The Spanish Economy – an idiot’s view….

“The Euro casts a shadow over Spain……can you see what I did there?”

It had to happen, my take on why the Spanish economy (and everybody else’s) has gone totally and utterly tits up.  I know its more Bananarama than Panorama, but hell, everybody has an opinion, and here’s mine….Just click on the player to hear this BayRadio rant from a couple of weeks ago in its entirety. Don’t forget, you can also listen live to Bay Radio by clicking on the appropriate icon. My next live broadcast will be around 2130 CET on The Sunset Strip with Noelle on Friday night, repeated Sunday lunchtime on The Sunday Brunch. This week, I attack Pigeons. Never let it be said that I shy away from a broad remit.

Kev Moore

Chinese Whispers…….

"Clappuccino?

 

Whisper it softly, but the Chinese are coming. While the rest of the world suffers from the relentless economic downturn, the Dragon is flexing its talons.

Whilst it might not yet be quite ready to openly breathe fire over the ruins of the great American economy, it is nevertheless adept at stealth tactics that cut into the very fabric of a society that is no longer as ‘American as Apple pie’ but perhaps more akin to szechuan dumplings.

Let me give you some examples that will shock you.  These are three items I bought on our recent ‘Blue Odyssey’ trip to the U.S.A:

Starbucks Nashville Mug: Made in China
New Orleans Saints NFL Mug: Made in China
Cowboy boots, bought in New Orleans: Made in China

Can you see a theme developing here?  Exactly. And more frightening than that, these items are representative of things that are quintessentially American. So we have to ask, “where did it all go wrong?”

At what point was there a seismic shift from Home on the Range to a Ride in the Rickshaw?
Of course any weekend economist could tell that China has been on the rise for years, and a cursory glance at the F.T. will reveal the growth in market share, but were we really prepared for the ease in which they’d get the American dog to roll over and have its belly tickled?

When the last great democratic economy withers the way British shipbuilding and the Car industry did, it is patently clear there is no going back. So I think I’ve come up with a plan. They need to turn the Mississippi delta in a huge paddy field and sell rice to the Chinese.

Kev Moore

Every economic cloud has a silver lining…………..

This site certainly understands more than most the reasons for, and moreover the NEED to moan about how crap everything is. And everything is really crap right now. The Euro in your pocket’s value is plummeting so fast that by the end of the week you’re gonna need a frickin’ wheelbarrow to carry enough to the shop just to buy a goddamn Mars bar – and that’s only if Mars haven’t gone into liquidation, or been sold to the Chinese.

Hell, things are so bad you can buy a house around here for two bloody mars bars, and that’s detached (the house, not the chocolate confection)

A Mars bar yesterday. If you only have one, you'll have to rent.

But fear not, dear mug punter and unwitting pawn of Western democracy and Baker’s beeyatch,  good things are beginning to emerge from this economic hell-hole. That last bastion of Western European terrorism, and refuge for pointless freedom fighters, ETA, is reeling on the brink of collapse. Yep, that’s right, this is an equal opportunities crisis and makes no distinction between the sun-baked tourist and the strange little man with the beret and the pillowcase on his head and the funny language who wants to blow him all to bits. It seems that ETA’s finances are so bad, they only look able to survive for about a year, and according to Police sources are ‘scraping the barrel.’ Exactly what that means, I’m not sure – are they buying a lower class of grenade? Anyhow, their campaign of urban violence is on the wane, and arrests are on the up – 46 since the beginning of the year, and desperate to forestall the inevitable, ETA’s leaders have declared a permanent ceasefire. Now if only we can get the U.S.A. and Britain to do that……..

Kev Moore