No one said you can't have a coffee.

From the earlier comments. We were discussing the anti-capitalist protest.

The line 'aren't protesters even allowed to have a coffee now?' was used on QT yesterday, to excuse the protesters their Starbucks and bottled water and wifi and laptops and phones and pop up tents and general privileges. It was successfully used on HIGNFY to destroy Louise Mencsh. A bit unfairly too.

The point is not whether a protester should be allowed a drink of coffee.

Its that coffee was, and is, a major global trading commodity. It is almost THE symbol of globalisation and commerce. Coffee was traded between 15th century Europe and North Africa as a major commodity in the spice caravans. The Venetians traded coffee to sell at outrageous prices to the Venetian elite. Introduced into England it was taxed by the gallon, so was brewed and then stored cold in barrels awaiting reheating. Sounds lovely!

By the time of the Great Fire of 1666 there were 80 coffee houses in London. They were similar to today's where people went to meet socially and read the pamphlets and get some work done, have a business meeting, use the place as an office,and exchange information. The Lloyd's coffee house in Lombard Street was a good example. Edward Lloyd's little coffee house was a meeting place for merchants and shipowners. It grew into the Lloyds of London insurance market. By 1675 there were 3,000 coffee houses in England.

Coffee is environmentally unfriendly, has directly led to the millions of deaths of the indigenous peoples of South and Central America, Caribbean and Asia. The revolution in Haiti was partly African slaves revolting against the terrible coffee harvesting conditions. Coffee was a major contributor to world slavery. Between 1511 and 1886 over 1 million slaves were imported from Africa to Cuba in order to work their crops. That's just Cuba. Imagine the numbers in Brazil? Coffee is still mostly grown in the developing world. Vietnam is the second largest world producer after Brazil. {That's a world second after using private market reforms. Under the state central planning they couldn't grow enough for their own needs.}

The coffee trade encourages inequality in wages throughout the globe. Coffee growers claim unfair payment for crops. Coffee shop workers are in the poorly paid hospitality/retail sector. And coffee profits are immense. It is a product, sold with up to 1000% mark up, that directly caused the 2-300% UK high street rent rises of the the mid 90's. Those rises collapsed other long standing businesses who couldn't pay the 'new' market rates.

Mobile phone shops were another contributor, but it started with Starbucks. Starbucks started with some coffee enthusiasts and some savings from friends. Its now a global empire. But it has been attacked along the way for its supposed poor wages and reducing benefits for its employees in hard times and its unfair payments to farmers and a whole host of other wails from the left. It was a popular anti-globilisation target before that pointless movement morphed into the current even more pointless occupy ones.

It was also a target for environmentalists, save the earth's water supplies, recycling movements, unions, unfair competition lobbies and just about everyone else too. Its a miracle they ever got to so many stores {17,000 odd} and 135,000 employers, and serve 5-10 million people every day.

So coffee today is still almost THE defining symbol of capitalism.

So, no. No-one objects to a thirsty protester having a break from singing folk songs and engaging with like minded believers deciding to pop over to Starbucks for a Doubleshot® Energy+Cinnamon Dolce Drink and a Blueberry Oat Bar.

Its just that if they do, they are rather enjoying and feeding probably everything they ever campaigned against, whilst they refresh under the very logo of capitalism..

{What really tickles is the latest from Wall Street.}

After the end of trading Thursday, Starbucks (ticker: SBUX) reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $358.4 million, or 47 cents a share, up from 37 cents in the year-ago period. The quarter included a 10-cent gain related to real-estate sales and joint venture acquisitions. Revenue increased 6.8% to $3.03 billion. Analysts were predicting earnings of 36 cents a share on revenue of $2.95 billion. Investors were abuzz about the results, sending shares up 7.4% to an all-time high of $44.48 in morning trading.

Greece: Life Imitates Art

"We're not proud. We take any currency, including goats"
- Michael O'Leary, RyanAir, 3 November 2011, announcing flights to Greece

"I thought you said you'd need to give them all a goat, not a vote !"
- Angela Merkel, 2 November 2011, announcing flight from Greece


ND

Question Time - Dont make a Drachma out of a crisis edition

David Dimbleby is joined in Westminster Hall by the Theresa May, Ed Balls, Shirley Williams, Peter Hitchens and Benjamin Zephaniah

But never mind all that..

