Recession Regeneration

A woman collapsed on top of me while on the train into work this morning. I was sitting there, minding my own business, and the next thing I knew I was struggling to hold her weight up, with her sheet-white face inches away from mine. She appeared to have nearly fainted; I was on my feet in a moment of course. However despite insisting repeatedly that she sit down, she refused and got off at the next stop.

It reminds me of a time I came across a man lying on the pavement on Queen Victoria Street right by Bank on a weekend. The place is always deliciously empty around that time of the week, and so it was left to L and I to keep him company with his shocked friend, while we waited over 20mins for an ambulence (appalling service). I never did find out what was wrong with him, but sincerely wished him good luck as he left, given the range of possibilities. Anyway, combined with this sobering photograph of the former reality TV oddity Jade Goody, now diagnosed with terminal cancer, it was a reminder of what is really important in life - and that does not include spending the rest of life in the rat race or on a daily commute.

I am going to pick up on the business plan I started working on last summer. I am about one-third of the way through so far, but it got shelved during the excitement and fall out of the banking crisis - partly because I needed to focus on trading, and partly because the concept is suddenly less appealing in the short-term when the world is undergoing severe risk aversion. However that will change again, and I am going to set myself an aim to have an initial version of the site released by the end of July, not least because the primary cost will be my time and effort.

On an aside, my cat sitting weekend was far from the purr-fest we had been anticipating. My brother seems to own a schizophrenic moggy, which rather like him is socially dysfunctional. The moment he left, L and I were greeted with hisses and growls (yes, from a cat), and it only got worse when we opened the door to introduce him to our own kitty. Ours is a Norwegian Forest cat which are a good natured breed. It turned out to be a good illustration that we all live in our own reality, and make as much or little of a situation as we choose. So in my brother's cats case, he had a miserable, stressful weekend locked in a room away from us instead of being pampered.

A choice quote today came from the noted British historian Dr David Starkey, who commented on the City, recession and Prime Minister:

"..the City is always rebuilding - it is like a slow-motion film, rising and falling. It's absurd of our Prime Minister to say 'No more boom and bust'. The City depends as much on bust and destruction as it does on boom."

Of course, with some historical perspective Dr Starkey is absolutely right. The press continue to feast on the bad news: isn't this the worst recession in a thousand years yet? It is easy to forget that in just a few years time this will be behind us, and we will be building again from a sustainable platform for growth and prosperity. By contrast the last decade is personified by a morbidly obese football fan, who spent all his money on an expensive flat screen TV (with cable of course) - and did nothing but watch it while eating hamburgers all day. In short, it was unhealthy, unproductive and unsustainable.

Those nearest the above caricature are likely to suffer most, but it is the recession which will ensure we all learn the importance of fiscal responsibility. Not least the importance of that old proverb 'always save for a rainy day'. Boring yes but welcome to the real world, fat bastards.

Otherwise Starkey's best observation relates to the splendid restoration today of The Monument, that seventeenth century marvel which represents the City of London's rise from the ashes of the Great Fire of 1666. When asked 'is there a modern equivalent of the Monument? It serves no commercial purpose', Starkey had no hesitation in replying:

"The whole of Canary Wharf. Every modern bank is to do with the length of the banker's cock."

I had to smile at that one, and when I started cross-referencing the height of those bland, glass towers to the incumbant CEO's of the respective banks, there was no argument from me.