Did you know that 52 percent of American Evangelicals have a foot fetish (it's not known if that includes children or, if not, what precisely the other 48 percent are up to)? Or, here's another one: did you know that a full 76 percent of podiatrists are well practised at the art of erotic asphyxiation (I guess having a foot fetish would be a little too much like work), or, that when asked, a full 5 percent of readers of this article will think the author is funny? (Ed. Can you fact check this? It seems a bit high to me). The reason I know these facts to be the case is because the ever-so-malleable Bureau of Made Up Statistics has just told me so. And, having a name that sounds like its a government agency means it must be trustworthy, right?
Now, all joking aside, I am sure all you readers being educated sorts, know all about Quantitative Easing or, as it is known in economically literate circles the "money does grow on trees after all" theory. The theory of QE, roughly stated, is thus: A government is in debt and needs money. The government wants the banks to lend the government money but, alas, the poor banks are broke (hmm) and so don't have any spare pocket change to give to the government, otherwise they would doubtless be the paragon of charity. Deflated (geddit?), the government has a brainwave: it can let the banks create lots of new money out of thin air and then use the money to lend to the government (via bonds). The banks are still poor, for theirs is a meager existence, but they have a future income as bonds are repaid and the government is suddenly flush with cash. To quote Aleksandr Orlov, “simples.”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Irene Athena
"...a plan as cunning as a fox that has just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University." It was that. There is no limit to the make-believe good that make-believe money can do.
2 - Christopher Rose
That cunning remark sounds like a quote from the mighty Blackadder, which is arguably one of the best television comedy series ever.
3 - Casper
Arguably?
And yes, it was.
4 - El Bicho
if you are quoting Blackadder, I am almost certain the writers would have appreciated giving them credit within the article rather than making it look like it was your own
5 - Dr Dreadful
Perhaps not in America, El B, but in Casper's native UK that quote is well enough known that the average reader would immediately recognize it as such.
6 - Casper
El B, You're probably right - I sometimes forget my readers are not all British.
There's some more serious background to my story here, The Financial Times also covered it on their front page a couple of days ago.
7 - El Bicho
So in the UK, people don't use quotation marks, Doc? Odd practice. No wonder the Empire fell
8 - Irene Athena
Hic!cup.
9 - Cannonshop
Makes sense to me-in a certain mad way. By forgiving the debt that's been de-facto-defaulted on, Sudan benefits by showing the World Bank that their national debt has dropped-it's good for the ole credit rating.
Meanwhile, on-paper, like U.S. "Debt Reduction Agreements" that got the debt ceiling raised last year, the British Government can write off the unpaid loan as having given money after all.
There's a sick sort of symmetry to that, and as Irene said in comment 1, the money's effectively "make Believe" anyway-the Crown carried that unpaid debt as an "asset"...
10 - roger nowosielski
Concerning El Bicho-Dreadful controversy:
It's an accepted literary practice to drop quotation marks around phrases too well-known to anyone but a philistine.
"Virtue is its own reward" -- notice, I'm not violating the aforementioned principle in this instance, as this is an instance of mentioning -- is an example.
Now, whether Rome fell because some Romans writers failed to acknowledge Seneca's authorship while trying to motivate their countrymen to take a stance against general moral decline already so prevalent in Seneca's time -- well, that is debatable and an interesting question in its own right. It's doubtful, however, that the phrase in question has reached the kind of notoriety even in the country of its origin, let alone the literary universe at large.
11 - Casper
Excellent, I've caused a controversy!
12 - Dr Dreadful
Exactly, Roger. Not to mention that we use unattributed phrases from Shakespeare and the Bible, among others, all the time.
13 - Christopher Rose
I think many of the phrases that originated in Shakespeare or The Book are used without any awareness of the source and have just become part of the language.
14 - Irene Athena
LOL. Roger. If it is a Philistine who does not recognize the source of ""...a plan as cunning as a fox that has just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University," Then I must admit to being a Philistine. (I at LEAST thought it was funny though, as was the rest of the article, though it dealt with a serious subject.)
Blackadder* as I have now learned, has been accepted into the Canon of British lit, so yes there was nothing amiss in Caspar's omission of apostrophes.
*I watched it for the first time with my son yesterday, and neither of us could understand a dang thing they were saying. I was on the lookout for "Professor of Cunning," too.
15 - El Bicho
"It's doubtful, however, that the phrase in question has reached the kind of notoriety even in the country of its origin, let alone the literary universe at large."
Exactly, Roger
16 - Irene Athena
What, El Bicho? Ridden on a dead horse?
Yes!
You're using coconuts!
What?
You've got two empty halves of coconut and you're bangin' 'em together.
So?
17 - zingzing
now you're just trying to get his goat, irene... of course, i'd better put that phrase in quotes, as it originated from the mind of "number 1500," a prisoner at sing sing. ah, phrases. where to start?
18 - Irene Athena
Yikes! You know my life a dang book, Zingzing. He was in the cell next to mine How'd you know that's where I'd heard it? Creepy!
19 - Irene Athena
Oh you were talking about the GOAT quote. I was talking about the HORSE quote. Pretty prolific guy, that number 1500.
20 - zingzing
the horse quote... if the king of the britons calls it a horse, then a pair of coconuts is a goddamn horse.
21 - Irene Athena
No, that wasn't from "number 1500." He became a jailhouse convert before he started writing comedy.
Oh GOD! How I need this comic relief right now!
22 - roger nowosielski
@14
You were just enamored with the inflection and diction, Irene, the power of the spoken word as it was meant to be spoken, admit it, or forever hold your peace.
And it matters not one bit you didn't understand a bloody world. Let's face it, you just enjoyed the music.
All told, you're still a philistine for all your protestations. And so am I, for not in a million years I could possibly replicate the language of Shakespeare.
23 - roger nowosielski
a bloody word ...
My defects are more than apparent
24 - Irene Athena
Naw, Roger, nothing like that. I'd heard something about Hugh Laurie being in it. That guy from House.
25 - Irene Athena
Waited for him, too, but, like the Professor of Cunning, he never showed up.