The Cambridge Apostles The élite intellectual secret society, The Cambridge Apostles, was originally titled Cambridge Conversazione Society It was set up in 1820 and counts John Maynard Keynes and Victor Rothschild amongst its former members. Keynes, who is credited with…
Sharon White, head of the BBC’s Regulator, Ofcom Last week I contacted Sharon White, boss of Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, to inform her of her subordinate Chris Wynn’s aggressive attempts to curtail my activities. What I’ve since learned has profoundly…
Ofcom’s Collusive Corruption Ofcom Director of Communications Chris Wynn got in touch over Monday’s blogpost. I just assumed this was spam. Later that day I got a reminder: Not wanting to seem rude, I sent Chris a reply: The next morning…
By Ranjan Balakumaran Biased Sheila The deputy head of Ofcom – the BBC’s regulator – Baroness Noakes, has been done for anti-Labour tweeting in the past. She has consistently voted with the Government for Brexit in the Lords and is…
What a funny week we’ve had: Wages, Inflation, Sterling, Labour shocks, Enoch Powell, Windrush, Home Office, Deportations, Andrew Neil and David Goodhart, Nick Timothy, Hostile Environment, Modi, Gove, Mode4, The Times, ALEC, Cambridge Analytica, Barbara Bush, Basic Income, Biometrics, Aadhaar,…
Lance Armstrong just settled a “$100m fraud suit” in the US, according to reports . He could have been forced to pay out $100m for having defrauded his team’s sponsor, the US Postal Service, but instead settled for $5m. His…
Off Track Off Track is a recent report from Oil Change International on the future of Oil investments, as things stand, and why what is happening is so wrong. BP AGM 2018 In Friday’s edition of Amusing Ourselves to Death,…
Finally a smoking gun. UKIP paid Steve Bannon’s Cambridge Analytica to swing Brexit. Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes have been tweeting about Brexit and outside interference for some time. But this invoice, showing that UKIP paid Cambridge Analytica, says it…
Look who’s coming to Manchester! Oil Giant BP are to hold their Annual Shareholder meeting in Manchester on May 21st. Have your say! Share Action are willing to hold an AGM workshop in Manchester in the first week of May.…
Monday’s Sun ran with Pro-Israel Maureen Lipman’s declaration that Jeremy Corbyn has turned her into a Tory. Lipman’s loyalty to Israel is no secret — she renounced Labour membership under Ed Miliband. The Sun might seem to speak up for…
Why are we so wedded to the idea that there is only one truth?The idea of a monotheistic god is understandably tempting. Henry Kissinger is reputed to have asked who to call when he wanted to speak to Europe. The…
Hostile Environment Today’s Daily Telegraph doesn’t mention the hostile takeover of British engineering firm GKN by American capitalists, some of whom are Eliott Advisors, whose bosses happen to be Jewish. Instead it attempts to head off a potential U.K. takeover…
Yesterday we looked at Manuel Beltran’s Institute for Human Obsolescence and the Uber driverless crash. Greening of America Straight afterwards I came across the Greening of America by Charles Reich. It was a number one bestseller in the United States back…
Collateral Damage Sincere condolences go out to the victim’s family. This Bloomberg Businessweek entry is remarkable. Particularly the way pedestrian is portrayed as acting of their own free will and not as collateral damage in the war on humans. The…
The Hardy Tree Photo by Adrian Snood Levelled Churchyard Levelled Churchyard was written by Thomas Hardy in 1882. Based on his time as an apprentice architect, the poem gives a voice to the souls whose bodies he exhumed to make way…
PLEASE WATCH THIS 5 MINUTE VIDEO Bloomberg has just shown that the May Government’s proposals to shut the Serious Fraud Office are part of the UK’s post Brexit offer of Corruption-as-a-Service. UK territories already include tax havens like Jersey and…
The Telegraph is going big on the story that George Soros is against Brexit. Theresa May’s former Chief of Staff, Nick Timothy, gets a byline for this “news story”. With Osborne running the Remain supporting Standard and Timothy operating out…
“So you self-identify as a conspiracy theorist?” asked the Masters student disparagingly at a protest in 2015. I was 37 at the time. I thought I knew what I was doing. But quite obviously, I was mad. What was I…
Do we live in a truly decadent age? Can anyone get away with anything? These are questions I feel compelled to ask after watching just a few minutes of Howard Davies and Ross McEwan, of the taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland…
The FT says Theresa May won’t endorse the Chinese Belt and Road initiative. Theresa May declines to endorse China’s Belt and Road initiative via @financialtimes — Ranjan Balakumaran (@financialeyes) January 30, 2018 The BBC: Here’s HSBC’s website HSBC has…
Davos In the third series of House of Cards, the President (played by Kevin Spacey) decides to create a New Deal-type jobs programme. A Keynesian stimulus — just like America First. This week’s Davos World Economic Forum is the perfect chance…
Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. Under normal circumstances the transfer of €1 trillion of public money to ANONYMOUS BANKERS with no meaningful audit trail would be representative of a society with corruption tolerance levels…
Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. Handing €1 trillion of public money to ANONYMOUS bankers with no publicly available audit trail would be corrupt on a scale so staggeringly as to be virtually beyond comprehension.…
