Emeritus Prof Christopher May
Contacting Emeritus Prof Christopher May
Federation handle:
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
Federation handle:
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
Emeritus Prof Christopher May's Posts
Emeritus Prof Christopher May has 224 posts.
Emeritus Prof Christopher May
@Lassielmr @HarriettMB
Well that would makes sense, given he's highly transactional in his thinking
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
By the end of today, bosses of FTSE 100 companies will have made more than the median full time worker will make by the end of the year....
There are many ways of measuring inequality in the UK, but this method makes it particularly stark, as most of us start the working week...
#inequality #workers
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/06/ftse-100-bosses-more-pay-by-noon-today-than-average-worker-in-a-year
@ChrisMayLA6 the UK just off the bottom
by John_Loader ;
Tags: #inequality #workers
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
Surely this is no surprise, but once again Keir Starmer is being told (this time by the german Ambassador to the UK) that the EU youth mobility scheme is key to any agreement that the UK may seek in trying to 'reset' its relations with the EU.
Its unclear whether Starmer really objects to the scheme or is just worried about the headlines its reintroduction would prompt in the Right wing media, but its unlikely the EU will move on this; so he may need to agree!
#Brexit
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/05/uk-eu-youth-mobility-scheme-key-to-better-eu-relations-says-top-diplomat
@ChrisMayLA6 @cmsdengl
If he wants to bring the right wing media to heel, he has the answer- Leveson 2 and a big majority. He needs to start rattling his sabre instead of running scared.
by Rational Brit #FBPE ;
Tags: #brexit
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
The Independent's scorecard on Brexit...
needs no commentary, does it!
#Brexit #politics
@ChrisMayLA6
..man it's hard to not say "we told you so"..
I'm part of a twin city exchange association and the resignedness on the UK side when it comes to lack of Erasmus structures or of a perspective when the start of a rejoining campaign might make any sense politically in the next decades is hard to watch.
by nachtet ;
Tags: #brexit #politics
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
Yes, financial advisors are very much; buyer beware! Luckily I have too little to make it worth it... and in fact I have just transferred some of my savings I had experimentally put with a managed fund over to the passive fund I had the rest in as the former badly lagged the latter on returns....
@ChrisMayLA6 This is interesting. Over how many years did it lag?
Since we are currently in recession territory and unstable markets, it is to be expected.
Interest rates are coming down, and (in sweden at least) tax cuts coming in order to help the economy since employment figures are not good.
So my guess is that within 1-2 years, we'll start the next cycle upwards for 5-7 years or so. That's when more risky funds should start to outperform less risky ones (in theory).
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
A quantity theory of luck?
@ChrisMayLA6 That sounds plausible to me. Of course you do need to make sure you are doing approximately the right thing, in the right way, but as long as you got that covered, I'd say the more and harder you try, the greater your luck will be. It could also be framed as hard work, perhaps. ;)
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
Yes, I completely agree; like so many claims, it really needs to be fully stipulated when claimed, but as you note seldom is.... so often, I find myself wondering what people's view of 'fairness' might be when I struggle to see how something they say is (un)fair is (un)fair
@ChrisMayLA6 This I think, opens up the conversation to an exploration of values.
Where do our values come from? How do we build them? How do they develop?
I am very fascinated by people who turn from being capitalists to communist, or communists to capitalists.
Radical shifts of value and ideology is very rare, and I always wonder how it comes about?
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890 @stiefel_fan
Why would strikes been unethical - surely, as per you previous remarks, is merely collective action by workers? Not dissimilar to a collective action by shareholders (via management) not to invest?
@ChrisMayLA6 @stiefel_fan It depends. As long as the strikes respect each individual employment contracts, and does not stop other from working, I have nothing against them.
But if peoples on a strike would stop me from working, as someone not part of the union, it is not ethical.
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@stiefel_fan @h4890
Its the old free-rider problem - a problem unions have had to deal with for years....
@ChrisMayLA6 @stiefel_fan
As for the unions, this is easy to explain. They are extremely crappy salary negotiators. I've never been a member of any union because of this, and because of ideological reasons, and I always gotten higher raises negotiating myself.
Strikes I find most often, to be unethical, depending on how they are done, and I never had the need for it. If I am unhappy I quit and find another job. Their benefits are also quite crappy, and I can buy better services, if I need
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
We right in that shaded area of the Venn - absolute parasites.... there may have been good reasons for banks at the start of merchant capitalism, but now they are mostly as you say an oligopoly supported (facilitated) by the Govt. making 'super profits' while leaching off society - I'd likely include all of financial services by the same token
@ChrisMayLA6 This is an interesting and painful area for me as a libertarian. I love no regulations, and the way I try to justify my hate against banks as a business owner, is the governments regulation, and the fact that banks are basically a part of government. ;)
But some days I feel as if I should be more positive towards banks, as a good libertarian. ;)
I often dream what the banking landscape would be like without any regulations. Hopefully there would be more banks, and ideally
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
and also how much is due to being int the right place at the right time?
@ChrisMayLA6 A lot... but the odds of that happening can be changed by trying to be in the right place and the right time, often.
Based on personal experience, the more sales calls you make, the more sales meetings you have, the bigger the chance that you eventually will be in the right place at the right time.
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
Ha ha, just the easy questions please!
Fairness is almost impossible to pin down outside a personal moral reflection, I think, although (if I was to come over a bit Wittgenstein) there is likely a family of meanings which all show quite a lot of parallel and interconnected meaning.... so we might be able to say in general terms the sorts of things - such as reward for effort, rather than reward for luck (in life) and so on?
