Martin Meenagh blog

Can You See What's Coming? Why on earth are UK house prices up, how are people obtaining mortgages, and why is Santander issuing so many of them? Spain has huge amounts of debt. A Spanish bank buys former British building societies and gives out mortgages, gaining praise from idiots in the media-political class and homebuyers. If the Euro goes down, the Spanish have a stream of British pounds almost as nice as the aztec gold that originally ruined them. British 'homeowners' will end up smoking in the ruins of some ikea Eldorado. If the British explode into inflation, the bank has a hold over homeowners and commercial enterprises that it can threaten the government with until it gets a bailout. Trebles all round, barman. Have you seen that one heading this way?

End of the Beginning Right. It's time to draw together a few threads that I have been spinning for over two years now, just to record for myself the dimensions of our accelerating crisis. I apologise to regular readers for my repetition. You'll know the points of old. There are vast global imbalances in currency and trade, linked now to a growing regionalisation as pressure emerges on food, oil and commodities. This pressure is a combination of the return of wealth to high saving, hard working Asians after a couple of hundred years, the emergence of peak oil, and the effect of the vast monetary expansion of the dollar on the global reserve currency. The Euro is in many ways unsustainable in its present form, and the Greeks, Spanish and Portugese are going to drag it down. Ireland is fighting and may regenerate itself. Italy should also survive, because its people save, and its products, if sold to the Asian middle classes, would allow it to retire. A demographic chill is grippi...

The Republic...regenerating? Have I got this story right? Not only does she slash spending and taxes, and take the pain, but the Irish Republic has just seen the plurality of politicians with ministerial pensions voluntarily give them up ? I have been sipping a beautiful, smooth Taiwanese Whisky in an overly hot bath tonight. Clearly this is but a dream, a fantasy of Tir na Nog.... Here are some Ugandans, who have clearly been at a good and improving sort of learning so that they will do well to the rear, as my grandfather would have said. In a complicated bit of electoral maneouvering, I once rounded up a great many Ugandans to vote for me in a minor public election (though I took the precaution of not letting them meet me, given the general effect that had on voters). I have reason to be grateful to them, and it was all within commonwealth rules and legal and did the Labour Party no harm, straight up. From the look of it, their classroom is somewhere in Cork. Update : I notice that ...

On Looking at Holbein What do you see when you look at The Ambassadors ? That anamorphic skull hanging like Edwardian ectoplasm? A Europe slipping from an Amsterdam-Rome Axis to a North-South one? Erasmus weeping? Two young men as silly and full of themselves as any that I ever was, looking out? The question is redundant, since it doesn't really matter. They are there, dead and alive forever. I was struck by how 'unskulled' the faces looked for the period. The late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, after all, was obsessed with the skull beneath the skin, and with lycanthropy--the transformation of people into wolves. Dual natures run like a thread through Donne and Hobbes, and were, I suppose, even in vogue in the papal states. For Northern Europe, the mutability of man was a spur to science; for the world of the counter reformation, a reminder of the animality of human feelings, of the sensuality that linked the Catholic effort to get people to feel to the effort t...

Vote for a Hung Parliament and Make Them Understand How Irrelevant They Are Here.

Custom and Form I'm sorry that I haven't been blogging lately, though I cannot point to any particular reason. I've been working a great deal, and enjoying the sunny weather and lack of screaming aeroplanes in very blue skies. I also have a good deal on my mind. In any event, all will be back to normal soon. Today is the anniversary of the restoration and 'new Coke', one of which at least resulted in a reaction to a better model, so go and celebrate it. A very happy Friday to everyone!

A Jacobite Anthem Just for the sake of it. I found this version of Will Ye No Come Back Again this morning, and felt like attaching it to a piece on the western economy-- but then again, it stands on its own, I think.

If The Air Ban Goes On.... Then the future of airlines is as clear as the sky. I love Airships! If you happen to be one of BA's useless management, here's where you can buy one .

That Debate America, it has often been said, has given the world three great things; Jazz, Comic books and movies. As with most epigrams, these three things are probably the trinity upon which most can agree; those who would add fast food, or the infotainment industry (which began in taverns before America, and which I suppose both Barnum and Dagger John exploited), or media bishops, or great big thematic novels of contemporary history could probably find only passionate and partisan accomplices, rather than agreement. You can forget about mentioning the blood America spilt in European and Asian wars, which many will just view as essentially for its own benefit and less than that expended by those lost in various Imperial slaughters. I wouldn't, by the way, but am just sayin'; so, Jazz, comics and movies it is. However, these things can be adapted. You only have to think of Japanese Manga, say, or the merseybeat to understand that America's projects are no more culturally e...

