So it is good bye to August and the Soccer World Cup 2010 draws ever closer. Or it might do if it could get on board the busses that have been planned for it. The uproar that has broken out about the plans that have been made for this segment of public transport is getting really ugly and the world is watching with alarm. Bullets are about to replace the insults flying about. About the only common ground between the antagonists would appear to be the emergency lanes and central reservations which the taxis have long regarded as part of the road network anyway.
It is also goodbye to the 25 000 All Share level as the bull runs wild and the streets named prudence and caution and value are renamed foolhardy, bravado and speculate. My view that they were also cul de sacs is turning out very wrong. The market is now far closer to revisiting the all time highs (33 300) than testing the most recent lows (17 700). I am baffled and embarrassed but not convinced.
I have spent a day back in the dealing room and it has been wonderful to be surrounded by colleagues again and to hear the gossip and rumours. However, I am alarmed to be reminded how closely watched is the stream of almost meaningless numbers and definitely useless opinions that pour out of the screens dotted around the room. The defence is of course that every other dealing room is also watching the same gibberish and knee jerks need to be co-ordinated. Unsynchronised swimming is not pretty.
In an obvious fit of jealously and pique a regulatory suit in London has labelled some of the activity that goes on in the halls of banking and finance as “Socially Useless” and has proposed that taxes be levied on the profits so obtained. Presumably he believes that there are other folk who could spend the money in a socially useful manner. I would be interested to know what he believes that would be. Is he unaware for example that the workers at the a certain luxury car maker are in danger of being laid off and that buying a Porsche would undoubtedly be socially useful in preventing them being laid off.
Unfortunately there seems to be no mention of laying off any of decision makers at Eskom who managed that organisation into a R9.7bn loss despite having sold almost every single unit of their product. That displays truly awesome incompetence. But they should care less, the customers have no where else to go. Meanwhile over in the army the phrase “military discipline” has become a curiosity. People of my generation watch in amazement at the unruly mobs of alleged troopies behaving in a very unmilitary manner and wonder what happened to the “Korporals” who used to be more powerful and scary than even the worst bear market.
It seems that the press in Perth have thankfully had no time for tomorrow’s tri-nation encounter as there is some Aussies Rules encounter which is far more important. That means that the translators who were sent along to render our coach’s observations into short and meaningful sentences have been unused. Much better to let the ‘bokke do the talking at noon tomorrow.
James Greener
28th August 2009.
