to be prepared to accept lower interest rates as well. Risk is obviously not a consideration, even when a major ratings agency has downgraded the quality of the securities already in your possession. Cloud cuckoo land is a phrase that comes to mind for all players involved (other than the ratings agency).
What I find equally amazing is that none of the market experts or the political gurus on the global TV networks has recognised the enormity of the problem that America faces in getting its financial house in order. The idea that a weekend‘s worth of negotiation between the US President and selected Republican and Democratic congressmen would provide a solution is truly ludicrous. In fact, the outcome is exactly what I thought it would be. My favourite scenario two weeks ago was “Kick the Can“, namely put off any really dramatic moves in the hope that the problem will somehow disappear. The grand compromise was just that.
Of course, the size of the problem can be diminished through economic growth or inflation – the former being a virtuous solution and the latter being a dreadful one. I just hope that the superficial handling of the issue so far does not lead to the latter outcome, whereby all those who have shown some thrift and saved their capital for a rainy day end up being financially ruined by an inflationary tsunami, created by Western overindulgence. The probability of this scenario has just gone up a notch or two with the downgrading of US treasuries and the jump in the gold price.
Hence, the resolution of this crisis and the avoidance of a second financial crash will involve enormous pain, whether you follow the virtuous route of austerity in meeting the challenge of spending money you have actually got; or whether you go down the debt-driven path to inflationary hell. Remember, though, 531 000 years is an extraordinarily long time at a dollar a second! You should not let $17 trillion roll off the tongue so easily in the future. According to the song, it used to be a dime that buddy asked you to spare. Now it’s much more.
The royalty of rock ’n roll
One of the best responses I’ve ever had to writing an article on the Internet came from this one. One of the Juniors who supported Danny on the classic disc “At the Hop” wrote to me and thanked me for nominating the song as the fourth best rock ’n roll record of all time. He obviously has a sensor device on his computer which picks up any reference to the band. Elvis was always my favourite artist, though Buddy Holly came in a close second. Long live the late 1950s when it all started. You could hold a vinyl record in your hand: polish it when it got scratched. Now music is an abstract download. Something has been lost.
On a recent weekend radio show, someone asked what was the greatest rock record of all time. I think the answer given was “Bohemian Rhapsody“ by Queen.
It got me thinking because I was there when rock was rock ’n roll. It all started when Bill Haley topped the charts in 1955 with “Rock Around the Clock“. The “roll“ was removed when The Beatles and The Rolling Stones rose to fame in 1963. This column, therefore, addresses a more focused question: What was the greatest record of that eight-year period and who were the Kings and Queens of Rock ’n Roll? I know that for young readers this is like asking about Arthur and Boadicea when we live in the time of William and Kate (sorry, Catherine now). Nevertheless, the source of modern pop music was that incredible era when songs involved three chords, guitars were acoustic, microphones were crystal and amplifiers were combined in small boxes with speakers. The dance was The Jive.
Let me start with my choice of royalty. The king, of course, was Elvis when he played with Scotty Moore (lead guitar), Bill Black (upright bass) and DJ Fontana (drums). It all started with “That‘s All Right“ recorded at the Sun Records studios. It ended when he went into the army and Tom Parker, his manager, reinvented him afterwards as a smooth balladeer.
Coming close to Elvis in the royalty stakes are Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis: Holly and Orbison because of the range of their voices; Berry because of his classic rock compositions; and Lewis because of his mesmerising piano-playing technique. Interestingly, there was no super-star female singer like Madonna at that time, but Brenda Lee and Connie Francis produced the odd rock ’n roll hit like “Sweet Nothings“ and “Stupid Cupid“.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Britain only produced copycats like Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele and Billy Fury. None of them cracked it in the United States; so it was one-way traffic until The Beatles arrived on the scene.
Be that as it may, let‘s get back to the first question of the best rock ’n roll record of all time. Here is my top ten in descending order:
1 Blue Suede Shoes by Elvis Presley
2 Rock Around the Clock by Billy Haley
3 Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly
4 At the Hop by Danny and The Juniors
5 Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley
6 Whole Lotta Shakin‘ Going On by Jerry Lee Lewis
7 Tutti Frutti by Little Richard
8 Hello Mary Lou by Ricky Nelson
9 Wake Up Little Susie by The Everly Brothers
10 C‘mon Everybody by Eddie Cochran
There you have it. It‘s one for the money, two for the show! “Blue Suede Shoes“, written by Carl Perkins and turned into a hit by him at the same time as Elvis Presley, is for me the quintessential rock song. However, Elvis‘ version takes the prize because of his insanely vibrant voice and Scotty Moore‘s awesome guitar solo.
On your Marx
Karl Marx was a visionary who foresaw all the flaws in capitalism on display today. Alas, his own recipe was equally flawed and we are still looking for the correct balance between free enterprise and state control. Having read most of what he wrote, I am confident enough to say that he would have been appalled by the way his ideology was twisted by dictators like Stalin to preserve their own power base. Marx’s main purpose was to end the exploitation of workers by ruthless factory owners rather than replace one form of tyranny with another. He himself lived a humble life to the end, unlike many of the communists today who see no contradiction between their luxurious lifestyle and the rhetoric they choose to inflict on their naïve followers.
I am not a closet Marxist; but I have always admired the first chapter of The Communist Manifesto as a prophetic analysis of the modern trend of globalisation. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were spot on with many of their views on the nature and shortcomings of capitalism. It was just that their conclusion that everything should be put in the hands of the State has, in retrospect, proved disastrously wrong. Stalin and Mao bear testament to this statement. However, the long-bearded Karl and Friedrich can hardly be blamed for the distortion of their ideology by dictators who used it in order to remain in power. The authors‘ objective was to protect workers‘ rights.
Consider the following abbreviated quotes from Chapter 1 of the manifesto: “Meantime the markets kept growing, the demand ever rising. The place of manufacture was taken by the giant, Modern Industry, by industrial millionaires, the leaders of whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois.“
“Modern industry has established the world market. This market has given an immense development to commerce, to navigation, to communication by land.“
“The bourgeoisie has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous‚ cash payment. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of chivalrous enthusiasm in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value.“
“The bourgeoisie has accomplished