The Eurasian Economic Community I've written before about an early taste that I developed on a concrete balcony in Corby for the love stories of Chingiz Aitmatov, the great Khyrghz author and winner of various prizes. I thought about him today when reading about the revolution in his country last week, which many are now tying to a Russian coup of the sort that the west has been sponsoring across the world for some time now. It's necessary, I think, to put things in the context of the bigger picture. Russia has oil, and gas. For the first time it is efficiently exploiting Siberia. Its experience of the west, however--and I knew a few of the Panzertruppen economists who went over there in the nineties--was so negative that it had to close its monetary borders after the crisis of 1998-9. It has built up huge surpluses of dollars and oil, which President, now Prime Minister, Putin, has used ruthlessly--and well. However, these surpluses were not spent on infrastructure or invest...

What Richard Dawkins Thought When There Wasn't a Percentage in Pope-bashing; From 'The Irish Catholic' ... "Priestly abuse of children is nowadays taken to mean sexual abuse, and I feel obliged, at the outset, to get the whole matter of sexual abuse into proportion and out of the way. Others have noted that we live in a time of hysteria about pedophilia, a mob psychology that calls to mind the Salem witch-hunts of 1692… All three of the boarding schools I attended employed teachers whose affections for small boys overstepped the bounds of propriety. That was indeed reprehensible. Nevertheless, if, fifty years on, they had been hounded by vigilantes or lawyers as no better than child murderers, I should have felt obliged to come to their defense, even as the victim of one of them (an embarrassing but otherwise harmless experience). "The Roman Catholic Church has borne a heavy share of such retrospective opprobrium. For all sorts of reasons I dislike the Roman Catho...

No Illusions at The End of Growth Why do the Heathen Rage, and the People Imagine a Vain Thing? I've had an odd day, with the sort of depression and flatness behind the eyes that normally follow after strong drink, except that I didn't have any. That sad Polish air crash near the site of one of Stalin's democides made me think of how many Polish nationalists had wanted, in their desperate way, to be 'the Christ of Nations' at the early nineteenth century. In truth, they could not have done anything else, of course, since their country's material robes had been torn between the Austrians, Prussians and Russians just as its people were crucified by various tyrannies. Katherine Mansfield put the narcissism of that wish well, when, almost channelling Tolstoy's childish ego she wrote of Wyspianski; Yours a more personal labour than the Nazarene's miracles Yours a more forceful encounter than the Nazarene's demands Stanislaw Wyspianski- Oh man with the n...

Tumbrils Ahoy Would you like to know why British politics is sick? The People in the video presentation below are operatives in the British political system. International and domestic companies own this system. Serious decisions are taken by the European Union. People such as these convince those who are bothered or silly enough to vote that their vote matters. Then the politicians get back to stealing money and killing people, whilst indulging their prejudices. I found this to be, well, disturbing in a comic way. See what you think. The less successful brethren of this lot run the media; the more successul ones the law and the banks.

Teasing a Storm In Britain, a general election is going on. This competition has the flavour of a sort of superior audition for regional manager of a delusional homecare store, set around with shoplifters, in front of customers who have not had the kitchens they ordered flat-packed several years ago. The mood is resigned, bored and indifferent. Members of the media class are talking witlessly to each other, as usual, and, where anyone has any economic perspective at all, people are declaring as in a dream that the economy is located in some sluggish twilight recovery in which, occasionally, claims emerge that halving the deficit or lowering the size of government here or there will do anything about the debt crisis that is gathering. Deficits, of course, are not debts, though I notice that all the British candidates, and many of the American ones, are acting more or less as if they were. It takes effort to cut deficits, but it can be done. It's easy to promise to lower them. One sp...

John Whitehead An old acquaintance of mine, John Whitehead, has joined the ranks of Catholic bloggers and I thought that I would put a link up to his site ; don't run away from here too fast!

Populist I notice how much my wordles--practically every week--have the word 'people' in big letters, which means that I must use it a lot. Do I?

Its not the water that drowns, its staying in it.... What good is any sort of economic advice? British shoppers, apparently, are refusing to use the Easter weekend to shop for things they do not need which have been reduced to prices that neither they nor their credit cards can afford . The latest excuse is the election. This is news, today. I wonder if this is the sort of thing George Soros' new economic thinking is going to explain, when his pantheon on the rubble gets going? As the song says...

Going Rogue: An American Life I thought, for an Easter Bank Holiday Morning, that I might try a little book reviewing before going to the gym. Sarah Palin was actually quite a good governor of Alaska. She took on vested interests, was praised by Democrats and Republicans in a notoriously corrupt legislature for attacking mis-spending and crime, pushed through a monumentally complex gas project and faced down the legatees of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which took decades to resolve. She also had a superb native political intelligence, a fine family and a very deep Christian patriotism of the sort not really seen in candidates for the Executive Branch since Jimmy Carter, although Bill Clinton knew his bible. I'm reminded from reading the Clinton Tapes, and Clinton's own autobiography, how much his intelligence dwelt on the sassier and sensual side of the Holy Tome, however. If Big Bill's motto was 'There is a perfectly good explanation for all of this', Sarah's is...

