There was a pleasing amount of Dawn in this episode, as it centred round her renewal of vows with the grimly awful Pete. The more Dawn the better, though this was another episode which felt strained, as everyone was forced together in biblically unnatural circumstances.  Even the characters acknowledged this, Dave Coaches saying, ‘I don’t know why they’ve invited me’. Because the writers don’t have the courage of their convictions, Dave. They think they’ve got to have everyone into the same room. But they really don’t need to: one of the best things so far this series was Smithy’s reaction on receiving a text from Nessa.  Jones and Corden are like your decrepit old uncle, the one who refuses to use email or even the phone because face-to-face is so much better. But, as you keep telling your uncle, there are lots of methods of communications these days. Gavin & Stacey would benefit hugely from a bit of imagination in getting the main protagonists to connect without them having to be actually in the same physical place.

There were a few gems to enjoy this week, in addition to Dawn’s wonderful facial expressions. Smithy’s mother, failing to take charge of her two terrible kids; Ruth on her heelies; and Smithy in a suit – good lord, he was almost handsome, in an outsize department sort of way. Mick, when he saw Pete’s bling ring and said, ‘Whodya think though you are, Puff Daddy?’  Mind you, I love every second Mick is on screen, and would happily pay to watch him reading his Visa bill. If that doesn’t sound too weird. Was I the only one who actually liked Pete’s gangsta ring? I thought it gave him a bit of much-needed bit of dash.

But the terrible pregnancy storyline was embarrassingly underwritten. It was completely obvious from the word go that the lack of sproglet would be Gav’s fault, purely because Gavin and Stacey – unbelievably – didn’t consider that possibility. They both assumed it would be Stacey, which meant the whole story just tumbled headlong in pursuit of the incredibly boring, seen it a million times before pay-off , of hearing that Gav had a low sperm count. I was suddenly transported back to watching a shit 70’s canned laughter sitcom, accompanied by a twinge of anxiety that I hadn’t finished my homework.

Also disappointing was the personality change of the lovely Dave Coaches, from gentle and solicitous to mean and selfish. All done, presumably, to make more of a black and white distinction between him and Smithy, thus freeing up Nessa to choose Smithy over Dave. But this crassly ignores the interesting dynamic between the three of them, and the fact that they have all been, till now, complex characters: sometimes nice, sometimes not so nice. I don’t want Dave to be a baddie just so the other two get together by default. I want Dave to be considerate, as he was, so that if Nessa chooses him we can see why, and if she chooses Smithy we can believe that there must be a true bond between them.

Still, it was almost worth sitting through this tired and complacent writing to get to the last scene, in which Smithy told Dave that he and Nessa had recently woken up in bed together. Everyone’s face was a picture: Nessa’s when she realised she’d been outed, Dave’s when he realised she’d been unfaithful, and Smithy’s, when he realised he’d pushed it all just a little bit too far. More of this, please, and less of the sort of stuff I last saw when there were only three channels and Ab Fab was but a twinkle in June Whitfield’s eye.

Posted by Qwerty

Wizards of Money Part 17: Caught Between And Dock And A Sweatshop
by Smithy/Unwelcome Guests

View Transcript

Part Summary: As the Holiday Season of 2002 approaches, this 17th edition of the Wizards of Money will look at the path taken by the goodies that will end up under the Christmas Tree.

Series Summary: The Wizards of Money is an educational series that questions the validity of the global monetary system. Listen and discover amazing facts about the world-wide debt system we’ve all been enslaved by, and how this system produces economic disparity and the massive poverty conditions in which most people find themselves today.

About the Host: Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics. She works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions, therefore she does not reveal her real name.

Audio/Transcripts hosted online at http://www.antiscia.com/wizardsofmoney/

Wizards of Money Part 16: There’s A Generic In My Shark Fin Soup!
by Smithy/Unwelcome Guests

View Transcript

Part Summary: In this, the sixteenth episode of the Wizards of Money, we’re going to take a look at the world of drugs – the legal ones, that is. The star of this episode is the only industry more profitable than the commercial banking sector throughout the 1990s – and that’s the pharmaceutical industry, of course.

Series Summary: The Wizards of Money is an educational series that questions the validity of the global monetary system. Listen and discover amazing facts about the world-wide debt system we’ve all been enslaved by, and how this system produces economic disparity and the massive poverty conditions in which most people find themselves today.

About the Host: Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics. She works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions, therefore she does not reveal her real name.

Audio/Transcripts hosted online at http://www.antiscia.com/wizardsofmoney/

Ok, this will be my winter break project. I am planning on forging out a steel walking staff, around 4 1/2 ft. long by about 1 inch wide. I am considering three possible designs for this:

First, simply twisting three 6 ft. long bars of 1/4″ round stock around each other and wrapping the sections that I will grab with leather or paracord for thickness. This design will be pretty flexible, but I don’t really know how to close the ends.

