In which the pond goes a trifle giddy in reptile company and has to supply its own perpetual motion machine and a serve of Tacitus ...

 

What a relief to reach Friday, and what a relief to see that Klive's kash is still flowing into the reptile klaw ...

Will this kornucopia of korrupting kash never stop flowing? 

At the same time, the pond couldn't help but note that the reptiles seemed to have shifted to attacking comrade Dan, while maintaining a steady as the gaffe goes routine ... also a feature at the top of the digital page, ma ...

All the favourites were there - simplistic Sharri had a couple of stories, and Simon saying "look, in conflict of interest here Bid" was also out and about, and the hole in the bucket man was at the top of the page, as was fitting, right and proper ... but it was a fitful and dismal scene for veteran reptile observers and the comments section was no better ...

Good old Simon says "look Bid no conflict of interest here" at it again, because there's no team in "reptile", it's every dog for himself?

And the meretricious Merritt acting as little Sir Echo? And a couple of lizard Oz editorials? And it's all the fault of Sogavare while the speaker in tongues apparently can't pick up the phone? And Gra Gra and Loosley on the loose and fellow travelling with the snivelling pack of raptors?

And that explains why the pond turned to the bubble-head because the pond has always loved a whiff of climate science denialism in the morning. It surely beats napalm, or maybe not ... (BBC)

Pick your favourite climate change disaster, or spend time with the bubble head inhaling a heady dose of bulldust ... it was a lay-down misère, though the pond hastens to add that no actual climate science will be discussed or harmed in what follows ...

Please note the billy goat butt - "while climate change is an important issue that needs to be addressed" - as inevitably this fatuous futtock of a billy goat will try out a different angle on climate science denialism, and will end up in the usual reptile way by nuking the fridge.

Once upon a time it was a favourite reptile meme that climate science was merely a cult and anyone who accepted it was a victim of a theological cult. Or perhaps a Marxist cult involving an ideological long march through the institutions ...

Now it seems climate science is just a fur coat substitute ... 

Oh and it's all terribly complex, but basically solar panels and wind turbines are two legs baaaahd ...

And so from petulant Peta nuking the fridge yesterday, to the bubble head doing the same today ... and as for that slur, followed by "it's impossible to know for sure", the pond has to confess it wasn't sure why all this drivel was flowing, until the reptiles allowed in a self-promoting link to the font of drivel ... and the point of the use of ancient feathered pen and ink became clear ...

What a sublime fuckwit, but as promised no actual climate science nor any insights, just undiluted drivel - sorry, truth to tell the pond couldn't summon up any more complex a descriptor.

But once it was over, and the pain had subsided, the pond did wonder what had happened to Lloydie. How could he let a simple-minded upstart like this stray on to his turf?

Our Lloydie of the Amazon hasn't been heard from since May 1st when he discovered the perfect solution and the problem solved ...

Meanwhile, the pond is shortly to announce its patent for a perpetual motion machine providing limitless cheap reptile columns free of reptile radiation, having sorted out what was wrong with this design ...

Way too intricate, when all that's needed is a bubble headed booby to scribble "while climate change is an important issue that needs to be addressed, help, someone help, I've lost the address ... and while you're at it, has anyone got an envelope, a stamp, a quill, some ink, and a fur coat?"

And so to the hole in the bucket man ... because what else is there to do on a Friday once the bubble headed boobies have left the stage?

This is a cunning ploy by the hole in the bucket man, trotting out the straw dog of Marles as a way of gulling the pond into defending Xi ...

The pond is too old for that sort of trick ... 

Yes, two can play that game ... as if some sort of graph is a match for a cartoon ...

