Economics
I have taken and adapted a saying in politics - small "P" - that dates from the Sixties, where the epigram "A week is a long time in politics" was quoted by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. It's a rather ambiguous statement which can be interpreted as meaning politicians and their voting public ought to take a much longer-term view of politics than normal; that politicians principles and practices change rapidly in order to look good or avoid looking bad; and that unpleasant actions taken by said politicians are rapidly forgotten. Usually because something far, far worse comes along. Art!
Ol' Harry. You could get away with a pipe in those days.
Incidentally, Conrad remembers a short story by Bob Shaw, where an android designed to look exactly like Ol' Harry, but with sinister extremist policies programmed in, was part of the plot. It had to do with the Cocktail Party Syndrome, and - Art!
Let us move on, for fine words butter no potatoes. Not parsnips, can't Dog Buns stand 'em.
For Lo! I have come to lay upon you another load of misery, as transcribed from the 'Joe Blogs' vlog on Youtube, about the Ruffian economy. The reason I have today's title is because I made notes on 14/09/2024 and here we are two-and-a-half-weeks later, and yes the economic data have moved on significantly since then. First, though, a chart as done by "Prune60", from Twitter, which is also of economic significance, a tad more indirectly than Joe's input. Art!
First of all, as we like to do here on the blog, let us define 'week', because we always need a firm base in reality. According to my 'Collins Concise Dictionary' a week is a period of seven days, especially from Sunday to Sunday. An alternative word is 'Hebdomadal' from the Greek for 'Seven days', which we'll now ignore, and 'week' itself derives from the Old English 'Wiccu'.
Having got that settled, back to my annotations. Joe was waxing forth on the parlous state of the Ruffian economy. Art!
The rule of thumb is that, the cheerier Joe is in his greeting, the worse things are for the subject matter of that vlog. Let's take a look at the section bookmarked under 'Economic Disaster'.
Firstly, Wage Growth is up 6.2% year-on-year from 2023 as of the figures for June 2024. Art!
This is a bath thing because it's one of the drivers for inflation, as employers have to keep on raising wages to stay competitive and retain workers instead of having them decamp to where they can earn more. Art!
The value for Inflation still stands at 9.1% as of September, so no, it hasn't increased. However - my favourite word! - it hasn't decreased, either, which it ought to do because the harvest is being brought in for August and September, so the price of fruit and veg ought to drop.
Then we have Interest rates. Joe's vlog mentioned the rate being at 18%, which is now incorrect, as it's 19%. As I titled, a week is a long time in economics.
What comes next? The Ruble! O boy this currency is not looking good. In Joe's blog it stood at ₽90.25 to the dollar. Today it stands at ₽95.18 to the dollar and looks set to depreciate further. Ooopsie. Art!
Pre-Special Idiotic Operation it was trading at ₽75 to the dollar. It's now almost a zombie currency, as the only nation trading in rubles is Ruffia, as India and China refuse to trade in it, only in yuan and rupees.
The Ruffian Central Bank used to step in at crisis moments like this, buying up rubles with it's liquid funds from the National Wealth Fund to prop the price up. As of right now it seems the RCB simply doesn't have the money to do this anymore and is having to prioritise what it spends on. Also, since June of 2024 the South Canadians have been reallllly ramping up the threat of secondary sanctions, meaning Chinese and Indian businesses have to carry out exhaustive checks to make sure their trade isn't with Sergei The Sanctioned, or they will get hit with sanctions. Art!
This has created an enormous financial bottleneck for Modern-day Mordor, where payments are coming very, very late or often not at all. This means a seriously depleted cash-flow, hence the RCB having to tighten the purse strings.
Things are bad enough. Conrad maliciously wonders how bad they'll be by next week, when it's the Little Tsar's birthday. Tee hee!
Conrad Is ANGRY! O SO ANGRY!
Well, angrier than usual. Still angrier than usual. I've compiled a list of words that the Codeword Compilers have been abusing trust and reason with, and you cannot do anything but agree with me here.
LEITMOTIF: A word only ever used by posing literary poseurs who like to use words they don't understand. Looking at my CCD, it's defined as "A recurring short melodic phrase, especially in Wagnerian music dramas, to suggest a character, thing, etc."
Hmmmm. Let me see .....
"Here are the Valkyries, with their eyes blazing red.
I'm sending them to dance on that Compiler's head."
Art!
Women drivers.
TARSAL: A bone. A very specific bone, at that. Art!
The details in CCD are unusually sketchy, with no root or origin given so we'll just assume Greek or Latin, spit, and move on.
Okay, okay, I nosied a tad and found that the Latin for 'Ankle' is 'Tarsus'. I'm still angry, though.
GRISTLIER: Talk about mucking about with language in order to distort it into unrecognisable forms! Honestly, I ask you. GRISTLE GRISTLY - what's next, GRISTLIEST? Another name for having more cartilage about it than the norm, especially when part of a meat joint. Art!
Shark carcass displaying lots of cartilage
Here's An Interesting Twist
Normally authors are desperately keen to have their works in print for as long as possible and in as many editions as possible.
Not so Robert McCammon (splendid first name there, mate). He has admitted/confessed/boasted <delete where applicable> that for decades he has prevented four of his first novels from being reprinted. Art!
The only one of the 4 I've read
He didn't think their quality was as good as that of his later works, so there's been a moratorium on them. This, of course - obviously! - has meant that the limited number previously in circulation demand silly prices. Art!
Thanks but no thanks. This may be the underlying reason I've never seen any of his early works in charity shops. Be advised I shall keep my eyes peeled.
This Is What Comes Of Reading "Judge Dredd The Megazine" Non-Stop
Sorry, I just couldn't resist poking fun at Hair-Helmet Harry. Art!
Because Donold has the intellect of a seven-year old, and whose only skills are shouting and lying, you can bet whatever idea about fighting crime that oozed out of his cerebellum would be a doozy. In fact - Art!
This, lest ye be unaware, is Judge Death, who hails from a twisted alternate reality where there is no crime, because there are no live people. Crime, you see, is committed by the living, so if everyone is dead, ergo nil crime.
Perhaps a bit too extreme for Pumpkinhead, and the artwork would probably scare him. Art!
Yes! Just imagine, a thousand Batmen (and Batwomen) per city, that'd clear up crime in no time. Except for the costumed-vigilantism is illegal bit, and Donold wouldn't be able to read a word as complex as 'Vigilante'.
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