Isn’t it fitting that the original story was Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves? But, this time round the modern day version of the Chinese story with Alibaba and the Initial Public Offering that has been programmed for in or around August 2014 will be the biggest IPO this year and will bring in the staggering sum of $40 billion for its employees.
Crunch time will hit in Spring 2016 according to some economists in the UK. That’s the time when the British will suffer the consequences of the rising annual house-price rate in the country standing at 17% per year. Oh, the people are rejoicing that their houses are worth hundreds of thousands and increasing every year.
With the advent of unions in the USA in the 19th century, they were once synonymous with downing tools and walking out to hold the management and the company they were working for to ransom. Collective bargaining and across-the-board pay rises were high on the agenda back then.
Flies are pesky things buzzing around that leave you infuriated and frustrated as you try to swat them; but nine times out of ten you miss the things. Today, it’s flies that are at the center of a row that may be far more than just economic and may damage relations diplomatically-speaking between India and the EU.
Every wondered why the rest of the world envied the US middle-class? There were many reasons once, a long time ago and one of them was their affluence, their wealth, their ability to be able to afford whatever they wanted.
You don’t benefit from it, but you pay for it as a result of the government losing out. Yes, the government complacently sits back and does nothing while tax havens enable people to put their money hidden away in some secret off-shore excuse for a bank while at the very same time the taxpayer ends up paying for what the state is losing out on.
Whoever is looking for the flashpoint, that lethal moment when the war of words and diplomatic lies turns into full-blown physical conflict between the East and the West, they will find it relatively soon if we are to believe the markets and how they are reacting this morning.
It’s illegal but who gives a damn. As if we abided by the law these days. People annex countries when they want to so why worry about a little bit of bribery?
Why does man have to go one better than everyone else every time? As soon as the biggest, the tallest, the highest, the something-est gets built and made, then it has to be toppled by something that is even bigger. One-upmanship is what man does best at times; going that little bit further, whether it be for good or for bad.
Age-old myths and fantasies about turning stuff that was worthless into gold. Alchemists leaning over their cauldrons of bubbling brew in the dark recesses of the dungeon of some mythical castle somewhere unknown to mankind. Well, perhaps not so unknown and not so fantastical.
