Todays P&L: Nothing at all
Todays booze: 3 large Vodka & Tonics - its only lunch time, I am just getting started!

So that was Christmas. Bah, Humbug! I didn't find myself all overwhelmed with love and peace for my fellow man and I have realised that being unable to trade for even 48 hours is causing me serious problems. Another example of my addicitve personality I guess. The UK government seems to be wholeheartedly supportive of the gambling industry, although I suspect they will turn on it just as they did with cigarettes and booze after exploiting it for all the tax revenue they can.

I am wondering why customers here in the UK even bother repaying their debts to the banks, which are largely nationalised now anyway. Even the banks that haven't taken Government aid are exchanging their worthless securitised paper for gilts! The banks seem to be under the impression that it was just bad luck and circumstances beyond their control that caused these huge losses. Funny that when you use that argument for being unable to repay your credit card debt the banks look the other way and slap a CCJ on you quicker than you can say Ebeneezer Scrooge. I remember those halcyon days when bankers attracted press because of their lifestyles. Anyone remember the 3 Barclays Capital Markets Risk analyts that ran up a £40,000 plus lunch bill at Petrus? The unkind press attention ensured that the lost their jobs bit of a shame really, Barclays really could use some decent risk managers now!

The financial climate has changed so much for anyone who remembers how it used to be, If I had told you two years ago that the 5 Wall Street houses of the holy would no longer exist and that AIG and Fannie May and Freddie Mac would be nationalised I would have been laughed out of the room. And the US, once a capitalist nation apparently, would be prepared to bail-out its worthless industrial titans whatever the cost. It is unthinkable and the scam only works as long as nobody calls on the US to show its cards. We are in a situation where investors are so scared that they actually are paying to lend money to the US. Forget the effects of inflation, 2 year notes have a 98 handle on their yield. The US is effecively printing money without any fiscal responsibility - this can only end badly.