Second, wrapping the three bars simultaneously around a central bar that has a diameter of 5/16″, bringing the total diameter overall to around an inch, then removing the center bar. This will create a hollow-twisting sort of staff that would have pretty good stability (I think) and be pretty light. On the ends, I’ll probably bend each of the three rods back until they form a sort of ball at the end. This one might be nice because three 6 ft. bars wrapping around a 5/16″ core would bring the total length to about 4.56 ft.

Third, would be to leave in sections of the center bar in the second design, giving the staff some more rigidity.

Anyway, I’m going to go out and try some of these as soon as my new propane forge comes (pictures of that and this project will be up when it gets here).

UPDATE (12/14/09): Well, I am supposed to be studying for a final tomorrow, but that’s ridiculously boring. So, I went out to the shed and tried doing something with the three bars I have. I put them together and wrapped them in 3 places with bailing wire. Then, with one end in a vice, I took the other end of the three rods and twisted them using a vice-grip. I then heated the entire length to around only 1000 degrees F and let them sit. I figured maybe this would be hot enough for the twist to stick. Well, it wasn’t. So, I wasted the last of my propane for my torch doing that. Anyway, I’m taking this as a sign that I should be studying, so I will try to do so until my forge gets here.

Wizards of Money Part 15: Homeland Securitizations And Overseas Vacations… A Journey Through The Financial Twilight Zone
by Smithy/Unwelcome Guests

View Transcript

Part Summary: In this, the fifteenth edition of Wizards, we are going to take a look at the adventures that financial institutions send their financial instruments on – both at home and abroad. On this journey through the “Financial Twilight Zone” we’ll look at some of the financial tricks receiving attention in today’s corporate and banking scandals, as well as the rescue packages available for homeland capital getting into trouble in its overseas adventures.

Series Summary: The Wizards of Money is an educational series that questions the validity of the global monetary system. Listen and discover amazing facts about the world-wide debt system we’ve all been enslaved by, and how this system produces economic disparity and the massive poverty conditions in which most people find themselves today.

About the Host: Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics. She works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions, therefore she does not reveal her real name.

Audio/Transcripts hosted online at http://www.antiscia.com/wizardsofmoney/

Wizards of Money Part 14: The Trade Federation And The InterGalactic Banking Clan
by Smithy/Unwelcome Guests

View Transcript

Part Summary: In this, the fourteenth edition of Wizards, we are going to take a look at the Earthly versions of the Star Wars Movies troublemakers known as the Trade Federation and the Intergalactic Banking Clan, responsible for starting and financing the Clone Wars. Our modern earthly descendants are known as the World Trade Organization and the US Coalition of Services Industries, founded by financial services giants in the early 1980s. These two bodies have formed strong alliances over the past two decades to bring us a very special and powerful trade agreement known as the GATS – which stands for General Agreement on Trade in Services. This agreement is said to cover international trade in anything you can’t “drop on your foot” – that means anything from banking to healthcare, childcare and education to communications and media to the postal service to water treatment services.

Series Summary: The Wizards of Money is an educational series that questions the validity of the global monetary system. Listen and discover amazing facts about the world-wide debt system we’ve all been enslaved by, and how this system produces economic disparity and the massive poverty conditions in which most people find themselves today.

About the Host: Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics. She works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions, therefore she does not reveal her real name.

Audio/Transcripts hosted online at http://www.antiscia.com/wizardsofmoney/

Wizards of Money Part 13: Bankruptcy Bill’s Shoot-Out At The Social Safety Net
by Smithy/Unwelcome Guests

View Transcript

Part Summary: In this the thirteenth chapter of Wizards, we are going to take a look at another Chapter 13 … and a Chapter 7 and a Chapter 11 – these chapters are some of the main ways under federal law to file for Bankruptcy. Importantly we will look at the strong relationship between the non-stop credit offers we find stuffing our mailbox, e-mail and voicemail everyday, the innovative financial Wizardry behind such offers and the rapid rise in personal bankruptcies. We’ll examine who does file for bankruptcy and what causes them to go bankrupt. Then we’ll look at the new Dream Bill of the Credit Card and Banking Industries – called “Bankruptcy Bill” – that looks set to pass into law soon. Bankruptcy Bill is aimed at thwarting people’s attempts to be caught in that final, last-resort, safety net, known as the bankruptcy court. To help us understand both the credit offer onslaught and the salient features of Bankruptcy Bill we’ll talk to Margaret Howard, a Law Professor at Washington and Lee University, and visiting scholar at the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Series Summary: The Wizards of Money is an educational series that questions the validity of the global monetary system. Listen and discover amazing facts about the world-wide debt system we’ve all been enslaved by, and how this system produces economic disparity and the massive poverty conditions in which most people find themselves today.

About the Host: Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics. She works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions, therefore she does not reveal her real name.

