This Needs a Drinking Game
Mar. 25th, 2013 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutI hesitate to give a specific example, because the problem is rampant.
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/03/25/dijsselbloem-reversal-on-cyprus-shows-why-bank-run-fears-wont-go-away/
The idea of the game would be every time you could legitimately ask, "Compared to what?" you should, well, take a drink. I won't say that you need alcohol to make this stuff tolerable, just that it creates the temptation. Very, very effectively.
The first drink would be the idea that the Cyprus bail-in strategy could be repeated in other Eurozone member countries if appropriate, which was a gaffe ("truth told inadvertently where the wrong people would hear it") perpetrated by Dijsselbloem (every time this guy opens his mouth I like him more, and I'm actually not being sarcastic). What he said isn't drink-worthy -- the idea that that is a "verbal bomb", however, is.
What _isn't_ a verbal bomb if this is a verbal bomb? Compared to what?
The idea that the troika was "clumsy" -- compared to what? -- handling of Cyprus is definitely drinkworthy.
The idea that Dijsselbloem, whose leadership by all accounts has been consensus oriented, constraints based and protective of a very difficult decision making process, should be fired for that -- compared to what?
"needlessly raised the odds of bank runs across the periphery of the euro zone." compared to what?
"amplifying the potential for deposit flight the next time trouble flares up in a bigger euro-zone economy, such as Italy or Spain." compared to what?
"not least given that euro area policymakers appear to be making up the resolution processes as they go along" Because we've been down this path before with such great outcomes! COMPARED TO WHAT!?!
Every article about central banking, bailouts, financial shenanigans, etc. which attempts to make things scarier and worse than they are, and which criticizes needlessly the people who are doing the difficult work of trying to keep things working should be subjected to a relentless chorus of Compared to What.
With Drinks.
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/03/25/dijsselbloem-reversal-on-cyprus-shows-why-bank-run-fears-wont-go-away/
The idea of the game would be every time you could legitimately ask, "Compared to what?" you should, well, take a drink. I won't say that you need alcohol to make this stuff tolerable, just that it creates the temptation. Very, very effectively.
The first drink would be the idea that the Cyprus bail-in strategy could be repeated in other Eurozone member countries if appropriate, which was a gaffe ("truth told inadvertently where the wrong people would hear it") perpetrated by Dijsselbloem (every time this guy opens his mouth I like him more, and I'm actually not being sarcastic). What he said isn't drink-worthy -- the idea that that is a "verbal bomb", however, is.
What _isn't_ a verbal bomb if this is a verbal bomb? Compared to what?
The idea that the troika was "clumsy" -- compared to what? -- handling of Cyprus is definitely drinkworthy.
The idea that Dijsselbloem, whose leadership by all accounts has been consensus oriented, constraints based and protective of a very difficult decision making process, should be fired for that -- compared to what?
"needlessly raised the odds of bank runs across the periphery of the euro zone." compared to what?
"amplifying the potential for deposit flight the next time trouble flares up in a bigger euro-zone economy, such as Italy or Spain." compared to what?
"not least given that euro area policymakers appear to be making up the resolution processes as they go along" Because we've been down this path before with such great outcomes! COMPARED TO WHAT!?!
Every article about central banking, bailouts, financial shenanigans, etc. which attempts to make things scarier and worse than they are, and which criticizes needlessly the people who are doing the difficult work of trying to keep things working should be subjected to a relentless chorus of Compared to What.
With Drinks.