millennium bug

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pages: 543 words: 147,357

Them And Us: Politics, Greed And Inequality - Why We Need A Fair Society by Will Hutton

Abraham Maslow, Alan Greenspan, Andrei Shleifer, asset-backed security, bank run, banking crisis, Bear Stearns, behavioural economics, Benoit Mandelbrot, Berlin Wall, Bernie Madoff, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, Blythe Masters, Boris Johnson, bread and circuses, Bretton Woods, business cycle, capital controls, carbon footprint, Carmen Reinhart, Cass Sunstein, centre right, choice architecture, cloud computing, collective bargaining, conceptual framework, Corn Laws, Cornelius Vanderbilt, corporate governance, creative destruction, credit crunch, Credit Default Swap, debt deflation, decarbonisation, Deng Xiaoping, discovery of DNA, discovery of the americas, discrete time, disinformation, diversification, double helix, Edward Glaeser, financial deregulation, financial engineering, financial innovation, financial intermediation, first-past-the-post, floating exchange rates, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, Frank Levy and Richard Murnane: The New Division of Labor, full employment, general purpose technology, George Akerlof, Gini coefficient, Glass-Steagall Act, global supply chain, Growth in a Time of Debt, Hyman Minsky, I think there is a world market for maybe five computers, income inequality, inflation targeting, interest rate swap, invisible hand, Isaac Newton, James Dyson, James Watt: steam engine, Japanese asset price bubble, joint-stock company, Joseph Schumpeter, Kenneth Rogoff, knowledge economy, knowledge worker, labour market flexibility, language acquisition, Large Hadron Collider, liberal capitalism, light touch regulation, Long Term Capital Management, long term incentive plan, Louis Pasteur, low cost airline, low interest rates, low-wage service sector, mandelbrot fractal, margin call, market fundamentalism, Martin Wolf, mass immigration, means of production, meritocracy, Mikhail Gorbachev, millennium bug, Money creation, money market fund, moral hazard, moral panic, mortgage debt, Myron Scholes, Neil Kinnock, new economy, Northern Rock, offshore financial centre, open economy, plutocrats, power law, price discrimination, private sector deleveraging, proprietary trading, purchasing power parity, quantitative easing, race to the bottom, railway mania, random walk, rent-seeking, reserve currency, Richard Thaler, Right to Buy, rising living standards, Robert Shiller, Ronald Reagan, Rory Sutherland, Satyajit Das, Savings and loan crisis, shareholder value, short selling, Silicon Valley, Skype, South Sea Bubble, Steve Jobs, systems thinking, tail risk, The Market for Lemons, the market place, The Myth of the Rational Market, the payments system, the scientific method, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, three-masted sailing ship, too big to fail, unpaid internship, value at risk, Vilfredo Pareto, Washington Consensus, wealth creators, work culture , working poor, world market for maybe five computers, zero-sum game, éminence grise

Nick Davies begins his revelatory book on the media – Flat Earth News – with an account of the media frenzy that created the apocalyptic ‘millennium bug’ story. ‘Riots, terrorism and a health crisis could follow a millennium bug meltdown,’ screamed the Sunday Mirror, while the Daily Telegraph declared: ‘National Health Service patients could die because insufficient time and thought have been devoted to the millennium bug.’ Even the Guardian was not to be outdone: ‘Banks could collapse if they fail to eradicate the millennium bug from their computer systems.’ The Times was even more chilling, reporting: ‘Alliance fears of an attack from the East by rogue nuclear weapons systems.’6 The reality – that the threat was entirely manageable – was simply not expressed.

It was a classic example of the media being able to claim that the earth was flat – hence the title of Davies’s book. A fact was exaggerated, distorted and commoditised with almost no checks or balance being brought to bear on the process. A falsehood became the short-term ‘truth’, exposed as a lie only on the morning of 1 January 2000, when it became clear that there was no millennium bug. A host of other similarly slanted stories has done the rounds over the past few years – the menace of the EU, the relentless rise of crime, impending social breakdown – but there has been no 1 January morning to disabuse the public of these ‘facts’. They have become political realities for the consumers of popular media.

., 311 mergers and takeovers, 8, 21, 33, 92, 245, 251, 258, 259, 388 Merkel, Angela, 381–2 Merrill Lynch, 150, 170, 175, 192 Merton, Robert, 169, 191 Meucci, Antonnio, 221 Mexico, 30, 385 Meyer, Christopher, 332 Michalek, Richard, 175 Microsoft, 71, 114, 136, 253, 254, 258–9 Milburn, Alan, 273 Miles, David, 186–7 Milgram, Stanley, 200 millennium bug, 319 Miller, David, 70, 76, 77 minimum wage, 142, 278 Minsky, Hyman, 183, 185 Mirror newspapers, 319, 329 Mlodinow, Leonard, 72–3 MMR vaccine, 327 mobile phones, 30, 134, 143, 229, 349 modernity, 54–5, 104 Mokyr, Joel, 112 monarchy, 15, 312, 336 Mondragon, 94 monetary policy, 154, 182, 184, 185, 208, 362, 367 monopolies, 74, 102, 103, 160, 314; history of, 104, 113, 124, 125–6, 130–4; in the media, 30, 317, 318, 331, 350; modern new wave of, 35, 135–6, 137–8, 201–2, 258–9; ‘oligarchs’, 30, 65, 104 Monopolies and Mergers Commission, 258, 318 Moody’s (credit-ratings agency), 151, 175 morality, 16–27, 37, 44–54, 70, 73; see also desert, due, concept of; fairness; proportionality; debt and, 351–4, 357, 360–1 Morgan, JP, 67 Morgan, Piers, 329 Morgan Stanley, 150 Mulas-Granados, Carlos, 367 Murdoch, James, 389 Murdoch, Rupert, 317–18, 320, 327 Murphy, Kevin, 62, 63 Murray, Jim ‘Mad Dog’, 321 Myners, Paul, 340 Nash bargaining solution, 60 National Audit Office, 340 National Child Development Study, 289–90 national ecosystem of innovation, 33–4, 65, 103, 206, 218, 221, 239–44, 255–9, 374; state facilitation of, 102, 219–22, 229–30, 233, 251–2, 258–66, 269–70, 392 National Health Service (NHS), 21, 27, 34, 92, 265, 277, 336, 371–2; popular support for, 75, 77, 283 national insurance system, 81, 277, 302 national strategy for neighbourhood renewal, 278 Navigation Acts, abolition of, 126 Neiman, Susan, 18–19 neo-conservatism, 17–18, 144–9, 387–90 network theory, 199–201, 202–4, 206; Pareto curve and, 201–2 New Economics Foundation, 62 New Industry New Jobs strategy, 21 New Labour: budget deficit and, 224, 335, 360, 368, 369; business friendly/promarket policies, x–xi, 139–40, 142, 145, 146–7, 162, 198–9, 382; City of London and, x–xi, 5, 19, 22, 142–3, 144–5, 355; decline of class-based politics, 341; failure to challenge elites, x–xi, 14, 22, 388, 389–90; general election (1992) and, 138, 140–1, 144, 148, 277; general election (2005) and, 97; general election (2010) and, 20, 271, 334, 374, 378; light-touch regulation and, 138, 145, 146–7, 162, 198–9; New Industry New Jobs strategy, 21; one-off tax on bank bonuses, 26, 179, 249; record in government, 10–11, 19, 20–2, 220, 276–80, 302, 306, 334–6, 366–7, 389–90; reforms to by ‘modernisers’, 141; responses to newspaper campaigns, 11 New York markets, 140, 152, 162; Asian and/or OPEC capital surpluses and, 169, 171, 354; London/New York axis, 149, 150–1, 157–8, 160, 188, 202 Newsweek, 174 Newton, Isaac, 31, 127, 190 NHS Direct, 372 Nicoli, Eric, 13 non-executive directors (NEDs), 249–50 Nordhaus, William, 260 Nordic countries, 262; Iceland, 7, 138; Norway, 281; Sweden, 264, 281 North, Douglas, 113, 116, 129–30 Northern Rock, 9, 156, 157, 158, 186, 187–8, 202, 204, 251, 340–1 Norton Publishing, 93 Nozick, Robert, 234, 235 nuclear non-proliferation, 226, 384, 394 Nussbaum, Martha, 79 Obama, Barack, 18, 183, 380, 382–3, 394–5 the Observer, 141, 294, 327 Office for Budget Responsibility, 360 Office of Fair Trading (OFT), 257, 258 OFSTED, 276 oil production, 322; BP Gulf of Mexico disaster (2010), 216–17, 392; finite stocks and, 230, 384; OPEC, 149, 161, 171; price increase (early 1970s), 161; in USA, 130, 131, 132 Olsen, Ken, 29 Olympics (2012), 114 open markets, 29, 30, 31, 40, 89, 92, 100–1, 366, 377, 379, 382, 384; see also ‘open-access societies’; as determinants of value, 51–2, 62; fairness and, 60–1, 89–91, 94–6; ‘reference prices’ and, 94–6 ‘open-access societies’, 134, 135, 258, 272, 273, 275, 276, 280–1, 394; Britain as ‘open-access society’ (to 1850), 124, 126–7; democracy and, 136, 314; Enlightenment and, 30–1, 314–15, 394; innovation and invention in, 109–13, 114, 116–17, 122–3, 126–7, 131, 136, 315; partial political opening in, 129–30; US New Freedom programme, 132–3 opium production, 102 options, 166, 188, 191 Orange County derivatives losses, 167 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 180, 337, 373 Orwell, George, 37 Osborne, George, 147, 208, 224, 245, 302, 338 Overend, Gurney and Co., 156–7 Oxbridge/top university entry, 293–4, 306 Oxford University, 261 Page, Scott, 204 Paine, Tom, 347 Pareto, Vilfredo, 201–2 Paribas, 152, 187 Parkinson, Lance-Bombardier Ben, 13 participation, political, 35, 86, 96, 99 Paulson, Henry, 177 Paulson, John, 103, 167–8 pay of executives and bankers, 3–4, 5, 6–7, 22, 66–7, 138, 387; bonuses, 6, 25–6, 41, 174–5, 176, 179, 208, 242, 249, 388; high levels/rises of, 6–7, 13, 25, 82–3, 94, 172–6, 216, 296, 387, 393; Peter Mandelson on, 24; post-crash/bail-outs, 176, 216; in private equity houses, 248; remuneration committees, 6, 82, 83, 176; shared capitalism and, 66, 93; spurious justifications for, 42, 78, 82–3, 94, 176, 216 pension, state, 81, 372, 373 pension funds, 240, 242 Pettis, Michael, 379–80 pharmaceutical industry, 219, 255, 263, 265, 267–8 Phelps, Edmund, 275 philanthropy and charitable giving, 13, 25, 280 Philippines, 168 Philippon, Thomas, 172–3 Philips Electronics, Royal, 256 Pimco, 177 piracy, 101–2 Plato, 39, 44 Player, Gary, 76 pluralist state/society, x, 35, 99, 113, 233, 331, 350, 394 Poland, 67, 254 political parties, 13–14, 340, 341, 345, 390; see also under entries for individual parties political system, British: see also democracy; centralised constitution, 14–15, 35, 217, 334; coalitions as a good thing, 345–6; decline of class-based politics, 341; devolving of power to Cardiff and Edinburgh, 15, 334; expenses scandal, 3, 14, 217, 313, 341; history of (to late nineteenth-century), 124–30; lack of departmental coordination, 335, 336, 337; long-term policy making and, 217; monarchy and, 15, 312, 336; politicians’ lack of experience outside politics, 338; required reforms of, 344–8; select committee system, 339–40; settlement (of 1689), 125; sovereignty and, 223, 346, 347, 378; urgent need for reform, 35, 36–7, 218, 344; voter-politician disengagement, 217–18, 310, 311, 313–14, 340 Pommerehne, Werner, 60 population levels, world, 36 Portsmouth Football Club, 352 Portugal, 108, 109, 121, 377 poverty, 278–9; child development and, 288–90; circumstantial causes of, 26, 283–4; Conservative Party and, 279; ‘deserving’/’undeserving’ poor, 276, 277–8, 280, 284, 297, 301; Enlightenment views on, 53, 55–6; need for asset ownership, 301–3, 304; political left and, 78–83; the poor viewed as a race apart, 285–7; as relative not absolute, 55, 84; Adam Smith on, 55, 84; structure of market economy and, 78–9, 83; view that the poor deserve to be poor, 25, 52–3, 80, 83, 281, 285–8, 297, 301, 387; worldwide, 383, 384 Power2010 website, 340–1 PR companies and media, 322, 323 Press Complaints Commission (PCC), 325, 327, 331–2, 348 preventative medicine, 371 Price, Lance, 328, 340 Price, Mark, 93 Prince, Chuck, 184 printing press, 109, 110–11 prisoners, early release of, 11 private-equity firms, 6, 28–9, 158, 172, 177, 179, 205, 244–9, 374 Procter & Gamble, 167, 255 productive entrepreneurship, 6, 22–3, 28, 29–30, 33, 61–2, 63, 78, 84, 136, 298; in British history (to 1850), 28, 124, 126–7, 129; due desert/fairness and, 102–3, 105–6, 112, 223, 272, 393; general-purpose technologies (GPTs) and, 107–11, 112, 117, 126–7, 134, 228–9, 256, 261, 384 property market: baby boomer generation and, 372–3; Barker Review, 185; boom in, 5, 143, 161, 183–4, 185–7, 221; bust (1989-91), 161, 163; buy-to-let market, 186; commercial property, 7, 356, 359, 363; demutualisation of building societies, 156, 186; deregulation (1971) and, 161; Japanese crunch (1989-92) and, 361–2; need for tax on profits from home ownership, 308–9, 373–4; property as national obsession, 187; residential mortgages, 7, 183–4, 186, 356, 359, 363; securitised loans based mortgages, 171, 186, 188; shadow banking system and, 171, 172; ‘subprime’ mortgages, 64, 152, 161, 186, 203 proportionality, 4, 24, 26, 35, 38, 39–40, 44–6, 51, 84, 218; see also desert, due, concept of; contributory/discretionary benefits and, 63; diplomacy/ international relations and, 385–6; job seeker’s allowance as transgression of, 81; left wing politics and, 80; luck and, 73–7, 273; policy responses to crash and, 215–16; poverty relief systems and, 80–1; profit and, 40, 388; types of entrepreneurship and, 61–2, 63 protectionism, 36, 358, 376–7, 378, 379, 382, 386 Prussia, 128 Public Accounts Committee, 340 Purnell, James, 338 quantitative easing, 176 Quayle, Dan, 177 race, disadvantage and, 290 railways, 9, 28, 105, 109–10, 126 Rand, Ayn, 145, 234 Rawls, John, 57, 58, 63, 73, 78 Reagan, Ronald, 135, 163 recession, xi, 3, 8, 9, 138, 153, 210, 223, 335; of 1979-81 period, 161; efficacy of fiscal policy, 367–8; VAT decrease (2009) and, 366–7 reciprocity, 43, 45, 82, 86, 90, 143, 271, 304, 382; see also desert, due, concept of; proportionality Reckitt Benckiser, 82–3 Regional Development Agencies, 21 regulation: see also Bank of England; Financial Services Authority (FSA); Bank of International Settlements (BIS), 169, 182; Basel system, 158, 160, 163, 169, 170–1, 196, 385; big as beautiful in global banking, 201–2; Big Bang (1986), 90, 162; by-passing of, 137, 187; capital requirements/ratios, 162–3, 170–1, 208; dismantling of post-war system, 149, 158, 159–63; economists’ doubts over deregulation, 163; example of China, 160; failure to prevent crash, 154, 197, 198–9; Glass-Steagall abolition (1999), 170, 202–3; light-touch, 5, 32, 138, 151, 162, 198–9; New Deal rules (1930s), 159, 162; in pharmaceutical industry, 267–8; as pro-business tool, 268–70; proposed Financial Policy Committee, 208; required reforms of, 267, 269–70, 376, 377, 384, 392; reserve requirements scrapped (1979), 208; task of banking authorities, 157; Top Runner programme in Japan, 269 Reinhart, Carmen, 214, 356 Repo 105 technique, 181 Reshef, Ariell, 172–3 Reuters, 322, 331 riches and wealth, 11–13, 272–3, 283–4, 387–8; see also pay of executives and bankers; the rich as deserving of their wealth, 25–6, 52, 278, 296–7 Rickards, James, 194 risk, 149, 158, 165, 298–302, 352–3; credit default swaps and, 151, 152, 166–8, 170, 171, 175, 176, 191, 203, 207; derivatives and see derivatives; distinction between uncertainty and, 189–90, 191, 192–3, 196–7; employment insurance concept, 298–9, 301, 374; management, 165, 170, 171, 189, 191–2, 193–4, 195–6, 202, 203, 210, 354; securitisation and, 32, 147, 165, 169, 171, 186, 188, 196; structured investment vehicles and, 151, 165, 169, 171, 188; value at risk (VaR), 171, 192, 195, 196 Risley, Todd, 289 Ritchie, Andrew, 103 Ritter, Scott, 329 Robinson, Sir Gerry, 295 Rogoff, Ken, 214, 356 rogue states, 36 Rolling Stones, 247 Rolls-Royce, 219, 231 Rome, classical, 45, 74, 108, 116 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 133, 300 Rothermere, Viscount, 327 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 56, 58, 112 Rousseau, Peter, 256 Rowling, J.K., 64, 65 Rowthorn, Robert, 292, 363 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), 25, 150, 152, 157, 173, 181, 199, 251, 259; collapse of, 7, 137, 150, 158, 175–6, 202, 203, 204; Sir Fred Goodwin and, 7, 150, 176, 340 Rubin, Robert, 174, 177, 183 rule of law, x, 4, 220, 235 Russell, Bertrand, 189 Russia, 127, 134–5, 169, 201, 354–5, 385; fall of communism, 135, 140; oligarchs, 30, 65, 135 Rwandan genocide, 71 Ryanair, 233 sailing ships, three-masted, 108 Sandbrook, Dominic, 22 Sands, Peter (CEO of Standard Chartered Bank), 26 Sarkozy, Nicolas, 51, 377 Sassoon, Sir James, 178 Scholes, Myron, 169, 191, 193 Schumpeter, Joseph, 62, 67, 111 science and technology: capitalist dynamism and, 27–8, 31, 112–13; digitalisation, 34, 231, 320, 349, 350; the Enlightenment and, 31, 108–9, 112–13, 116–17, 121, 126–7; general-purpose technologies (GPTs), 107–11, 112, 117, 126–7, 134, 228–9, 256, 261, 384; increased pace of advance, 228–9, 253, 297; nanotechnology, 232; New Labour improvements, 21; new opportunities and, 33–4, 228–9, 231–3; new technologies, 232, 233, 240; universities and, 261–5 Scotland, devolving of power to, 15, 334 Scott, James, 114–15 Scott Bader, 93 Scott Trust, 327 Second World War, 134, 313 Securities and Exchanges Commission, 151, 167–8 securitisation, 32, 147, 165, 169, 171, 186, 187, 196 self-determination, 85–6 self-employment, 86 self-interest, 59, 60, 78 Sen, Amartya, 51, 232, 275 service sector, 8, 291, 341, 355 shadow banking system, 148, 153, 157–8, 170, 171, 172, 187 Shakespeare, William, 39, 274, 351 shareholders, 156, 197, 216–17, 240–4, 250 Sher, George, 46, 50, 51 Sherman Act (USA, 1890), 133 Sherraden, Michael, 301 Shiller, Robert, 43, 298, 299 Shimer, Robert, 299 Shleifer, Andrei, 62, 63, 92 short selling, 103 Sicilian mafia, 101, 105 Simon, Herbert, 222 Simpson, George, 142–3 single mothers, 17, 53, 287 sixth form education, 306 Sky (broadcasting company), 30, 318, 330, 389 Skype, 253 Slim, Carlos, 30 Sloan School of Management, 195 Slumdog Millionaire, 283 Smith, Adam, 55, 84, 104, 112, 121, 122, 126, 145–6 Smith, John, 148 Snoddy, Ray, 322 Snow, John, 177 social capital, 88–9, 92 social class, 78, 130, 230, 304, 343, 388; childcare and, 278, 288–90; continued importance of, 271, 283–96; decline of class-based politics, 341; education and, 13, 17, 223, 264–5, 272–3, 274, 276, 292–5, 304, 308; historical development of, 56–8, 109, 115–16, 122, 123–5, 127–8, 199; New Labour and, 271, 277–9; working-class opinion, 16, 143 social investment, 10, 19, 20–1, 279, 280–1 social polarisation, 9–16, 34–5, 223, 271–4, 282–5, 286–97, 342; Conservative reforms (1979-97) and, 275–6; New Labour and, 277–9; private education and, 13, 223, 264–5, 272–3, 276, 283–4, 293–5, 304; required reforms for reduction of, 297–309 social security benefits, 277, 278, 299–301, 328; contributory, 63, 81, 283; flexicurity social system, 299–301, 304, 374; to immigrants, 81–2, 282, 283, 284; job seeker’s allowance, 81, 281, 298, 301; New Labour and ‘undeserving’ claimants, 143, 277–8; non-contributory, 63, 79, 81, 82; targeting of/two-tier system, 277, 281 socialism, 22, 32, 38, 75, 138, 144, 145, 394 Soham murder case, 10, 339 Solomon Brothers, 173 Sony, 254–5 Soros, George, 166 Sorrell, Martin, 349 Soskice, David, 342–3 South Korea, 168, 358–9 South Sea Bubble, 125–6 Spain, 123–4, 207, 358–9, 371, 377 Spamann, Holger, 198 special purpose vehicles, 181 Spitzer, Matthew, 60 sport, cheating in, 23 stakeholder capitalism, x, 148–9 Standard Oil, 130–1, 132 state, British: anti-statism, 20, 22, 233–4, 235, 311; big finance’s penetration of, 176, 178–80; ‘choice architecture’ and, 238, 252; desired level of involvement, 234–5; domination of by media, 14, 16, 221, 338, 339, 343; facilitation of fairness, ix–x, 391–2, 394–5; investment in knowledge, 28, 31, 40, 220, 235, 261, 265; need for government as employer of last resort, 300; need for hybrid financial system, 244, 249–52; need for intervention in markets, 219–22, 229–30, 235–9, 252, 392; need for reshaping of, 34; pluralism, x, 35, 99, 113, 233, 331, 350, 394; public ownership, 32, 240; target-setting in, 91–2; threats to civil liberty and, 340 steam engine, 110, 126 Steinmueller, W.


