Blues For My Baby

Yesterdays P&L: GBP 110.00

Yesterdays Booze: 3 Bottles of Rioja

Yesterdays Soundtrack: Blues

We were right - you were wrong. You know how they have those movies were the evildoer always gets his bitter desserts at the end of the film, well as previously suspected they are just fairy stories. The UK banking sector which, using the kind of logic only civil servants understand, decided that the way to deal with banks that are "too big to fail" was to merge them with other banks and make them bigger has used similar thinking to deal with the high wages and lack of accountability of investment bankers. As a result all four of the major UK banks are now run by the heads of investment banks. Perhaps the thinking is that the commercial and retail bankers who used to be in the jobs were ill-prepared to understand the complexity of the modern financial markets, (in which case they should have been playing golf at the club or doddering around some old folks home). It's like putting the wolf in charge of the sheep. Any investment banker who made it to the level of Bob Diamond at Barclays or Stuart Gulliver at HSBC has the thinking and profit motivation of a trader/investment banker ingrained in his blood.

The fantasy world the markets are operating in continues to bemuse me. I understand Why gold is so high and, seemingly, going much higher. Paper currency is looking extremely unreliable, a situation that won't improve as long as the central banks keep printing the stuff to pay their bills. Gold has always been a hedge against inflation, but also a vote of lack of confidence in paper money. I had a friend who collected banknotes and I remember bringing him back stacks of pre-Khmer Cambodian Riels and French Piastres, Burmese Rupees and Brazilian Cruzeiros - all of them worthless no matter how beautifully decorated the notes were, (the Cambodian Riels were particularly attractive). Equities are also as good a financial instrument as you can get in an inflationary environment, providing the companies you invest in don't go bust due to the economic situation. A bigger problem is the bond markets. Bonds are often called fixed income because that's what you get. If you buy the safest bond, typically a US treasury for say ten years you get the coupon paid semi-annually and your money returned at the end of the ten years. However if inflation is four percent and the coupon is two and a half percent per annum, then you have lent your money for ten years to the government and are losing one and a half percent per year. This may not seem so bad as at least you get your original principal back, (less the inflation adjusted loss), in ten years, provided the issuer of your bonds doesn't default, like Argentina, (two thousand and two) and Russia, (ninety eight), have. The problem is the companies that manage your pensions and generally are little more than overpaid telephone clerks usually invest in a mixture of bonds, equities and cash. So the money that is being built up to pay for your golden years will likely be far less than you expect. At least if you invest in property like the lovely Bridget at teaanddigestives.blogspot.com you get to own something real, bonus points if its somewhere like Italy. Luckily I don't have a pension plan - I just hope I die before I spend all my money.

Receiving overtures of reconciliation from the Stalker, she must be having some problems as I seem to be the male equivalent of light relief for depressed women. Perhaps my own situation is so bad they can look at their own lives and say "at least I'm not that fucker", actually she's probably just horny. Most female partners I have had know I am a good place to go for complication-free sex. Actually I am sure that's the case as when I told her my mother was paying a visit, she suggested a hotel, which I don't mind in the slightest as I spent a lot of time living in hotels and service apartments and she isn't exactly the travel lodge kind of woman. Mind you, I still recall when we went to a hotel in Green Park that has an excellent malt whisky bar, over two hundred and seventy types, we took a break and decided to see how well we could taste the differences between them. Even I winced when she got the bill.

Yesterday's music was Blues, my top five tracks:

Misty Blue - Dorothy Moore, what a great song, reminds me of good old days and better nights. I can't be the only person that lives their life as if it had a soundtrack attached.

Hellhound On My Tail - "I got to keep movin, got to keep movin" Old Robert supposedly sold his soul to the devil to achieve success. I wonder if I would ever do that, mind you the going rate for my soul is probably enough to get me to the first round of X factor or an appearance on big brother.

Stormy Weather - The Lena Horne version, "Stormy weather, just can't get myself together - I am weary all the time, I'm weary all the time". Am I the only person that thinks this song is cheerful? Another good version is the Sinatra one on the album No One Cares.

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer - A song by John Lee Hooker, classic drinking music. Last call for alcohol, funny how some days you go into a bar, just for a quick drink and before you know it they are telling you its closing time.

Same Old Blues - Eric Clapton, he loves the blues so much he built an entire fortune on it. Strange how music from the plantations in the deep south ended up with Clapton driving his Ferrari to his residency in the Albert Hall. Still, no doubt Clapton is a brilliant blues guitarist. Every man who ever lost his girl or his job or his house should have some empathy with the blues.

In case I don't see 'ya...good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!