Some will note with deep regret that our Henry has abandoned any reference to ancient historians or philosophers, yet surely a reference to the great economic crisis of 33 CE would have been useful ... (Weatherhead Centre, Charles Bartlett, 10th December 2018)

In 33 CE, the Roman empire experienced a severe economic crisis. The crisis occurred when a law requiring creditors to invest a proportion of their capital in Italian lands was revived after observance and enforcement of it had lapsed. One of the purposes of this law was to mark Italy as a unique area within the empire, by appealing to the notion—widespread among Rome’s elite—that Italian agriculture had been foundational to the Roman state and was still integral to Roman mores. The rush by creditors to buy land sparked a credit crunch. After some turmoil and ineffectual action on the part of the senate, the Roman emperor Tiberius eventually made vast sums of money available for interest-free loans, thereby halting the crisis. These three elements of the crisis—namely the efficacy of a guarantee from the central monetary authority, the ad-hoc nature of response spread across numerous governmental entities, and the political program of the underlying legislation—are perennially important considerations that should enter any account of a large-scale economic crisis...

...In setting the scene for his description of the crisis, Cornelius Tacitus (a senator who wrote approximately eighty years after the crisis and provides the best ancient account of the events) tells us that usury had long plagued Rome, resulting in high interest rates and harsh enforcement of contractual terms.4 In the early 40s BCE, Julius Caesar had attempted to remedy this problem by passing a law stating that creditors had to invest a certain portion of their capital in Italian land in order to lend at interest; we do not know the exact date or provisions of this legislation. The law fell into disuse over the following decades, but it remained on the books and was revived in 33 CE when a flood of cases brought against prominent individuals alleged widespread violation of the land-owning requirement. The number of cases quickly overwhelmed the court tasked with these matters, which referred the issue to the senate, and the senate in turn referred the issue to Tiberius. Amazingly—and hyperbolically, in all likelihood—Tacitus tells us that every one of the 600 senators was in personal violation of this law, and they sought Tiberius’s indulgence. He instituted a grace period of eighteen months in which all personal finances were to be brought into accordance with the law. What followed was a credit crisis. Creditors called in all their loans in order to buy land, and in addition, according to Tacitus, the sale at auction of the assets of those who had already been convicted of violating this law—and whose property had therefore been seized—concentrated substantial amounts of coin in the imperial treasury and out of circulation. The senate then passed a resolution that creditors invest two-thirds of their capital in Italian land, and that debtors pay back the same amount of their loans.5 But what happened in fact was that creditors demanded that loans be paid back in their entirety, and debtors were morally obligated to pay the full amount.   

What's that, no-one's interested, or if they are they're appalled the pond took out the paragraphing so as not to hog the space, but in any case they'd rather have a cartoon on the matter of inflation? 

Yes, the pond does Graudian but usually prefers to leave First Dog in the kitchen ...

And so back to our Henry, still trying to gull the pond into defending Xi ... what next, knavish trickery designed to get the pond to support Vlad the impaler?

But what about the Romans?

...we can discern two broad sets of interests that predominate in these accounts. 

The first is a concern for the moral aspects and social consequences of credit and capital. It is again instructive to look to Tacitus, who includes in his account of the crisis a characterization of the deleterious effects of usury from the founding of Rome. He calls the practice “the most frequent cause of dissension and discord” and underscores the persistence of those, unnamed, who found new ways to defraud after a specific law suppressed any particular scheme. As we saw, he also focuses on the moral obligation of debtors to repay the entirety of their loans when creditors call them in, even when the senate had decreed that only two-thirds of a loan had to be paid back immediately. This offers us a fascinating glimpse into the impact of senatorial pronouncement on the situation against a backdrop of prevailing social norms. 

Moreover, we must note that Tacitus fixes squarely upon the reputational consequences of losing one’s land when he specifies that adverse judgments deprived individuals of “their rank and reputation.” The word that I translate as “rank,” dignitas, meant one’s political standing at the top of the social hierarchy, which was far more rigidly institutionalized in the Roman world than such ideas are in the twenty-first century. We see as well that it was the diminution of some of the most prominent men at Rome that prompted Tiberius to act, at least according to Tacitus...

Oh never mind about the second point, let's just say that it's a sorry day when the pond has to lug its own perpetual motion machine and a bit of Tacitus to the scene to save the reptiles' bacon ... and they say the Romans have never done anything for us ...

And with that, here's another distraction, with more distracting Rowe here ...

Oh just look at the poor pooch that's been sent to the corner by broken promises, mindless chooks and possibly that meretricious Merritt ... won't someone give the dog a bone and drag whatever it is that's lurking behind the arras. Is that the tail of prattling Polonius?