Breaking News ****that the prize for the holder of the world champion title of QUESTION TIME SUPREMO will be ********* A bottle of

Suntory Hibiki Japanese 17 Year Old Whisky.

A seventeen year-old Japanese blended whisky from Suntory.The nose is quite full. There are notes of honey and wax, resin and oak. There are notes of gentle smoke and cacao, hints of cooked fruit and a nutty note. The palate is sweet and rich. There are crisp notes of mixed peels, raisin and custard with a little zest and plenty of oak. The finish is long with notes of oak and cocoa and sherried peels.

And if you don't drink..then re gift it. Its Christmas! {soon..depending on Austerity}

Leaderboard as of
04/11/11

Botogol - 28½

BQ - 26
Budgie - 26

Timbo614 - 25
Nick Drew - 25
Sebastian Weetabix - 23½
Appointmetotheboard - 23½
Dick the Prick -23
Measured - 23
Philipa - 22½
Hatfield Girl - 22
Mark Wadsworth - 21.5
Miss CD - 21½
Hopper - 21½
Miss S-J -21
Hovis - 20.5
GSD - 20
Malcolm Tucker - 18½
CU - 17½
Andrew - 14½
Jan - 14

Woman on a raft - 8
Sean -6
Electro-Kevin - 4
Anon {1} -3½
Alex - 1½

*It was noted how EK suddenly got interested when booze was mentioned.

German Constitutional Court Ruling

Another urgently-convened meeting of the German Constitutional Court has been held to put words into the mouth of Merkel. It broke up twice in disarray, firstly when a motion was put that Idle's voluminous submission be debarred on the grounds of it being dialogue (albeit of high quality).

A second adjournment was called when rival supporters of the more pithy submissions of Budgie and Helga clashed rowdily in open session.

Finally, however, the Court was brought to order, and declared: (a) that Peter Whale is the winner; (b) his 12-month austerity programme is to commence with immediate effect; (c) upon successful completion in December 2012 he may nominate his bailout sum in either EUR (125 billion) or Deutschmark (12.50). In time for Weihnachten.

By order of the Court.

UK SHALE GAS BREAKING NEWS

Am hearing that he report onto the Shale Gas drilling by Caudrilla in Blackpool has concluded that the fraccing did cause the minor earthquakes. This will be a big setback for Shale Gas drilling in the UK as politicians will reach for nurse and decide this is a bad thing.

No one will care that the US fraccing happens all the time, or that one of my small shares, AST.L has just confirmed a commercial well in Slovenia after fraccing.

I hate it when the green, lets-all-live-in-caves-off-the-warmth-of-our-love-for-each-other brigade get a win.

Sigh. One can only hope that DECC have some brains and that instead it will only be this area that is reviewed.....

Carry On Merkel

Yes, our favourite comedy act is back on the road.

How we all laughed.

Now, your turn. Compo: what is the fun-loving Frau saying this time ? Answers in the comments, please.Prize - a genuine "Merkel" bailout + austerity package of your very own ! Worth over € 120 billion !!

(Must be over 18, have own parliamentary majority, no referendums or plebiscites, the decision of the German Constitutional Court is final, euro may go down as well as up)

ND

EUphoria-reversed; Can the Greeks pass Eco 101 whilst MerKozy do plan B?

Nil points to Cityunslicker. I was hopeful (its my dreadful share positions you know, always making me think things can't get worse when I know they always can) that last weeks Euro deal would hold until February. Most of the comments here said it would be lucky to hold two weeks - turns out they were wrong too, we did not even hit 5 trading days.

And the the cause of the cataclysm - an outbreak of common sense. The Greek Prime Minister is sick of seeing opinion polls saying that the populous are against the Austerity measures, but no much else. His Finance minister sums it up thus:

“I can no longer look at polls where the majority is against the agreement, the majority is against the program, but a majority is also in favor of staying in the euro,”

There is no choice on the list for this, either they follow the European austerity plan (a terrible idea which will leave the country in penury) or they default and leave the Euro (50% GDP loss, all pensions lost, but a clean slate to start - probably worse than the first option). Thus a referendum will be held to decide if they want to pass the austerity budget.

It is very proper that the Greeks of all people should put this to a vote, the huge lack of democracy in Europe Union is its single largest failing as an entity.