Audio/Transcripts hosted online at http://www.antiscia.com/wizardsofmoney/

Wizards of Money Part 12: The Imperial Budget And The Mythical Lock Box
by Smithy/Unwelcome Guests

View Transcript

Part Summary: In this the 12th edition of the Wizards of Money we are going to take a look at the biggest budget in the whole wide world in the whole of history – that is, the $2 Trillion USD budget of the US Government.

Series Summary: The Wizards of Money is an educational series that questions the validity of the global monetary system. Listen and discover amazing facts about the world-wide debt system we’ve all been enslaved by, and how this system produces economic disparity and the massive poverty conditions in which most people find themselves today.

About the Host: Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics. She works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions, therefore she does not reveal her real name.

Audio/Transcripts hosted online at http://www.antiscia.com/wizardsofmoney/

Wizards of Money Part 11: House Lever-Edge At The Derivatives Casino
by Smithy/Unwelcome Guests

View Transcript

Part Summary: In this, the 11th edition of Wizards, we are going to take a look at the wild and crazy world of financial derivatives through examining the role and dangers of leverage in our modern society. Our adventure will end with a story called “Because a little Bug with the Asian Flu went Ka-CHOO”. You might have heard a similar story when you were a child, but in this case the star of our story is the Long Term Capital Management Fund or LTCM. LTCM was an unregulated hedge fund, addicted to risk and high on derivatives, that could have easily sent us crashing into the next Great Depression in 1998, but for the intervention of the Federal Reserve.

Series Summary: The Wizards of Money is an educational series that questions the validity of the global monetary system. Listen and discover amazing facts about the world-wide debt system we’ve all been enslaved by, and how this system produces economic disparity and the massive poverty conditions in which most people find themselves today.

About the Host: Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics. She works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions, therefore she does not reveal her real name.

Audio/Transcripts hosted online at http://www.antiscia.com/wizardsofmoney/

Wizards of Money Part 10: Back To The Twenties Through The Looking Glass – Steagall
by Smithy/Unwelcome Guests

View Transcript

Part Summary: In this the 10th edition of Wizards we are going to take a look at the parallels between current times and the late 1920s – the period just before the great stock-market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. We will see how it is that much of the regulation implemented during the Great Depression to address the wild and unregulated behavior of big business during the twenties has now been dismantled through de-regulation. Despite industry claims that such regulation is out-dated and no longer needed for our fancy modern markets, we will see that, not surprisingly, the dismantling of this regulation has once again given rise to exactly the dangerous market behavior it was designed to stop.

Series Summary: The Wizards of Money is an educational series that questions the validity of the global monetary system. Listen and discover amazing facts about the world-wide debt system we’ve all been enslaved by, and how this system produces economic disparity and the massive poverty conditions in which most people find themselves today.

About the Host: Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics. She works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions, therefore she does not reveal her real name.

Audio/Transcripts hosted online at http://www.antiscia.com/wizardsofmoney/

Wizards of Money Part 9: Jack And The Sweatshop
by Smithy/Unwelcome Guests

View Transcript

Part Summary: In this the Ninth Edition of Wizards we are going to take a look at the “Manager of the 20th Century” – Jack Welch – GE’s CEO for the 20 years up until Fall 2001. In September 2001 Jack’s much awaited autobiography entitled “Jack – Straight from the Gut” was released with much fanfare. Business professionals are besides themselves with praise for the book from Warren Buffett’s comments that “All CEOs want to emulate him” to the Chairman of SONY corporation’s statement “Jack Welch, the brilliant business magician, has finally disclosed his mysteries of management”.

Series Summary: The Wizards of Money is an educational series that questions the validity of the global monetary system. Listen and discover amazing facts about the world-wide debt system we’ve all been enslaved by, and how this system produces economic disparity and the massive poverty conditions in which most people find themselves today.

About the Host: Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics. She works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions, therefore she does not reveal her real name.

Audio/Transcripts hosted online at http://www.antiscia.com/wizardsofmoney/

Wizards of Money Part 8: Trading Nature And “Cooking The Books”
by Smithy/Unwelcome Guests

View Transcript

Part Summary: In this, the eighth edition of Wizards, we are going to take a look at what drives companies to “cook the books” – or lie about their earnings, and we’ll investigate just how widespread this problem might be. How much of the global economy is based on “smoke and mirrors” book-keeping wizardry? Is such fake wizardry a genuine weak spot in the financial system that could ultimately lead to a meltdown? These are interesting questions for people to ask and it is especially useful for activists to identify such weak spots. Book cooking is a topical issue in the wake of the implosion of the amazing disintegrating wizard collection known as Enron.

Series Summary: The Wizards of Money is an educational series that questions the validity of the global monetary system. Listen and discover amazing facts about the world-wide debt system we’ve all been enslaved by, and how this system produces economic disparity and the massive poverty conditions in which most people find themselves today.

About the Host: Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics. She works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions, therefore she does not reveal her real name.

Audio/Transcripts hosted online at http://www.antiscia.com/wizardsofmoney/