An Irish Song for Easter I was thinking about putting the Soldiers' Song up for Easter, but for some bizarre reason there were far too many Hitler references in the supporting videos of my favourite one for my liking. My liking, as was that of my grandfather (who had known and liked Jewish people) was for no Hitler references at all. Awful man, that Hitler, though as my grandfather once pointed out, he has been in Hell a long time now. Anyway, here is a song about a day in Ireland and a sad diversion from the bosom of a brown haired girl, as far as I can make out. I wouldn't pretend to expertise, though; she may be singing about cake. It is, nonetheless, beautiful, whatever it means. Redmond O'Toole treating a guitar like a mandolin follows, playing 'Cape Clear'.

How Much Does Bad Government Cost? I am none too keen on the Democrat Party but there are things that my American readers should bear in mind when thinking about which party does what with their money this year. Here are a few figures. 'Cost Over-runs' on the US Defense budget; $295 billions. Cost of Afghan and Iraq Wars : $1006 billions Cost of Bank Bail Outs : $700 billions Cost of Federal Stimulus and associated spending since 2009; $10.7 trillions* Cost of healthcare: $ 940 billions , excluding private savings from insurance payments) Accumulated State Deficits (not debt): $500 billions *The figure for federal stimulus programmes in the US is derived from the same source as that above it. Both parties, using the same political tactics and economic 'advisers' on both sides of the Atlantic, are spending your money like water. One--the Republican Party--took a federal surplus and debt reduction in 2001, spent it on tax cuts, and wars, and regulated the banks so light...

On The Edge of Acknowledging that I was Wrong Again The picture is by Jerzy Duda Gracz. I have been into Polish art ever since the symbolist exhibition that I went to last year, and thought that I would put it up. Some critics point to Duda Gracz's ability to be shameful and uplifting at the same time as a major part of his appeal , and I agree. This blog--and I think the discipline of putting things in the public domain, even if I have only one demented reader--is a very good thing for me, as is teaching. Looking back on it reminds me of where I was wrong as well as where I was right. I got the recession and the collapse of the derivatives market right, for instance, but that wasn't hard because I was a disinterested observer and anyone who didn't have a dog in the fight could have seen it coming. I also got the 2008 American elections right, and I think on a comment over on the David Lindsay Blog was one of the first to identify Sarah Palin as a possible Vice-presidential...

Carly Fiorina, OviPhobe and Wolfwoman. This mad, mean spirited and frankly silly viral video from Carly Fiorina's primary campaign in California has been doing the rounds. Lycanthropy, sheep, and Randroid super-cows; how can you not love it? More generally, there is an urgent need, I think, for American conservatives to reclaim their tradition from neoliberals, statists, authoritarians and corporate socialists before it is too late, if it isn't already. I mean, really--what is all this about? Californians can vote for their own spending increases via referendum, and can vote against taxes themselves. Their legislature is, as I understand it, unable to pass budgets without a two thirds majority if they raise taxes. It is as partisan as any that operates in the traditions of the Federalist Papers and the British Parliament, which means that corruption is a matter of form, rather than substance. In the video, the California republican party--and specifically, I suppose, Orange Co...

Reviewing the Bible In an impressive and funny example of recursion , Jeanette Demain* over at Salon.com has discovered the online bookseller Amazon.com's reader review page. When Americans are motivated by intellectual ideas and the cut and thrust of the life of the mind, they really are, as you might expect of a full-commitment society. There is therefore a deep well of fun when one finds them exposed to people determined to exercise their constitutional right to be stupid, indifferent, or bored in the same fully-committed way. So, for instance, Charlotte Bronte 'spends too much time describing things'; there is not enough sex in Orwell's 1984, and that man Huxley is twice as bad (is there half as much?) To the same Solons, Anne Frank's diary, apparently, is 'very boring' and people reading it should shoot themselves. My favourite quote, though, was this one, about the Bible; Man, this book is boring. All this weird stuff happens and it's harder to ge...

Redeemed Not a warlord; not acknowledged as a King, except in mockery; not an abuser of his power, except for a curse on a fig tree; not awesome, except in the rescue of lives and minds; not lost in temptation, but suffering from it; not serene, not disconnected, not distant, not known by the darkness of passing worldly power. God from God, light from light, nailed to a tree by people who were simply obeying their orders. Think on these things. Credo ut intelligam. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitte...