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Perverse incentives skew even the most logical of systems

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Perverse incentives skew even the most logical of systems

You must do as I say because I’m important, popular, and your moral superior.

So UK and US messaging via their press organs seems to go.

Yesterday the craven Danny Finkelstein of the Times put out a column saying that Britain was right to cosy up to Russian oligarchs.

Alex Younger ex head of MI6 admitted that Britain was home to so many of them but that, despite reports that MI6 warned that Evgeny Lebedev, currently co-owner of the Evening Standard and Independent newspapers with the Saudi Royal family, was a security risk, he himself claimed to have had nothing to do with and no knowledge of the Lebedev case.

This is highly unlikely in my view and Younger, like David Cameron, will be mainly focused on feathering his nest.

Here’s the excerpt:

Toxic sludge is good for you!

Unlike Radio 4 and Alex Younger, Russell Brand mentioned the fact that The Independent is co-owned by the Saudis. But Brand didn’t mention Lebedev. Strange.

I put up a comment on his YouTube thread last night and one this morning but both seem to have disappeared.

This is exactly the same as when I attempted to post references to Bill Gates on the Guardian blog ten years ago. Instant block.

So Brand suddenly feels as much of a gatekeeper as the rest. And that is normal. I saw the same thing happen to Roger Hallam of Extinction Rebellion. A smart guy who was arguably always a bit nuts that became a bit of a joke in the way he approached people. I would tell Roger he was a cross between Jesus and Charles Manson. From clickbait to jailbait etc see London Conversation passim

Meanwhile the Americans are telling China to do more to support America and Ukraine are telling Germany much the same thing.

Zelensky is blackmailing Germany into letting Ukraine enter the EU. It’s sounds like Israeli doublespeak to me and reminds me that first it was UK that blackmailed the EU and now it is the Ukraine.

All the while blaming Putin and China.

Bill Browder and Zelensky are the winners here. Hogging the limelight. Poor George Soros is yesterday’s man.

Meanwhile the supposed Russian domestic default is entirely artificial. The only reason their dollar bonds won’t be paid is because nobody will exchange them dollars, not because they aren’t solvent and willing to pay.

So it’s not capitalism that’s failing I’m afraid. Russia is happy to pay. It’s the intermediaries that have boycotted the debtor. Will they do the same to any African country that starts a war, thus effectively writing off their debts and underwriting the war? I think not.

Perverse incentives skew even the most logical of systems.

What a state to be in.

Mike Figgis and George Khan of the People show

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