Yesterday, an academic who spent his lifetime in relative obscurity
became the happiest man on earth. Also yesterday, the career of a
banker of world-wide eminence was brought down to something
equivalent to a Dickensian boy-clerk.
Yesterday, with the likely confirmation of the Higgs Boson, the world
of science may have gained its first chink of light into the workings
of the universe, 95% of which, at present, is still a total mystery.
Yesterday, with the most decisive rupture yet of the hitherto
incestuous relationship between high politics and investment banking
during the last century, ordinary folk may have gained their first
chink of light into the workings of the currency world -- printed
banknotes, arcane derivatives, artificial interest rates and all --
which has been a closed shop to them so far.
The action of the first, of course, took place at the 27 kilometre
circular underground particle-crasher, the CERN reactor, in
Switzerland -- the most sophisticated piece of engineering in the
world, built to the finest tolerances. It cost about $4 billion. The
action of the second took place in a small unprepossessing committee
room of the House of Commons in London, the most sophisticated
financial centre in the world. It cost nothing, apart from a few
carafes of mineral water and plastic cups.
Professor Peter Ware Higgs, 83, wiped away a tear of joy when the
discovery of his long-awaited sub-atomic particle was announced. Mr
Robert Edward Diamond, 61, ex CEO of Barclays Capital, Barclays
Corporate and Barclays Bank wasn't observed wiping away a tear
yesterday as his career and Barclays' reputation was humbled, but he
might well do so in private. Indeed, if I were his doctor, I'd
probably advise his family to put him on suicide watch for a few weeks.
The immediate effects of the Higgs Boson discovery will be zero for a
while before the minds of the 10,000 visiting scientists who make use
of the CERN reactor start to chew over the matter. With luck, the
immediate effects of the exposure of the Diamond's negligent
management and cowboy antics of young traders at Barclays and about
ten other investments banks in America and Europe who've affected the
movements of $450 trillion and the lives of millions of people and
small businesses ought, if there is any justice in the world or any
common sense in governments, reinforce the so-far feeble attempts at
reforming the banking and financial sector.
We'll see. At all events, yesterday ought to be Reality Day as
regards to two of our deepest instincts and where they take us, the
one being our deep curiosity, the other being the male's need for
power and status.
Keith
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com
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