funny, I think our parents all thought we would be doing other things Brian, mine still can't keep up with my various changes, they're always a coupel of steps behind, well my mother is but she lost the plot years ago!
yep, a fun day but I always came home with an empty wallet - but there again as you say Chris, I only went with what I was prepared to lose ;-)
I hit the trifecta $8,700 when I was 16years old, but never since. I figure if you go into the track with no expectations and a set amount in the wallet, its always a fun day.
I never realized that European racing stables, paddock and pacing courses were closed to the public. They are all open in the US. Love the races!
This is useful. Would be, wouldn't it. it's Reuters ;-)
I grew up to seven living with Cologne's race course Weidenpesch five minutes walk from our house, was a 20 minute bus ride from Epsom once in England, my father wanted me to be a jockey so paid out a fortune on riding lessons at a place that prepared people for the racing industry. So then I bugg**ed off to Cambridge to his chagrin and lived within spitting distance of Newmarket once the obligatory three undergraduate years of living in the city were over.
I have been around horses so long that at worst I have probably broken even over the years but did once leave Sandown Park with over £4000 after arriving there with something like £8! You stick to bikes, but from the geegees, I understand gambling very well.
nothing to gain here either Brian, can I stick to the cycling please, I always lost everything at every point to point I ever went to...!
I meant Greece is out of the press. No French paper over the last couple of days has bothered with them, nor the UK ones I've read online.
As for my gain? None, since I work mainly for NGOs and UN agencies and have been paid in $ for as long as I can remember, it is more likely that the entire 'human rights and international development' fields will be off the books and with no money lots more economies will go down fast.
Sure, but I used to play the horses and one of the reasons serious backers pay more to go to the enclosure where the horses are paraded and the jockeys mount is to see which horses and jockeys are tired, over excited, etc, before placing a bet. This is how horse racing gamblers stay ahead of the bookmakers. I am doing much the same with the EU countries and ratings, but also listening to the commentary as it comes from the likes of Gross and I am waiting until they are on the way down to the starting gate before I place my bet. Right now they are still just parading.
With that in mind Chris, I think I'm going to take my laptop downstairs, turn the Dauphiné Libéré on at 3 and try and lift myself out of the very dull translation I'm working on by watching Bradley Wiggins' exploits in yellow. Not the most productive of afternoons in store, but I don't think the financial world is doing any better either!
Nobody has forgotten Greece. The state has already failed and its failure is priced in, the bank run has already occured. Spain is in the beginning process of a full flight bank-run. Italy is poised to start its bank run. Britain lacks the commodities and economy to backstop the euro run and the Chinese do not have the stability, that is why the US dollar is the safe haven currency in this latest banking/debt crisis. None of the central bankers and players know how this is going to end and each only has a theory. That is why there are such conflicting information and statements. All they know is it will end and only one currency will dominate the others. Right now its the US dollar and there are political/economic demands being negociated. its just like any other contractual negoication -- give and takes. The question is can you or can I take advantage of it for our own gain.
Not an attack on you Terry and I fully understand that good news doesn't sell very well - had that discussion with Barbara who couldn't understand why all TV production companies only want to show the failure stories of people in France...! But as you say there's correct accurate reporting and those others who write to sell rather than to inform accurately. Yes, all about profit at the end of the day!
Quite right to the last dotted i, as they say Terry. Thank you!
If I could just put in a word in defence of journalists, just try selling a newspaper which only has good news in it! Sadly bad news sells newspapers. That said there are clearly a heck of a lot of doom merchants out there making things sound worse than they are because they think (know?) it will up the circulation. As for the ratings agencies, like the banks and traders the world over they're paid to make money, not to save the world economy. I can't help thinking every time S & P and co change a rating that someone in the back office has calculated that they'll make a profit out of it.
Remember, like all other businesses they are in competition with each other - so who makes the really authentic rubber duck is in the equation.
Pretty much like you Andrew. I wish I understood more. I can follow each theme individually about the whys and wherefores of how different economic strategies work. It's when there are a whole load of strategies being thrown into the pot at the same time that I get lost.
I wish I understood more of what goes on behind the scenes! I must say I too despise the ratings agencies, they, like most journalists and other media gods, seem to thrive on disaster or telling us how bad everything is rather than trying to do something constructive about it. In fact, the "doom and gloom" industry will soon be bigger than that of industry, tourism or agriculture if things keep on at this rate. le monde à l'envers...!
I know economics well enough, at least understand it, and as a consultant have often been dependant on knowing this stuff in order to assess whether the kind of budgets required for programmes could be raised, especially when I was being paid by the World Bnak (IBRD and IDA anyway) after NGOs were incorporated in the lending of the bank. If there's no money then don't go looking at the kids to plan things and make promises that will never be kept. So I watch critically and ratings agencies I do not trust one tiny, little bit at all because they actually make their money on the misery of the masses.
Well said Brian, especially like the Nota Bene ;-)
Chris and others, it seems that Bill Gross has cut the senior staff leave to protect the $ because he is convinced that if the € goes the dollar will follow. Probably makes sense. Going back to what I was saying, that the ‘British’ are at the core of what concerns me, why the blazes are Cameron and Osborne along with Mervyn King, Bob Diamond, Doug Flint, Eric Daniels and so on keeping quiet because if the € goes and the $ is in big trouble then £ has had it somewhere between the two? I think Christine Lagarde is making a wholesome mess; surprising given her legal, economic and political experience and if any houses tumble she is going to share a lot of the responsibility. Iam not sure I trust Sean Egan's politics, as for Fitch, Moody's Iand S&P, well the CDO ghost hangs over the first, the second has lost market share in some sectors because of its tightened rating standards on some asset-backed securities as with the CMBS market and the latter filed a letter with the SEC 10 months ago in an attempt to 'water down' a proposal requiring credit rating agencies to publicly disclose 'significant errors' in how they calculate ratings after SEC's proposal in May 2011 proposing ta requirement for credit raters to disclose more information about their rating methods and strengthening internal controls in order to protect against conflicts of interest.
At present all of the ratings agencies are saying things that are vastly different to each other despite the SEC recommendations. How far do we trust them? Not very far I hope. They are gamblers placing their stakes on a € collapse and, as some critics feel, will then place their next bet on the dollar (if I was them I would go for sterling, but they are all too US oriented to notice the limeys going down the drain). I just look forward to their excuses if the € recovers. Merkel is getting near climbing down for lack of support within the EU and her own electorate turning against her, Mario Draghi and Jean-Claude Trichet at ECB will be without choice and somebody has got to slap Lagarde very hard on the face to bring her to her senses and then we shall all see.
Nota bene: Everybody has suddenly forgotten Greece and switched over to Spain. I think it is all to fickle to take entirely seriously and far too right wing media lead.
aïe, aïe, aïe !
Not anymore. They are on the chopping block now.