Before we get to the Wagnerian bit, here is an article in today’s Telegraph: Simon Singh: it is too late for me, but libel laws must change for the public good.  This was raised earlier on SciBlog in British Libel Laws - Good for Pseudoscience, but the present one is worth reading for its wider scope.

Now off to Bayreuth we go.  A few years ago, there appeared a web article (link at end) entitled Gitterdammerung (The Twilight of the Gits), referring to the envisaged consequences of the property bubble.  Today, however, another author envisages something even more drastic, which would really deserve the title of GITTERDÄMMERUNG:

Darius Guppy: our world balances on a sea of debt

I’ve often thought that there’s far more ‘virtual money’ than ‘real money’ in the system.  Now I am no expert on finance or fiscality, but if Mr Guppy is correct, I can suggest a Ringoid cycle to sum up our world since WW2.

For the first part of this saga, we have Das Schweingold (you name the pigs)

This is followed by Die Walküre (for a Brit, Mrs Thatcher offers herself as the obvious candidate.)

The third part requires a “hero” whom we will slightly rename Siegfurz (dict.leo.org will tell you that “furz” = “fart”.)  You can nominate your own candidate for the title role.

But are we really, as the article makes me wonder, headed for Gitterdämmerung?  Your thoughts, please.

Reference:

Gitterdammerung (The Twilight of the Gits) - Or the coming cataclysmic property crash – and its even more cataclysmic consequences.  (This was from the author that coined the concept of Predator Democracies: why exporting democracy may not improve the lives of those it is meant to help)