, not higher VERBAL IQ. Alas, the latter is currently prized more highly than the former. Hence our largely feminized society and all which comes with that (and which I assert is a major problem as it flies in the face of the data). That paradoxical inversion is currently riding on somethiong males provided, i.e. the extensionalisation and externalisation of human intelligent behaviour - i.e. our technology, our automation.

The way we live today is not wise.

MODERN EQUALITY 'WISDOM'

Free-Market 'Wisdom': Get people (the less self-critical the better, import more if need be) to swallow hook, line and sinker, that there are no inequalities, and you can then sell them whatever you like and blame them for not being smart enough if they don't recognise when they're being duped. Send the 'equal' and 'independent' biologically programmed 'gathers' out into the workforce and not only will you increase adultery/promiscuity/loss of trust, but you can increase house prices, mortgages etc whilst ensuring that you have a guaranteed eager market for all your manufactured tat (the less intrinsic value the better for profit) with almst no contraint upon spending power exerted by 'oppressive' 'hunters'.

#24

Hi Jean

Thanks for responding

"Isn't popularism exactly what got us into this mess?"

I used a term called "Popular Mandate" , this really means the same as "The country having confidence in our leadership", the same point I made when President-elect Obama's became President.

If you ignore the confidence of the people for the min and think of the markets , I would suggest since Mr Brown said they were going to spend our way out of recession from a position of debt , the Market have been voting with their money ever since.

So if the People and the Markets don't have confidence in our leadership , I would suggest we're in for one rough ride.

On the other hand , if there was a election , let the people roll their dice ,then the markets could also have a rethink on how they judge our leadership ,it's a second chance.

That is the point I was trying to make , thou I admit I am not the clearest of explainers , specially at 6am :)


"We are but frogs in a pan of water, being warmed up slowly."

hehe I like that analogy.

Sarah (Emily)

....return to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ of Jonathan Ross. ....
I am somewhat glad the Jonathan Ross, has return to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ following his suspension...

~Dennis Junior~

Sarah (Emily)

It is very heart-breaking to see an economy go down-hill in only One year.

~Dennis Junior~