'Zines And Credit
Eitan checks out "Match Of The Day," a football rag that he scours for data like how many touches Burbatov had v Wigan or who is closest to relegation in the Premier League. He whoops for joy when he sees Manchester United moving up the rankings (now a healthy fourth). He also subscribes to a monthly Man-U fanzine and checks out the sports pages every morning though sadly the International Herald Tribune is pretty week here. Then of course there are his trading cards which he painstakingly organises in card-files by team, position, skill and so forth. The real gluttony is the Sundays which offer page upon page of league coverage including full colored spreads of the boy's favorite stars in action - you know, kicking a ball. He gets all riled up when Madeleine mixes football facts or I trash-talk him about his club. It is pretty hard for me to resist, really.
Well, at 10:15AM GMT it was called: Britain is officially in a recession. There are now 1.8 million out of work, a figure expected to rise to two million by Christmas. Ho. Ho. Ho. In response, Brown will lower taxes, including the nasty 17.5% VAT, in a temporary measure to stimulate us (he concedes that increased rates will have to compensate when we are out of the recession so net-net I lose). "Negative equity" has been replaced by "under-water mortgage" and we scratch our heads over NINJA loans: no income, no job, no assets. Home-owners don't closely follow their property value unless they are moving or somebody else getting a deal - which is exactly what may happen with mortgage assistance programs which will soon be on offer here. Oh boy. The evil-doers are clearly the sub-prime brokers who aggressively peddled their wares to lower-income households knowing full-well the additional debt damaging. Next up are the credit-card companies who are now jacking up late penalties and rates indiscriminately. Leeches.
"Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: 'I wasn't worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.'
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Mark Twain, The Gilded Age