pages: 405 words: 117,219

In Our Own Image: Savior or Destroyer? The History and Future of Artificial Intelligence by George Zarkadakis

3D printing, Ada Lovelace, agricultural Revolution, Airbnb, Alan Turing: On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem, animal electricity, anthropic principle, Asperger Syndrome, autonomous vehicles, barriers to entry, battle of ideas, Berlin Wall, bioinformatics, Bletchley Park, British Empire, business process, carbon-based life, cellular automata, Charles Babbage, Claude Shannon: information theory, combinatorial explosion, complexity theory, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, continuous integration, Conway's Game of Life, cosmological principle, dark matter, data science, deep learning, DeepMind, dematerialisation, double helix, Douglas Hofstadter, driverless car, Edward Snowden, epigenetics, Flash crash, Google Glasses, Gödel, Escher, Bach, Hans Moravec, income inequality, index card, industrial robot, intentional community, Internet of things, invention of agriculture, invention of the steam engine, invisible hand, Isaac Newton, Jacquard loom, Jacques de Vaucanson, James Watt: steam engine, job automation, John von Neumann, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, Kickstarter, liberal capitalism, lifelogging, machine translation, millennium bug, mirror neurons, Moravec's paradox, natural language processing, Nick Bostrom, Norbert Wiener, off grid, On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, packet switching, pattern recognition, Paul Erdős, Plato's cave, post-industrial society, power law, precautionary principle, prediction markets, Ray Kurzweil, Recombinant DNA, Rodney Brooks, Second Machine Age, self-driving car, seminal paper, Silicon Valley, social intelligence, speech recognition, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, Steven Pinker, Strategic Defense Initiative, strong AI, Stuart Kauffman, synthetic biology, systems thinking, technological singularity, The Coming Technological Singularity, The Future of Employment, the scientific method, theory of mind, Turing complete, Turing machine, Turing test, Tyler Cowen, Tyler Cowen: Great Stagnation, Vernor Vinge, Von Neumann architecture, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, Y2K

As the year 2000 approached, alarming reports began to circulate that resulting miscalculations could cause whole systems to go haywire. Experts talked about blackouts, water outages, and even nuclear weapons being fired by mistake. According to some reports,27 more than US$300 billion were spent worldwide in order to provide fixes for the ‘millennium bug’. In the end nothing happened. But no one was really certain about the outcome until the safe passing of the so-called ‘event horizon’ of midnight on 31 December, 1999. Y2K was the first time that computer science borrowed terminology from quantum cosmology. An ‘event horizon’ describes a boundary separating our world of classical Newtonian physics from the unknown consequences of falling into a black hole.

Our only other option is therefore adding yet another layer of complexity, of a non-human kind. What if we had super machines that could watch over us? Machines that monitored other machines and ensured no one spied on our data, machines that defended our vital computer systems and corrected the instabilities whenever they might occur, that guaranteed there could be no more ‘millennium bugs’ or ‘flash crashes’ or a digital apocalypse? What if we had machines that were truly intelligent and that would be our guardians? 15 MACHINES THAT THINK We have come a long way since Aristotle had the insight that logic follows rules. We saw how Boole and Frege pushed this insight further by codifying logic, thus enabling the development of computer languages that code logical rules.

How close are we to truly intelligent machines – complete with self-awareness? What will the repercussions be for our economy and society as thinking machines begin to replace us in the workplace? Are we in danger of extinction from thinking machines that will one day become self-aware and take over the world – making the millennium bug and the flash crash incidents seem like child’s play? How close are we to the notorious ‘AI Singularity’? The wise men of Dartmouth Artificial Intelligence, as a distinct scientific discipline, was born in the summer of 1956 during a conference on the campus of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.


The Future of Technology by Tom Standage

air freight, Alan Greenspan, barriers to entry, business process, business process outsourcing, call centre, Clayton Christensen, computer vision, connected car, corporate governance, creative destruction, disintermediation, disruptive innovation, distributed generation, double helix, experimental economics, financial engineering, Ford Model T, full employment, hydrogen economy, hype cycle, industrial robot, informal economy, information asymmetry, information security, interchangeable parts, job satisfaction, labour market flexibility, Larry Ellison, Marc Andreessen, Marc Benioff, market design, Menlo Park, millennium bug, moral hazard, natural language processing, Network effects, new economy, Nicholas Carr, optical character recognition, PalmPilot, railway mania, rent-seeking, RFID, Salesforce, seminal paper, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley ideology, Silicon Valley startup, six sigma, Skype, smart grid, software as a service, spectrum auction, speech recognition, stem cell, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jurvetson, technological determinism, technology bubble, telemarketer, transcontinental railway, vertical integration, Y2K

Risk analysis, and balancing cost and risk, is something the insurance industry has been doing for centuries. The industry is now showing increased interest in offering cover for computer-related risks. In the past, computer risks were included in general insurance policies, but were specifically excluded in the run-up to the year 2000 to avoid 72 SECURING THE CLOUD “millennium bug” liabilities. Now insurers are offering new products to protect companies against new risks. Because of the internet, “the landscape has changed,” says David O’Neill, vice-president of e-Business Solutions at Zurich North America, which acts as a matchmaker between customers and underwriters.

In September 2002 Richard Clarke, America’s cyber-security tsar, I 75 THE FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY unveiled his long-awaited blueprint for securing critical infrastructure from digital attacks. It was a bit of a damp squib, making no firm recommendations and proposing no new regulation or legislation. But its lily-livered approach might, in fact, be the right one. When a risk has been overstated, inaction may be the best policy. It is difficult to avoid comparisons with the “millennium bug” and the predictions of widespread computer chaos arising from the change of date to the year 2000. Then, as now, the alarm was sounded by technology vendors and consultants, who stood to gain from scaremongering. But Ross Anderson, a computer scientist at Cambridge University, prefers to draw an analogy with the environmental lobby.

.; information power 236 Kotick, Robert 186–8 KPCB see Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers KPN 123 Krechmer, Ken 26 Krewell, Kevin 199–200 Kroemer, Herbert 315 Kroto, Harry 310 KTF 167 Kubrick, Stanley 340 Kuekes, Philip 314 Kyoto treaty 275 L Lane, Ray 79, 92, 98, 107 LANs see local area networks laptop computers Bluetooth wireless links 171–2, 173, 214–15, 218 Wi-Fi 209 lasers 315 late adopters 81, 93, 109 Lazarus, Mitchell 209 349 THE FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY LCD see liquid-crystal display Leake, David 337–8, 340 LEDs see light-emitting diodes LEED standard 300–4 legacy systems 31, 80, 86–7, 90, 92, 117 legal issues ix, 35, 44, 61–2, 74, 121–4, 180, 222–9, 299 see also regulations music downloads 222–9 Lenovo 39 Levitas, Danielle 207 Levy, Alain 224–5 LG 158 Liberty Alliance 27 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) 314–15 Linux 10, 24–5, 31, 38, 101, 109 Lipner, Steve 56 liquid-crystal display (LCD) 230–2 lithium-ion batteries 233, 280–4 Lloyd, Alan 296 local area networks (LANs) 14, 210 Lofgren, Chris 29, 31 long-term architectural investments 31 Longhorn 101–2 LoudEye 165–6 Louis XIV, King of France 179 “Love Bug” computer virus 45 Lovins, Amory 288–9 Lucent 211 Luddites 327 Lux Research 308, 322–3, 325 Lynch, Tom 158, 160, 172 M McCarron, Dean 200 McCarthy, John 336 McDonough, William 300 machines 116–22, 136 McKinsey 113–15, 129, 141, 145, 260 McLarnon, Frank 282–4 McMillan, Bruce 190 McQuade, Tyler 315 Macromedia 39 Maeda, John 78 Magenis, Kevin 208 mainframe computers 24–7, 31, 80, 85–7, 90, 108–9, 117, 151–2 maize 252–6 managed security monitoring (MSM) 72–3 management approaches, security issues 60–3, 69 management software 13–16, 21–2, 88, 117–18 Mankiw, Gregory 144 Mann, Catherine 133, 137–8, 141 Mann, Steve 181 manufacturing processes 113–14, 116, 118–19, 142, 143 350 Marcus, Michael 210 market research 115, 156, 163, 180, 204, 230 Marley, Bob 225 mass production vii, 5, 83, 113–14, 116, 134 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 30, 78, 240, 297 Matsumoto, Tsutomu 64 Matsushita 203, 217 maturity, IT industry vii, 4–39 Maxygen 246, 254–5, 258, 261 MBOA see Multiband OFDM Alliance media hubs 202–3 medical applications ix–x, 145, 233, 236–40, 247, 249–50, 256–7, 267–71, 309, 312, 315, 317, 319–20, 327–9, 334, 336 medical records 44 Medis Technologies 278–9 memory cards 204, 207, 219 Mendel Biotechnology 254 Mensch, Peter 226 Mercer 159, 166–7 Mercer, Paul 99–100 Merck 240 mergers and acquisitions 38, 39–40, 87 Merrill Lynch 13, 23–4, 28, 30–1, 80, 323 Meta Group 44, 45–6, 53, 59, 104 meta protocols 26 Metabolix 259–61 metaphors, complexity problems 100–2 methanol 277–9 Mexico 113, 114, 120, 319 Meyyappan, Meyya 311, 315 micropower concepts 289 Microsoft 14, 15, 21–7, 33–4, 37–8, 42–3, 46, 49, 54–6, 67, 72–9, 83–4, 88, 90–1, 94–101, 107–9, 150–8, 177, 189, 202–3, 217, 228, 337–8 added features 55–6, 83–4 AI 337–8 complexity problems 79, 88, 90–1, 94–8, 100–1, 107 digital homes 202–3, 217 goals 150–2 IBM joint initiative 68, 90–1 mobile phones 150, 152–3, 157–8 Nokia 150, 152–3 patches 56, 76 security issues 54–6, 72, 74, 76 Xbox 189, 206–7 middleware 86 Miettinen, Eero 170 Milbourn, Tony 155 mild hybrid cars 293–5 military establishments 32, 42, 69, 72, 195–7, 319, 333, 338–9 “millennium bug” 76, 126, 128 Millennium Pharmaceuticals 242 INDEX Millipede device, IBM 314 Milunovich, Steve 13, 23–4, 80 miniature fuel cells 277–9 MiniDiscs 207 Minor, Halsey 90, 92 Minsky, Marvin 336 mission-critical applications 9, 75 MIT see Massachusetts Institute of Technology mitigation, risk 71–3 Mitnick, Kevin 58 Mitsubishi 334 Mobile Manager 338 mobile phones viii, 52, 94–7, 104, 109, 147, 150–83, 187, 189–90, 212, 214, 220, 280–4 barriers to entry 155–6 Bluetooth wireless links 171–2, 173, 214–15, 218 camera phones 156, 170–2, 179–83, 203 car industry 158–9, 175–6 CDMA2000-1XEV-DO technology 165, 168–9 celebrity customers 173–4 clamshell design 170–1 co-branding trends 161 concepts 147, 150–83, 187, 189–90, 212, 214, 220 crime/crime-prevention considerations 180–3 data services 164–5, 170–1 designs 170–6 developing world 154–6, 169 Europe 163–9, 174 fashions 170–2, 173–4, 175–6 features 150–3, 154–7, 162–9, 170–2, 179–83, 187, 189–90, 220 forecasts 165–9, 174 gaming 187, 189–90 hard disks 208 historical background 154–61, 162–9, 170, 175–6 industrial transformation 154–61 iPod music-players 220 IT features 150–3, 154–7, 162–9, 170–1 lithium-ion batteries 233, 280–4 Microsoft 150, 152–3, 157–8 naming conventions 172 ODMs 156–7 operators 157–61, 162–9 outsourcing 155–6, 158–60 radiation fears 176 revenue streams 151, 154–5, 157, 162–3, 165–6, 174 segmentation issues 167–9 shapes 170–6 social disruptiveness 177–8, 182–3, 326 software 158–9 SOMO... project 177–8 surveillance technology 179–83 Swiss Army-knife design 171–2 swivel design 171 Symbian 158 technical requirements 155–6 techno-jewellery design 172–4 3G networks 151, 162–9, 212 vertical integration 156–61 Vertu brand 173–4 W-CDMA standard 163–4, 168 Wi-Fi threats 212 mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) 167–8 Mobira Senator, Nokia 280 Modoff, Brian 161 Moffat, Laura 144 Mohr, Davidow Ventures 12 molecule-breeding companies 245–6 molecules, nanotechnology ix–x, 233, 263–4, 306–29 “mom” simplicity test 98 Monsanto 252–4, 320 Moore, Geoffrey 12, 36, 39 Moore, Gordon 4–5, 8–12 Moore’s law 4–5, 8–12 Morgan Stanley 43 Morris, Robert 59, 339 Morse, Samuel 32–3 Moschella, David 36–7 Mossberg, Walter 96 Motorola 58, 96, 120, 125–6, 155–60, 165–6, 230, 277–8 movies ix, 34–5, 95, 169, 186–90, 202–3, 269, 336, 340 MPEG4 206 MPX200 mobile phone 156–7 MRI scans 312–13 MSM see managed security monitoring MTI Micro Fuel Cells 278 MTV 168, 224 Mulchandani, Nand 68–9 multimedia access ix, 34–5, 95–6, 101, 162–9, 202–3 see also music...; video...


pages: 305 words: 75,697

Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be by Diane Coyle

3D printing, additive manufacturing, Airbnb, Al Roth, Alan Greenspan, algorithmic management, Amazon Web Services, autonomous vehicles, banking crisis, barriers to entry, behavioural economics, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, biodiversity loss, bitcoin, Black Lives Matter, Boston Dynamics, Bretton Woods, Brexit referendum, business cycle, call centre, Carmen Reinhart, central bank independence, choice architecture, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, cloud computing, complexity theory, computer age, conceptual framework, congestion charging, constrained optimization, coronavirus, COVID-19, creative destruction, credit crunch, data science, DeepMind, deglobalization, deindustrialization, Diane Coyle, discounted cash flows, disintermediation, Donald Trump, Edward Glaeser, en.wikipedia.org, endogenous growth, endowment effect, Erik Brynjolfsson, eurozone crisis, everywhere but in the productivity statistics, Evgeny Morozov, experimental subject, financial deregulation, financial innovation, financial intermediation, Flash crash, framing effect, general purpose technology, George Akerlof, global supply chain, Goodhart's law, Google bus, haute cuisine, High speed trading, hockey-stick growth, Ida Tarbell, information asymmetry, intangible asset, Internet of things, invisible hand, Jaron Lanier, Jean Tirole, job automation, Joseph Schumpeter, Kenneth Arrow, Kenneth Rogoff, knowledge economy, knowledge worker, Les Trente Glorieuses, libertarian paternalism, linear programming, lockdown, Long Term Capital Management, loss aversion, low earth orbit, lump of labour, machine readable, market bubble, market design, Menlo Park, millennium bug, Modern Monetary Theory, Mont Pelerin Society, multi-sided market, Myron Scholes, Nash equilibrium, Nate Silver, Network effects, Occupy movement, Pareto efficiency, payday loans, payment for order flow, Phillips curve, post-industrial society, price mechanism, Productivity paradox, quantitative easing, randomized controlled trial, rent control, rent-seeking, ride hailing / ride sharing, road to serfdom, Robert Gordon, Robert Shiller, Robert Solow, Robinhood: mobile stock trading app, Ronald Coase, Ronald Reagan, San Francisco homelessness, savings glut, school vouchers, sharing economy, Silicon Valley, software is eating the world, spectrum auction, statistical model, Steven Pinker, tacit knowledge, The Chicago School, The Future of Employment, The Great Moderation, the map is not the territory, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, the scientific method, The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver, the strength of weak ties, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, total factor productivity, transaction costs, Uber for X, urban planning, winner-take-all economy, Winter of Discontent, women in the workforce, Y2K

It is unfair perhaps to single out economics for linear thinking, for ignoring the avalanche dynamics of feedback loops. The experience of the pandemic is enough to demonstrate how hard many people, including policy-makers, find it to grasp exponential dynamics. One example of how non-intuitive non-linear phenomena can be is a surprising recent resurgence of the debate about the Y2K phenomenon, or Millennium Bug. As the year 2000 approached, it dawned on the computer community that—to save on memory space—dates had generally been encoded as only the last two digits of the year. Many computer systems were going to interpret the year 2000 as 1900, with unpredictable and potentially dangerous consequences, as this feature was embedded in very many pieces of software across many systems that had accumulated different archaeological layers of code over time.

