How the Bailout works

In any crisis, turn to Calvin and Hobbes. Click to enlarge.

And on educational matters:

Ireland bankrupted: capitalism wins

The Irish government's budget has been announced: cuts in public services, cuts in pensions, cuts in welfare benefits, the income tax threshold brought down to €15,000, cuts in the minimum wage (because obviously the poor caused the recession).

There is good news though: corporation tax is staying at 12.5% (as opposed to the 25%+ current in every other European and Western nation).

So that's alright. Corporations can continue to channel their disgraceful tax evasion funds through Ireland while beggaring that country and their countries of origin. Their reckless behaviour bankrupted Ireland and the rest of the global economy, and yet they're still being treated like favoured guests. A tax rise to 15%-20% would still be lower than most other countries and attract corporations, while making a huge difference to Ireland's economy.

Is anyone else bothered by this? Making the poor suffer to bail out banks and the rich?

Joined-up thinking

Lots of people are losing their jobs. Sensibly, many of them want to achieve new qualifications and have rushed to apply for university places in record numbers. We're always being told to be 'flexible workers', and it seems sensible all round to opt out of the job market while improving your potential when things improve. But no, the government has decided it would rather leave these enterprising, motivated people on the scrapheap. They've already withdrawn funding for anyone studying for a qualification equivalent to one they already hold, and now they're reducing the number of university places available because they arsed up their budget by £200 million. 

OK, a year ago I'd have thought £200 million was a lot of money. Not any more. There seems to be an enormous amount of cash around to save banks (last one I heard was the Gordon was raising £100 billion - so £200 million is absolutely sod all to invest in citizens' futures. I shall do what all bourgeois liberals do in an emergency - write to my MP. I encourage both of you to do the same.

Keep it up!

Despite being a sordid pornographer, Larry Flynt plays a useful role as America's court jester. What with announcing the release of 'Who's Nailin' Palin'' during the election, his part in various freedom of speech court actions and his wicked sense of humour, he's played his part in pricking the pomposity of the ruling classes (perhaps because he's simply an honest capitalist). In this vein, his latest PR stunt is genius. On the eve of some porn-industry event, he's applied to Congress for $5bn dollars of the bailout money available, to revive the flagging industry. On hard (sorry) economic grounds, who could refuse him? Or does America's turn away from capitalism also include a morality clause?