miércoles, 16 de marzo de 2011

UNOS CUANTOS REBUZNOS MÁS....

QUIZÁS UN TANTO OBSOLETOS... ESCRITOS EN SU DÍA COMO CARTAS AL DIRECTOR PARA EL SEMANARIO "THE ECONOMIST" ... EN LA ÉPOCA EN LA QUE ESTABA SUSCRITO (... SI ALGUIEN QUIERE REGALARME ALGO... ECHO DE MENOS RECIBIRLA CADA SEMANA EN MI BUZÓN) ... CUANDO ALGO, EN ALGÚN ARTÍCULO, ME "CHIRRIABA"...

Health foods, common sense & (god is a) con

Dear Sirs,

Of course the food industry must back its assertions on the health capabilities of its products with scientific evidence, othewise its claims would be either misguiding or more straightforwardly, a con : “100% natural / organic” ... well, so is manure...

Moreover, some products do not only claim a longer, healthier life... the Catholic church (probably the first multi-national private equity institution) and its many spin-offs have been claiming “eternal life” for its believers for yet over 2.000 years without any hard evidence and regardless of any regulator.
  

Dear Sirs,

On briefing the estate of economics : the death of common sense.

When briefing the estate of economics you have skilfully explained the intellectual shortcomings of mainstream macro-economics & economists in failing to understand the Works of economic scientists such as Karl Marx or Kenneth Galbraith : the such cannot be modelled (i.e., junked). Concerning the present financial crisis, the monetarist’s worshipping of the long term verticality of the “¨Phillips curve” provides another hint on the present mess : far beyond any model of behavioural economics (micro, or other…), or any econometric abracadabra (possibly, the grossest junk of all…) common wisdom would take for granted that if lending expands beyond the rate of (real) economic growth there will be foreclosures, and thus, a liquidity gap.

Bagehot’s own delusions

Dear Sirs,

I truly believe Bagehot’s topics for Labour-bashing were mis-choosen. Not only did the social ills he points at did exisit in the “golden-era” of Tory rule, but his own jingoistic fringe prevents him from seeing the outmostly obvious : If the chief medical officer was pandering the votes of Chianty sipping pubsters he would be targeting a very “tiny minority” indeed. Eventually my view may be distorted from living pretty next to Benidorm, the sort of Riviera for the English Lumpen-Proletariat (it is not that class warfare is back with a vengence, it never left the place) the vast majority of the English folk on booze apparently are more keen on either large amounts of beer, spirits and more recently into “pilling up” or doing “Charlie”. Moreover, I am glad Bagehot feels the pinch of shame with the English export of hooliganism... the locals eventually do suffer from aggression, havoc, damage to property, and eventually the assassination of their fellow natives...  

P.S. The U.S. are no longer the colonies, just in case.

Replying to Charlemagne : Not so fishy a tale...  

Dear Sirs,

The existence of an European Community Fisheries Control Agency as well as Common Fisheries Policy is a fine example of what the ethos of the public sector should be : If it is an uncontroversial truth that competition in both industry and services have permitted the raise of  living standards of Europeans in the last 50 years, and man became cattle breeder and farmer instead of hunter and gatherer a long time ago in its evolution, fish farming is not yet capable of providing enough resources for mankind's food supply.

The pressure man exerts over the such limited resources risks even to endanger the whole sector, which, despite the fact of weighing less than 1% of Europe's Gross Product, may raise national sensitivities giving the dependence of many regions specialized on the such resources – taking into account the related industries, such canneries and the rest of the food industry – as well as the deep psychological relation of the fisher folk towards their national flags whereas in the rest of the primary sector an Spanish farmer would very seldom meet a Dane peasant, fishermen must very often share the same physical space (i.e, waters) …

The public sector should therefore undertake its duty to preserve the such resources in order to grant the long term existence of the activity, with the fair knowledge that the existence of such resources is limited by the biological capability of the species to reproduce,  and the such resources are not the property of the present generation, as much as borrowed from the generations to come.

Establishing fishing quotas highlights a paradox of economic law : that of the free rider, where the whole of stakeholders have an interest in over-fishing themselves, and are asymmetrically interested in the others to respect the such quotas, which is why the control over the such quotas as well as the respect of such policies should be as neutral and supranational in the whole of the European Union, with the constructive sacrifice of sovereignty of European States in favour of that superior institution, with a clear vocation of dealing with other international organisations such as NAFO, NASCO, IOTC, etc…

Such is the ethos that shall trade-off between the present and short term economic needs of the fisher-folk and the environmental needs of future generations (preserving bio-diversity), that the CFCA project set in Vigo shall endeavour.

Concerning this week article on spain...  

Despite being a fully qualified economist & linguist, I am apparently chronically un-employed, which leaves me with plenty of free time to point out your correspondent's apparent lack of local knowledge : Spain's un-official lyrics of our national anthem do involve Franco's buttocks, but also his wife, not his mother…
Moreover, I am truly surprised this week's obituary was not that of Jesús Polanco, chairman of Spain's largest media group, a true rags to riches self-made man,  though despised as the "empire of monopole" by the partisan right wing media for having failed to join the sacred crusade against reds when the socialist party won landslide in 1982, and sticking to the core of his business : selling papers, making money, and through a wise policy of M&A setting the largest Spanish speaking media group. By the way, the word "España" does not mix well with politics since the only party that does it :  "España 2000" is the almost privately owned neo-nazi operation run by a whorehouse mogul and security baron that prides himself of paying the legal fees of his folk when being caught beating Arab folk… Nothing a democracy may take pride of…

On the Downsizing of Britain's nuclear fleet
Dear Sirs,
As a Spanish citizen I am glad to hear the «Tireless» will eventually be scrapped, instead of being a bit too often parked for repairs on the Gibraltar shore as a deterrent of nothing more than my visiting the rock of (un-)contested sovereignity.

The trouble with the pornography industry

Dear Sirs,

Assuming the industry's goal is to provide recorded explicit sex activities by third parties to enhance either a couple's lust or as a lurid aid for one's onan prayers, it is not shocking offer has overwhelmed demand since the result of about 20 years of film production on the shelves has been to provide enough available material for many lifetimes.
As in a micro-economist's dream one film is close to being a "perfect substitute" for another (for any given topic), if the industry intends to survive there should be further and radical product segmentation. Only if there was any "niche" to be found...
Check-book's wrong business model (& a conspiracy theory) 
Dear Sirs,

Despite the fact that Real Madrid has probably been a global brand ever since UEFA started organising continental competitions, in the previous period Mr. Florentino Pérez starred as its top manager if he did succeed in raising revenue from real estate & merchandise related activities with his utter lack of any know- how related to the sport itself, in the last four years of his reign he failed to win a single trophy - the ultimate bottom-line of a successful football club. No crowds celebrated a healthy balance sheet.
Yet it is the British Premier that did snatch Spain's best managing talents : Benitez & de Ramos.
P.S. As a conspiranoid I'd believe Mr. Pérez to be secretly a Barcelona supporter, which would explain his letting Madrid's in-bred striker Samuel Etoo leave to the arch-foe to win two champion's (and a few National) leagues... & Barcelona fans do sacrifice new-born children to the father of lies. 

Isaac Pradel Leal, Alicante, Spain, Economist (Unemployed) 

Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the U.K. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkruBYwJZNw

The Clash, Bank Robber,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttJBdr6eBuo

The Clash, Tommy Gun,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS6nm1TOlfQ  

The Clash, Guns of Brixton,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxechIyaWaE&feature=fvst   

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