Board now or baggage off

I know thee not

You can imagine as I walked to the iris scanning system I put in my card and it let me through to the iris scanning machine which after 1 minute of thinking decided it could not identify me.

So, I gave my passport and boarding pass to the backup alternative, the human customs official who checked everything and let me through.

I did not realise that my gate number required I go through another customs check because I had come out on the wrong side and as I passed through that check I was accosted and asked where I was coming from – strange question, I thought – I am coming from Amsterdam and I am going to Berlin I said.

Named for my journey

As I looked at my watch, it was well past the initial boarding time and just as I got to the gate my name was mentioned on the Tannoy asking I board immediately or would have my baggage unloaded.

The flight was smooth apart from the purser mixing up his destinations about us approaching Hamburg when we were going to Berlin, meanwhile, I wanted sparkling water and the host was offering everything but – when I insisted, he eventually heard my request and sought out the sparkling water for me.

I have always considered Berlin Tegel Airport a very efficient and customer-friendly airport, you were through the airport in no time, the efficiency that accompanies baggage reclaim usually means you are off the plane and in a taxi in less than 10 minutes.

Struck by strikes

Today offered a few surprises, in exasperation I finally said aloud, this is the longest I have had to wait for my baggage, even the tardier Amsterdam Schiphol does not take this long; almost after an hour of arrival, I heard the baggage handlers were on strike until 19:00 hours which would be in a few minutes time.

I do believe that unionism has its benefits for the working class and for the leverage of demands for fair working conditions – sometimes, I sense a kind of recalcitrance between management and the unions that lead to avoidable disputes that should better be resolved with discourse and maturity.

Negotiations and compromise

Having mostly been self-employed all my working life, I suppose it is difficult for me to appreciate some of those needs, one has to live by ones wits, skills and negotiating acumen rather than commit those negotiations to some socialist truculence battling with capitalist indifference.

Whilst, I am not pleased to find myself at the wrong end of an industrial dispute, I do hope that whatever has brought this about does not degenerate into the debacle that the British Airways dispute has become.

Long live the compromise and coexistence of socialist and capitalist aims for the maintenance of just, fair and orderly societies.

We are society, each one of us

Cross with crossers

Sometimes my views are quite socialist in outlook, in other words they are Christianly but it is really about individuals who realise that despite their need to exercise personal responsibility they have civic and communal responsibilities that relate to peaceful coexistence with others.

Nowhere was this most evident than when pedestrians have to navigate multiple pelican and zebra crossings at an intersection that leads to public transport facilities.

More than once I saw people in their urgency get to the crossing, neglect to push the buttons at the traffic lights that trigger a timing mechanism to equitably divide waiting times between pedestrians and other road users, then cross the road before the lights signal access, moving on to do the same thing at the next crossing.

In general, one would expect that people naturally would push those traffic light buttons once they get to the crossing regardless of if they have to wait or not, but one learns there is no presence of mind for the community but a selfish desire to make ones way at speed, at risk and in possible stupidity.

Rushing to keep back

It becomes ever so irksome if the said persons do stand in the way of access to those buttons as other conscientious members of the public realise their need to do the right thing.

Move to public transport and trains approaching stops have people gathered at the doors to get out only to realise Mr and Mrs Rush do not know they have to push a button to open the doors until someone steps forward to do that and not a word is offered in penitence for lacking the virtue of knowledge which with patience would have allowed those who really know to open the doors for all others to get off a lot earlier.

Forward without unction

Then, cyclists who refuse to stop at the demarcations from where the traffic lights can be viewed and reacted to. They get beyond the lines in haste and then stop, but are oblivious of when the lights change creating a pile up borne of selfishness rather a simple adherence to basic traffic rules without which chaos would reign in anarchistic aplomb.

However, this microcosm of societal apathy in the quest for individual aggrandisement is reflected in many other places like littering the streets with rubbish, the discarding of cigarette butts and chewing gum on the pavements, the rush to get in or on without regard for those who need to get off first and so on.

A loss of communal responsibility

Many of these things I have written about before, yawns that expose the gaping cavity of a hippopotamus’ gob, with the uvula descending like a stalactite in a forbidden cave albeit on uncultured members of the seemingly most intelligent species on the face of the earth.

