It's Arnhem All Over again!

Field Marshal Model:

What can you see?

General Ludwig: Nothing. But they're going to try a river assault.

Field Marshal Model: It will fail.

General Ludwig: Of course. But what do we do if it doesn't?

Like field Marshal Model, we can see nothing, despite a river assault approaching but never mind, it will fail. That's Boris 'Bojo' Johnson on tonight's address to the nation. Don't get me wrong, 'getting the economy moving again', should be the ultimate end game but not when your death rate is the highest in Europe with over 32,000 dead, I think you need a Ludwig moment...What will we do if the obvious river assault fails? The answer cannot be another lock down.

It is starting to look painfully obvious that a second wave is inevitable. Ray Dalio once said, "if you want to know what's going to happen, look for a similar event in history" or words to that effect. There was a second peak during the Spanish flu pandemic and herd immunity seemed to be the answer and that left 25 million people dead. In China outbreak clusters have seen new cases coming out of China daily. See Report from China in focus. South Korea has concluded from a night club cluster that, they raised the lock down too early and now believe a second wave of similar magnitude to the first is about to sweep the nation.

Is it just me or is the assault coming from the river? Or maybe it will fail. Well, you probably already read Grave Digger so enough said. So why are we talking about raising lock downs in the midst of an oncoming onslaught? Why are we trying to be a Field Marshall Model?

It's a story about wealth creation through expenditure. It's a story about serfdom and it's a story about inequality. It's a story about how the basic necessities got financialised.

In the pandemic supermarkets needed to stay open, for good reason because people need to shop for low quality produce at bargain basement prices, it never mattered that cancer rates grew alongside supermarket profits. The Guardian piece. On the same token, many business online and smaller shops had to close their doors, yet crowds built up in local supermarkets. I guess someone would have had to explain to Qatar Holdings and Blackrock why their super markets are not selling the hell out of this Pandemic. To hell with social distancing, when you are making £1 billion in just a week.

Mortgages got a nice little 3 month freeze, renters got nothing. I guess someone will need to explain to Qatar Holdings and Blackrock (yes, them again) major shareholders in Barclays, why their customers have to default and the housing market is on a natural clearance. Like cheaper house prices won't simply mean more mortgage applications in the future. I guess not.

It's the fact that millions of workers are now part of the new serfdom; they must choose between their health or their credit obligations to the various financial institutions that created the credit bubble, that leads to one inevitable outcome, more debt! More Serfs! Wealth creation! Yay Economic growth! Or at least that's what we want to believe.

When it is all said and done, we will move swiftly from red alert, to amber, to green because the river assault will fail and if it doesn't, then we are all fucked and maybe it will be time for the good old Oligarchy to move on, bet on China, Africa and everyone else. So let's get Britain moving again. Remember the 'The big society'? Remember 'Get Brexit done'? Remember 'Stay at home'? You will soon remember 'Stay alert' and the best thing is, it won't matter because you won't remember shit. I wonder what's on Netflix tonight?

#Covid19 #Lockdown #UK #Financialisation