margaret drabble, property and finance in the 1970s (or why don’t we learn from the past?) June 14, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : life , add a commentI have been enjoying Margaret Drabble’s The Ice Age. Although some things have changed since 1977 when the book was published, there’s some resonance with the current financial mess:
What had happened to those days of easy money in the early seventies, what had happened to the boom, to all those spectacular profits? Why had all the confident experts been so taken by surprise? Anthony had been seduced and corrupted by these confident experts into believing that profits would go on multiplying forever, unlikely though that had always seemed. Go for growth, had been the slogan, and everybody had gone for it. Now some were bankrupt, some were in jail, some had committed suicide, and only the biggest had survived unscathed. Casualties of slump and recession strewed the business pages of the newspapers, hit the front page headlines. Old men were convicted of corruption and hustled off to prison, banks collapsed and shares fell to nothing.
alan swan June 8, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : life , add a commentIt is a very sad day, as I learned that my colleague, Alan Swan, died earlier today.
miamibeach411.com party December 12, 2007
Posted by Bradley in : life , add a commentIn between thinking about exams and plastic snowmen and the transnational credit crunch I went to the MiamiBeach411.com seasonal party at Tuscan Steak described at Discourse.net, Sex and the Beach, Stuck on the Palmetto, Fanless, A Mom, A Blog and the Life In Between, All Purpose Dark, and Restaurant Gal.
miami in december December 10, 2007
Posted by Bradley in : life , add a commentAs a child in the UK, I remember reading about Christmas picnics on the beach in Australia, but I never thought I would live somewhere where a picnic on the beach in December would be possible. I know people go swimming in the Serpentine in London at Christmas, and in other parts of the UK, but that is different! I now live in Miami, where the weather (so long as we don’t have oddly timed hurricanes) is perfect in December. But all over Miami there are these inflatable snowmen and sparkly reindeer and fake snow. Merrick Park, near the Coral Gables City Hall, is “transformed into a winter wonderland”. It can’t just be for the snowbirds.
calm during stress December 8, 2007
Posted by Bradley in : life , add a commentEinaudi is good for times of stress (like during exams):
here it goes again December 7, 2007
Posted by Bradley in : life , add a commentIt’s that time of year again. We are writing, taking and grading exams. If only it were as much fun as this:
women’s lives… September 23, 2007
Posted by Bradley in : life , add a commentI have an uncomfortable fascination with the style sections of the New York Times. And today’s front page story with the title Putting Money on the Table is an example of why I find it uncomfortable (rather than fascinating). The subtitle for the article is: “With rising incomes, young women discover the pitfalls of “dating down.”” It’s uncomfortable because it is shallow (the topic might merit serious treatment, but doesn’t get it). Similarly shallow, the Sydney Morning Herald seems to be preoccupied with the question whether all the best ones are taken (connected to the “dating down” phenomenon?).
The Guardian’s women’s page used to debate all the time whether it was OK or not to have a page for women (wasn’t the whole paper a women’s newspaper?). That was interesting if sometimes uncomfortable. The Guardian’s style section now has an article which argues that most working mothers would lie if they were late for work because of problems with childcare. What about the working fathers - don’t they have problems with childcare? And would they tell the truth about them if they did?