., 90 Boskin Commission, 146–47 Boston Dynamics, 137 Bowles, Sam, 85, 117, 119 Bretton Woods, 192 Brexit, 1, 37, 53, 56, 70, 110, 131, 155, 213 Brown, Dan, 108 Brynjolfsson, Eric, 176 bubbles, 20, 22, 29 Buchanan, James, 33 budget constraints, 177 Bundeskartellamt, 205 Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis, 66 business cycles, 71, 81, 102, 124 calculus, 16, 33, 90, 145 Calculus of Consent, The: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy (Buchanan and Tullock), 33 Camus, Albert, 87, 108, 111 capitalism: criticism of, 19–20; free market and, 19, 41, 186; globalisation and, 110, 132, 139, 154, 164, 193–94, 196, 213; inequality from, 19; progress and, 143, 149; Schumpeter on, 143; twenty-first-century policy and, 186, 190, 195 Capital (Piketty), 131 carbon emissions, 38–40, 180, 187 Carlin, Wendy, 85 Cartlidge, John, 27 Case, Anne, 131 cash for clunkers, 55, 63 causality: bias and, 13, 105; correlation and, 94; deductive approach and, 103; economically establishing, 100; empirical work and, 2, 61, 94–96, 99; feedback and, 11, 94, 96; Leamer on, 102; methodological debate over, 2; models and, 2, 94–95, 102; moral issues and, 96; outsider context and, 94–96, 99–105; progress and, 137; public responsibilities and, 61, 74; randomised control trials (RCTs) and, 93–95, 105, 109–10; reflexivity and, 11, 81; societal statistics and, 61; statistics and, 61, 95, 99, 102; two-way, 94, 96 central banks: independence of, 16; progress and, 149; public responsibilities and, 16, 32, 62, 64, 66–67, 76, 81 central planning: artificial intelligence (AI) and, 184, 186–87; competition and, 38, 41, 124, 182; failure of communist, 40, 182–88, 190; socialist calculation debate and, 182–88, 190, 209 Central Planning Bureau, 66 Chetty, Raj, 86 Chicago School, 24–25, 73, 75, 190, 193–94 Chile, 184 China, 173, 195, 206 Citadel, 27 City of London, 16, 19 climate change, 85, 148, 154 Close the Door campaign, 155–56 cloud computing, 150, 170–72, 184, 197 Coase, Ronald, 57–58, 62, 98–99 codes of conduct, 9, 206 cognitive science, 35–36, 48, 51, 91–92, 118–19, 186 Colander, David, 100 Cold War, 190 Coming of Post-Industrial Society, The (Bell), 67 common sense, 78, 127 communication, 53, 127, 168; bandwidth and, 171; compression and, 171; cost of, 196; 4G platforms and, 195; instant messaging, 171; latency and, 171; price of, 150, 171, 177; servers and, 25–26, 141, 170; smartphones and, 46, 138–39, 164, 171, 173, 177, 195, 198; SMS, 171; social media and, 52, 73, 82, 140–41, 149, 157, 163, 173, 176–77, 195; telephony and, 4, 31, 46, 98, 123, 138–39, 144, 156, 164, 171, 173–74, 177, 184, 195, 198; 3G platforms, 60, 139, 173, 195; transmission speeds and, 171 comparative advantage, 78, 97 competition: behavioural fix and, 45–51; central planning and, 38, 41, 124, 182; Chinese, 173, 195, 206; creative destruction and, 41; digital economy and, 42, 85, 165, 181, 201–6; directory numbers and, 60; empirical work and, 181, 209; envelopment and, 203–4; incumbents and, 41–42; innovation and, 28, 41, 46, 68, 85, 209; monopolies and, 20, 42; network effects and, 202, 205; opportunity cost and, 56, 58, 80, 156; outsider context and, 98, 105; Pareto criterion and, 122–23, 126–27, 129; production and, 12, 41; profit and, 33, 41–42, 105, 204; progress and, 135, 158, 165; public responsibilities and, 28, 33, 38, 41–42, 45–48, 57–69, 74, 77, 79, 85; rationality and, 117; resource, 41, 45, 117, 123, 125; separation protocol and, 120, 123–25; socialist calculation debate and, 182–83; special interest groups and, 64–66; specific studies in, 12; spectrum auctions and, 60–61; SSNIP test and, 204; twenty-first-century policy and, 182, 201–9 Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), 205 computers: AI and, 116 (see also artificial intelligence [AI]); Black-Scholes-Merton model and, 24–25; changing technology and, 169; cloud computing and, 150, 170–72, 184, 197; data sets and, 2, 13, 51–52, 60, 101, 161, 177, 201, 209; David on, 169; declining price of, 170; empirical work and, 2, 17, 52; exchange locations and, 25; feedback and, 179; Millennium Bug and, 155; Moore’s Law and, 170, 184; power of, 2, 17, 40, 58, 170, 183–84, 188; progress and, 138, 144, 155; rationality and, 116–17; servers and, 25–26, 141, 170; software and, 25, 140, 155, 171, 177–78, 186, 197, 200–201, 203; Solow on, 169; speed and, 25, 184; statistics and, 17, 52, 58, 144, 169; supercomputers, 170; twenty-first-century policy and, 183–84, 186, 188, 214; ultra-high frequency trading (HFT) and, 25–27 conservatism, 30 Consumer Price Index (CPI), 146–47, 172 consumers: bad choices and, 3; behavioural economics and, 22, 59–60, 92, 109; conspicuous consumption and, 42; digital economy and, 42, 137, 172–76, 181, 198, 200–206, 213; empirical work and, 3, 181; income and, 93 (see also income); innovation and, 28, 102, 200; Keynes and, 22; online shopping and, 173, 198; outsider context and, 92, 96, 98, 100–102, 105, 108–9; progress and, 137, 141, 144, 146–47, 151; public responsibilities and, 22, 28, 42, 59–60, 65; rationality and, 116; technology and, 28, 102, 171–76, 181, 200, 213; time spent online, 176–78; twenty-first-century policy and, 184, 198–206; welfare and, 105, 206 Cook, Eli, 150 copyright, 140 CORE’s The Economy, 85–86, 212–13 cost-benefit analysis (CBA), 56–57, 58n12, 125–26, 207 cost of living, 143–47, 172 counterfactuals, 97–98, 158, 161, 198, 208 Covid19 pandemic: body politics and, 163; financial recovery from, 88, 114; GDP growth and, 88, 165; impact of, 3, 10–11, 14, 20, 38, 43, 45, 68, 75, 88, 110, 114, 132–33, 149, 153, 155, 163–66, 181, 194, 213–15; lockdowns and, 3, 43, 45, 88, 114, 163, 198; public opinion and, 165–66 “Creating Humble Economists” (Colander), 100 creative destruction, 41 curriculum issues, 2, 4–5, 83, 85, 88 Daily Telegraph, 159 Darwin, Charles, 48 data centres, 26 data sets, 2, 13, 51–52, 60, 101, 161, 177, 201, 209 David, Paul, 169 Deaths of Despair (Case and Deaton), 131 Deaton, Angus, 128–29, 131 debt, 76, 101, 153 decision making: artificial intelligence (AI) and, 116, 186–87; bias and, 13, 109, 187, 209; Green Book and, 56, 126; normative economics and, 110, 114, 120; opportunity cost and, 56; outsider context and, 93; production and, 12, 123, 140, 196; progress and, 160, 162; rationality and, 116 (see also rationality); rules of thumb and, 47–48, 90, 117, 212; self knowledge and, 81; separation protocol and, 120 DeepMind, 115–16 Deliveroo, 173 demand management, 31, 191–92 democracy, 33, 67, 69, 79, 193 deregulation, 16, 31, 60, 68, 71, 193–94 derivative markets, 16, 18, 23–25, 28 Desrosières, Alain, 146 Dickens, Charles, 150 digital economy: AI and, 115 (see also artificial intelligence (AI)); changing nature of, 168–81; cloud computing and, 150, 170–72, 184, 197; cogs and, 6, 129, 154, 165, 179; competition and, 42, 85, 165, 181, 201–6; consumers and, 42, 137, 172–76, 181, 198, 200–206, 213; difference of, 168–76; dominance of by giant companies, 133; envelopment and, 203–4; 4G platforms, 195; GAFAM and, 173; globalisation and, 110, 132, 139, 154, 164, 193–96, 213; GPTs and, 169; Great Financial Crisis (GFC) and, 113–14; growth and, 129, 132, 140, 143, 194, 202; implications of, 176–78, 211–14; individual and, 6, 13–14, 128–29, 141, 175, 179, 181, 201; innovation and, 169–70; market changes and, 173–76; measuring online value and, 176; monsters and, 6, 154; network effects and, 127, 141, 174, 177, 185, 199–202, 205, 209; new agenda for, 179–81; online shopping and, 173, 198; Phillips machine and, 135–37, 151, 192; populism and, 211; production and, 132, 140, 142, 176, 195–97, 202, 213; progress and, 14, 137–43, 150, 153–54, 164–67; Project CyberSyn and, 184; services and, 176; software and, 25, 140, 155, 171, 177–78, 186, 197, 200–201, 203; statistics and, 113, 150, 164, 170, 172, 212; superstar features and, 173–74; 3G platforms, 60, 139, 173, 195; twenty-first-century policy and, 13, 185–88, 194–210; wealth creation and, 132–33; welfare and, 128, 134, 143, 206, 208, 212 Director, Aaron, 190 directory numbers, 60 discount rates, 147–48 diversity, 6–9, 213–14 Dow Jones, 26 Duflo, Esther, 20–21, 52, 109, 137 eBay, 175 ECO, 11 Economics Job Market Rumors, 8 Economics Observatory (ECO), 214 economies of scale: changing technology and, 174; network effects and, 127, 174, 177, 185, 199–201, 209; progress and, 142 education: derivatives and, 16; growth and, 16–17, 132; interventions and, 12; online, 177; policy on, 60; provision of basic, 30; real-world context and, 88; skills and, 88, 128, 132, 169–70; spread of higher, 151, 153 Efficient Markets Hypothesis, 17, 29 Eichengreen, Barry, 16 electricity: changing economies and, 127, 169, 191–92; progress and, 139, 142, 156, 165, 169, 191–92; regulation and, 65; supply of, 32; twenty-first-century policy and, 191–92, 200–201; warranties on goods and, 105 empirical work: behavioural economics and, 117, 159; causality and, 2, 61, 94–96, 99; competition and, 181, 209; computers and, 2, 17, 52; consumers and, 3, 181; context and, 17, 35, 61, 78, 92; correlation and, 70, 94; counterfactuals and, 97–98, 158, 161, 198, 208; data sets and, 2, 13, 51–52, 60, 101, 161, 177, 201, 209; feedback and, 11, 94–95, 155, 179, 188–89, 203, 205; growth and, 17, 61, 78, 209; macroeconomics and, 74, 100; market structures and, 35; physics envy and, 50; politics and, 3, 76, 78–79, 124, 213; populism and, 77; public responsibilities and, 17, 35, 40, 52, 61, 70, 74–81, 90, 92, 94–102, 110–11; randomised control trials (RCTs) and, 93–95, 105, 109–10; rationality and, 17; separation protocol and, 119, 124, 128; social constructs and, 13; statistics and, 17, 52, 61, 90, 95, 99; taxes and, 3; theory and, 2, 17, 52, 74, 90, 96, 99, 124, 181 endogenous growth theory, 17, 202 Enlightenment, 20 envelopment, 203–4 environmentalists, 126 equilibrium, 31, 38–39, 90–91, 123, 182 ethics, 4, 34, 39, 100, 105, 115, 119–24 Ethics and Society group, 115 ethnicity, 6–7, 9 European Commission, 67, 130, 205 European Steel and Coal Community, 190 European Union (EU), 37, 67, 195, 204 Eurozone, 67, 74 exchange rates, 118, 192 Facebook, 133, 173, 204–5 facial recognition, 165 fairness, 43, 45–46, 166 fake items, 98 Fear Index, The (Harris), 27 feedback: causality and, 11, 94–96; changing technology and, 179; political economy and, 188–89; progress and, 155; twenty-first-century policy and, 203, 205 financial intermediation services indirectly measured (FISIM), 28 Financial Times, 68–69, 97–98 Fisher Ideal index, 144n3 fixed costs, 174, 177, 179, 185–86, 200 forecasting: agent-based modeling and, 102; conditional projections and, 76; financial crises and, 17, 30, 100–101, 112–13; growth and, 37, 61; inflation and, 36; macroeconomics and, 3, 12, 36–37, 76, 101–2, 112; models and, 17, 74, 101–2, 113; self-fulfilling prophecies and, 5, 22–23, 154–55, 157; twenty-first-century policy and, 205; weather, 76 Fourastié, J., 191 4G platforms, 195 framing, 47, 130, 208 Frankenfinance, 18, 21, 25, 51–52, 165 Freakonomics, 108 free market: Brexit and, 213; capitalism and, 19, 41, 186; criticism of, 19; globalisation and, 110, 132, 139, 154, 164, 193–94, 196, 213; politics and, 30, 36, 130, 206; public responsibilities and, 19, 30–32, 35–36, 45, 54; separation protocol and, 123–24; twenty-first-century policy and, 182, 186, 191, 193, 195, 207 frictions, 22, 113, 136, 154, 182 Friedman, Ben, 16 Friedman, Milton, 16, 31, 93, 104, 121, 190 Furman, Jason, 86 GAFAM, 173 GameStop, 27 game theory, 48, 90–91, 129, 159–60, 179–80 Gelman, Andrew, 108 gender, 6–9, 93 GenZ, 166 Giavazzi, Francesco, 68 Gigerenzer, Gerd, 48 Gilded Age, 133 Giudici, Claudio, 69 Glaeser, Ed, 92 globalisation, 110, 132, 139, 154, 164, 193–96, 213 Goldman Sachs, 19 Good Economics for Hard Times (Banerjee and Duflo), 109 Goodhart’s Law, 72, 103 Google, 133, 141, 173, 201, 204–5 Gordon, Robert, 142 Gould, Stephen Jay, 49–50 Gove, Michael, 110, 149 Government Economic Service (GES), 53, 83–85 GPT, 169 Great Depression, 3, 10, 17, 20, 74, 191, 213 Great Financial Crisis (GFC): behavioural economics and, 51; consequences of, 1, 3, 11, 213; digital economy and, 113–14; dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models and, 31; forecasting, 30, 101, 112–13; Greece and, 56–58, 67; Italy and, 56–58, 67–69; models and, 31, 101, 113; outsider context and, 87–88, 101, 110, 112–14; progress and, 149, 153, 159; public responsibilities and, 16–19, 21, 29–31, 37–38, 50–51, 56, 67–68, 73–74, 79, 84; technology and, 56, 181; twenty-first-century policy and, 194 Great Moderation, 17, 73 Greece, 56, 67–68 greed, 11, 16, 29, 164 Green, Duncan, 95–96 Green Book, 56, 126 Greenspan, Alan, 101 Griliches, Zvi, 198 Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 60; Covid19 pandemic and, 88, 165; Fisher Ideal index and, 144n3; FISIM and, 28; flatlining of, 142; free market and, 130; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and, 172–73; Gross National Product (GNP) and, 151; growth and, 28, 46, 88, 97, 138, 143–44, 159, 165, 169, 171–72; inflation and, 13, 113, 148; internet and, 97; Laspeyres index and, 144n3; macroeconomics and, 13, 101, 113, 151; progress and, 138, 142–44, 148, 151, 158–59, 165, 172–73; real, 101, 142–44, 169, 173; Sen-Stiglitz-Fitoussi Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and, 151; social welfare and, 134; twenty-first-century policy and, 187; Winter of Discontent and, 158, 192 Gross National Product (GNP), 151 Grove, Andy, 41 growth: changing economies and, 171–72, 212; Covid19 pandemic and, 88, 165; derivatives market and, 16, 23, 28; digital technology and, 129, 132, 140, 143, 194–210; education and, 16–17, 132; empirical work and, 17, 61, 78, 209; endogenous growth theory and, 17, 202; faster, 66, 71, 144, 159; forecasting, 37, 61; Goodhart’s Law and, 72; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and, 28, 46, 88, 97, 138, 143–44, 159, 165, 169, 171–72; income, 70, 131, 138, 143, 164–65, 194, 207; inflation and, 12, 66, 73, 178; innovation and, 37, 41, 46, 68, 71, 194, 209; internet and, 97; living standards and, 143–47, 172, 194; outsider context and, 12, 97, 101n1, 111; political economy and, 167, 181, 188–95; progress and, 138, 140, 143–45, 152, 159, 165; public responsibilities and, 16–17, 23, 28, 37, 41, 46, 61, 66, 68–73, 76, 78; recession and, 17, 51, 73, 111, 154, 158–59; slow, 11, 72; spillovers and, 129–30; sustainability and, 11, 20, 111, 148, 152, 166; technology and, 71, 132, 140, 202; twenty-first-century policy and, 187, 191–92, 194, 202, 207, 209; velocity of money and, 71 Guardian, 159 happiness, 70–71, 153 Harberger, A.


pages: 295 words: 84,843

There's a War Going on but No One Can See It by Huib Modderkolk

AltaVista, ASML, Berlin Wall, Big Tech, call centre, COVID-19, disinformation, Donald Trump, drone strike, Edward Snowden, end-to-end encryption, Evgeny Morozov, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Firefox, Google Chrome, information security, Jacob Appelbaum, John Markoff, Julian Assange, Laura Poitras, machine translation, millennium bug, NSO Group, ransomware, Skype, smart meter, speech recognition, Stuxnet, undersea cable, unit 8200, uranium enrichment, WikiLeaks, zero day

The AIVD also got involved in data mining, combining telephone directory, wiretapping, chatroom, chamber of commerce and national land registry records. All kinds of connections could be teased out this way. As well as listening in on actual calls, agency personnel were also marrying that data with other data. So, while the general public was worried about the Millennium bug wreaking havoc with computers, the AIVD was already experiencing the value of metadata. By around the year 2000, despite a hesitant start, the Netherlands was among the digital frontrunners of the global intelligence community, alongside Israel, China, Russia, the US and the UK. * This transformation was still ongoing when the CIA and Mossad approached the Netherlands with their request to ‘generate access’ to Natanz.

