epicaricacy-shadenfreude

It is said the weak person with low self esteem will find pleasure in other's misfortune...... seems I have morose delectation a dreadful sin ! However, the more I think about it I am possibly getting pleasure out of my own bad luck ! Anyway, thanks to a good buddy I found two new words to add to my pleasure of finding out more about myself..... Humor is just Schadenfreude with a clear conscience 幸災樂禍 enjoying (other's) calamity (and) laughing at (other's) misfortune" 他人の不幸は蜜の味 (tanin no fukō wa mitsu no aji, 他人の不幸は蜜の味^?), translates literally as "others' misfortunes are the taste of honey." Well going back to the great philosopher Gwen would say "you got what you deserved" "you got your comeupence".................and why not our great English word to gloat !
Thank you Wikipedea ...as I said before I have no original thinking just try to put the jigsaw puzzle together from any sources I can.....In any case gloating is a sort of superieur state of knowledge or experience and is often quickly replaced by compassion and care for those that are really in pain !
So today I find that being a person of low self esteem can still transform into one of superiour knowldege gaining pleasure from both humour and care ! Probably the two most important elements of happiness in life !
Thought for the day

There has to be some pleasure and satisfaction from these events

Actually now I come to think of it, it is already about 6 months ago when oil prices and other commodity prices started to fuel inflation that I first noticed that I was deliberately cutting back on some spending...... the shock to pay so much to fill the car with petrol or to pay energy bills was certainly enough to trigger my "enough is enough" reaction and just say I am not going to pay it. Surely in all this we have to get some satisfaction out of seeing a correction to consumerism! The outcome is of course that some poor companies who are over indebted or running at very slim margins will catch a hard cold when their business volume dips. There is a certain pleasure in the work ethic and the need to survive in difficult times, it will mean that some pleasureable values might return of customer care and attention, higher value added and quality. We can then feel that this "bust" was long overdue and will be beneficial for the consumer. It will also transfer some of the problem back to the cost of labour countries like China and India who have seen their wealth grow exponentially as a result of consumerism and the availability of credit.
Our recent Nobel prize winner for Economics had the theory that trade was linked with economy of scale and surely the chinese managed this well to produce huge quantities of product for a hungry consumer...... when the consumer is not so hungry many of the companies producing goods with "economy of scale" will see their meagre margins eroded rapidly.
This correction was inevitable ....always good to have hinesight !
This has brought a smile to my face and a sort of inner satisfaction so I prove there is pleasure in pain as long as the pain is felt by those to blame ! Now is the time to start saving money by not consuming and buying equity in great companies with great value and good margins.

Taking so much time to digest this............ why is there no pleasure?

Well 10 days have gone by and no blog ....it really is taking me time to try to understand what is going on..............seems the blame is now squarely placed on incompetent bankers for lending and betting on the future up up and away trend. Apparantly it was just a meager 6% of the mortgages that needed to go bad to topple the whole pile since not only was there bad loans but bad insurance for them too without any funds to back up the insurance! This is like leverage of 3 times !
But seems to me we have gone and saved a banking system that is simply greedy and non productive ! Wouldn't it have been better for the government to have taken on all the good mortgages and not just the bad. Wouldn't it have been a fairer system to reward debt repayment by lower interest rates to those committed to reducing their debt !
While the greedy bankers have taken irresponsible risks it would seem to me that the bill will still be paid essentially by the 90% plus of the people that service their debt and pay their bills and their unacceptable taxes !

Does anyone really know what all this means ?

What does it really mean when all the governments in the western world pick up great slices of equity in the banking system and cover the debt obligations? Will it mean that these organisations will be run more efficiently and that sensible credit management will be restored. Could it possibly mean that these organisations will generate great profits in the future as asset values improve again and we will all benefit as shareholders in banking and insurance? Seems maybe the governments just might be picking up valuable equity at the crisis time. Should we believe it is very smart government or does it mean the problem is massively out of control? Is it all about pushing off the pain til after the next election?
Will it mean that banking will get back to financing enterprise at reasonable cost now that the continually inflated property asset has lost its sparkle?
Does anyone really know what all this means?
I sincerely hope so..................................... but lets not rely on bankers have to find someone who thinks probably!

Same mistakes again....someone thinks we have not learnt lessons

It was with great surprise that I read that Nomura the great japanese investment house that has just picked up Lehman Bros Asia and European divisions immediately confirmed to all employees the guarantee of their bonuses for the coming two years !! Assuming therefore that these two parts of the old Lehman brothers business are still happily stuffing someone with more toxic assets and getting their commissions for it. Hopelly Nomura would have learnt from the last japanese property bust that property asset/morgage bundles are still going to be bought by someone !! Or are they saying the Lehman Asia and European fund products are so good that these people can earn great incomes because the products are so fantastic.....watch this space and my recommendation is to beware of the Nomura products coz to me it looks like business as usual....someone will pay.