Strange Times

We live in strange times. Today, I received some literature advising me about a glorious investment opportunity in a fund that would be managed by a man who is, I am told " one of the most gifted fund managers of his generation." Praise indeed. I could not bother investigating what he had done to earn this accolade since anything I found out would come with the standard warning that previous results are not a guarantee of future performance. I can tell you with absolute certainty which horse won the Grand National this year but I have no idea which horse will win next year. Of course, a fund manager would work for an investment bank - probably - and what we do know is that as far as their own remuneration packages are concerned past performance is a very good guide to future performance. Already the financial wheeler-dealers are working out the schemes needed to get back to paying themselves ever increasing amounts of money. They need, of course, to stay ahead of senior directors of big companies who [according to Robert Peston on his blog] have seen their remuneration rise by 295% over the last 10 years, while average wages have risen by only 44%. Even in 1998 the pay of CEOs was 47 times the average - already high by international standards - but now it is a staggering 128 times greater. Some [but not all] of the increase has been gained by performance related bonuses, which, quirkily, have managed to increase while the performance of their companies has stagnated or - more likely - has declined. Now, new bonus schemes being developed will guarantee yet more money for these distressed captains of industry. And the financial wizards will need to pay themselves more and more to keep abreast - or ahead. When will this excess end?

On Thursday we have European and County Council elections which will mark the first phase of putting the New Labour Party on the path towards the electoral oblivion that it so richly deserves. It will be next year's General Election [unless it happens sooner] which will mark the end. I have no idea what the final result will be. Ideally, we should have major reforms of the whole electoral system before we hand a massive majority to a Tory Party elected on yet another minority vote. But the obscenity of the rewards garnered by the already rich will be remembered and catalogued on the gravestone of the New Labour Party, unprincipled party of hypocrisy and spin. And the chief architect [Tony Blair] will disappear into the sunset to live off his days in the luxury to which he has become accustomed.