Lucky 銀行業者s who'll always be in the money
Last updated at 15:35 14 December 2007
商業の banking is a wonderful 商売／仕事, at any 率 for those who manage it. 後継する and you will be handsomely rewarded. Fail - and you will still be handsomely rewarded, indeed 救助（する）d at the expense of the taxpayer, even several countries' taxpayers.
The "headline" story about the 現在の banking 危機 tells you, or at least 暗示するs, that the system by which banks lend to each other is not working. Oh, yes it is! It is 単に 強いるing banks to lend to each other at higher 率s of 利益／興味. The lending continues and on a very large 規模.
The observant and the 冷笑的な (the first is liable to make you the second) will be 特に struck by two things
The first is that the 現在の international 操作／手術s seem to be 目的（とする）d at 救助（する）ing the profitability of the 商業の banks. Which is not the 目的 of a central bank.
Its 職業 is to 救助（する） depositors and 確実にする that the banking system still operates, leaving 株主s to 苦しむ whatever 罰 arises when any 商売／仕事 goes through a bad patch.
The second curiosity is that, にもかかわらず the alarm signals put up by the 銀行業者s, they are still 支払う／賃金ing 天文学の 特別手当s to their 最高の，を越す staff. The total will no 疑問 越える the £50billion which the five major central banks are pumping into the system to "救助（する）" us. Or at any 率 to 救助（する） banks' 株主s and 上級の (n)役員／(a)執行力のあるs.
As for the 危険，危なくするs of a 後退，不況 - defined as two 連続する ４半期/4分の1s of 落ちるing 生産（高） - we have High Street banks which have 本気で overlent and 消費者s who have 本気で overborrowed. It was bound to end in 涙／ほころびs.
What is not wholly （疑いを）晴らす is whether central banks will now 許す 商業の banks to borrow from them on second-率 as …に反対するd to 最高の，を越す-率 安全s, such as 政府 社債s.
If the central banks are lowering the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, it is deplorable. It will 簡単に encourage High Street banks to continue lending irresponsibly, 確信して that 疑わしい 貸付金s can be used in difficult times as collateral.
That will 確実にする another 危機 later. But no 疑問 …を伴ってd by large 特別手当s for 最高の，を越す 銀行業者s.
Gordon Brown says we are "winning" in Afghanistan. It seems a pity that the 地元のs 港／避難所't noticed. Six years after 開始する，打ち上げるing a war to 運動 out the Taliban, they are still very much in 証拠.
So much so that the Kabul 政府 is 交渉するing with them. Britain will now also 持つ／拘留する 会談 with them but, it is （人命などを）奪う，主張するd, at a lower level than the 最高の，を越す leadership, hoping to prise some 支持者s away in what has always been a guerilla 連合.
But if it is a 連合, it is hard to see how 平和的な 手はず／準備 can be made to stick. Nor should our supposed 軍の successes be taken at anything like 額面価格.
We are supposed to have driven the Taliban out of Musa Qala. We certainly killed some and they certainly left the town. But, in the continual problem, they have faded away to become hard to distinguish from the 残り／休憩（する） of the 全住民.
Whenever I hear our leaders or generals 布告するing 進歩 in Afghanistan (or Iraq), I think of the 調書をとる／予約する In Retrospect, the agonising memoir of Robert McNamara, Defence 長官 first to 大統領 Kennedy, then to Lyndon Johnson.
It is a long and 哀れな story of 保証／確信s by American generals, also of American 政治家，政治屋s 素早い行動d 一連の会議、交渉／完成する Vietnam, that the U.S. was definitely winning.
The generals 繁栄するd 人物／姿／数字s showing amazing 死傷者 率s in the V iet Cong compared to American 軍隊s (we have seen a bit of that in Afghanistan).
Then there was the 利益 of 僕主主義 for which the Vietnamese people were 報道によれば so 感謝する, as they were for the 経済的な 援助（する） which 恐らく 保証（人）d warm feelings に向かって Washington - にもかかわらず which the U.S. 成果／努力 必然的に finally 崩壊（する）d in ignominy.
We, too, will 供給する 広大な／多数の／重要な dollops of 経済的な 援助（する） to the Afghans. And we will, によれば Brown, stay there for ten years to 供給する 安全 and an 環境 in which we can build schools, roads and all the 残り／休憩（する）.
Indeed, some 最高の，を越す 人物／姿／数字s from the 軍の and Whitehall - 明らかに not 正式に certified - talk about our staying for 30 years. Find anyone who will give you 半端物s on this and you have the best one-way bet imaginable.
We talk about 部隊ing the Afghans (against the Taliban), hence the 選挙 of 大統領 Karzai whose 令状 now scarcely runs outside Kabul itself. The only thing that truly 部隊s Afghans is fighting foreign invaders.
We also talk about "training" the Afghans in the 軍の arts to 供給する a 井戸／弁護士席-武装した 内部の 安全 軍隊 - as if they, of all people, needed lessons in fighting!
The folly of 占領するing Afghanistan, like Vietnam or Iraq, is that if you are not the 君主 力／強力にする, people know you will one day go away. So they keep on the 権利 味方する of those who will remain - 特に the ruthless.