., here, here ‘Business Club’, here BVD, here CareerBuilder.com, here Catal separatist movement, here Cellebrite, here certificate authorities (CAs), here Chaos Computer Club, here Chernobyl site, here, here child pornography, here, here Chinese cyber espionage, here, here, here, here, here, here, here Chinese Unit 61398, here, here CIA, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and Kaspersky Labs, here, here, here, here Cisco, here, here, here Clapper, James, here Clearview AI, here Clinton, Bill, here, here Clinton, Hillary, here, here, here CNN, here, here, here, here, here Combasca, here, here, here Common, here computer network exploitation (CNE), here, here Comverse, here Concord, here Cools, Ivo, here Covid-19 vaccines, here Cozy Bear, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here Cyber Intelligence, here de Boer, Hans, here de Bos, Tony, here, here De Croo, Alexander, here De Groene Amsterdammer, here de Jong, Erik, here, here De Standaard, here De Telegraaf, here de Volkskrant, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here de Vries, René, here deep packet inspection, here DEF CON, here Delft University of Technology, here Deloitte, here, here Denk party (Netherlands), here Der Spiegel, here, here, here Derix, Steven, here, here Di Rupio, Elio, here, here Die Hard, here, here DigiNotar, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here digital certificates, here DIGIWS146 workstation, here, here distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, here, here, here Donner, Piet Hein, here, here, here Dorfman, Zach, here DPG Media, here Drake, Thomas, here drone strikes, and civilian casualties, here ‘Droppy’, here DuckDuckGo, here Durbin, Richard, here Dutch Bar Association, here Dutch Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIE), here Dutch Cyber Security Council, here, here Dutch elections, here Dutch House of Representatives, here, here, here, here Dutch Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority, here Dutch Investigatory Powers Commission (TIB), here Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, here, here Dutch Ministry of General Affairs, viii, here Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit, here, here, here, here, here, here, here Dutch National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV), here, here Dutch National Crime Squad, here Dutch National Crisis Centre, here, here Dutch National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), here, here, here, here Dutch National Forensic Research Agency, here Dutch National Police Internal Investigation Department, here Dutch National Police Services Agency, here Dutch Safety Board, here Dutch surveillance law and referendum, here, here, here Dutch Tax and Customs Administration, here, here, here ‘Dwaan’, here, here, here Eastern Scheldt Storm Surge Barrier, here Ecatel, here, here Effting, Maud, here El Chapo (Joaquín Guzmán Loera), here Elbit Systems, here Elderenbosch, Onno, here encryption, here, here Ericsson, here EU Copyright Directive, here European Commission, here, here European Medicines Agency (EMA), here European Parliament, here, here, here European Space Agency, here Europol, here EvoSwitch, here Evraz, here exploits, here, here, here Fabrika Trollei, here facial recognition, here Fancy Bear, here, here, here, here, here FBI, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and Mexican drug cartel, here and Russian cyber espionage, here, here, here firewalls, here Five Eyes, here Fox-IT, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and Belgacom, here, here and DigiNotar, here, here, here, here Fridman, Mikhail, here FSB, here, here, here, here, here, here, here Gaddafi, Muammar, here, here Gallagher, Ryan, here, here, here Gamma Group, here Gemalto, here German CERT, here Glimmerglass, here Godane, Ahmed Abdi, here, here Google Maps, here, here GovCERT, here, here, here, here, here Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), here, here, here and Belgacom, here, here, here and Gemalto, here number of employees, here Grapperhaus, Ferdinand, here Greenberg, Andy, here Greenwald, Glenn, here, here, here Groenewegen, Frank, here, here GRU, here, here, here Gubarev, Aleksej, here, here, here Gurey, Nuur Osman, here hacking tools, online sales of, here Harvard Belfer Center, here Hayden, Michael, here Hennis, Jeanine, here, here, here, here Hentenaar, Joris, here Hermitage Museum, here Hijzen, Constant, here HNLMS Rotterdam, here Hoekstra, Pete, here HostExploit, here Howard, Philip, here HP Data Protector, here, here, here Huawei, here, here Hurricane Sandy, here iColumbo, here ICQ, here IMEI numbers, here in ’t Veld, Sophie, here ING, here Intellect Service, here Intercept, The, here, here, here Interfax press agency, here International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), here iPhones, here Iran, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG), here Islamic State, here, here Israel, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here Jochem, Aart, here, here, here, here Joint Strige Fighter programme, here Juniper, here Kaspersky, Eugene, here Kapersky Labs, here, here, here, here, here, here KGB, here Khabarovsk conference, here Khan, Abdul Qadeer, here Kim Jong-un, here King Servers, here, here Klijnsma, Yonathan, here, here KPN, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here Kreling, Tom, here, here, here, here, here, here Leaseweb, here, here, here, here, here, here Ledgett, Richard, here Lewinsky, Monica, here Lockheed Martin, here LulzSec, here McCord, Mary, here McFaul, Michael, here machine translation, here McLaughlin, Jenna, here Maersk, here, here Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, here, here, here, here Mali, here, here Mandiant, here, here, here Marriott hotels, here Mastercard, here Máxima, Queen, here M.E.Doc, here, here Meeus, Jan, here, here Merck, here Merkel, Angela, here MI5, here, here, here Mikhailov, Sergei, here, here, here Millennium bug, here MIND CTI, here MIVD, vii, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here agency culture, here and Belgacom, here digital capabilities, here, here, here and Farsi translators, here Joint Sigint Cyber Unit, here, here relations with Americans, here, here, here, here and Russian cyber espionage, here, here Somali surveillance, here, here Mohammad Ali, Omar, here, here, here, here Mondelez, here Montenegro coup attempt, here Morozov, Evgeny, here Mossad, here, here, here, here, here MSD, here MV BBC China, here, here MyHeritage, here MySQL, here N., here, here, here Naomi, here NASA, here, here, here Natanz, here, here, here National Health Service (NHS), here, here National Security Agency (NSA), here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and Belgacom, here, here, here and Farsi translators, here ‘fishing with dynamite’, here and Gemalto, here and ‘Greek Watergate’, here hardware modifications, here number of employees, here relations with Netherlands, here, here, here Snowden files, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and SolarWinds attack, here and Somalia surveillance, here, here Tailored Access Operations, here NATO, here, here, here NCC Group, here ndsmovies.com, here New York City truck attack, here New York Times, here, here, here NICE Systems, here Nijmegen Queen’s Day festival, here Nixon, Richard, here North Korea, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here Northwave, here Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), here NotPetya virus, here, here, here Novaja Gazeta, here NRC Handelsblad, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here NSO Group, here Obama, Barack, here, here, here, here Ocean’s Eleven, here, here OHM2013, here Operation Moonlight Maze, here Operation Olympic Games, here Opstelten, Ivo, here OPTA, here Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), here Oxford Internet Institute, here P10 filtering system, here Paauw, Frank, here Pakistan, here, here, here, here, here Pals, Ludo, here Paris bombings, here Paulissen, Wilbert, here PayPal, here, here, here Penn, Sean, here Pentagon, here, here Pérez Dolset, Javier, here Perlroth, Nicole, here Petri, Hans, here ‘Phed’, here phishing emails, here Plasterk, Ronald, here, here, here, here, here Pluijmers, René, here Poitras, Laura, here Politico, here PornHub, here Poroshenko Petro, here Port of Rotterdam, here, here, here, here, here Premier League, here Preneel, Bart, here PricewaterhouseCoopers, here Prigozhin, Yevgeny, here, here Prins, Ronald, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here privacy, here, here, here, here, here Project Victor, here Proximus, here Public Prosecution Service Rotterdam, here Putin, Vladimir, here, here, here, here, here, here Q-Park, here Raiu, Costin, here Rajoy, Mariano, here Regin virus, here, here, here, here Regional Internet Registry for Europe, here Remarque, Philippe, here Renault, here Replay, here Rheinmetall, here, here, here Rid, Thomas, here Robbe, Edwin, here, here Robbe, José, here, here, here, here Robbe, Ruud, here, here Robin, here, here, here Rosneft, here RSA Conference, here Russia Today, here Russian–Dutch relations, here Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA), here Russian Unit 74455, here, here, here Rutte, Mark, vii, here, here, here ‘Sabu’, here Salisbury poisonings, here satellite communications, here, here, here Saudi Arabia, here, here Schiphol Airport, here, here, here, here, here Schneier, Bruce, here Schook, Dick, here SCM, here September 11 attacks, here ShimRatReporter, here Shymkiv, Dmytro, here SIGINT, here SIGINT Development Conference, here, here Signal, here Sinaloa Cartel, here Singapore Press Holdings, here Skripal, Sergei, here Smith, Brad, here SNAP, here Snowden, Edward, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here Sochi Winter Olympics, here, here SolarWinds, here, here Somalia, here Sony PlayStation network, here speech transcription software, here Spetsnaz, here SPÖ Social Democratic Party (Austria), here SSL certificates, here Standaert, Geert, here Starr, Barbara, here Startpage.com, here Stasi, here Steman, Jochem, here, here Stone, Chris, here Stoyanov, Ruslan, here STRAP system, here Stuxnet virus, here, here, here, here, here, here, here submarines, here surveillance software, Israeli, here SVR, here, here, here Symbolon project, here Tails OS, here, here Tamene, Yared, here telecommunications billing, here Thomas, Gordon, here Tiger telephones, here TNT Express, here Triton virus, here Trouw, here TrueCrypt, here Trump, Donald, here, here, here, here, here, here, here Turkey, here, here, here, here Turksema, Hans, here TV5 Monde, here Tweakers website, here U., Etienne, here UCN, here Uijlenbroek, Jaap, here UK Home Office, here UK National Crime Agency, here Ukraine, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and annexation of Crimea, here, here, here, here, here, here ultracentrifuges, here, here United Arab Emirates, here United Nations, here University of Tromsø, here University of Twente, here US Democratic Party, here, here, here, here, here, here US Department of Defense, here, here US Department of Homeland Security, here, here US Joint Chiefs of Staff, here, here US presidential elections, here, here, here, here, here, here US State Department, here, here Utrecht child support services, here V., Johan, here van Bergen, Jurre, here van de Beek, Martijn, here van der Heijden, A.


pages: 116 words: 34,937

The Life of a Song: The Fascinating Stories Behind 50 of the World’s Best-Loved Songs by David Cheal, Jan Dalley

1960s counterculture, Bernie Sanders, deindustrialization, Donald Trump, Kickstarter, Live Aid, millennium bug, Ronald Reagan, Russell Brand, side project

It was followed up by ‘Little Red Corvette’, which had enormous crossover appeal, bringing Prince’s music to a wider, whiter audience. In 1983, ‘1999’ was re-released and was a hit in several countries. Over the years it has been re-released many times, notably in 1999 itself, when the world was gripped by apocalyptic fears of collapse caused by the Millennium bug and partygoers took solace in Prince’s mood of defiant delirium. (Prince had been at war for some time with his record company, Warner Brothers, which owned the master tapes; to prevent Warner from profiting from the song, he re-recorded it in 1998.) In 1999 Prince (who by now had changed his name to a symbol) recorded a live show, Rave Un2 the Year 2000, which was broadcast on American pay-per-view television on the eve of the new millennium, culminating in an extended ‘1999’.


pages: 471 words: 109,267

The Verdict: Did Labour Change Britain? by Polly Toynbee, David Walker

Alan Greenspan, An Inconvenient Truth, banking crisis, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, blood diamond, Bob Geldof, Boris Johnson, call centre, central bank independence, congestion charging, Corn Laws, Credit Default Swap, Crossrail, decarbonisation, deglobalization, deindustrialization, Etonian, failed state, first-past-the-post, Frank Gehry, gender pay gap, Gini coefficient, high net worth, hiring and firing, illegal immigration, income inequality, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), knowledge economy, labour market flexibility, market bubble, mass immigration, military-industrial complex, millennium bug, moral panic, North Sea oil, Northern Rock, offshore financial centre, pension reform, plutocrats, Ponzi scheme, profit maximization, purchasing power parity, Right to Buy, shareholder value, Skype, smart meter, social distancing, stem cell, The Spirit Level, too big to fail, University of East Anglia, working-age population, Y2K

The courts had already discarded it; after the BBC broadcast Jerry Springer: The Opera in January 2005, the fundamentalist group Christian Voice failed to persuade the judges to convict. And on such religious totems as abortion and stem cell research, rationalism ruled OK among Labour ministers. The worldwide scare over the Y2K millennium bug has become a classic of media hype and public gullibility – there was panicky talk of machines stopping and planes falling out of the sky. Ministers kept their cool and in October 1999, a couple of months before the witching hour, the NAO reported that the non-profit company Action 2000 set up by Whitehall to check IT systems had flashed only a couple of amber risks.

., 1 Rosetta Stone, 1 Rosyth, 1 Rotherham, 1, 2, 3 Royal Opera House, 1 Royal Shakespeare Company, 1 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 1 Rugby, 1 rugby union, 1 Rumsfeld, Donald, 1 rural affairs, 1, 2 Rushdie, Salman, 1 Russia, 1, 2 Rwanda, 1 Ryanair, 1, 2 Sainsbury, Lord David, 1 St Austell, 1 St Bartholomew’s Hospital, 1, 2 St Pancras International station, 1 Salford, 1, 2, 3, 4 Sanchez, Tia, 1 Sandwell, 1 Sarkozy, Nicolas, 1, 2 Savill, Superintendent Paul, 1 Saville, Lord, 1 savings ratio, 1 Scandinavia, 1, 2, 3 Scholar, Sir Michael, 1 school meals, 1, 2 school uniforms, 1 school-leaving age, 1 schools academies, 1, 2, 3, 4 building, 1 class sizes, 1 comprehensive schools, 1, 2 faith schools, 1, 2, 3, 4 grammar schools, 1, 2, 3 and inequality, 1 nursery schools, 1 and PFI, 1, 2, 3 police in, 1, 2, 3 primary schools, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 private schools, 1, 2 secondary schools, 1, 2, 3 in special measures, 1 special schools, 1 specialist schools, 1 and sport, 1 science, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Scotland, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and children, 1 devolution, 1 electricity generation, 1 and health, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Scottish parliament, 1, 2 Section 1, 2 security services, 1 MI5, 1, 2, 3 Sedley, Stephen, 1 segregation, 1 self-employment, 1 Sellafield, 1 Serious Organized Crime Agency, 1 sex crimes, 1 Sex Discrimination Act, 1 Shankly, Bill, 1 Sharkey, Feargal, 1 Shaw, Liz, 1 Sheen, Michael, 1 Sheffield, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Sheringham, 1 Shetty, Shilpa, 1 Shipman, Harold, 1 shopping, 1 Short, Clare, 1 Siemens, 1 Siena, 1 Sierra Leone, 1, 2 Skeet, Mavis, 1 skills councils, 1 slavery, 1 Slough, 1 Smith, Adam, 1 Smith, Chris, 1 Smith, Jacqui, 1, 2 Smith, John, 1, 2 Smithers, Professor Alan, 1, 2 smoking ban, 1, 2 Snowden, Philip, 1 social care, 1, 2, 3 Social Chapter opt-out, 1 social exclusion, 1, 2 Social Fund, 1 social mobility, 1, 2 social sciences, 1 social workers, 1 Soham murders, 1, 2, 3, 4 Solihull, 1, 2 Somalia, 1, 2 Souter, Brian, 1 South Africa, 1 South Downs, 1 Spain, 1, 2, 3 special advisers, 1 speed cameras, 1 Speenhamland, 1 Spelman, Caroline, 1 Spence, Laura, 1 sport, 1, 2 see also football; Olympic Games Sri Lanka, 1, 2 Stafford Hospital, 1 Staffordshire University, 1 Standard Assessment Tests (Sats), 1, 2, 3 Standards Board for England, 1 statins, 1, 2, 3 stem cell research, 1 STEM subjects, 1 Stephenson, Sir Paul, 1 Stern, Sir Nicholas, 1, 2 Stevenson, Lord (Dennis), 1 Stevenson, Wilf, 1 Steyn, Lord, 1 Stiglitz, Joseph, 1 Stockport, 1 Stonehenge, 1 Stoppard, Tom, 1 Straw, Jack, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 student fees, 1 Stuff Happens, 1 Sudan, 1, 2 Sugar, Alan, 1 suicide bombing, 1 suicides, 1 Sun, 1, 2 Sunday Times, 1, 2 Sunderland, 1, 2 supermarkets, 1, 2 Supreme Court, 1, 2 Sure Start, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 surveillance, 1, 2 Sutherland, Lord (Stewart), 1 Swansea, 1 Sweden, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Swindon, 1 Taliban, 1, 2 Tallinn, 1 Tanzania, 1 Tate Modern, 1 Taunton, 1 tax avoidance, 1, 2, 3 tax credits, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 council tax credit, 1 pension credit, 1, 2, 3 R&D credits, 1 taxation, 1, 2 10p tax rate, 1 capital gains tax, 1, 2 corporation tax, 1, 2, 3, 4 council tax, 1, 2 fuel duty, 1, 2, 3 green taxes, 1, 2 and income inequalities, 1 income tax, 1, 2, 3, 4 inheritance tax, 1, 2 poll tax, 1 stamp duty, 1, 2, 3 vehicle excise duty, 1 windfall tax, 1, 2, 3 see also National Insurance; VAT Taylor, Damilola, 1 Taylor, Robert, 1 teachers, 1, 2, 3 head teachers, 1, 2 salaries, 1, 2 teaching assistants, 1, 2 teenage pregnancy, 1, 2, 3 Teesside University, 1 television and crime, 1 and gambling, 1 talent shows, 1 television licence, 1, 2, 3 Territorial Army, 1 terrorism, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Terry, John, 1 Tesco, 1, 2, 3, 4 Tewkesbury, 1 Thames Gateway, 1 Thameswey, 1 Thatcher, Margaret, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Thatcherism, 1, 2, 3 theatre, 1 Thornhill, Dorothy, 1 Thorp, John, 1 Tibet, 1 Tilbury, 1 Times, The, 1 Times Educational Supplement, 1, 2 Timmins, Nick, 1 Titanic, 1 Tomlinson, Mike, 1 Topman, Simon, 1, 2 torture, 1, 2 trade unions, 1, 2, 3 Trades Union Congress (TUC), 1, 2, 3 tramways, 1 transport policies, 1, 2 Trident missiles, 1, 2, 3 Triesman, Lord, 1 Turkey, 1, 2 Turnbull, Lord (Andrew), 1 Turner, Lord (Adair), 1, 2, 3 Tweedy, Colin, 1 Tyneside Metro, 1 Uganda, 1 UK Film Council, 1 UK Sport, 1 UK Statistics Authority, 1 unemployment, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 United Nations, 1, 2, 3 United States of America, 1, 2 Anglo-American relationship, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and child poverty, 1 and clean technologies, 1 economy and business, 1, 2, 3 and education, 1, 2, 3 and healthcare, 1, 2 and income inequalities, 1 and internet gambling, 1 and minimum wage, 1 universities, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and migration, 1 and terrorism, 1 tuition fees, 1 University College London Hospitals, 1 University for Industry, 1 University of East Anglia, 1 University of Lincoln, 1 Urban Splash, 1, 2 Vanity Fair, 1 VAT, 1, 2, 3 Vauxhall, 1 Venables, Jon, 1 Vestas wind turbines, 1 Victoria and Albert Museum, 1 Waitrose, 1 Waldfogel, Jane, 1 Wales, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and children, 1 devolution, 1 Walker, Sir David, 1 walking, 1, 2 Walsall, 1 Wanless, Sir Derek, 1 Wanstead, 1 Warm Front scheme, 1 Warner, Lord Norman, 1 Warsaw, 1 Warwick accord, 1 water utilities, 1 Watford, 1 welfare benefits child benefit, 1, 2 Employment Support Allowance, 1 and fraud, 1, 2, 3, 4 housing benefit, 1 incapacity benefit, 1, 2 Income Support, 1 Jobseeker’s Allowance, 1, 2, 3 and work, 1, 2 Welsh assembly, 1, 2 Wembley Stadium, 1 Westfield shopping mall, 1 Wetherspoons, 1 White, Marco Pierre, 1 Whittington Hospital, 1 Wiles, Paul, 1 Wilkinson, Richard, and Kate Pickett, 1 Williams, Professor Karel, 1 Williams, Raymond, 1 Williams, Rowan, 1 Wilson, Harold, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Wilson, Sir Richard, 1 wind turbines, 1, 2 Winslet, Kate, 1 winter fuel payments, 1 Wire, The, 1 Woking, 1, 2 Wolverhampton, 1 Woolf, Lord, 1 Wootton Bassett, 1, 2 working-class culture, 1 working hours, 1, 2 World Bank, 1 Wrexham, 1 Wright Robinson School, 1, 2, 3 xenophobia, 1 Y2K millennium bug, 1 Yarlswood detention centre, 1 Yeovil, 1 Yiewsley, 1 York, 1, 2, 3, 4 Young Person’s Guarantee, 1 Youth Justice Board, 1 Zimbabwe, 1, 2 About the Author Polly Toynbee is the Guardian’s social and political commentator. Previously she was the BBC’s Social Affairs Editor and columnist for the Independent and the Observer.


