We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Sound investment advice From the Spectator:
If you had purchased £1000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago it would now be worth £4.95, with HBOS, earlier this week your £1000 would have been worth £16.50, £1000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5, but if you bought £1000 worth of Tennents Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminium re-cycling plant, you would get £214. So based on the above statistics the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and re-cycle.
This is from two weeks ago, so adjust for the financial turmoil since… the advice still stands.
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Er – nonsense.
£1000 of Tennents lager is about 500×500 ml cans – more or less.
Each can weighs about 15 grams, so 500 cans weigh 7500 grams or 7.5 kilograms. With aluminum can scrap fetching between £0.70 and £1.40 per kilogram in the UK (depending upon the state of the material), that’s between £5.25 and £10.50-worth of aluminum scrap. The math in the US is similar – it’s between $12 and $18-worth of aluminum.
No fact-checkers at The Spectator, then?
As another commenter at The Spectator has already noted, this is a rehash of a similarly-incorrect piece of netlore from severla years ago, only that one was denominated in dollars and referred to signal US market failures like Enron.
llater,
llamas
Notwithstanding llamas’ fact checking, one can’t help feeling that the missing example is: “and if you had invested £1000 in home improvements, then agents of the state would have forced their way into your home to inspect it and then ass-raped you for extra taxes due to the added value”.
Interestingly enough, I received the American version of this joke. The company names and beer were replaced with American counterparts (and currency was in US dollars).
Can you get a new liver on e-bay for £200?
Different versions of this joke were popular 6-7 years ago in the wake of the dotcom bubble and the Enron bust. Here in Canada, their favorite target was Nortel. Here you can find some concrete numbers, but I don’t know how reliable they are:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/beer-stocks.htm
I think there’s a decimal point missing somewhere Adrianna, the cans would be worth something like £2, not £200.
Sheesh, people, it’s a joke.
(Precisely accurate or not, the joke has always been a humorous comment in an equity-shorting environment.)
Yep, bobby b, that’s exactly what it was meant to be.
Of course, the joke was interesting and humorous. I do expect much more different versions. What do you think about the best current investment advice suggested?
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Julissa
Make Money
This does sound like interesting advice. Depending on one’s personal finances, one may be able to invest in a few different types of investments ranging from preferred stocks to OTCs. Thanks for sharing.