THE PREMIERE LEAGUE?

Now we all know that the English Premiere League isn't English at all, I mean, hell's bells, Chelsea put a grab-bag of ten foreigners on the pitch at Stanford Bridge the other evening.  But that kind of action has produced  without question the finest soccer league in the world.  But the Bank of England?  "Mark Carney?  Wha's his position, center-mid on the Bank's side?......Guv?  Oh come off it.  England don't do such things, know what I mean Jack?"....And so went the talk in the City this afternoon.

But it did and what an exraodinary choice for the new Governor as the Commonwealth, in the form of the governor of Canada's Central Bank, comes to the aid of the mother country.  OK, that's a bit over the top but it's a hell of a surprise and a tremendous choice in the opinion of those who know him (I do not).  He is apparently frightfully bright, blunt, non-beaurocratically correct and very much hands on in the running of his institution and in the oversight of the nation's banks...which to be fair, there being only seven that count, is somewhat of a less-complicated task.  What this means to the UK and to Euroland remains to be seen, but what a way to close out the year.

And moving over to Euroland, the weekend brought additional difficulties as local Spanish elections showed major gains for the Catalan seperatist movement; not enough to get a vote going but probably enough to mak Sr. Rajoy think twice before taking ANY action with political overtones such as going hat in hand to the TROIKA or any one else for that matter and asking for a bail-out and the conditionality that will most certainly attach itself to such an action.  Now local politics has further complicated the situation allowing the Euros to maintain their perfect record of buggering up everything they touch simply by not be able to make decisions in a timely manner and being tied to a whole host of political considerations that in a true union would not exist.

If that wasn't enough, the Brussels Eating Club still can't get their act together on Greece with the Chrissie at the IMF still demanding that the debt to GDP ratio come in at 120% by 2020 (which she knows can't happen) and every one else coming up with off-the-wall schemes as to how it seemingly be made to happen and Angie saying "Nein" to any debt forgiveness scheme that could make it happen..  I did hear some rumors of a few ministers who have gotten so sick and tired of the exercise that they are mumbling about telling the Greeks to bugger off, here's a fifty-year maturity at 3% and never come back again.  A couple of wise folks on this side of the pond have suggested that very thing for years but so far, no go.  Makes too much sense.  For all the time and treasure being spent on not even a real country is ridiculous.  Then again, Oysters are in season as is game and Cepts; why stop talking when there is so much to which one can look forward?