pages: 478 words: 126,416

Other People's Money: Masters of the Universe or Servants of the People? by John Kay

Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Alan Greenspan, asset-backed security, bank run, banking crisis, Basel III, Bear Stearns, behavioural economics, Bernie Madoff, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, bitcoin, Black Monday: stock market crash in 1987, Black Swan, Bonfire of the Vanities, bonus culture, book value, Bretton Woods, buy and hold, call centre, capital asset pricing model, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, cognitive dissonance, Cornelius Vanderbilt, corporate governance, Credit Default Swap, cross-subsidies, currency risk, dematerialisation, disinformation, disruptive innovation, diversification, diversified portfolio, Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse, Elon Musk, Eugene Fama: efficient market hypothesis, eurozone crisis, financial engineering, financial innovation, financial intermediation, financial thriller, fixed income, Flash crash, forward guidance, Fractional reserve banking, full employment, George Akerlof, German hyperinflation, Glass-Steagall Act, Goldman Sachs: Vampire Squid, Greenspan put, Growth in a Time of Debt, Ida Tarbell, income inequality, index fund, inflation targeting, information asymmetry, intangible asset, interest rate derivative, interest rate swap, invention of the wheel, Irish property bubble, Isaac Newton, it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it, James Carville said: "I would like to be reincarnated as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.", Jim Simons, John Meriwether, junk bonds, light touch regulation, London Whale, Long Term Capital Management, loose coupling, low cost airline, M-Pesa, market design, Mary Meeker, megaproject, Michael Milken, millennium bug, mittelstand, Money creation, money market fund, moral hazard, mortgage debt, Myron Scholes, NetJets, new economy, Nick Leeson, Northern Rock, obamacare, Occupy movement, offshore financial centre, oil shock, passive investing, Paul Samuelson, Paul Volcker talking about ATMs, peer-to-peer lending, performance metric, Peter Thiel, Piper Alpha, Ponzi scheme, price mechanism, proprietary trading, purchasing power parity, quantitative easing, quantitative trading / quantitative finance, railway mania, Ralph Waldo Emerson, random walk, reality distortion field, regulatory arbitrage, Renaissance Technologies, rent control, risk free rate, risk tolerance, road to serfdom, Robert Shiller, Ronald Reagan, Schrödinger's Cat, seminal paper, shareholder value, Silicon Valley, Simon Kuznets, South Sea Bubble, sovereign wealth fund, Spread Networks laid a new fibre optics cable between New York and Chicago, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, The Great Moderation, The Market for Lemons, the market place, The Myth of the Rational Market, the payments system, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, The Wisdom of Crowds, Tobin tax, too big to fail, transaction costs, tulip mania, Upton Sinclair, Vanguard fund, vertical integration, Washington Consensus, We are the 99%, Yom Kippur War

The demand for ‘new economy’ stocks spilled over into every business that promoters could associate, however tenuously, with high technology. The last phase of the new economy bubble in early 2000 was aided by the liquidity pumped into the US economy by the Federal Reserve to avert the threat supposedly posed by the ‘millennium bug’: errors in computer programs in handling the date 2000. In the spring of 2000 the new economy boom came to its predictable, if not widely predicted, end. The Fed then cut interest rates and gave a further monetary stimulus. While the collapse in the value of internet stocks was initially mirrored in the wider stock market, the effect of cheap money encouraged share prices to rise again from the autumn of 2001.

.: Hyperion 220 Loomis, Carol 108 lotteries 65, 66, 68, 72 Lucas, Robert 40 Lynch, Dennios 108 Lynch, Peter 108, 109 M M-Pesa 186 Maastricht Treaty (1993) 243, 250 McCardie, Sir Henry 83, 84, 282, 284 McGowan, Harry 45 Machiavelli, Niccolò 224 McKinley, William 44 McKinsey 115, 126 Macy’s department store 46 Madoff, Bernard 29, 118, 131, 132, 177, 232, 293 Madoff Securities 177 Magnus, King of Sweden 196 Manhattan Island, New York: and Native American sellers 59, 63 Manne, Henry 46 manufacturing companies, rise of 45 Marconi 48 marine insurance 62, 63 mark-to-market accounting 126, 128–9, 320n22 mark-to-model approach 128–9, 320n21 Market Abuse Directive (MAD) 226 market economy 4, 281, 302, 308 ‘market for corporate control, the’ 46 market risk 97, 98, 177, 192 market-makers 25, 28, 30, 31 market-making 49, 109, 118, 136 Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID) 226 Markkula, Mike 162, 166, 167 Markopolos, Harry 232 Markowitz, Harry 69 Markowitz model of portfolio allocation 68–9 Martin, Felix 323n5 martingale 130, 131, 136, 139, 190 Marx, Groucho 252 Marx, Karl 144, 145 Capital 143 Mary Poppins (film) 11, 12 MasterCard 186 Masters, Brooke 120 maturity transformation 88, 92 Maxwell, Robert 197, 201 Mayan civilisation 277 Meade, James 263 Means, Gardiner 51 Meeker, Mary 40, 167 Melamed, Leo 19 Mercedes 170 merchant banks 25, 30, 33 Meriwether, John 110, 134 Merkel, Angela 231 Merrill Lynch 135, 199, 293, 300 Merton, Robert 110 Metronet 159 Meyer, André 205 MGM 33 Microsoft 29, 167 middleman, role of the 80–87 agency and trading 82–3 analysts 86 bad intermediaries 81–2 from agency to trading 84–5 identifying goods and services required 80, 81 logistics 80, 81 services from financial intermediaries 80–81 supply chain 80, 81 transparency 84 ‘wisdom of crowds’ 86–7 Midland Bank 24 Milken, Michael 46, 292 ‘millennium bug’ 40 Miller, Bill 108, 109 Minuit, Peter 59, 63 Mises, Ludwig von 225 Mittelstand (medium-size business sector) 52, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172 mobile banking apps 181 mobile phone payment transfers 186–7 Modigliani-Miller theorem 318n9 monetarism 241 monetary economics 5 monetary policy 241, 243, 245, 246 money creation 88 money market fund 120–21 Moneyball phenomenon 165 monopolies 45 Monte Carlo casino 123 Monte dei Paschi Bank of Siena 24 Montgomery Securities 167 Moody’s rating agency 21, 248, 249, 313n6 moral hazard 74, 75, 76, 92, 95, 256, 258 Morgan, J.P. 44, 166, 291 Morgan Stanley 25, 40, 130, 135, 167, 268 Morgenthau, District Attorney Robert 232–3 mortality tables 256 mortgage banks 27 mortgage market fluctuation in mortgage costs 148 mechanised assessment 84–5 mortgage-backed securities 20, 21, 40, 85, 90, 100, 128, 130, 150, 151, 152, 168, 176–7, 284 synthetic 152 Mozilo, Angelo 150, 152, 154, 293 MSCI World Bank Index 135 muckraking 44, 54–5, 79 ‘mugus’ 118, 260 multinational companies, and diversification 96–7 Munger, Charlie 127 Munich, Germany 62 Munich Re 62 Musk, Elon 168 mutual funds 27, 108, 202, 206 mutual societies 30 mutualisation 79 mutuality 124, 213 ‘My Way’ (song) 72 N Napoleon Bonaparte 26 Napster 185 NASA 276 NASDAQ 29, 108, 161 National Economic Council (US) 5, 58 National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) 255 National Institutes of Health 167 National Insurance Fund (UK) 254 National Provincial Bank 24 National Science Foundation 167 National Westminster Bank 24, 34 Nationwide 151 Native Americans 59, 63 Nazis 219, 221 neo-liberal economic policies 39, 301 Netjets 107 Netscape 40 Neue Markt 170 New Deal 225 ‘new economy’ bubble (1999) 23, 34, 40, 42, 98, 132, 167, 199, 232, 280 new issue market 112–13 New Orleans, Louisiana: Hurricane Katrina disaster (2005) 79 New Testament 76 New York Stock Exchange 26–7, 28, 29, 31, 49, 292 New York Times 283 News of the World 292, 295 Newton, Isaac 35, 132, 313n18 Niederhoffer, Victor 109 NINJAs (no income, no job, no assets) 222 Nixon, Richard 36 ‘no arbitrage’ condition 69 non-price competition 112, 219 Norman, Montagu 253 Northern Rock 89, 90–91, 92, 150, 152 Norwegian sovereign wealth fund 161, 253 Nostradamus 274 O Obama, Barack 5, 58, 77, 194, 271, 301 ‘Obamacare’ 77 Occidental Petroleum 63 Occupy movement 52, 54, 312n2 ‘Occupy Wall Street’ slogan 305 off-balance-sheet financing 153, 158, 160, 210, 250 Office of Thrift Supervision 152–3 oil shock (1973–4) 14, 36–7, 89 Old Testament 75–6 oligarchy 269, 302–3, 305 oligopoly 118, 188 Olney, Richard 233, 237, 270 open market operations 244 options 19, 22 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 263 Osborne, George 328n19 ‘out of the money option’ 102, 103 Overend, Gurney & Co. 31 overseas assets and liabilities 179–80, 179 owner-managed businesses 30 ox parable xi-xii Oxford University 12 P Pacific Gas and Electric 246 Pan Am 238 Paris financial centre 26 Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards 295 partnerships 30, 49, 50, 234 limited liability 313n14 Partnoy, Frank 268 passive funds 99, 212 passive management 207, 209, 212 Patek Philippe 195, 196 Paulson, Hank 300 Paulson, John 64, 109, 115, 152, 191, 284 ‘payment in kind’ securities 131 payment protection policies 198 payments system 6, 7, 25, 180, 181–8, 247, 259–60, 281, 297, 306 PayPal 167, 168, 187 Pecora, Ferdinand 25 Pecora hearings (1932–34) 218 peer-to-peer lending 81 pension funds 29, 98, 175, 177, 197, 199, 200, 201, 208, 213, 254, 282, 284 pension provision 78, 253–6 pension rights 53, 178 Perkins, Charles 233 perpetual inventory method 321n4 Perrow, Charles 278, 279 personal financial management 6, 7 personal liability 296 ‘petrodollars’ 14, 37 Pfizer 96 Pierpoint Morgan, J. 165 Piper Alpha oil rig disaster (1987) 63 Ponzi, Charles 131, 132 Ponzi schemes 131, 132, 136, 201 pooled investment funds 197 portfolio insurance 38 Potts, Robin, QC 61, 63, 72, 119, 193 PPI, mis-selling of 296 Prebble, Lucy: ENRON 126 price competition 112, 219 price discovery 226 price mechanism 92 Prince, Chuck 34 private equity 27, 98, 166, 210 managers 210, 289 private insurance 76, 77 private sector 78 privatisation 39, 78, 157, 158, 258, 307 probabilistic thinking 67, 71, 79 Procter & Gamble 69, 108 product innovation 13 property and infrastructure 154–60 protectionism 13 Prudential 200 public companies, conversion to 18, 31–2, 49 public debt 252 public sector 78 Q Quandt, Herbert 170 Quandt Foundation 170 quantitative easing 245, 251 quantitative style 110–11 quants 22, 107, 110 Quattrone, Frank 167, 292–3 queuing 92 Quinn, Sean 156 R railroad regulation 237 railway mania (1840s) 35 Raines, Franklin 152 Rajan, Raghuram 56, 58, 79, 102 Rakoff, Judge Jed 233, 294, 295 Ramsey, Frank 67, 68 Rand, Ayn 79, 240 ‘random walk’ 69 Ranieri, Lew 20, 22, 106–7, 134, 152 rating agencies 21, 41, 84–5, 97, 151, 152, 153, 159, 249–50 rationality 66–7, 68 RBS see Royal Bank of Scotland re-insurance 62–3 Reagan, Ronald 18, 23, 54, 59, 240 real economy 7, 18, 57, 143, 172, 190, 213, 226, 239, 271, 280, 288, 292, 298 redundancy 73, 279 Reed, John 33–4, 48, 49, 50, 51, 242, 293, 314n40 reform 270–96 other people’s money 282–5 personal responsibility 292–6 principles of 270–75 the reform of structure 285–92 robust systems and complex structures 276–81 regulation 215, 217–39 the Basel agreements 220–25 and competition 113 the origins of financial regulation 217–19 ‘principle-based’ 224 the regulation industry 229–33 ‘rule-based’ 224 securities regulation 225–9 what went wrong 233–9 ‘Regulation Q’ (US) 13, 14, 20, 28, 120, 121 regulatory agencies 229, 230, 231, 235, 238, 274, 295, 305 regulatory arbitrage 119–24, 164, 223, 250 regulatory capture 237, 248, 262 Reich, Robert 265, 266 Reinhart, C.M. 251 relationship breakdown 74, 79 Rembrandts, genuine/fake 103, 127 Renaissance Technologies 110, 111, 191 ‘repo 105’ arbitrage 122 repo agreement 121–2 repo market 121 Reserve Bank of India 58 Reserve Primary Fund 121 Resolution Trust Corporation 150 retirement pension 78 return on equity (RoE) 136–7, 191 Revelstoke, first Lord 31 risk 6, 7, 55, 56–79 adverse selection and moral hazard 72–9 analysis by ‘ketchup economists’ 64 chasing the dream 65–72 Geithner on 57–8 investment 256 Jackson Hole symposium 56–7 Kohn on 56 laying bets on the interpretation of incomplete information 61 and Lloyd’s 62–3 the LMX spiral 62–3, 64 longevity 256 market 97, 98 mitigation 297 randomness 76 socialisation of individual risks 61 specific 97–8 risk management 67–8, 72, 79, 137, 191, 229, 233, 234, 256 risk premium 208 risk thermostat 74–5 risk weighting 222, 224 risk-pooling 258 RJR Nabisco 46, 204 ‘robber barons’ 44, 45, 51–2 Robertson, Julian 98, 109, 132 Robertson Stephens 167 Rockefeller, John D. 44, 52, 196 Rocket Internet 170 Rogers, Richard 62 Rogoff, K.S. 251 rogue traders 130, 300 Rohatyn, Felix 205 Rolls-Royce 90 Roman empire 277, 278 Rome, Treaty of (1964) 170 Rooney, Wayne 268 Roosevelt, Franklin D. v, 25, 235 Roosevelt, Theodore 43–4, 235, 323n1 Rothschild family 217 Royal Bank of Scotland 11, 12, 14, 24, 26, 34, 78, 91, 103, 124, 129, 135, 138, 139, 211, 231, 293 Rubin, Robert 57 In an Uncertain World 67 Ruskin, John 60, 63 Unto this Last 56 Russia defaults on debts 39 oligarchies 303 Russian Revolution (1917) 3 S Saes 168 St Paul’s Churchyard, City of London 305 Salomon Bros. 20, 22, 27, 34, 110, 133–4 ‘Salomon North’ 110 Salz Review: An Independent Review of Barclays’ Business Practices 217 Samuelson, Paul 208 Samwer, Oliver 170 Sarkozy, Nicolas 248, 249 Savage, L.J. 67 Scholes, Myron 19, 69, 110 Schrödinger’s cat 129 Scottish Parliament 158 Scottish Widows 26, 27, 30 Scottish Widows Fund 26, 197, 201, 212, 256 search 195, 209, 213 defined 144 and the investment bank 197 Second World War 36, 221 secondary markets 85, 170, 210 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 20, 64, 126, 152, 197, 225, 226, 228, 230, 232, 247, 292, 293, 294, 313n6 securities regulation 225–9 securitisation 20–21, 54, 100, 151, 153, 164, 169, 171, 222–3 securitisation boom (1980s) 200 securitised loans 98 See’s Candies 107 Segarra, Carmen 232 self-financing companies 45, 179, 195–6 sell-side analysts 199 Sequoia Capital 166 Shad, John S.R. 225, 228–9 shareholder value 4, 45, 46, 50, 211 Sharpe, William 69, 70 Shell 96 Sherman Act (1891) 44 Shiller, Robert 85 Siemens 196 Siemens, Werner von 196 Silicon Valley, California 166, 167, 168, 171, 172 Simon, Hermann 168 Simons, Jim 23, 27, 110, 111–12, 124 Sinatra, Frank 72 Sinclair, Upton 54, 79, 104, 132–3 The Jungle 44 Sing Sing maximum-security gaol, New York 292 Skilling, Jeff 126, 127, 128, 149, 197, 259 Slim, Carlos 52 Sloan, Alfred 45, 49 Sloan Foundation 49 small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), financing 165–72, 291 Smith, Adam 31, 51, 60 The Wealth of Nations v, 56, 106 Smith, Greg 283 Smith Barney 34 social security 52, 79, 255 Social Security Trust Fund (US) 254, 255 socialism 4, 225, 301 Société Générale 130 ‘soft commission’ 29 ‘soft’ commodities 17 Soros, George 23, 27, 98, 109, 111–12, 124, 132 South Sea Bubble (18th century) 35, 132, 292 sovereign wealth funds 161, 253 Soviet empire 36 Soviet Union 225 collapse of 23 lack of confidence in supplies 89–90 Spain: property bubble 42 Sparks, D.L. 114, 283, 284 specific risk 97–8 speculation 93 Spitzer, Eliot 232, 292 spread 28, 94 Spread Networks 2 Square 187 Stamp Duty 274 Standard & Poor’s rating agency 21, 99, 248, 249, 313n6 Standard Life 26, 27, 30 standard of living 77 Standard Oil 44, 196, 323n1 Standard Oil of New Jersey (later Exxon) 323n1 Stanford University 167 Stanhope 158 State Street 200, 207 sterling devaluation (1967) 18 stewardship 144, 163, 195–203, 203, 208, 209, 210, 211, 213 Stewart, Jimmy 12 Stigler, George 237 stock exchanges 17 see also individual stock exchanges stock markets change in organisation of 28 as a means of taking money out of companies 162 rise of 38 stock-picking 108 stockbrokers 16, 25, 30, 197, 198 Stoll, Clifford 227–8 stone fei (in Micronesia) 323n5 Stone, Richard 263 Stora Enso 196 strict liability 295–6 Strine, Chancellor Leo 117 structured investment vehicles (SIVs) 158, 223 sub-prime lending 34–5, 75 sub-prime mortgages 63, 75, 109, 149, 150, 169, 244 Summers, Larry 22, 55, 73, 119, 154, 299 criticism of Rajan’s views 57 ‘ketchup economics’ 5, 57, 69 support for financialisation 57 on transformation of investment banking 15 Sunday Times 143 ‘Rich List’ 156 supermarkets: financial services 27 supply chain 80, 81, 83, 89, 92 Surowiecki, James: The Wisdom of Crowds xi swap markets 21 SWIFT clearing system 184 Swiss Re 62 syndication 62 Syriza 306 T Taibbi, Matt 55 tailgating 102, 103, 104, 128, 129, 130, 136, 138, 140, 152, 155, 190–91, 200 Tainter, Joseph 277 Taleb, Nassim Nicholas 125, 183 Fooled by Randomness 133 Tarbell, Ida 44, 54 TARGET2 system 184, 244 TARP programme 138 tax havens 123 Taylor, Martin 185 Taylor Bean and Whitaker 293 Tea Party 306 technological innovation 13, 185, 187 Tel Aviv, Israel 171 telecommunications network 181, 182 Tesla Motors 168 Tetra 168 TfL 159 Thai exchange rate, collapse of (1997) 39 Thain, John 300 Thatcher, Margaret 18, 23, 54, 59, 148, 151, 157 Thiel, Peter 167 Third World debt problem 37, 131 thrifts 25, 149, 150, 151, 154, 174, 290, 292 ticket touts 94–5 Tobin, James 273 Tobin tax 273–4 Tolstoy, Count Leo 97 Tonnies, Ferdinand 17 ‘too big to fail’ 75, 140, 276, 277 Tourre, Fabrice ‘Fabulous Fab’ 63–4, 115, 118, 232, 293, 294 trader model 82, 83 trader, rise of the 16–24 elements of the new trading culture 21–2 factors contributing to the change 17–18 foreign exchange 18–19 from personal relationships to anonymous markets 17 hedge fund managers 23 independent traders 22–3 information technology 19–20 regulation 20 securitisation 20–21 shift from agency to trading 16 trading as a principal source of revenue and remuneration 17 trader model 82, 83 ‘trading book’ 320n20 transparency 29, 84, 205, 210, 212, 226, 260 Travelers Group 33, 34, 48 ‘treasure islands’ 122–3 Treasuries 75 Treasury (UK) 135, 158 troubled assets relief program 135 Truman, Harry S. 230, 325n13 trust 83–4, 85, 182, 213, 218, 260–61 Tuckett, David 43, 71, 79 tulip mania (1630s) 35 Turner, Adair 303 TWA 238 Twain, Mark: Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar 95–6 Twitter 185 U UBS 33, 134 UK Independence Party 306 unemployment 73, 74, 79 unit trusts 202 United States global dominance of the finance industry 218 house prices 41, 43, 149, 174 stock bubble (1929) 201 universal banks 26–7, 33 University of Chicago 19, 69 ‘unknown unknowns’ 67 UPS delivery system 279–80 US Defense Department 167 US Steel 44 US Supreme Court 228, 229, 304 US Treasury 36, 38, 135 utility networks 181–2 V value discovery 226–7 value horizon 109 Van Agtmael, Antoine 39 Vanderbilt, Cornelius 44 Vanguard 200, 207, 213 venture capital 166 firms 27, 168 venture capitalists 171, 172 Vickers Commission 194 Viniar, David 204–5, 233, 282, 283, 284 VISA 186 volatility 85, 93, 98, 103, 131, 255 Volcker, Paul 150, 181 Volcker Rule 194 voluntary agencies 258 W wagers and credit default swaps 119 defined 61 at Lloyd’s coffee house 71–2 lottery tickets 65 Wall Street, New York 1, 16, 312n2 careers in 15 rivalry with London 13 staffing of 217 Wall Street Crash (1929) 20, 25, 27, 36, 127, 201 Wall Street Journal 294 Wallenberg family 108 Walmart 81, 83 Warburg 134 Warren, Elizabeth 237 Washington consensus 39 Washington Mutual 135, 149 Wasserstein, Bruce 204, 205 Watergate affair 240 ‘We are the 99 per cent’ slogan 52, 305 ‘We are Wall Street’ 16, 55, 267–8, 271, 300, 301 Weber, Max 17 Weill, Sandy 33–4, 35, 48–51, 55, 91, 149, 293, 314n40 Weinstock, Arnold 48 Welch, Jack 45–6, 48, 50, 52, 126, 314n40 WestLB 169 Westminster Bank 24 Whitney, Richard 292 Wilson, Harold 18 windfall payments 14, 32, 127, 153, 290 winner’s curse 103, 104, 156, 318n11 Winslow Jones, Alfred 23 Winton Capital 111 Wolfe, Humbert 7 The Uncelestial City 1 Wolfe, Tom 268 The Bonfire of the Vanities 16, 22 women traders 22 Woodford, Neil 108 Woodward, Bob: Maestro 240 World Bank 14, 220 World.Com bonds 197 Wozniak, Steve 162 Wriston, Walter 37 Y Yellen, Janet 230–31 Yom Kippur War (1973) 36 YouTube 185 Z Zurich, Switzerland 62


