Clever bastard

Today’s Pension PlayPen lunch was much too good for me. “Pearls before swine” – is what I said to Antony Barker –  as feedback on his excellent presentation (and subsequent discussion).

Here’s the kind of stuff that was on offer,

“One has to suspect that the world will return from holiday next month and realise that forecast inflation is not a few month’s technical blip and suddenly start discounting UK plc earnings very quickly with the associated cut in stock prices.  Institutions are moving into cash – unfortunately that is largely to meet collateral calls on repo struck at near zero gilt yields”

As Ian Dury rightly observed “there ain’t half been some clever bastards (probably had some help from their Mums“.

Here are Antony’s slides

If you didn’t make the meeting you can listen on the recording that Steve Goddard has shared on Pension PlayPen – go to “media“. You have to make the effort as we’re trying to get people to go to the site and use it a bit more.

Amusingly, Steve Goddard, who is getting quite good at chairing, spotted me on mute and asked me for my thoughts in front of everyone. I’ve got a dodgy mouse  and couldn’t get off mute and by the time I did,  he’d had a laugh at my expense, I could only splutter that I hadn’t got anything to say because I was “out of my depth” and in “learning mode“.

I’m reminded of the dangers of swimming out of my depth by poem by Stevie Smith

To cheer us up after that I give you Ian Dury , the Blockheads and one of the funniest songs written in my lifetime.

Happy holidays!