George Osborne MP
George Osborne as a poker player is a rather wicked thing to write about. Clearly he is out of his depth in the game of politics and as we know politics is poker for megalomaniacs, but the megalomaniacs need to be clever and he certainly is not.
Why did he string his whole career to the machinations of the ratings agencies is beyond even the most delusional optimist. The same ratings agencies said that the housing bubble prior to 2007 was in very good shape, the banks that fiddled around the casinos called investment banking, were beyond reproach all this prior to Lehman’s Day 2008, which caused the almighty collapse of the World economy that we are still feeling today and probably for the nest 10 – 15 years!
The problem with George Osborne is that he has no experience of real life. He never had to do a depressing job, day in and day out. In fact it is not clear that he has even had a job, not even a paper round. So what would he know of a life in which saving £10 on food so as to spend it on electricity is a regular occurrence?
In politics as in poker it is good to know what the value of the pot is. In other words if you are going to organise people to do things you want them to do, then you should at least know what they are thinking. Yes you can get an idea from the media but the people who organise and present the media also have an agenda so it is good to get into the world and see for yourself.
In poker once you know what the value of the pot you can work out how much it will cost you to get involved and change the dynamics of the game dependent on how strong your hand is. It can be a bluff or it can be a form of slow playing the nuts. But in the end if you are over playing your hand or not getting at least true value then you will get stuffed over time. This is what Moody’s did to George Osborne when they downgraded the triple A rating.
Does this mean the UK economy is about to collapse in a heap? Probably not, but it does mean that with a triple dip recession on the cards it certainly signifies that George Osborne has failed and failed badly by his own measure. In the world of the titans of the right wing view of life, the economy would run better if failed workers were got rid of quickly. In fact the UK government has proposed that it should be simple to sack unproductive workers. Well, Mr Osborne is a unproductive worker by his own standard and therefore should be sacked to set an example of how this paradigm of Ayn Rand capitalist nirvana actually works. Some how I think these theories only applies to the lower classes….