Money Funny Money

Yes, That Stuff That There's Never Enough Of

Hmmmm that reminds me of a peculiar dream I had last night.  I was knocking around with a couple of adult friends in a casino, of all things, when they played a roulette machine and won.  The attendant who came over to check the win went mental, darted off to confirm that they had indeed won with the status of 'War' on said machine (don't ask me what that means, my mind is a puzzle to me) and then informed them that they'd won $163 million.  At least I think it was in dollars, not sure why, Conrad lives in the land of pounds and pence.  Art!

What $163 million will get you in Dubai

     Said couple were then whisked away by the casino staff, possibly because they feared Conrad was going to claim a share of the winnings?  

     ANYWAY back to real life, which can be quite as bonkers as my dreams.  Unless you have been camping in the Appalachian Mountains with no mobile service or internet, you will have heard of the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank over in South Canada.  Art!

     What I have to propound from this point on is based on the analysis of vlogger Jake Broe; you will have heard me mention his vlog on BOOJUM! from time to time, dealing with the war in Ukraine.  However, for a couple of years before that, Jake made his income doing financial vlogs on Youtube, and so he was qualified to comment on SVB.  Art!

     There have been a lot of silly rumours floating around about this bank's collapse, including that it was caused by Jewish space hackers, the Illuminati, Cthulhu, Ned Ludd or Lady Gaga's hairdresser.

     Not so.  In fact, as Jake showed statistically, bank collapses in South Canada are not unusual.  Art!

     That gives you a perspective.

     One of the problems of SVB is that it took in funds and invested them in US Treasury Bonds.  These financial instruments <cackles at being able to sound like he knows something> are rock-solid guaranteed 100% to give you a return and will never fail.  However ...  Art!

     SVB bought these bonds when their price was bumping along the bottom, as seen above.  Their price then skyrocketed and when SVB cashed them in, they made a colossal loss because of the huge disparity between investment and return.

     Ooops.

     If you want a villain of the piece, try one Peter Thiel.  He's a billionaire investor (co-founder of Paypal) who had assets in SVB by the hundreds of billions. Last week he not only pulled his venture capital out of SVB, he warned other venture capital funds to get out as well, which they promptly did.  This may not have directly caused the bank to crash but it certainly didn't help it remain afloat as the run commenced, leaving it with insufficient funds to cover the withdrawals.  Art!

Peter Thief.  THIEL!  I mean Peter Thiel.

     Banks, you see, are supposed to keep a certain percentage of their overall capital in a reserve fund, so they can service clients who want to withdraw money.  Normally there is no problem with this accommodation, BUT if there are an abnormal number of clients making withdrawals in a 'run' - well, then you have problems.  Big problems.

Conrad - Sharp Of Eye And Tooth

Also tongue, as the Bloaty Gas Tout has learned to his peril.  Look at him, weeping into his kasha.  In fact - Art!

     It's not immediately obvious because these are still photos, but Kadyrov, The Beard, appears to have not only eaten all the pies, but all the pasties, slices, butties and bacon-fat, too.  He seems to have gained at least a couple of stone in a matter of weeks, and if he tried to do that feeble push-up routine today, would definitely die of a myocardial infarction.  Not only that, his hands were shaking like jelly the whole time.  One wonders if these are the after-affects of being treated to some polonium tea.

    As for Dimya, once again he's holding onto that table as if it's going to take off at Mach 3 if he lets go.  Plus, he seems to have lost all the weight that The Beard has accumulated.  Perhaps they agreed to share?

     ANYWAY I would like to get to the main course, which is a few comments on "V For Vendetta", a film I finished watching last night.  Art!

     What's wrong with this picture?  Alan Moore, the guy who wrote the story that Dave illustrated, is what.  His name's not on the credits.  This is because he is extremely finicky about his stories being filmed and would only ever approve of an adaptation what was frame-for-frame what he'd written.  Art!

     Yes, Chad Stahelski appears twice, once as a character, once as the Supervising Stunt Co-ordinator.  You would better know him nowadays as the highly-regarded director of the 'John Wick' franchise, but this is where he was in 2005.

     "Storm Saxon" is a white-supremacist alternate-reality television show, intended to show the audience how wonderful their lives are by comparison.  Conrad was thorough enough to watch the film and get the relevant frame.  Art!

"The Sea Of Sand"

There is trouble on Wasteworld, the barren home planet of the bio-vores.  The underclass have begun to revolt, and the Doctor is right there in situ to see it happening.

Sur felt the paralysing impact of Url's probiscis, hitting between his scapulae, the traditional killing point.  The energy drain was instant and enormous, preventing any last speeches or wishes or thoughts, apart from that last one -

     - what will happen to the big blue box?

     For all that Sur was a loathsome political parasite, the Doctor felt a touch of horror when he saw the alien reduced to a lifeless bundle of shrivelled fibres, which drifted away in the winds.  Another of the foul civilisation that flourished here on Wasteworld!

     Lord Excellency Url wasted little time over the desiccated remains of Sur.  The aristocrat had been a buffoon, managing to lose both an alien captive and a heretic, and allowing discontent amongst the slave population of his littoral.  Farmers killing Warriors!  The very idea!  As if something like that could ever occur in a littoral not rigourously monitored and maintained, like his own.

     Now, there remained the peculiar matter of that alien, the alien supposedly in control of that big blue box that Sur took so much trouble to acquire.  What did the Technicians babble?  "Dimensionally Transcendental".  An artefact uncountable millenia beyond the technologies of either Homeworld or Target World Seventeen.  So, the alien must be likewise.

     "Fetch me the alien!"

     Dog eat dog, hmmmm?  Or, more aptly, bio-vore Eviscerate bio-vore.

Too Much In The Skies

It's an Annette Peacock song, if you're unaware.

     Also, a couple of NATO Typhoon fighters intercepted and escorted away a Ruffian tanker aircraft near Estonian airspace.  Art!

     Surprise!  Neither of them collided with the Ruffian plane.  This is how professional, well-trained, and experienced pilots operate.  This is how Ruffian pilots operate.  Art!

     Back in the days of the Cold War this kind of intercept-and-escort was quite common, and the Sinister bomber crews would often wave hello to their RAF escort, quite aware of the we-know-that-you-know-that-we-know-that-you-know kind of aerial tit-for-tat that was going on.  On at least one occasion one of the Ruffian aircrew proudly held a copy of 'Playboy' up against the cockpit window.  There are somethings that transcend national boundaries and politics.

Finally -

Edna is curled up on the bed, as Wonder Wifey is downstairs doing a 'Tick Tock' video of some description.  Our fickle furry fiend cannot be trusted to be quiet during said filming as she is wont to bark her (diminutive) head off if anyone approaches the front door, or, when she's feeling especially feisty, anyone passing on the street outside.