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This was the advertisement that appeared across the UK in the very same days as the global stock markets crashed like never before: “Cash Has Retired”.
In a wonderful dose of advertising irony this message now adorns the trains and walkways of the London Underground system, the giant billboards surrounding the financial district and wider across the country, just in case the banks and stockbrokers and hedge funders, the ones who are still employed that is, needed reminding of the current global situation.
In the last year the UK FTSE stock market went from 6721 down to a low of 3861, the UK pound dropping from $2.02 to $1.54, apparently upsetting UK tourists holidaying in America.
In the first six months of 2008 Prime Minister Gordon Brown borrowed £37 billion to keep the country afloat, which was the equivalent of the total government borrowing in 2007. But the sheer weight of the loan seems to have capsized the nation, bailing out £600 billion to the rat-like bankers who are on the verge of calling out, “abandon ship, godammit, every man for himself”, but not until they have cashed in their retirement plans and golden handshake accounts.
All material on this blog – stills, video and print – is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2008. All Rights Reserved.
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