This is some ways (not for the markets, they seem braced for a heart attack) a great result. The Greek protesters will be forced into making a grown-up decision. The Socialists willing a Utopian paradise will instead have to choose between the terrible and the disastrous.

Finally, MerKozy can do what they should have done before, prepare the financial firewall to support Italy, Ireland and Spain and speak to Portugal about holding an referendum of their own about Euro membership/austerity. With that a real solution will be found that will allow Bond rates to normalise.

Otherwise, 2012 is going to make 2008 look like a picnic.

Another Front on the Euro-Fight

I have never considered myself anti European: I am pro free trade, open markets, and plain dealing. I am however against taxation without representation, socialism, and grand 'liberal' projects conducted duplicitously.

I am also strongly in favour of the Common Law, and hostile to the Code Napoleon, as any Englishman should be: Nelson and Wellington didn't take the field entirely for their own amusement. As any well-traveled businessman will tell you, that's how the world of international commerce sees things too: for choice, almost wherever you go, big contracts** are drawn up under Common Law precepts and made subject to the jurisdiction of the London or New York courts (or, in the energy biz, Harris County Texas for some oily matters). Naturally, this is as good for the English legal profession as is the financial dominance of the City for the UK economy in general - perhaps more so, since there is no downside whatever. Indeed, it probably helps keep the City where it is: Mr CU will be able to tell us more.

And ... here we go again. The duplicitous ones have decided they want to squeeze out the commercial law of universal choice, by promoting a doctrine of a single European contract law - civil code model, naturally.

Have a look at this Grauniad piece, and note particularly how it starts.

Mike Bisby runs a small online business from his home in Hull selling cat scratching posts … Bisby would like to expand to sell his wares in other EU countries. But he is prevented from doing so by a complicated legal regime … “the practical difficulties make it near impossible for small businesses like mine to sell abroad," Bisby said. The EU has long been keen to get rid of the obstacles facing the likes of kitforcats.com …

Aside from the fact that this is utter bollocks, how do we suppose the touching story of little Mr Bisby and his oh-so-adorable, worthy but hard-pressed little enterprise brought itself to the attention of the Guardian? Is his a cause célèbre in South Yorkshire ? has Lord 'Mouth of the Humbug' Prescott been lobbying for him in Brussels ? do they speak of little else in Strasbourg ?

Or has it been drummed up by a PR firm, fronting for one of those sugary, pernicious Euro-campaigns ?

I think we can guess. Man the ramparts, chaps, here they come again.

ND


** I am of course aware of the very large Russian gas sales contracts to European buyers that are famously not written under common law. Much good it does them !

UK Infrastructure; fighting the greens?

Of all the things the Government can spend money on, building infrastructure has to be the best public good. At least, in spite of costs, we end up with something tangible in exchange for the money.

Today, the Prime Minister announced two new power stations - one of which is a bit small really at 108MW of biofuels, but the other is a badly needed 1500MW gas plant at Thorpe Marsh. if the Government are determined to take us down a 'green' path then this is surely a good mix 95% of the new capacity is gas and 5% biofuels. No doubt we can deal with this and gas is the least polluting type of power station in any event (OK, nuclear, but I will leave the complex debate to Mr Drew on that point).

Anyhow, I question the other particularly the assertion that £1 of Government spending will leverage to £6 in the private sector - I bet that is a based on a spreadsheet with a rather large foes of assumptions and guesstimates on it!

No sounds from Chris Huhne today, perhaps economic reality will defeat the green brigade after all. Now all we need to do is let the shale gas explorers get on with their work and we can secure the Countries energy needs to 2500AD.

Sunday times

There was a time not so long ago when I would scour the Sunday newspapers, desperate to find some info on the latest take-over or move in the market in order that  I could plan my trading for the week. Now instead the papers are full of articles like this one in the Telegraph. Well written and coherent - it still reads to me as a someone writing in Rome in the early 5th Century AD.

It will be such a shame if all is really lost, but how do we get morality back into the system. Not being a church-goer this is a question I find hard to answer. Amoral markets I would accept, possibly, but immoral markets and Governments lead us to...well I don;t know. But at worst a new set of Dark Ages.

Oh for the Sunday evenings of but 4 years ago.