It was Trade-Related I first heard the term Endocrine Disruptor three years ago while researching the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) also known as the EU – US trade agreement. US firms wanted to dismantle EU safety standards and…
Trump 2020 Showy events like yesterday’s White House tax cut speeches make Trump’s re-election look assured. But wheeling out African American politicians like Tim Scott to talk about how the tax cut is for ‘distressed communities’ and single mothers while…
A.L.E.C. operative Mike Pence, & Tim Scott on the Tax Cut Republicans are ecstatic about this tax cut. It’s interesting to hear what Pence has to say about America’s place in the world. He talks about ISIS but not about…
We in the middle of a #BreitbartBrexit: US to Colonise EU via Ireland & #Brexit via @financialeyes #Marr — Ranjan Balakumaran (@financialeyes) December 10, 2017 CETA+++ David Davis is championing CETA+++ which means Britain copying the Canada-EU trade agreement…
Purported UK Cave-In (08/12/17) Brexit Jihad designed to weaken the EU & UK at all costs Why would the City of London Corporation (The UK’s Foremost Financial Services Lobbyists) or the European Commission care about EU or UK citizens? German…
Trump meets Saudis and all hell breaks loose The Saudi Ritz Carlton’s CEO had this to say about the effect of Trump’s Muslim ban: Interesting how the Saudis manage to get the New York Times on side. When Putin…
The Polarizers: Postwar Architects of Our Partisan Era–out in Dec, avail. now for pre-order. Stuff those stockings. — Sam Rosenfeld (@sam_rosenfeld) September 17, 2017 Polarizers by Sam Rosenfeld After WW2 Democrats and Republicans agreed on most issues. Each party…
For in the hand of Yahweh there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs. Subliminal A friend and I…
Adultery just made an appearance in the NYT Ethicist Column: The reader claims although he and his wife love each other, she’s been very ill and has said he can have affairs. He’s agonising over whether to be honest about…
US beefs up its presence in Asia according to WSJ Backstory to Trump in Russia – Luke Harding writes well. How Trump walked into Putin’s web — Ranjan Balakumaran (@financialeyes) November 16, 2017 Some Neo-Nazis are losing their blue…
Asking investors to abandon the UK goes against the UK’s interests. No amount of debate can change that. Yet that is what Parliamentarian and Brexiteer John Redwood has done. How can he be forgiven? Brexit would allow for the UK…
Brexiteer @johnredwood warns investors to get their money out of the UK, then tells the UK to go for hard Brexit. #disasatercapitalism cc @FlipChartRick — (((FrancesCoppola))) (@Frances_Coppola) November 12, 2017
Some people see meaning when it just isn’t there. But maybe it is – just not in the way you think. And who am I to presume what you’re (not) thinking? Start again. There is meaning. Perhaps more meaning. Than.…
Virginia Acceptance Speech No outright mention of Charlottesville — but still a big speech in Virginia. The comments section is split with some calling it an Obama speech. Any reference to White Nationalism, Healing Wounds, or Affordable Care Act interpreted…
Booming back at ya, Wanna reach out and grab ya, How I wonder where she’s AtRa, Comes back at you twice as hard
Those with the most to say feel least constrained in the current climate. But how much of what they say means anything at all? I struggle to find anything of worth in the printed press. Might everyone be so reeling…
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose FT political leader writer, Sebastian Payne recently referred to the Conservative Party’s pre-eminent post-war philosopher — Michael Oakeshott. In quoting Michael Oakeshott, @ProfTimBale nails why there’s something conservative in being sceptical about…
In the FT today Gillian Tett points out that while the media glare falls on the big banks that are currently reporting their third quarter earnings, the real story is the Shadow Banking sector’s continued colonisation of those sections of…
Nudge Richard Thaler has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics. He’s best known for co-authoring the bestseller Nudge with Cass Sunstein in 2007. Sunstein went on to become President Obama’s Regulatory Czar while Thaler provided the ideas for…
The Pound looks likely to collapse during the upcoming Tory Party conference Financial Markets are looking for reassurance. Instead they have been treated to David Davis. Amber Rudd will remember her speech about companies having to report the amount of…
Today’s FT has an excellent piece on Social Cleansing in Silicon Valley. The great Silicon Valley land grab via @FT — Ranjan Balakumaran (@financialeyes) August 26, 2017 It made me think of Jamie Bartlett‘s BBC Show, The Secrets of…
What links the 222 million Euros Qatari-owned Paris Saint Germain paid Football Club Barcelona for a footballer by the name of Neymar with unconventional oil, gas, and monetary policy, and an obscure mathematical function derived by a 19th Century German Professor…
BSMG German Hip Hop band BSMG have just done a tune called Jesse Owens. I don’t speak the language. But the name Owens reminds me of: Robert Owens I recall seeing Robert Owens out and about in London 10 years…
According to the Wall Street Journal Donald Trump plans to combat the US opioid crisis. It was only the other day that Janet Yellen, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, mentioned that the opioid crisis was undermining the US labor market. …
German car firms have been hit by recent emission fraud scandals Carmakers’ troubles shake Germany’s national psyche — Ranjan Balakumaran (@financialeyes) August 2, 2017 and the appearance of the electric car: Tesla reveals Model 3 cost in its first attempt at affordable…
