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"This morning, the pound is strong against the euro, which dropped three points on the dollar, which rallied against the yen..."
STOP IT! JUST FUGGIN' STOP FOR A SECOND! PlEASE!
It makes my brain hurt. There's screaming in there. Banshees wailing in my head. Strong? Weak? Are these currencies bodybuilders? Do they have human qualities?
Just. Stop. It.
I did Economics at A Level. I did well. I would have been top of the class if it wasn't for the other student in the class. I get things. Some things.
So why when I hand my money over to the 16-yr old pimply lad in the perspex booth do I just hope for the best, get a random amount of notes back, think "ooh, that's a lot" and thank him twice?
Apart from the obvious conclusion, that is.
"The opposite of love, after all, is not hate, but indifference."
I’m reading a fascinating book at the moment called A Fistful of Shells by Toby Greene about West Africa before, during and after the slave trade. There’s far too much in it to do it justice here, but one of the remarkable aspects is the different currencies the different African states used and which they demanded of European traders, including iron bars, copper bracelets, lengths of cloth and particularly cowrie shells. The latter were small shells, originally from the Maldives, which had the quality of precious metals to contemporary (and modern) Europeans - compact, instantly recognisable and hard enough to come by that they had a value as a store of wealth and a medium of exchange. At least they were until European traders turned up with boatloads full of them direct from the source, flooded local markets with them and ruined all the accumulated wealth they represented.
Ironically, the Europeans first came to West Africa to buy locally mined gold, which the locals presumably thought was too common and easy to find to hold the same value for them as Cowries. One day, future generations may mock us for putting our faith in paper money, which can be produced by the boatload even easier than a load of shells. Bit of a ramble, but don’t let it put you off the book.
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Things You Don't Understand on 23:36 - Jul 29 with 1135 views
One thing I could never understand was Video Plus codes, the numbers they printed in TV listings you could programme into your VCR to record shows. A 30 minute show on BBC2 at 9pm on Tuesday might be 0364, but 30 minutes from 9.30 might be 5264957838. I could never see any pattern, like the codes were chosen by an Enigma machine.
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Things You Don't Understand on 00:14 - Jul 30 with 1113 views
Things You Don't Understand on 22:02 - Jul 29 by Sharpy36
Could be wrong but "I promise to pay the bearer the sum of" means to the same value in gold, and the bank of England has to keep enough gold in their vaults to honour that promise.
Sterling Silver, a mixture of silver and copper, in coins, by the pound....Fat chance.
Speaking of not understanding currency, specifically currency manipulation, the Thai military did some kind of dodgy scam i'm sure with China which saw the value of the Thai Baht mysteriously skyrocket. In comparison with the pound. Instead of getting almost 80 Baht to the Pound, as i had for my first decade in Thailand, it dropped to about 37 Baht in the space of a few months or so. Highly illegal somewhere along the line no doubt. Now every single thing i pay for is like buy one pay for two. Which means i'm now paying for a family of six instead of three and thirty bloody cats to pay feed.
[Post edited 30 Jul 2020 4:26]
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Things You Don't Understand on 02:59 - Jul 30 with 1065 views
Why we want HS2, out of date before you even put shovel in the ground. Can see the value of building i.e. construction jobs etc. but it will never pay off the taxpayer investment. The Covid pandemic is proving most white collar work can be done remotely and digital technology is the way forward.
[Post edited 30 Jul 2020 21:01]
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Things You Don't Understand on 22:38 - Jul 30 with 819 views
Reminds me of Italy when you used to be given sweets as small change. All the Lira coins were being collected to use in Japanese transistor radios. Cheaper than buying the metal at source.
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Things You Don't Understand on 00:14 - Jul 31 with 793 views
Things You Don't Understand on 22:38 - Jul 30 by DavieQPR
Reminds me of Italy when you used to be given sweets as small change. All the Lira coins were being collected to use in Japanese transistor radios. Cheaper than buying the metal at source.
I remember standing at the checkout in Italy waiting for my 3 lire change. It may only have been 0.12p, but it was my 0.12p. Now in Ireland individual items in the supermarket are charged in cents, but they round the final bill to the nearest 5c. Still takes some getting used to.
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Things You Don't Understand on 02:17 - Jul 31 with 769 views
Interest, Money and especially the National Debt. Back in the day before money, people traded in goods. Today I have a chicken, tomorrow, I have a chicken, not 1.00125 of a chicken, but that is what happens with interest and money.
If I borrow a chicken off you tomorrow, by next week and through my loan shark rate, you'll owe me one and a half chicken s - WHY???
Every country in the world seems to have a National Debt, so who the hell do they owe it to? Why can't it be unilaterally wiped out? Why can't we just give up some land to whoever we owe to to pay it off?
Things You Don't Understand on 07:05 - Jul 31 by davman
Interest, Money and especially the National Debt. Back in the day before money, people traded in goods. Today I have a chicken, tomorrow, I have a chicken, not 1.00125 of a chicken, but that is what happens with interest and money.
If I borrow a chicken off you tomorrow, by next week and through my loan shark rate, you'll owe me one and a half chicken s - WHY???
Every country in the world seems to have a National Debt, so who the hell do they owe it to? Why can't it be unilaterally wiped out? Why can't we just give up some land to whoever we owe to to pay it off?
Really confused about that...
Do you have a pension? About half of it will be in bonds, mostly issued by governments. Government debt is mostly owed to its citizens, to be repaid after our death by persons unknown, assumed to be more prudent and responsible than we were.
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Things You Don't Understand on 09:23 - Jul 31 with 695 views
Things You Don't Understand on 09:17 - Jul 31 by MrSheen
Do you have a pension? About half of it will be in bonds, mostly issued by governments. Government debt is mostly owed to its citizens, to be repaid after our death by persons unknown, assumed to be more prudent and responsible than we were.
After I read your post about 'A fistfull of shells' (which i'd not read or heard of) The very next day my Amazon sent be a 'recommended' e-mail and second on the list after some book on Caesar was that one.
#amazonarewatching
Beer and Beef has made us what we are - The Prince Regent
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Things You Don't Understand on 09:59 - Jul 31 with 663 views
Things You Don't Understand on 22:02 - Jul 29 by Sharpy36
Could be wrong but "I promise to pay the bearer the sum of" means to the same value in gold, and the bank of England has to keep enough gold in their vaults to honour that promise.
Well they did until Gordon brown got the keys to the vault!
favourite cheese mature Cheddar. FFS there is no such thing as the EPL
Things You Don't Understand on 09:23 - Jul 31 by Metallica_Hoop
After I read your post about 'A fistfull of shells' (which i'd not read or heard of) The very next day my Amazon sent be a 'recommended' e-mail and second on the list after some book on Caesar was that one.
#amazonarewatching
Google, too.
Someone sent me a text (on my phone) that included the phrase "63 Tulloch Road". I closed the text and opened Google Maps to find out where that address was ans had only typed in '63 ' when the predictive address bar filled in the 'Tulloch Road'.
Bastard Google is reading my messages to find out what I am interested in.
Things You Don't Understand on 09:17 - Jul 31 by MrSheen
Do you have a pension? About half of it will be in bonds, mostly issued by governments. Government debt is mostly owed to its citizens, to be repaid after our death by persons unknown, assumed to be more prudent and responsible than we were.
Ah, so we are all bastards to the subsequent generations then. Thought so - great stuff, never liked those millennials - have that you pesky lot.