The Trade Lifecycle: Behind the Scenes of the Trading Process (The Wiley Finance Series) by Robert P. Baker

asset-backed security, bank run, banking crisis, Basel III, Black-Scholes formula, book value, Brownian motion, business continuity plan, business logic, business process, collapse of Lehman Brothers, corporate governance, credit crunch, Credit Default Swap, diversification, financial engineering, fixed income, functional programming, global macro, hiring and firing, implied volatility, interest rate derivative, interest rate swap, locking in a profit, London Interbank Offered Rate, low interest rates, margin call, market clearing, millennium bug, place-making, prediction markets, proprietary trading, short selling, statistical model, stochastic process, the market place, the payments system, time value of money, too big to fail, transaction costs, value at risk, Wiener process, yield curve, zero-coupon bond

It uses strange terminology, odd units of commodities such as 1/48th, and has idiosyncratic rules and regulations. They might seem archaic, but they are a reality that IT has to overcome. The IT Divide 265 Also, many banks are using legacy systems built many years ago. Due to their size or complexity, they are expensive to replace. The millennium bug arose because large systems built in COBOL abbreviated the year to two digits (74 instead of 1974) to save computer memory space. Nobody considered the system would still be in use in the year 2000 when two digits would no longer be enough. Finding programmers who can maintain such legacy systems is increasingly difficult as those technologies become more obsolete.

A classic example is the old Cobol mainframe, which stored only two digits to designate the year, because storage space for data was at a premium. This was no problem in the 1970s and nobody thought the systems would still be in use 20 or 30 years later when the date changed to 2000. This created what became known as the millennium bug. Planning Take three cities: New York has a near perfect system of streets and avenues numbered logically, making orientation around the city very easy. Developing Processes for New Products (and Improving Processes for Existing Products) 283 Paris has 12 beautifully straight avenues converging at the Arc de Triomphe.


Global Catastrophic Risks by Nick Bostrom, Milan M. Cirkovic

affirmative action, agricultural Revolution, Albert Einstein, American Society of Civil Engineers: Report Card, anthropic principle, artificial general intelligence, Asilomar, availability heuristic, backpropagation, behavioural economics, Bill Joy: nanobots, Black Swan, carbon tax, carbon-based life, Charles Babbage, classic study, cognitive bias, complexity theory, computer age, coronavirus, corporate governance, cosmic microwave background, cosmological constant, cosmological principle, cuban missile crisis, dark matter, death of newspapers, demographic transition, Deng Xiaoping, distributed generation, Doomsday Clock, Drosophila, endogenous growth, Ernest Rutherford, failed state, false flag, feminist movement, framing effect, friendly AI, Georg Cantor, global pandemic, global village, Great Leap Forward, Gödel, Escher, Bach, Hans Moravec, heat death of the universe, hindsight bias, information security, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), invention of agriculture, Kevin Kelly, Kuiper Belt, Large Hadron Collider, launch on warning, Law of Accelerating Returns, life extension, means of production, meta-analysis, Mikhail Gorbachev, millennium bug, mutually assured destruction, Nick Bostrom, nuclear winter, ocean acidification, off-the-grid, Oklahoma City bombing, P = NP, peak oil, phenotype, planetary scale, Ponzi scheme, power law, precautionary principle, prediction markets, RAND corporation, Ray Kurzweil, Recombinant DNA, reversible computing, Richard Feynman, Ronald Reagan, scientific worldview, Singularitarianism, social intelligence, South China Sea, strong AI, superintelligent machines, supervolcano, synthetic biology, technological singularity, technoutopianism, The Coming Technological Singularity, the long tail, The Turner Diaries, Tunguska event, twin studies, Tyler Cowen, uranium enrichment, Vernor Vinge, War on Poverty, Westphalian system, Y2K

(Fortunately efforts at infectious disease monitoring, gene sequencing and vaccine production are advancing nonetheless; a year after Kurzweil and Joy's letter a team at the U S National Institutes of H ealth had used the flu genome to develop a vaccine for the strain [N I H , 2006].) An example of a more successful channelling oftechno-apocalyptic energies into effective prophylaxis was the Millennium Bug or Y2K phenomenon. In the late 1990s a number of writers began to warn that a feature of legacy software systems from the 1960s and 1970s, which coded years with two digits instead of four, would lead to widespread technology failure in the first seconds of 2000. The chips controlling power plants, air traffic , and the sluice gates in sewer systems would suddenly think the year was 1900 and freeze.

tendencies in responses to apocalyptic threats 87 Boyer, P. (1994). When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modem American Culture. Belknap, Cambridge MA. Camp, G.S. (1997). Selling Fear: Conspiracy Theories and End-time Paranoia. Baker. Grand Rapids M I . C N N . (1998). Survivalists try t o prevent millennium-bug bite. October 1 0 . http:/ fwww. cnn.comfU S /9810/ 10 fy2k.survivalistsf Cohn, N. ( 1 970). The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages (New York: Oxford University Press) . Cook, D. (2005) . Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press) .

Stock 80 meteor impact, as cause of mass extinctions 255, 258-9 meteor showers 227, 228 meteor strike risk 1 4- 1 5 meteoroids, a s source o f atmospheric dust 232-3 methane, release from permafrost 274 methane hydrate, release from oceans 273 method of moments 156 microbial toxins 300, 453 use in bioterrorism 456 microcephalin genes 58 global frequencies 59-60 M iddle East, nuclear programmes 397-9, 400 Milankovitch cycles 239-41 Milky Way, collision with Andromeda 37-8 millenarianism 77 millenialism 9, 73-4 amillenialism 75-6 apocalypticism 77, 78, 409, 417 dysfunctional manifestations 84-5 positive effects 83-4 post-millenialism 76 premillenialism 74-5 techno-apocalypticism 81-3 techno-millenialism 79-81 utopianism 77-8 Millenia/ism, Utopianism, and Progress, Olson, T. 86 Millennium Bug 82-3, 340 M illerism 74-5 mind projection fallacy 3 1 0 mini-black holes 349-50 minimal standard model 354 Minuteman ballistic missiles 382 consequences of strike 389 mistakes, as cause of nuclear war 2 1 , 382, 383, 384, 426-7 mitigation policy 29 climate change 16, 277, 279-81 see also risk mitigation model risk 176, 180 model uncertainty, climate change 275-6 molecular manipulators 331 molecular manufacturing 24-5, 481 , 482, 484-6, 498-9 global catastrophic risks 488-9 destructive global governance 492 economic and social disruption 492 ecophagy 495-6 enhanced intelligences 494 environmental degradation 494-5 war 489-92 products 486-7 weapons 487-8 risk mitigation 496-8 molecular nanotechnology 33 1-2 Monod, J. 308 Moon, impact craters 127, 223-4 Moore's Law 79, 328, 450 Moore's Law of Mad Science 338 moral satisfaction, purchase of 106 Moravec, H.P. 1 37 Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind 79-80 morbidity of infectious diseases 291-2 mortality rates of infectious diseases 292 mosquitoes, disease transmission 289, 296 motivated cognition (rationalization) 99 motivated scepticism (disconfirmation bias) 99, 100 motivation artificial intelligence 3 1 6 , 3 1 7 for nuclear terrorism 406-1 1 mousepox research 457 Mt Pinatubo eruption, effect on climate 270 Mt St Helens eruption ( 1980) , cooling effect 208 Index Mulhall, D., Our Molecular Future 500 Mulligan, J. 464 multiple catastrophic events 167 multiple reliabilities 161-2 multiplier effects, social collapse 367 multiregional hypothesis, origin of modern humans 2 1 1 multi-stakeholder partnerships, role in biotechnology risk management 462-3 muons, effect on life 249, 254 mutation 49 mutual insurance 170 Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) 490 Myers, N . and Knoll A.H. 69 Nagasaki bomb 428 nano-built weaponry 487-8, 489-92 nanofactories 485-6, 495, 498 block-assembly operation 497 products 486-7 Nanofuture, Hall, J .


Working the Phones: Control and Resistance in Call Centres by Jamie Woodcock

always be closing, anti-work, antiwork, call centre, capitalist realism, cognitive dissonance, collective bargaining, David Graeber, emotional labour, gamification, invention of the telephone, job satisfaction, late capitalism, means of production, millennium bug, new economy, Panopticon Jeremy Bentham, post-Fordism, post-industrial society, post-work, precariat, profit motive, scientific management, social intelligence, stakhanovite, technological determinism, women in the workforce

This mode of management is exemplified in the film Office Space (tagline: ‘Work Sucks’).63 The protagonist works in a bland office, consigned to an individual cubicle. His job involves updating bank software to ensure compliance with the new date format after 1999 (to help deal with the so-called ‘millennium bug’ feared for the new century). Suffice to say he is not satisfied with his work. The worker is harassed by eight different managers for forgetting to put a new coversheet on one of his reports. To each one of the managers he admits his mistake and they remind him of the memo and the necessity of coversheets.


pages: 1,013 words: 302,015

A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s by Alwyn W. Turner

Alan Greenspan, Berlin Wall, Bob Geldof, Boris Johnson, bread and circuses, British Empire, call centre, centre right, deindustrialization, demand response, Desert Island Discs, endogenous growth, Etonian, eurozone crisis, facts on the ground, Fall of the Berlin Wall, falling living standards, first-past-the-post, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, friendly fire, full employment, gentrification, global village, greed is good, inflation targeting, lateral thinking, means of production, millennium bug, minimum wage unemployment, moral panic, negative equity, Neil Kinnock, Nelson Mandela, no-fly zone, offshore financial centre, old-boy network, period drama, post-war consensus, Ronald Reagan, sexual politics, Stephen Fry, Stephen Hawking, upwardly mobile, Winter of Discontent, women in the workforce

This time round, such concerns seemed laughable even in Christian circles, where the accuracy of the calendar had long been accepted as flawed. Instead there was a new terror, more in keeping with science fiction than eschatology. As the century drew to a close, a worldwide panic arose about what became known as the Millennium Bug, a potential problem arising from the way that dates had been stored in computer code. To minimise memory use, the year had been represented by just two digits and there was a concern therefore that if 99 was followed by 00, programs would interpret this as 1900 rather than as 2000. The consequences were uncertain, but the media were keen to paint a doomsday scenario.

Computers were widely believed to be the tool of the future, but getting them to work proved harder than governments of either stripe had imagined. Perhaps that was partly due to a certain technological illiteracy at the top for, despite Blair’s boast of being ‘a modern man’ and ‘part of the rock and roll generation’, he wasn’t entirely sure of himself when it came to a straightforward computing concept like the Millennium Bug: ‘David Miliband tried to explain it once, and I honestly didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.’ The real difficulties, though, came with much more old-fashioned issues. In January 2000 the NHS was put under huge strain by a particularly bad flu epidemic, and struggled to cope. Amongst the host of horror stories to emerge was the appallingly casual treatment of an elderly woman whose son happened to be Professor Robert Winston, a Labour peer and one of the best-known doctors in the country, thanks to his broadcasting career.

