Circling the Roundabout

Wikipedia defines a roundabout as a "circular junction." Consider this one focusing on politics, international affairs, journalism, technology, environment, economics and other amazing ephemera around the internet. Come for the cerebral. Stay for the cat pictures.

Charlie Brooker: The true value of money – or why you can’t fart a crashing plane back into the sky | The Guardian

The entire economy relies on the suspension of disbelief. So does a fairy story, or an animated cartoon. This means that no matter how soberly the financial experts dress, no matter how dry their language, the economy they worship can only ever be as plausible as an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. It’s certainly nowhere near as well thought-out and executed.

No one really understands how it all works: if they did, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Banking, as far as I can tell, seems to be almost as precise a science as using a slot machine. You either blindly hope for the best, delude yourself into thinking you’ve worked out a system, or open it up when no one’s looking and rig the settings so it’ll pay out illegally.

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