After heroic efforts by my wife and Gupta, my computer is back up and running, although it will take a while before it stabilizes and I have all my software and data installed and I am fully back on line. It required a complete reload of the operating system from our discs, and updating all relevant software to its current update status. Think of this post as a test.

I really don't know enough about finance to comment on this thread, but it did remind me of an old film, "Rollover", starring Jane Fonda and Kris Kristofferson, which deals with some of these same themes. I remember very few details of the film, but I do recall the profound impression it made on me: it's one of the finest pieces of black propaganda I have ever seen, and a shrewd subtle commentary on the world of high finance.

The two stars play high-rolling financiers who stumble on some sort of plot to pull a gigantic swindle, or manipulation of the financial world. Our heroes, through brilliant maneuvers in the bedroom and boardroom, manage to stave off a world economic collapse engineered by the bad guys, the usual gang of evil capitalists. The stars play the role to the hilt, they are the good guys, and they portray their characters exactly as these people no doubt view themselves and as their admirers perceive them: urbane, sophisticated, principled, committed, courageous. They are confident of their mission and of their capabilities, and they react with self-assurance and determination. They are simply better than the rest of us.

There is no irony or sarcasm in the script, these people are part and parcel of the system but they react nobly and brilliantly to avert disaster; as I recall, they finally manage at the last minute to get some rich Arabs to provide the security to leverage the loans to frustrate the plans of the villains, and the world financial system is saved from collapse. Something like that, I'm sure the details were pure Hollywood fantasy.

On the surface, the film is an anthem to the virtues of finance capitalism, and Ms Fonda should know all about it, at the time she was married to Ted Turner, but on the way home it finally hit me. These were the good guys, and they were the angels who defeated the devil himself, but a little reflection revealed that they were operating in a world dominated by powerful and ruthless personalities and souless and amoral organizations. In that world, there is no Kris and Jane to look out after us, they would be scrambling for a piece of the action too. If you really thought about it, the real message of the movie was that we are all helpless pawns in this vast chess game played by agents who are not even aware we exist. It is their game, and we don't matter and they have no reason to care.

And for those who are paying attention, it is obvious that even though our heroes have scored a victory, they have paid a price which will have to be settled down the line sometime, and there is no guarantee that the same situation will not occur again, and again.

I wonder how many got that out of the film, or if the message was so deftly hidden that it might suddenly emerge at some future time in the minds of those who were entertained by it. That is brilliant propaganda, because the targets aren't even aware of the message.