Comments on: A chocolate teapot, the Pope’s balls and an AAA rating from S&P

By: john b

john b — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:57:46 +0000

Re: 25, can anyone confirm whether it’s fair of me to assume that anyone who uses the phrase ‘cap in hand to the IMF’ to describe the UK’s actions in the 1970s is pushing some kind of dishonest Thatcherite agenda?

By: lemuel pitkin

lemuel pitkin — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:36:23 +0000

Chris Williams-

I have no idea but (1) a debt denominated in gold is not a debt denominated in your own currency—that’s the whole point; and (2) in the absence of modern tax system fiscal capacity was low and inelastic.

By: Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:27:08 +0000

Didn’t the UK default between 1797 and 1821, by suspending gold payments – in effect running a rather large war on a series of IOUs?

By: lemuel pitkin

lemuel pitkin — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:34:08 +0000

Isn’t the sovereign debt of the UK issued in pounds sterling? How and why would the UK ever default on pound denominated debt?

My reaction exactly. I find it far more plausible that a rating agency would issue a bogus warning to advance the interests of the financial sector, than that a major industrialized country would default on debt in its own currency.

By: Ginger Yellow

Ginger Yellow — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:10:01 +0000

26: It also came up with one of our sister publications. Thankfully we had no assets in the jurisdiction in which we were sued.

By: ajay

ajay — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:49:18 +0000

15: and one could libel, collectively, the members of a sufficiently small government agency. I probably could say “the Department of Health is full of corrupt incompetents” because it’s too big for any individual employee to be damaged, but if I said “office X is full of corrupt incompetents” and office X had only six people in it, then that’s actionable. This has come up in cases involving, for example, the CID at one particular police station.

17: clarity, I think the Civil War counts as a revolution. Given it ended up with a completely new system of government and a bisected monarch, I don’t see what else it could be. Point taken on 1688, though I think the Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement are worth a mention…

By: Ginger Yellow

Ginger Yellow — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:57:37 +0000

“I’m confused. Isn’t the sovereign debt of the UK issued in pounds sterling? How and why would the UK ever default on pound denominated debt? Aren’t mature UK bonds the equivalent to the UK currency? Admittedly, there may be an inflationalry risk, but I didn’t think the rating agency expressed a view on that. just timely paymenet.”

Well, that may be why the rating agency hasn’t downgraded the UK, and if it did would do so only to another rating that expresses an extremely high confidence of repayment.

The reason countries that only issue domestic currency debt are rated below AAA is that fiscal and monetary constraints may in dire circumstances make non-payment of debt a better (or more palatable) alternative than printing money. It was only 30 years ago that the UK had to go cap in hand to the IMF, after all.

By: g

Mon, 25 May 2009 00:59:03 +0000

@21: … or, perhaps better, for dessert.

By: dave heasman

dave heasman — Sun, 24 May 2009 01:29:25 +0000

“the pope’s balls, a nun’s tits and a good review in the Record Mirror”

Absolute Beginners was, Ibelieve, set in 1958. (I’ve not read it nor seen the film)
In 1958 a good review in Record Mirror was indeed worthless; looking at it a couple of years later I can’t imagine who’d have read it – there were 4 weekly record business papers then & the RM was so stuck for content it actually printed the chart returns from individual record shops, and still noone went round to fix the charts. It all changed in 1961 when it took on Ian Dove & Norman Jopling and started being the English R n B rag. The change was practically overnight. Didn’t stop it folding, of course.

By: chris y

chris y — Sat, 23 May 2009 12:30:57 +0000

I think you will find the so-called ‘Glorious’ so-called ‘Revolution’ was in fact an invasion by the Dutch.

I think you will find it was actually a successful conspiracy by one faction of the ruling class to reduce the influence of anoth by replacing the king with his nearest adult relative, who happened to be married to his nearest adult male relative.

By: Watson Aname

Watson Aname — Sat, 23 May 2009 04:47:12 +0000

@20 besides, there are myriad uses of a marzipan dildo, for starters.

By: vivian

vivian — Sat, 23 May 2009 01:10:19 +0000

Daniel@14: Your rejected images make good names for garage bands.

By: sash

sash — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:09:42 +0000

I’m confused. Isn’t the sovereign debt of the UK issued in pounds sterling? How and why would the UK ever default on pound denominated debt? Aren’t mature UK bonds the equivalent to the UK currency? Admittedly, there may be an inflationalry risk, but I didn’t think the rating agency expressed a view on that. just timely paymenet.

(Obviously the situation would be diffenernt for a national or local government that didn’t have the right to print currency in the denomination of the bond issue.0

By: chris y

chris y — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:02:38 +0000

is there actually anything that the UK government can do which would open it’s executive to civil or criminal charges?

The influence of the crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.

By: Clarity

Clarity — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:11:35 +0000

Gd, no, that was the French.

I don’t see how people expect us Brits to start a revolution. Perhaps we should bash teapots about and speak about the weather in an extremely loud tone.