September 2012

Bonfire of the Vanities

Not only did we successfully privatize the banks but vital functions of state. It is of great comfort to us to know that our information systems are safely in the hands of private corporations (now rescued) which in turn are serviced by international giants.

 

Everyone can recite the mantra “private is better than communism” and inter departmental jealousy did not harm either.

New “Viking” owners, with their new products for the old  vessel, – couldn’t fail, –  the customary and massive taxpayer involvement is unfortunate but of course the  “little people” should not bother their harts. The adage “The Best Way to Rob a Bank…” is only applicable to banks of course.

Buying “consultancy” from “interns” for a decision already made is as old as dirt. Nevertheless, I’m sure they scrupulously vetted: licensing costs, vendor strategy, vendor/product viability, solution manageability, skills availability, third-party support, performance & scalability – undeterred by the Clash of the Titans.

Flagging standardization and international professional standing are platitudes of the propaganda type which at best are totally meaningless.

However locking an entire state in a proprietary software prison is every corporations wet dream.

Will we fire the international corporations (who rule the day) or the unlucky National Audit Officer who happened to inherit a draft report stating some of the facts?

Having just got rid of an “overeager” Director General of the Financial Supervisory Authority my bet is as good as yours.

Groucho Marx was right when he said “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.”

However, the warm fuzzy feeling of buying iPhone 5 (on micro loan) gets us through the day, – right?

The Draft Report (is)
Regulatory capture
Public–private partnership
Power Economics, and Deep Capture

23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism
Control fraud “reactive” or “opportunistic”
Similar IT disasters…(uk)

Captured “scientific” discipline


23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism

Ha-Joon Chang dissects 23 mantras from the neoclassical free market priesthood with humor and intellect which is truly singular.

“Kicking Away the Ladder” was the first I read by Ha-Joon Chang, which voiced the silent fact that empires don’t play by their own rules. However, this was well before our collective and enforced education in economics, or rather the peculiar absence there off – so succinctly expressed by Her Majesty the Queen

The Methodology of Economics
This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One
The Price of Inequality

Debunking Economics
Inside Job
Complex Systems 
In Growth We Trust (the simple math 1 to 8)

It’s save or GIGO
Debt and Democracy
Captured Nobel Prize
Unpacking Mr. Global

Jekyll Island 
People & Power
Captured Anniversary

& the list is growing

“Mr. Global” kills with impunity, – but is this The Coming Revolt of the Guards?

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