Reading
an ad for the latest iPad today, I noted it is "more
immersive than ever". I'd be impressed if only I had any idea
what this means.
Talking
about ads . . . I saw one for a product priced at 38.99 pounds today.
I can (just) see the logic for pricing something at 39.99 - on the
basis that none of us is sophisticated enough to realise this is
really 40 quid - but 38.99?? Are we supposed to be more switched off
at a price of 39 quid than 38.99? Am I missing the psychology here?
The
world (well, the BBC) is agog at what's happening in what I've called
the murky world of Spanish banking. Here's Giles Tremlett of the
Guardian
on this subject. As he writes:- Spain's
government has moved to quash doubts over the health of the country's
banks by ordering an independent audit of assets held by the entire
banking sector and a fire sale of repossessed land and homes. The
banks were also told to set aside a further €30bn (£24bn) in
provisions against potentially toxic property assets. At the end of a
traumatic week for Spain, prime minister Mariano Rajoy's People's
party government claimed the moves would shine a bright light on what
critics see as the excessively opaque world of Spanish banks. Well,
bright lights and Spanish banks
are not natural bedfellows, so it'll be interesting to see what all
this bombast actually produces.
To
no great surprise - and least not here - the EU Commission has issued
revised forecasts for Spain for this year. Brussels
has forecast that - despite (because of?) all the reforms and cuts carried out - Spain won't meet the deficit objectives either for
2012 or 2013. Their forecast of the deficit this year is 6.4%
against the Government’s target of 5.3%. Next year's is predicted
to be 6.3% against the (imposed) target of 3%. Which only
the insane will ever have considered achievable. In cash terms, the Commission predicts
there'll an 11 billion euros deviation this year. Needless to say,
unemployment is forecast to continue rising this year, in the
direction of 6 million.
Addressing
itself to Europe as a whole, today's Economist says that "The
night terrors are back. . . . The idea of a chaotic Greek departure
from the euro at a time of Franco-German disunion should terrify
everyone it touches . . . With so much at stake, the rest of the
eurozone urgently needs to lower the risk that contagion from a Greek
exit would affect Portugal, Ireland and even Spain and Italy. The
worry is that, just at the moment when hard-headed realpolitik is
needed, politics has fallen prey to self-delusion, with leaders in
all the main countries peddling seductive half-truths that promise
Europe's citizens an easier way out." France, says the journal,
is the most obvious example of this "lurch into dreamland."
Oh dear.
Finally
. . . I'm here to tell you that, should you stupidly break the glass
in your cafetière, you can still make a decent cup of coffee by
putting the ground beans into a large cup or mug and then pouring
hot water over them, without stirring. Except they aren't ground beans; they're ground
seeds. Coffee plants don't produce beans. Of course, if you forget to drink the coffee and then forget that you've put it in the microwave for a minute or two, you won't have any coffee at all. Regardless of whether it was made from ground beans or seeds.
The
wisdom of the good Dr. Osler.
It
is much simpler to buy books than to read them and easier to read
them than to absorb their contents.
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