@ChrisMayLA6 Oh but that's the reason I asked the question. ;)
In so many political discussions an argument is that "it is not fair!" or "this is fair", but never do you hear the next part of the sentence... "according to me".
Seldom do journalists, politicians and hobby debaters dive into the question of what is fair, what does it consist of, does the type of fairness advocated, in fact hit the lowest classes, or only the highest? Short term or long term? Etc.
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
Financial crisis ahoy....
As John Plender (FT) concludes:
'the IMF has argued that the rapid growth of private credit, coupled with increasing competition from banks on large deals & pressure to deploy capital, may lead to a deterioration in pricing & non-pricing terms, including lower underwriting standards & weakened covenants, raising the risk of credit losses in the future. No prizes for guessing where the next financial crisis will emerge from'.
Just so you know....
#FinancialServices
@ChrisMayLA6 Banks are satan! They want to take no risk, they offer no help to business owners, and they live in a happy oligopoly supported fully by the government.
And despite that, they dare to complain when the government wants to tax them?
For the love of god... if I had the full protection of the government and a oligopoly handed to me, why would I complain about a tax hike of a few percent here or there?
Banks truly are the enemy of business and common man alike.
by h4890 ;
Tags: #financialservices
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
@h4890
No. I don't disagree; the line between the two is very hard to find & is often obscured just by circumstance, but as I said the difference is whether one decides therefore to intervene with the danger prospect that might be overly intrusive or not & just to accept inequality auctioning on people through no fault of their own.... and for me the political power involved is much wider than just Govt.; the political power of those who've benefited by luck s all around us
@ChrisMayLA6 Hmm, luck is difficult to quantify. I don't see how this line of reasoning could be turned into fair and balanced action. Of course there are obvious cases, but those are far from the most common ones.
It would be fun though, to know how much of Elons wealth is due to government contracts, and how much is due to private individuals free, informed consent, when buying his products.
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
my students were increasingly driven by a notion of fairness.... democracy is premised on good information & education, both of which have become subject to the whims (in many cases ) of the powerful - the post war period was by no means perfect, but in many ways more constructive than now, I think
@ChrisMayLA6 Ahh... so that brings us to the question of... "what is fairness"?
Good information and education are both problems in our times. It seems that the trend for both, is downwards in most of the world countries. I assume exceptions exist, but the question is... do the modern politicians even want a well educated population?
The fact that so few copy the leaders in PISA seems to me to support the theory that they do not in fact want an educated population.
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
I'd agree that where inequality is related to personal/individual proclivities & actions then you're right; the key Q. is what about the inequalities that are not due to those individual actions, either due to the effects of luck & happenstance, or where inequalities are engineered by political processes.
If we could easily divide off these two aspects then politics would be a lot easier... perhaps the difference is to which aspect we give the benefit of the doubt?
@ChrisMayLA6 If we're talking venn diagram time ;) I'd be perfectly happy to do something about wealth which has been gained only by having the government as a customer. On the other hand, I do not know how that could be, while also not ending up in a situation where the government would have to pay more, or have less choice, since no one good would want to do business with the government if profits where regulated.
Then you have obvious bribes and government incompetence, such as
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
with only methods that really belong to an earlier phase of democracy - but now they seem viable again, because the normal routes of reform have become clogged with interest (expressed as wealth).
The only way change will come about is if the young en masse want it and organise for it - individual resistance can halted, mass resistance less so (although for me this is different from 'revolution', I can see some would see them as parallel).
@ChrisMayLA6 Did you ever have this conversation with your students? What made them passionate about democracy?
In terms of wokeness, how can it not undermine democracy? One premise is equality of outcome, which directly leads to an authoritarian system. Another woke tenet is that white males are worthless, which means internal struggle and war between classes, which in turn, does not make for democracy, but a majority oppressing the minority.
What levers of power are now blocked by the rich
by h4890 ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@TheDailyBurble
Fair comment; the intentions/sentiments of money market traders can sometimes being opaque, or even miss-read; so you may well be right
@ChrisMayLA6
The cartoonist (Wall Street?) had rather the same idea but wasn't allowed to publish it, I think. Glad I can express myself here. The cartoon is still floating about, I see it now and again.
by Cabbidges ;
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
As John Burn-Murdoch (FT) notes, across the UK, in general, inequality hasn't risen particularly over that last two decades, but... what has risen is the inequality between the top 1% & the rest of us....
Nevertheless, concerns about inequality are still germane, given the rates of poverty we see across the UK...
But we might also suspect what actually drives middle-class (media) concern with inequality, actually is the pulling away of their super-rich neighbours in London?
#inequality
h/t FT
@ChrisMayLA6 But we must remember, that inequality is nothing bad in itself, and just a consequence of peoples different abilities, priorities and laws of nature. It is an integral and important feature of our economic system, and removing inequality will hurt everyones quality of life, since it removes a strong incentive to work, and also, the feedback mechanism that determines when you are doing something right or not.
by h4890 ;
Tags: #inequality
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
So as the Court of the Tangerine Tyrant prepares to take hold of the American Govt. two diametrically opposed sentiments have become clear:
A poll of economists sees the second Trump term's emphasis on tariffs as likely outweighing any other (potential) benefits of his economic policies & thereby undermining continued US growth;
Meanwhile, money market traders are piling into the $ raising its value, seemingly betting on a continued growth in the US economy....
#USpol
h/t FT
@ChrisMayLA6
Might just be what I call the brown envelope phase. People/companies forseeing they're going to need dollars to buy this or that during the next 5 years. The dollar went up last time too, right at the beginning.
by Cabbidges ;
Tags: #uspol
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