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OldSouth

Listed below are comments made by OldSouth between Monday, 6th July 2009 and Tuesday, 15th September 2009.

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The lessons of Lehman 05:06am on 15 Sep 2009 'But reform of the banking system has been painfully slow.'

What reform? Where? When?
What RBS's results say about QE 01:18am on 09 Aug 2009 Mr. Peston's essay is a erudite description of a dog chasing its own tail.
Too European? 10:55pm on 01 Aug 2009 Just read your farewell essay--http://tinyurl.com/kl2nsn--wistful and on the whole very fair-minded.

You'll be missed, and you're always welcomed back.

My hope is that you will be able to convey who we are to your audience back home. You have a book to write, and I think it will find an audience on both sides of the ocean.

Godspeed to you and your family.

OldSouth
Who'll be shot when banks misbehave? 2:34pm on 31 Jul 2009 'We tend to pride ourselves at being an imperturbable, unrevolutionary nation. Not for us the defenestrations and guillotinings of continental popular uprisings.'

This is because, with all its failings, the UK has a reputation for fair dealing amongst its citizenry. It is the 'social insulation', as it were, that maintains stability.

Remove that insulation, wear it down, rub it off, and only Heaven knows what may happen.
Why men are to blame for the crunch 3:54pm on 29 Jul 2009 'But I would observe that - in my experience - men are more prone than women to simply run like a train at the goal, and never mind who's flattened along the way.'

I'm not certain the issue is gender so much as it is about approach to the education of boys.

It is yet one more argument against the obsession with rugby at school.

If, instead, these boys were handed an orchestral instrument, a set of golf clubs, and a schedule that began with singing in choir every morning, they might learn:

1. That the process of learning a skill well requires humility and patience(items one and two), and

2. That real success often involves cooperative effort in pursuit of a objective and higher common goal--i.e., a moving performance of a Tallis motet.

What if our future titans of business were trained in this fashion?

Add in daily swimming or cross-country running for physical exercise; and make the boys carry their own clubs on the course(and caddy for the grown-ups), and they'll get plenty of exercise.

And, they won't need knee surgery in their early 40's!
Space, youth and hope 3:56pm on 24 Jul 2009 'As for America's future - this country is full of space and youth and and hope.'

One of your best-turned phrases, Mr. Webb!

I have associates in the UK to whom I constantly issue the invitation:
'Since you are doing business here, you may wish to come visit, to see how vast both the landscape and promise of this place are!'

Sadly, they can't be bothered--and your use of the word 'jaded' is right on point. They already know all there is to know, because after all, they commute to the office every day in London.

We'll miss you, and I suspect you will miss us.

Ya'll come back now, ya heah?
Business still being crunched by banks 3:22pm on 23 Jul 2009 Hello Mr. Peston, and kudos again for your insights.

I believe I read your thoughts here some time ago, to the effect of 'banking used to be done face-to-face.'

Small banks, bank officers who are long resident in the community--a situation where everyone has personal, relational, social 'skin in the game'. If a venture succeeds, everyone thrives and grins. If things go pear-shaped, everyone has to live with the discomfort of encountering everyone else in the grocery, on the football pitch, at church, at the school event.

Big banks are out of touch with the businesses and communities they serve, and upon whom they depend for their survival. No one seems to be addressing this simple problem.

The insane practice of propping up banks with taxpayer cash only compounds the problem. After all, if HMG or Uncle Sam have just dropped X billions into your business, who are the execs going to listen to? The local manufacturer of storm doors who needs credit to expand operations, or some nerd with a finance degree at Treasury? Or, more ominously, the local politician of the dominant paty?

In the meantime, at my small bank, the employees are looking for things to do, because they certainly aren't loaning money. The customers aren't coming in to apply, as they have become at least as risk-adverse as the banks!

Who would wager some portion of future revenues on a loan, given the events of the last twelve months?
News of the World bugged Sun editor 05:41am on 11 Jul 2009 ...and we should care about this because?...
Replacing Obama in the Senate 1:37pm on 09 Jul 2009 '...Which is why Obama didn't want an election in the first place - a rather cowardly refusal to do the right thing it always seemed to me.'

Ah, at last, you are catching on to who Himself truly is! The last thing he wants (like Gordon Brown) is a real election. Why expose Himself to the light of day on the local level? 'Pay-for-Play' works much, much better, as long as one does not get caught red-handed on tape.

It will be refreshing for the citizens of Illinois to be able to hold a referendum about their opinion of their 'favorite son'. I suspect Mayor Daley won't be able to stuff enough ballot boxes, or vote enough dead people, to overcome the mass of disenchanted voters from outside Cook County.

Here in Tennessee, which went by unremarked in the EastCoast establishment media, Al Gore's vacant Senate seat was won handily by a Republican, and in 2000, the postal code area in which he now lives sprouted 'Gore-Free Tennessee' signs from every yard. The GOP could not keep the signs in stock. It pays to pay attention to the people who know a politician best...

And, it would be very, very good to have a Republican in the Senate with an LSE degree. The idiots in charge on both sides of the aisle, and both sides of the pond, would have to at least pretend to listen to him.
'Obama is a Quaker' 3:28pm on 06 Jul 2009 Godspeed to you and yours on your travels home, as you settle in to your new life.

Remember us fondly, if you would. We need all the friends we can gather just now.

And, to all our brothers and sisters in the UK who take such glee in critique of our political culture: Remember who gets to have elections on dates certain.

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