Index Aberfan disaster ref 1 abortion ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 About a Boy (Nick Hornby) ref 1 Absolutely Fabulous (TV) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Adam Smith Institute ref 1, ref 2 Adams, Gerry ref 1, ref 2 Adams, Tony ref 1 Admiral Duncan pub bombing ref 1 Afghanistan ref 1 age of consent ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Aherne, Caroline ref 1, ref 2 AIDS ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 air industry, deregulation of ref 1 air traffic control ref 1 Aitken, Jonathan ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Al-Fayed, Dodi ref 1, ref 2 Al-Fayed, Mohammed ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Albarn, Damon ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 alcohol see drinking culture alcopops ref 1 Alder Hey Children Hospital ref 1 Allason, Rupert ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Allen, Keith ref 1 Allitt, Beverley ref 1 Amazon ref 1 American cultural influences ref 1 Amess, David ref 1 Amiel, Barbara ref 1 Amis, Kingsley ref 1 Amis, Martin ref 1 anal intercourse ref 1 The Anarchist (Tristan Hawkins) ref 1 Anderson, Janet ref 1 Andrew, Prince ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Anne, Princess ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Archer, Jeffrey ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 armed forces ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 arms-to-Iraq affair ref 1, ref 2 Arsenal ref 1, ref 2 ASBOs ref 1 Ashby, David ref 1 Ashcroft, Michael ref 1 Ashdown, Paddy ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20 Ashton, Joe ref 1 Asian films and music ref 1, ref 2 asylum seekers ref 1, ref 2 Atherton, Mike ref 1 Back to Basics agenda ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Bacon, Francis ref 1 Baddiel, David ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12 Baker, Danny ref 1, ref 2 Baker, Kenneth ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Ball, Zoë ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Balls, Ed ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Bangles ref 1 Banham, Sir John ref 1 Bank of England ref 1, ref 2 Banks, Morwenna ref 1 Banks, Tony ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Barnett Formula ref 1 Bashir, Martin ref 1 Bateman, Nick ref 1 Bayley, Stephen ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Beatles ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Beckett, Margaret ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Beckham, David ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Beckham, Victoria ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Bell, Martin ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Bell, Stuart ref 1 Bell, Tim ref 1 Benn, Hilary ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Benn, Tony ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27, ref 28, ref 29, ref 30, ref 31, ref 32, ref 33 Bennett, Alan ref 1, ref 2 Berlin Wall, fall of ref 1 The Best a Man Can Get (John O) ref 1 Best, George ref 1 Between the Lines (TV) ref 1, ref 2 The Big Breakfast (TV) ref 1, ref 2 Big Brother (TV) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 The Big Issue ref 1 Billy Elliot (film) ref 1 Birmingham pub bombings ref 1 Birmingham Six ref 1 Birt, John ref 1 Black, Conrad ref 1, ref 2 Black Lace ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Black Wednesday ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8 Blair, Cherie ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Blair, Tony ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27, ref 28, ref 29, ref 30, ref 31, ref 32, ref 33, ref 34, ref 35, ref 36, ref 37, ref 38, ref 39, ref 40, ref 41, ref 42, ref 43, ref 44, ref 45, ref 46, ref 47, ref 48, ref 49 on his achievements ref 1 Blair–Brown rivalry ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 and bombing of Iraq ref 1 and cabinet politics ref 1 Catholic faith ref 1 cavalier approach to facts ref 1, ref 2 and Clause IV ref 1, ref 2 ‘control freak’ ref 1 and Cool Britannia ref 1, ref 2 ‘demon eyes’ poster ref 1 and devolution ref 1, ref 2 and Diana death ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8 Ecclestone affair ref 1, ref 2 and electoral reform ref 1 fascination with wealth ref 1 flaunting of personal life ref 1 and fox hunting ban ref 1 Granita pact ref 1, ref 2 and John Smith death ref 1, ref 2 Labour leadership ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 leadership style ref 1 and Lib–Lab ties ref 1 loses support ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 on Major ref 1 marginalisation of Parliament ref 1 and the Millennium Dome ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 and monarchical reform ref 1 moral crusade ref 1, ref 2 no experience of government ref 1, ref 2 and the Northern Ireland peace process ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 oratory ref 1 and overseas interventions ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8 patriotic rhetoric ref 1 persona ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 repackaged Conservatism ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 show-business element ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 and the single currency ref 1, ref 2 Third Way politics ref 1, ref 2 and the trades unions ref 1 vision for the future ref 1, ref 2 Blake, Peter ref 1 Blunkett, David ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27 Blur ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11 Boateng, Paul ref 1 body piercing ref 1 Booker, Christopher ref 1 Booth, Hartley ref 1 Boothroyd, Betty ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Bottomley, Virginia ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10 Bowie, David ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 boxing ref 1, ref 2 Boycott, Geoffrey ref 1, ref 2 Boyle, Danny ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Bragg, Billy ref 1, ref 2 Bragg, Melvyn ref 1 Brand, Jo ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Brandreth, Gyles ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13 Branson, Richard ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Brass Eye (TV) ref 1, ref 2 Brassed Off (film) ref 1, ref 2 Braveheart (film) ref 1 Bremner, Rory ref 1, ref 2 Britain (Mark Leonard) ref 1 British National Party (BNP) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 British Rail ref 1, ref 2 British Social Attitudes Survey ref 1, ref 2 Britishness ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Britpop ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 The Brittas Empire (TV) ref 1, ref 2 Brooke, Peter ref 1 Brookmyre, Christopher ref 1, ref 2 Brookside (TV) ref 1, ref 2 Brown, Arnold ref 1 Brown, Craig ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Brown, Gordon ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27 Blair–Brown rivalry ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 bullying ref 1 on class differences ref 1 and devolution ref 1 dislike of Liberal Democrats ref 1 Granita pact ref 1 leadership contest ref 1, ref 2 and monetary policy ref 1, ref 2 personal awkwardness ref 1, ref 2 prime minister ref 1 ‘psychological flaws’ ref 1 and the single currency ref 1 Brown, James ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Brown, Nick ref 1, ref 2 Bruton, John ref 1 Bryan, John ref 1 BSE crisis ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 BSkyB ref 1 Buckley, Fiona ref 1 Bulger, James ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 bulldog, British ref 1 Burchill, Julie ref 1, ref 2 Burdon, Eric ref 1 Bush, George ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Byers, Stephen ref 1, ref 2 Cable, Vince ref 1, ref 2 Cadbury, Peter ref 1 Caine, Michael ref 1 Calcutt Enquiry ref 1 Callaghan, James ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10 Cameron, David ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Campbell, Alastair ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27, ref 28, ref 29, ref 30, ref 31, ref 32, ref 33, ref 34, ref 35, ref 36, ref 37, ref 38, ref 39, ref 40, ref 41, ref 42, ref 43, ref 44, ref 45, ref 46, ref 47, ref 48 Campbell, Naomi ref 1 Canary Wharf bombing ref 1 Canavan, Dennis ref 1 cannabis ref 1 Cantona, Eric ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Carey, George, Archbishop of Canterbury ref 1, ref 2 Carlisle, John ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Carlyle, Robert ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Cartland, Barbara ref 1 Cash, Bill ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 cash for questions scandal ref 1, ref 2 Castle, Barbara ref 1, ref 2 Catholic Church ref 1, ref 2 Chalker, Lynda ref 1, ref 2 Champions League ref 1 Changing Rooms (TV) ref 1 Channel Tunnel ref 1, ref 2 Charles, Prince of Wales ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17 Charter 88 ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 ‘chavs’ ref 1, ref 2 chick lit ref 1 child benefit ref 1 Chippendales ref 1 Christian, Terry ref 1, ref 2 Christian Socialist Movement ref 1 Church of England ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Churchill, Winston ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Citizen Smith (TV) ref 1 Citizens’ Charter ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 city academies ref 1 civil liberties ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 civil partnerships ref 1 civil service ref 1, ref 2 Clark, Alan ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15 Clarke, Charles ref 1 Clarke, Kenneth ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20 Clarke, Roy ref 1, ref 2 Clary, Julian ref 1, ref 2 the Clash ref 1, ref 2 classless society rhetoric ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Clifford, Max ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Clinton, Bill ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8 Clough, Ian ref 1 club scene ref 1, ref 2 Cluedo ref 1 Clunes, Martin ref 1 coal pit closures ref 1, ref 2 coalition government ref 1 cocaine ref 1 Coe, Sebastian ref 1, ref 2 Cohen, Nick ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Cole, John ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Collymore, Stan ref 1 comedy ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 see also individual performers and programmes Commonwealth Games ref 1 community, sense of ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 computer games ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Cones Hotline ref 1 Conran, Terence ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Conservative Party ‘clear blue water’ strategy ref 1 ‘common sense revolution’ ref 1 defections ref 1 election defeat (1997) ref 1 election victory (1992) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Euroscepticism ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15 internal hostilities ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 leadership contests ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8 membership profile ref 1 the ‘nasty party’ ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 reforms ref 1 response to Blair ref 1 sleaze ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12 consumer credit ref 1, ref 2 Coogan, Steve ref 1, ref 2 see also Partridge, Alan Cook, Peter ref 1 Cook, Robin ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25 The Cook Report (TV) ref 1, ref 2 Cool Britannia ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21 Cooper, Mick ref 1 Cooper, Yvette ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Copeland, David ref 1 Coren, Giles ref 1 Coronation Street (TV) ref 1, ref 2 corporal punishment ref 1 Couch, Jane ref 1 council tax ref 1 counterculture, 1980s ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Countryside Alliance ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Cox, Sara ref 1 Cracker (TV) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 cricket ref 1, ref 2 crime rates ref 1, ref 2 Critchley, Julian ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9 cronyism ref 1 Crosland, Tony ref 1 Cryer, Barry ref 1 cuisine, British ref 1, ref 2 cultural renaissance ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Cunningham, Jack ref 1, ref 2 currency speculation ref 1 Currie, Debbie ref 1 Currie, Edwina ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22 cynicism, national ref 1, ref 2 D-Day anniversary ref 1 Dacre, Paul ref 1, ref 2 Daily Express ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Daily Mail ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16 Daily Mirror ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25 Daily Telegraph ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15 Danziger, Nick ref 1, ref 2 Darling, Alistair ref 1 The Darling Buds of May (TV) ref 1 Davies, Ron ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 The Day Today (TV) ref 1, ref 2 de la Billière, General Peter ref 1 The Deal (TV) ref 1 Deayton, Angus ref 1, ref 2 Dee, Jack ref 1 Deeson, Martin ref 1 defence cuts ref 1 democratisation of popular taste ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Dempster, Nigel ref 1 Desert Island Discs (radio) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Design Museum ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Desmond, Richard ref 1 devolution ref 1, ref 2 Dewar, Donald ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Diamond, John ref 1 Diana, Princess of Wales ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11 Diego Garcia ref 1 diet, national ref 1 Dinnerladies (TV) ref 1 disabled people rights and benefits ref 1, ref 2 diversity, tolerance of ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Dobbs, Michael ref 1, ref 2 Dobson, Frank ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 docusoaps ref 1 dogging ref 1 Dorrell, Stephen ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 dot-com bubble ref 1 Draper, Derek ref 1, ref 2 drinking culture ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Drop the Dead Donkey (TV) v, ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17 drugs ref 1, ref 2 Dunblane massacre ref 1, ref 2 Duncan, Alan ref 1 Duncan Smith, Iain ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12 EastEnders (TV) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Ecclestone, Bernie ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Eclair, Jenny ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 economic growth ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 economic liberalism ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 ecstasy ref 1 education ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Edward, Prince ref 1 Edwards, Jonathan ref 1 Eldorado (TV) ref 1 electoral reform ref 1, ref 2 Elizabeth II, Queen ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10 Elizabeth, the Queen Mother ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Elton, Ben ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Emin, Tracey ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 ‘end of socialism’ (Margaret Thatcher) ref 1, ref 2 energy bills ref 1 Enfield, Harry ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 English, David ref 1, ref 2 Enterprise Allowance Scheme ref 1 environmental concerns ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Essex girls ref 1 Eugenie, Princess ref 1 euro ref 1 Europe cultural attitudes to ref 1 relationship with ref 1, ref 2 European Convention on Human Rights ref 1 European Court of Human Rights ref 1 European Parliament ref 1, ref 2 European Union ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8 Eurotrash (TV) ref 1 Eurovision Song Contest ref 1 Evans, Chris ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Evans, David ref 1 Evening Standard ref 1 Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8 FA Premier League ref 1 Face (film) ref 1 Falconer, Charlie ref 1, ref 2 Falklands War ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 fantasy fiction genre ref 1 Fantasy Football League ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Farage, Nigel ref 1, ref 2 fashion ref 1, ref 2 The Fast Show (TV) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Father Ted (TV) ref 1, ref 2 feminism ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 ‘feral children’ ref 1 Ferguson, Alex ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 festival culture ref 1, ref 2 Fever Pitch (Nick Hornby) ref 1 FHM ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Field, Frank ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 film industry ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 see also specific films Flack, Roberta ref 1 Flint, Caroline ref 1 Floyd, Keith ref 1 flu epidemic ref 1, ref 2 fly-on-the-wall documentaries ref 1 focus groups ref 1, ref 2 Fogle, Ben ref 1 Foot, Michael ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 foot-and-mouth outbreak ref 1 football ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10 football hooliganism ref 1 foreign policy and international relations ref 1 Formula One ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Forsyth, Michael ref 1 Forth, Eric ref 1 Four Weddings and a Funeral (film) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Fowler, Robbie ref 1 fox hunting ref 1 Francis, Ted ref 1 Frankie Goes to Hollywood ref 1 Freedom of Information Act ref 1 Freeman, Gillian ref 1 French, Dawn ref 1, ref 2 From Wimps to Warriors (TV) ref 1 Fry, Stephen ref 1, ref 2 fuel tax protests ref 1 The Full Monty (film) ref 1 Galliano, John ref 1 Galloway, George ref 1 game shows ref 1, ref 2 gangsta rap ref 1 Gard, Toby ref 1 Garel-Jones, Tristan ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Gascoigne, Paul ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 gastropubs ref 1 gay marriage ref 1 gender roles ref 1 general elections 1992 ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 1997 ref 1, ref 2 2001 ref 1, ref 2 German reunification ref 1 Girl Guides ref 1 ‘girl power’ ref 1, ref 2 Glitter, Gary ref 1 Goldsmith, Sir James ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Good Friday Agreement ref 1 Goodnight Sweetheart (TV) ref 1 Goody, Jade ref 1 Gorman, Teresa ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11 Gormley, Antony ref 1 Gould, Bryan ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15 Gove, Michael ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 GQ ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Graham, George ref 1 Grand National ref 1 Grand Theft Auto computer game ref 1 Granita ref 1, ref 2 Grant, Bernie ref 1, ref 2 grant-maintained schools ref 1 Greater London Authority ref 1 Greatrex, Neil ref 1 Green, Jonathon ref 1 Greer, Germaine ref 1 Griffiths, Jane ref 1 Groucho Club ref 1 Ground Force (TV) ref 1 Group4 435 Guardian ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20 Guildford Four ref 1 Guinness trial ref 1 Gummer, John Selwyn ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 gun control ref 1 Gunnell, Sally ref 1 Hague, William ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13 debating skills ref 1 misjudged photo-opportunities ref 1 resigns as leader ref 1 and the single currency ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 wins leadership election ref 1 Hain, Peter ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Hamilton, Andy ref 1 Hamilton, Christine ref 1, ref 2 Hamilton, Neil ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Hamilton, Willie ref 1 Hamish Macbeth (TV) ref 1, ref 2 Hannan, Daniel ref 1, ref 2 Harman, Harriet ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13 Harry, Prince ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Harry Potter books ref 1 Harvey, PJ ref 1, ref 2 Hastings, Max ref 1, ref 2 Hatfield rail crash ref 1 Hattersley, Roy ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Have I Got News for You (TV) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10 Hawking, Stephen ref 1, ref 2 Hawkins, Tristan ref 1 Hayes, Jerry ref 1, ref 2 Healey, Denis ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Hearn, Barry ref 1 Heath, Edward ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Heffer, Eric ref 1 Heffer, Simon ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Hemingway, Wayne ref 1 Hemingway Chair (Michael Palin) ref 1 Henri, Adrian ref 1 Heseltine, Michael ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27, ref 28, ref 29, ref 30, ref 31, ref 32, ref 33, ref 34, ref 35 Hewitt, James ref 1 Higgins, Alex ref 1 High Fidelity (Nick Hornby) ref 1 Hill, Benny ref 1 Hill, Damon ref 1 Hillsborough enquiry ref 1 Hilton, Steve ref 1 Hindley, Myra ref 1 Hindujas passports affair ref 1 Hirst, Damien ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Hislop, Ian ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 historical apologies ref 1, ref 2 history, media interest in ref 1 Hitchens, Peter ref 1, ref 2 Hogg, Douglas ref 1 Holden, Anthony ref 1, ref 2 Holocaust Memorial Day ref 1 home ownership ref 1 homelessness ref 1 homosexuality ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17 Hong Kong ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Hornby, Nick ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 House of Commons voting arrangements ref 1 House of Lords reform ref 1, ref 2 house repossessions ref 1, ref 2 Housing Action Trusts ref 1 Howard, Michael ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16 Paxman interview ref 1 ‘something of the night’ ref 1 Howe, Geoffrey ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Howells, Kim ref 1 Huggy Bear ref 1, ref 2 Hughes, Simon ref 1 human rights abuses ref 1 Human Rights Act ref 1 Hume, John ref 1, ref 2 Hurd, Douglas ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15 Hurley, Elizabeth ref 1 Hussein, Saddam ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Hutton, Will ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Hynde, Chrissie ref 1 Iannucci, Armando ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10 identity cards ref 1 identity politics ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 immigration ref 1, ref 2 In Sickness and in Health (TV) ref 1, ref 2 In the Name of the Father (film) ref 1 Independent ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13 Independent on Sunday ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Indonesia, arms sales to ref 1 industrial decline ref 1 inflation ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 information superhighway ref 1, ref 2 Ingham, Bernard ref 1, ref 2 Inspector Morse (TV) ref 1, ref 2 interest rates ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 International Criminal Court ref 1 internet ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 internet urban myths ref 1 IRA ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9 Iraq bombing of ref 1 invasion of Kuwait ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Ireland, Colin ref 1 Irvine, Derry ref 1 Islington ref 1, ref 2 Izzard, Eddie ref 1, ref 2 Jack, Ian ref 1, ref 2 Jackson, Glenda ref 1 Jackson, Ken ref 1 James, Alex ref 1 James, Clive ref 1, ref 2 Jane and Her Master (Stephen Rawlings) ref 1 Jenkin, Guy ref 1 Jenkin, Roy ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Jenkins, Simon ref 1 Jesus and Mary Chain ref 1 Jiang Zemin ref 1 John, Elton ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Johnson, Alan ref 1 Johnson, Boris ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Johnson, Frank ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Johnson, Paul ref 1, ref 2 Jonathan Creek (TV) ref 1 Jones, Bridget ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Jones, Vinnie ref 1 Jonsson, Ulrika ref 1 Jopling, Jay ref 1 Jowell, Tessa ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 joyriding ref 1 Judge John Deed (TV) ref 1 Junor, John ref 1 Jupitus, Phill ref 1, ref 2 Just When We Are Safest (Reg Gadney) ref 1 juvenile crime ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 K Foundation ref 1 Kaufman, Gerald ref 1, ref 2 Keegan, Kevin ref 1, ref 2 Keeping up Appearances (TV) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Kennedy, Charles ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Kennedy, Helena ref 1 Kennedy, Ludovic ref 1 Kennedy, Nigel ref 1, ref 2 Kent, Bruce ref 1 Kick Racism Out of Football ref 1 King, Mervyn ref 1 King, Oona ref 1, ref 2 Kingham, Tess ref 1 Kinnock, Neil ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20 knife crime ref 1 Kray, Ronnie and Reggie ref 1, ref 2 Kuwait, invasion of ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Labour Party big business relations ref 1 ‘Blair babes’ ref 1, ref 2 centralising tendency ref 1 Clause IV ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 election defeat (1992) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 election victory (1997) ref 1 election victory (2001) ref 1 leadership contests ref 1, ref 2 media and politics ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 membership profile ref 1 micromanagement ref 1 modernisers ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 NEC ref 1, ref 2 New Labour ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13 New Labour lexicon ref 1 one member, one vote reform ref 1 one-nation rhetoric ref 1 patriotic rhetoric ref 1 public disenchantment with ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 southern England alienation from ref 1, ref 2 spin ref 1, ref 2 targets, obsession with ref 1, ref 2 tax policies ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 welfare reform ref 1, ref 2 laddism ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 ladettes ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 lads’ mags ref 1 Lamacq, Steve ref 1 Lamarr, Mark ref 1 Lamont, Norman ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24 lang, kd ref 1 Lara Croft ref 1, ref 2 Last of the Summer Wine (TV) ref 1 law and order ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Lawrence, Philip ref 1 Lawrence, Stephen ref 1, ref 2 Lawson, Nigel ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Le Pen, Jean-Marie ref 1 leasehold reform ref 1 Lederer, Helen ref 1, ref 2 Lee, Stewart ref 1 left, death of the ref 1 Lennon, John ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Leonard, Mark ref 1, ref 2 lesbianism ref 1, ref 2 Letwin, Oliver ref 1, ref 2 Lewis, Derek ref 1 Liberal Democratic Party ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9 life peerages ref 1 Lilley, Peter ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14 Little Britain (TV) ref 1 Littlejohn, Richard ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Liverpool ref 1 Livingstone, Ken ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12 Llewellyn, Edward ref 1 Lloyd, Nicholas ref 1 Lloyd Webber, Andrew ref 1 Loach, Ken ref 1 Loaded ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 local council elections ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 London Eye ref 1 London mayoral elections ref 1 London Underground ref 1 Lulu ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Lynk, Roy ref 1 Lynn, Vera ref 1, ref 2 Maastricht Treaty ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 McAlpine, Alistair ref 1, ref 2 Macaulay, Sarah ref 1 McCartney, Stella ref 1 McGuinness, Martin ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 McKellen, Ian ref 1 MacKenzie, Kelvin ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Macmillan, Harold ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Macpherson Report ref 1, ref 2 McQueen, Alexander ref 1, ref 2 Madchester ref 1 The Madness of King George (Alan Bennett) ref 1, ref 2 magazines ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Major, James ref 1 Major, John ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27, ref 28, ref 29, ref 30, ref 31, ref 32, ref 33, ref 34, ref 35, ref 36, ref 37, ref 38, ref 39 and the 1992 general election ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 and the 1997 election ref 1 ‘back to basics’ ref 1, ref 2 and Black Wednesday ref 1, ref 2 BSE crisis ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Citizens’ Charter ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 classless society philosophy ref 1, ref 2 and coal pit closures ref 1 espousal of ERM ref 1 ‘greyness’ ref 1 humble origins story ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 on Kinnock ref 1 and the Kuwaiti War ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 leadership challenge ref 1 Maastricht Treaty ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9 on national identity ref 1, ref 2 and the Northern Ireland peace process ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 parliamentary career ref 1 perceived ineptitude ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 persona ref 1 resigns as party leader ref 1, ref 2 and the single currency ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 soapbox ref 1, ref 2 on the underclass ref 1 wins party leadership ref 1 Major, Norma ref 1 makeover shows ref 1 Mallalieu, Ann ref 1 Man and Boy (Tony Parsons) ref 1, ref 2 Manchester bombing ref 1 Manchester United ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Mandela, Nelson ref 1 Mandelson, Peter ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27, ref 28, ref 29, ref 30, ref 31, ref 32, ref 33, ref 34, ref 35, ref 36, ref 37 Manic Street Preachers ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Manning, Bernard ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Mansell, Nigel ref 1 Maples, John ref 1 Marr, Andrew ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Marr, Johnny ref 1 Martin and John (Dale Peck) ref 1 Martin, Michael ref 1 Martin, Tony ref 1 Massive Attack ref 1, ref 2 Massow, Ivan ref 1 Matrix Churchill ref 1 Maude, Francis ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Maxim ref 1 Maxwell, Robert ref 1, ref 2 Meacher, Michael ref 1 Meades, Jonathan ref 1, ref 2 media and politics ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Mellor, David ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9 Melody Maker ref 1, ref 2 Men Behaving Badly (TV) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Mercury, Freddie ref 1 meritocracy ref 1, ref 2 Merton, Paul ref 1, ref 2 Metropolitan Police ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Michael, Alun ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Miliband, David ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Miliband, Ed ref 1, ref 2 Miliband, Ralph ref 1 millennium ref 1, ref 2 Millennium Bridge ref 1 Millennium Bug ref 1, ref 2 Millennium Dome ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Milligan, Spike ref 1, ref 2 Milligan, Stephen ref 1 Mills, Barbara ref 1 Mills, David ref 1 Mills & Boon ref 1, ref 2 minimum wage ref 1 minority lifestyles, acceptance of ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Mitchell, Austin ref 1 MMR vaccination ref 1 ‘mockney’ ref 1 Mole, Adrian ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 monetary policy ref 1 Money (Martin Amis) ref 1 Monkhouse, Bob ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Monks, John ref 1, ref 2 Montserrat ref 1 Moore, Bobby ref 1 Moore, Charles ref 1, ref 2 Moore, Jo ref 1 Moore, Suzanne ref 1, ref 2 Morgan, Peter ref 1 Morgan, Rhodri ref 1 Morley, Paul ref 1 Morrissey ref 1 Morrissey, Neil ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Mortimer, Bob ref 1, ref 2 Morton, Andrew ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Mosley, Max ref 1 Moss, Kate ref 1 Mowlam, Mo ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Mr Bean (TV) ref 1 Mugabe, Robert ref 1 Mullin, Chris ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14 multinationals, protests against ref 1 Murdoch, Rupert ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10 music ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14 see also Britpop My Name is Joe (film) ref 1 Nadir, Asil ref 1 NAFTA ref 1 Naked (film) ref 1 national decline, public perception of ref 1, ref 2 National Front ref 1, ref 2 National Lottery ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 National Trust ref 1, ref 2 nationalism ref 1 Needham, Ed ref 1 New Age travellers ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 new consensus ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 New Deal ref 1, ref 2 New Man fantasy ref 1 The New Statesman ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Newbury bypass protest ref 1 Newman, Rob ref 1 News of the World ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13 NHS ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Nicholson, Emma ref 1 Nicholson, Viv ref 1 Nickell, Rachel ref 1, ref 2 Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman) ref 1 Nixon, Richard ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 ‘no such thing as society’ (Margaret Thatcher) ref 1 Nolan Committee ref 1 Norris, Steven ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 North Square (TV) ref 1 Northern Ireland ref 1 Notham, Ian ref 1 Nott, John ref 1 Nye, Simon ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Oasis ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Observer ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9 O, John ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9 OFSTED ref 1 O, Sean ref 1, ref 2 old certainties, yearning for ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Oldman, Gary ref 1, ref 2 Oliver, Jamie ref 1 Olympic Games (1992) ref 1 Omagh bombing ref 1 On the Hour (radio) ref 1 One Foot in the Grave (TV) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 one-nation rhetoric ref 1, ref 2 online shopping ref 1 Oratory ref 1 Orwell, George ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Osborne, George ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Our Friends in the North (TV) v, ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 out-of-town shopping sites ref 1 Owen, David ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Oxbridge ref 1, ref 2 paedophilia ref 1, ref 2 paganism ref 1 Paisley, Ian ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Parker-Bowles, Camilla ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Parkinson, Cecil ref 1 Parliament broadcasts from ref 1 marginalisation of ref 1 Parris, Matthew ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8 Parsons, Tony ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10 participatory democracy ref 1, ref 2 Partridge, Alan ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Pasternak, Anna ref 1, ref 2 patriotic rhetoric ref 1 Patten, Chris ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17 Patten, John ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10 Pavarotti, Luciano ref 1, ref 2 Paxman, Jeremy ref 1, ref 2 Payne, Sarah ref 1 Peck, Dale ref 1 pensions ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Penthouse ref 1 People ref 1, ref 2 Philip, Duke of Edinburgh ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Phillips, Melanie ref 1 Pie in the Sky (TV) ref 1, ref 2 Pinochet, Augusto ref 1 Plant, Robert ref 1 Platell, Amanda ref 1, ref 2 police ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 political advisors ref 1 political career paths ref 1, ref 2 political correctness ref 1 political monoculturalism ref 1 The Politician Wife (TV) ref 1 poll tax ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 pop charts, corruption in ref 1 pornography ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Portillo, Michael ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26 ‘posh’, revival of ref 1 Post Office ref 1 post-war consensus ref 1 post-war generation ref 1 Powell, Enoch ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Powell, Jonathan ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13 prank television ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Pratchett, Terry ref 1 Prescott, John ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27, ref 28, ref 29, ref 30 Prescott, Pauline ref 1, ref 2 Press Complaints Commission ref 1 Price, Lance ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9 Prime Suspect (TV) ref 1 prison service ref 1, ref 2 Private Eye ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9 private finance initiative (PFI) ref 1 privatisation ref 1 profanity of language ref 1 Proops, Marjorie ref 1 property market ref 1 proportional representation ref 1 Pulp ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 punk ref 1, ref 2 Puttnam, David ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 The Queen and I (Sue Townsend) ref 1, ref 2 Queer as Folk (TV) ref 1 Quinn, Marc ref 1 Quite Ugly One Morning (Christopher Brookmyre) ref 1 racism ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Radice, Giles ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21 radio phone-in shows ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Radiohead ref 1 Rankin, Ian ref 1 Rat Boy ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Ravenhill, Mark ref 1 raves ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Rawnsley, Andrew ref 1, ref 2 Raynsford, Nick ref 1 Reagan, Ronald ref 1, ref 2 reality television ref 1 rebranding of Britain ref 1 recession ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8 Red Wedge ref 1 Redgrave, Steve ref 1 Redwood, John ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20 Rees-Mogg, William ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Reeves, Vic ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Referendum Party ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Reid, John ref 1 religious sensibilities ref 1, ref 2 Renwick, David ref 1 republicanism ref 1, ref 2 restaurants, celebrity ref 1, ref 2 retailing ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Rice, Tim ref 1 Richard, Cliff ref 1, ref 2 Rickman, Alan ref 1 Riddell, Peter ref 1 Ridley, Nicholas ref 1 Rifkind, Malcolm ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 The Right Man (Nigel Planer) ref 1 Rimington, Stella ref 1 Riot Grrrl movement ref 1, ref 2 Ritchie, Guy ref 1 River Café 121 Robinson, Geoffrey ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Rock Against Racism ref 1 Rolling Stones ref 1, ref 2 Root, Henry ref 1 Ross, Paul ref 1 rough sleeper initiative ref 1 Rowling, J.K. ref 1 royal family ref 1, ref 2 The Royle Family (TV) ref 1, ref 2 rugby ref 1 Saatchi, Charles ref 1 Sacks, Jonathan ref 1 sadomasochism ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 St George, flag of ref 1 SAS ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 satire ref 1 Saunders, Jennifer ref 1, ref 2 Savage, Jon ref 1, ref 2 Savage, Lily ref 1, ref 2 Scargill, Arthur ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Scarman Report ref 1 Schlesinger, John ref 1 Scott, Nicholas ref 1, ref 2 Scottish devolution ref 1 SDP/Liberal Alliance ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 see also Liberal Democratic Party Second World War ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Secure Training Centres ref 1 Securities and Investments Board ref 1 September 11 terrorist attacks ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 service industries, rise of ref 1 sex scandals, political ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 sexual politics ref 1 Shearer, Alan ref 1, ref 2 Sheffield rally ref 1, ref 2 Shephard, Gillian ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8 Shipman, Dr Harold ref 1 Shooting Stars (TV) ref 1 Shopping and Fucking (Mark Ravenhill) ref 1 Shore, Peter ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Short, Clare ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15 Sierra Leone ref 1, ref 2 single currency ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 single mothers ref 1, ref 2 Sinn Fein ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 sitcoms ref 1 see also individual entries 606 (radio) ref 1, ref 2 Skinner, Dennis ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Skinner, Frank ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8 Smith, Chris ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Smith, John ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25 Smith, Linda ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 the Smiths ref 1, ref 2 smoking ref 1 Snow, Peter ref 1 Soames, Nicholas ref 1, ref 2 soap operas ref 1, ref 2 see also individual entries Social Chapter ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 social deprivation ref 1, ref 2 social disorder ref 1 see also law and order social housing ref 1 social liberalism ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 social mobility ref 1 social relationships, breakdown in ref 1 Soldier, Soldier (TV) ref 1 Soley, Clive ref 1 solvent abuse ref 1 Songs of Praise (TV) ref 1 Souter, Brian ref 1 Spence, Laura ref 1 Spencer, Earl ref 1 Spencer, Tom ref 1 Spice Girls ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Spicer, Michael ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11 spin doctoring ref 1, ref 2 spirituality ref 1, ref 2 Spitting Image (TV) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 sporting heroes ref 1 Squidgygate ref 1 Stagg, Colin ref 1 standards in public life, concerns over ref 1 Starkey, David ref 1, ref 2 Starr, Edwin ref 1, ref 2 Stars in Their Eyes (TV) ref 1 The State We In (Will Hutton) ref 1 ‘stealth taxes’ ref 1 Steel, Mark ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Stewart, Allan ref 1 stock market ref 1, ref 2 stop and search ref 1 Straight Talking (Jane Green) ref 1 Straw, Jack ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18 Stuff ref 1 Suede ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 suicide rates ref 1 Sun ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27, ref 28, ref 29, ref 30, ref 31, ref 32, ref 33, ref 34, ref 35, ref 36, ref 37, ref 38, ref 39 Sunday Telegraph ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Sunday Times ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Sunday trading ref 1 supermarket chains ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Swampy ref 1, ref 2 Swift, Amanda ref 1 talent contests ref 1 Talk Radio UK ref 1 Tapsell, Peter ref 1 Tatchell, Peter ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Tate Modern ref 1, ref 2 tattoos ref 1 tax credits ref 1 taxes ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15 Tebbit, Norman ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11 teenagers drinking culture ref 1 juvenile crime ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 sexual behaviour ref 1 Temazepam ref 1 terrorism ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Thatcher, Margaret ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27, ref 28, ref 29, ref 30, ref 31, ref 32, ref 33, ref 34, ref 35, ref 36, ref 37 ‘end of socialism’ ref 1, ref 2 memoirs ref 1 ‘no such thing as society’ ref 1 political demise ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Thatcherism ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Therapy (David Lodge) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Third Way politics ref 1, ref 2 This Life (TV) ref 1 Thompson, Ben ref 1 Thompson, Emma ref 1, ref 2 Thompson, John ref 1 The Times ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16 To Play the King (Michael Dobbs) ref 1 tobacco sponsorship ref 1 Today ref 1 Tomb Raider computer game ref 1 Top of the Pops (TV) ref 1, ref 2 Tory Boy ref 1 Townsend, Sue ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Toynbee, Polly ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 trades unions ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7 Trainspotting (film) ref 1, ref 2 transgender ref 1 Trimble, David ref 1, ref 2 Truss, Lynne ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Tully, Susan ref 1 Turner Prize ref 1 Twigg, Stephen ref 1 UK Independence Party (UKIP) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 UN weapons inspection programme ref 1, ref 2 underclass ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 unemployment ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11 Union Jack ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Van Outen, Denise ref 1 VAT ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 The Vicar of Dibley (TV) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 video diaries ref 1 visual arts ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Viz ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 voting apathy ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Wade, Rebekah ref 1 Waite, Terry ref 1 Waiting for God (TV) ref 1 Waldegrave, William ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Walsh, John ref 1 wealth inequality ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 welfare state ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 Weller, Paul ref 1 Welsh cultural renaissance ref 1 Welsh devolution ref 1 Wener, Louise ref 1, ref 2 Wenger, Arsène ref 1, ref 2 Westwood, Vivienne ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 Whatever Love Means (David Baddiel) ref 1 Whelan, Charlie ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4 Whitaker, James ref 1, ref 2 Whitehouse, Paul ref 1, ref 2 Whitelaw, William ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 Whiteread, Rachel ref 1, ref 2 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?


