how serious is the crisis (and how did we get into this mess)? - seaside towns day three

all well and good. horsemouth has the title. he just had to wait for the day to happen to have the 'content' to back it up. 

following on from st. brigid's eve we have st. brigid's day (and then we will have groundhog day/ candlemas).

seaside towns day three

there was a walk round the park with enza (a catch up but no dinner). it was cold but sunny enough. both pronounced themselves optimistic about the year ahead (and then proceeded to depress each other with the various things the year is likely to contain). 

on the way back horsemouth hit the book boxes - a thriller by desmond bagley from horsemouth's childhood (the spoilers) then book box gold (on roding road) adam tooze's shutdown: how covid shook the world's economy. 

'if one word could sum up the experience of 2020, it would be disbelief.'

covid demonstrated the vast unsuspected powers of the state (ones we had been told no longer existed). we had been told that it was the market that was supernaturally intelligent and was the best allocator of resources but it was bypassed and stood down and a vast state intervention launched instead - the way it always is in fact, the dark secret of neo-liberalism, the prevalence of state aid. 

and yet the covid support measures and its furloughs in particular were a vast hand-over of wealth to the already wealthy (what did you do with your furlough money? you bought food and payed your rent or your mortgage) and that money is now ready to be employed to buy up everything that is for sale (so that it can be rented back to us).  for this reason horsemouth expects house prices to start to drastically rise as soon as interest rates come back down (so that ordinary people can participate in the last fleecing, in hoovering up the last of the stock at vastly inflated prices).

our rulers partied because, as our natural betters, they thought they were immune, but they weren't. (and because of the champagne and the sandwiches from sainsbury's local).

and yet 

how serious is the crisis and how did we get into this mess? asks a podcast on the housing crisis that suggests that the banks buying up housing is a good thing (to increase the supply for rent  you understand). 

horsemouth is a little anxious. he goes to a meeting today and there are two big issues that need to be thought about before they even get onto the decarbonisation thing. he hopes he wakes up early so he can check the emails, drink coffee and eat breakfast before he goes.  

ok let's post it up.