It's an ill wind . . . heh, heh, heh!
In these dire times you can always rely on Duff & Nonsense to bring you good cheer. Just for a moment put aside all your worries over that one-eyed, Jock psychotic who is spending your money by the shed-load in a desperate attempt to buy the next election, happy in his knowledge that even if it fails it will at least leave the Tories in the position of standing on tip-toe up to their double-chins in liquid sewage with Labour driving up and down in a speed boat. Instead, I want you to raise a glass of Ouzo, or Rioja, or even (perhaps I should say 'and') a pint of Guinness, and drink to the continuing ill economic health of Greece, Spain and Ireland. According to John Authers in the FT, Greece, Spain and Ireland have received warnings from Standard & Poor, the international credit-rating agency, that their ratings are likely to be reduced. The price the money-lenders are charging on government bonds from all of these countries is already extremely high which indicates the increased risk of a default. For any member of the Eurozone to default would have a cataclysmic effect on the Euro and hitherto such a possibility was thought impossible, but today the whole world is in unchartered economic waters and the unexpected should be expected. According to Intrade, the odds on a Eurozone member leaving the Euro by the end of next year is now 30%. With the sort of perceptive forecasting for which Duff & Nonsense is famed, and which causes so much hilarity at my local Bookie's, I have been telling you for years that Italy would be the first to make for the exit, and indeed, they might still take the prize coming up on the outside, but with their Mafia style book-keeping anything is possible. Apropos my remarks in the Sunday rumble concerning my e-friend Oliver Kamm and his propensity for applying his enormous brain-power to a problem and then producing an immensely well-reasoned wrong answer, only just recently he has been urging us all to join the Euro! Heh, heh, heh!
Someone took offence lately - or pretended to, at least - to some wag referring to problems in the PIGS economies. (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, I think.) Do we take offence when some wag refers to the British Krona? Or the GBP (Gordon Brown Peso)? 'course not.
Posted by: dearieme | Tuesday, 13 January 2009 at 15:58
Yes, 'DM', but see above in the 'artistic' offering (= piss take) from the Czech Republic in which not-so-Great britain is left out entirely. I mean 'semi-detached' or what?
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 13 January 2009 at 19:07