(LOCKDOWN) GAME OVER

A trawl through a selection of price charts covering shares, fixed interest instruments, commodities and currencies suggests that markets are not wracked with either panic or euphoria. Reading the reports and backstories however makes it clear that there are industries and economies damaged almost beyond repair. And it is not in the least reassuring that the people who took us to this point now believe that they are capable of taking us out of the mire. Governments are still trying to make everyone believe that it was only due to their wise actions that life in their country and indeed the whole planet managed to survive one of the greatest threats civilisation had ever experienced. But that story is so 2020 and discredited and we need now to be left alone to rebuild from the social and economic wreckage that our leaders even now are still callously creating. The further unravelling of the attempted minutiae of social control was on display this week when yet another state ministry tried to craft regulations for controlling who can travel where. Their particular concern is with list of so-called high-risk countries to which leisure travel is not allowed. There are of course exceptions for “business travellers with scarce and critical skills including diplomats, repatriated persons, investors, and people participating in professional sporting events”! No word however on what might constitute a scarce and critical skill nor why anyone would think that a diplomat might have them. And that term “investors” pretty much renders the regulation pointless. Just stop it please Mr President. Even if this rash of arrests and court appearances is government’s attempt to raise a bit of sorely needed cash, the nets are starting to close around the baddies who have stolen so much of our public wealth in the past decade or so. People are indeed being carted off to court appearances and presented with reams of charges largely to do with money moving in mysterious directions. Sadly, not much of it will be recoverable as the crooks had a great fondness for high priced consumables. In a way it is a pity that despite loud denunciations of all things colonial and western our government have clung so fiercely to the canons and structures of a rather ancient European legal system. Processing these fraudsters through the courts systems will be time consuming and incredibly costly. Let us just send every government employee earning more than half a million a year official salary, for a lifestyle audit (quaint term) and all who fail go immediately to Robben Island for 27 years. And no replacements to be appointed. And while we are at it private employees too. There is something broken about CEO remuneration levels. We are all so jaded and blasé about the scare stories that have informed our lives this year that there was no significant reaction to the news that President Trump had tested positive for Covid 19 infection. More astonishing is that his recovery has been so swift. This has, however, inflamed further the anger of those who despise the man and reportedly they are now scouring the US constitution for sanction to use the suspicion of witchcraft to have him immediately removed from office. Formula 1 motor racing seems to be slowly disintegrating before our startled eyes. Egos are being taken out for extensive airings. Of course, it’s a fantastically expensive enterprise but as long as it consumes just private money so what? Technically the sport is in a mess with unexplained differences in identically specified power units. There is suspicion of partial regulation enforcement. Yet another sports Covid victim missing the fans? James Greener Friday 9th October 2020