Lazy round-up

I'm trying to read this during my lunchbreaks this week - it's pretty good, though when it gets into equations I have to skip bits. The chapters on development and on wages are well worth a read.

But as such I ain't got mcuh time to blog, though I'm going to post an interesting idea about Personal Accounts an ex-union colleague recently put to me soon (think union membership combined with share-ownership). So in the meantime here's a few bits and pieces worth a look.

Hat-tip to nick at the Capitalists for alerting me to this piece in The Grauniad which I obviously have a lot of sympathy with.

Also in The Guardian this week was this bit about pay amongst the wealthy which is worth a read if only remind yourself how utterly removed from reality lots of rich professionals are these days. This can't be a good thing can it?:

"We now live in a separate economy, we live on a separate level to the vast majority of people in the country. We don't send our kids to the same schools, we have more choice over schools, we have more choice over health, we have more choice over where we live, we have more choice over where we go on holiday and what we do for our jobs. And we live in a completely different world to the people we live next door to."

Finally, hat-tip to journo mate Sue for sending me a nice quote from Corrigan report discussed in today's FT:

"While this turn of events had multiple causes and contributing factors, the root cause of financial market excesses on both the upside and the downside of the cycle is collective human behavior – unbridled optimism on the upside and fear – bordering on panic – on the downside. As history tells us in unmistakable terms, it is virtually impossible to anticipate when optimism gives rise to fear or fear gives rise to optimism. The last twelve months have been no exception to this sobering reality."

I'll try and post something up about the report itself once I get around to reading it.