Day: December 17, 2010

A Happy Christmas to you all, especially those in London

For London defied the ban on Christmas during the time of Cromwell (according to this and The National Archives (UK)), for in this note, from

 Oliver Cromwell from the State Papers refers to a report that people in the City of London and in Westminster have been flouting his ban on celebrating Christmas.

When Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England, they banned Christmas in an effort to rid the country of decadence. Soldiers were ordered to go round the streets and take food being cooked for a Christmas celebration, by force if necessary. Traditional Christmas decorations like holly were also banned. This move was unpopular with the people of England, many of whom resisted it.

Here’s to them. And here’s to you. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it!

The bind that China is in

In this blog post, Chinese Confusions – NYTimes.com, Paul Krugman sums up the bind the Chinese are in economically and politically.

But political considerations seem to be ruling out all the reasonable responses. They won’t revalue, because that would hurt politically influential exporters. They’re reluctant to raise interest rates, because that would hurt politically influential real estate developers. They’re trying to impose quantitative limits on credit, but are finding that borrowers have enough influence to circumvent the limits. And now they’re trying price controls — which will inevitably come apart at the seams unless they do something about the underlying pressures.

They can’t revalue, raise interest rates, limit credit, or do price controls. Something will have to give, and when it does, it will set off a series of events that will result in big changes there. China is always interesting to watch; 2011 will be no exception.