It is hard enough being assaulted with the sight of underwear on fashion suicides that wear low-rise trousers but one was overcome with gut-retching nausea when the underwear had apparently disappeared to reveal flesh – did one not shout within oneself to call that miscreant to order?

Where are the men in white coats when you need them? The lobotomy must to radical enough to allow for the sense of community in the morass of unconcerned individuality masquerading as islands of men independent of the other and oblivious of the need for corporate responsibility.

Fixing Capitalist Errors with Socialist Favours

Reset and elevated

Prologue: I am not an economist, this is what I understand of the issues with an opinion of how it affects me.

I had done mental calculations but it was yesterday that I saw the exact figures as my account yielded what was literally a 50% hike in monthly mortgage payments after a reset which had me enjoying a fixed payment for two years and cumulative reductions of about 35% over the last 6 years.

I am thankful for the providence that allows for these obligations to be met, the matter is one has diligent kept up the obligations come rain or come shine.

The sub-prime mortgage problems generated by greed, dishonesty and suspect economic ideas in the United States is very much like a 10.0 magnitude under-sea earthquake creating tsunamis on shores so far away.

Northern Dust to dust

For example, the pulverisation of Northern Rock to Northern Dust was not so much about their being exposed to these sub-prime mortgage instruments but because banks had lost basic trust, confidence and transparency between each other – not knowing how exposed their co-banks were to these problems they were wary of lending to their fellow banks just in case the money went down a black hole.

Some banks could not even place a clear cost or value on the assets affected by sub-prime exposures such that the ability to meet obligations was almost indeterminate that banks have to cover these uncertainties with write-downs that would probably crest $400 billion.

When people then queued up round branches of Northern Rock Bank to take out their money as people had rightfully lost confidence in the bank to function and protect their savings, it was almost impossible for the government and financial regulatory institutions to allow economic realities to dictate the course of events as the market coughed up poor management strategy and liquidity controls – they stepped in to guarantee everyone’s deposits and now that is GBP 25 billion lent to a bank that might not be able to paid it all back.

Technically, the bank has been nationalised even though we are being regaled with tales that takeover bids are the better face-saving deal to safeguard taxpayers’ money.

Shareholders are wary of anything that would make them lose money, but half the problem is the relentless drive to grow shareholder value and the forces exerted by the markets to perform or lose market viability – their market model fell short and government intervention has been nothing short of a socialist solution to a capitalist problem.

Liar loans made true

The source of all these problems is driven by “liar loan” mortgages made in America to people who have over-stated their incomes and means, banks that have not properly verified the data provided and loans made on the thinnest of leeway for repayments so as interest rates have increased, fixed rate mortgages have come into an upward reset period where many would be blown-out by their inability to meet their obligations leading to difficulties and foreclosures.

This debt has been traded on as sliced-up deals called Collateral Debt Obligations and fancied up by ratings agencies as A-grade instruments which financial institutions have soaked up - the tendency for people to default on these loans means this A-grade instruments are beginning to look worthless.

The President of the US along with is economic team have forged this plan to help certain house-owners who meet a certain credit score but are without the full means to keep their homes by freezing interest rates on adjustable mortgages for 5 years.

This big-time big-government intervention does not really address the core issues and may not save the homes of many who would not be able to scale the hurdles needed to qualify as those who have been prudent and smart about their mortgages like myself get hard done by – The Economist in March asked for markets to resolve this rather than politics.

One must not forget however, that Hillary Clinton – the aspiring Democratic Party Presidential contestant had asked for something to be done about this sub-prime crisis in March.

One can only say this move to fix capitalist errors with socialist favours will lead to more long-term problems – this case has not begun to unravel yet.

References

Subprime: first a crunch, now a catastrophe? – www.thisismoney.co.uk

British banks to reveal credit crunch hit – www.thisismoney.co.uk

The US Housing Bubble Timeline – WikiPedia

Bush details housing rescue plan – BBC

Credit losses 'may reach $400bn' – BBC

Sen. Clinton calls for subprime mortgage action – Reuters

Beware Miracle Cures – Economist

In subprime meltdown, lots of blame to go around – Reuters

White House unveils subprime rate freeze plan – The FT

Critics from all corners quick on the draw – The FT

Dishonest lending clue to market tremors – This Blog