pages: 246 words: 74,341

Financial Fiasco: How America's Infatuation With Homeownership and Easy Money Created the Economic Crisis by Johan Norberg

accounting loophole / creative accounting, Alan Greenspan, bank run, banking crisis, Bear Stearns, Bernie Madoff, Black Monday: stock market crash in 1987, Black Swan, business cycle, capital controls, central bank independence, collateralized debt obligation, creative destruction, credit crunch, Credit Default Swap, credit default swaps / collateralized debt obligations, David Brooks, diversification, financial deregulation, financial innovation, Greenspan put, helicopter parent, Home mortgage interest deduction, housing crisis, Howard Zinn, Hyman Minsky, Isaac Newton, Joseph Schumpeter, Long Term Capital Management, low interest rates, market bubble, Martin Wolf, Mexican peso crisis / tequila crisis, millennium bug, money market fund, moral hazard, mortgage tax deduction, Naomi Klein, National Debt Clock, new economy, Northern Rock, Own Your Own Home, precautionary principle, price stability, Ronald Reagan, savings glut, short selling, Silicon Valley, South Sea Bubble, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, too big to fail

With Greenspan at the helm, the Fed used the same modus operandi whenever crisis loomed: quickly cut the benchmark rate and pump liquidity into the economy. That is what it did at the time of the Gulf War, the Mexican peso crisis, the Asian crisis, the collapse of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund, the worries about the millennium bug, and the dot-com crash-and on each occasion, commentators were surprised by the mildness of the subsequent downturn. In someone with Greenspan's clear-cut opinions about the importance of free markets, this readiness to throw money at all problems was surprising. However, to a direct question in Congress about his old laissez-faire views of monetary policy, Greenspan replied, "That's a long time ago, and I no longer subscribe to those views."'


Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors by Matt Parker

8-hour work day, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, bitcoin, British Empire, Brownian motion, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, collateralized debt obligation, computer age, correlation does not imply causation, crowdsourcing, Donald Trump, fake news, Flash crash, forensic accounting, game design, High speed trading, Julian Assange, millennium bug, Minecraft, Neil Armstrong, null island, obamacare, off-by-one error, orbital mechanics / astrodynamics, publication bias, Richard Feynman, Richard Feynman: Challenger O-ring, selection bias, SQL injection, subprime mortgage crisis, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Therac-25, value at risk, WikiLeaks, Y2K

Knowing my obsession with up-to-date firmware, probably. But there are going to be a lot of systems that will not get upgraded. There are also processors in my washing machine, dishwasher and car, and I have no idea how to update those. It’s easy to write this off as a second coming of the Y2K ‘millennium bug’ that wasn’t. That was a case of higher level software storing the year as a two-digit number, which would run out after ninety-nine. Through a massive effort, almost everything was updated. But a disaster averted does not mean it was never a threat in the first place. It’s risky to be complacent because Y2K was handled so well.


Industry 4.0: The Industrial Internet of Things by Alasdair Gilchrist

3D printing, additive manufacturing, air gap, AlphaGo, Amazon Web Services, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, barriers to entry, business intelligence, business logic, business process, chief data officer, cloud computing, connected car, cyber-physical system, data science, deep learning, DeepMind, deindustrialization, DevOps, digital twin, fault tolerance, fulfillment center, global value chain, Google Glasses, hiring and firing, industrial robot, inflight wifi, Infrastructure as a Service, Internet of things, inventory management, job automation, low cost airline, low skilled workers, microservices, millennium bug, OSI model, pattern recognition, peer-to-peer, platform as a service, pre–internet, race to the bottom, RFID, Salesforce, Skype, smart cities, smart grid, smart meter, smart transportation, software as a service, stealth mode startup, supply-chain management, The future is already here, trade route, undersea cable, vertical integration, warehouse robotics, web application, WebRTC, Y2K

As a result of the proliferation of Internet connected networks, computers started to be hacked remotely, and IT appeared defenseless against these violations as the concept of an IT security department was still years away. However, these threats escalated over the mid-to-late 1990s and reach their zenith with the mass-hysteria conjured up over the dreaded Millennium Bug (Y2K). This specific threat was not a virus, a worm, or even a deliberate hack. It was simply the recognition of the fact that programmers in the 70s and 80s used two digits to represent the year in their code. For example, the 19 in 1976 programmers took for granted, so they represented 1976 simply as 76 and they never thought twice about the date field format changing in the year 2000.


pages: 303 words: 93,545

I'm a stranger here myself: notes on returning to America after twenty years away by Bill Bryson

flying shuttle, illegal immigration, millennium bug, National Debt Clock, Ronald Reagan, Simon Kuznets, telemarketer

For a long time it puzzled me how something so expensive, so leading edge, could be so useless, and then it occurred to me that a computer is a stupid machine with the ability to do incredibly smart things, while computer programmers are smart people with the ability to do incredibly stupid things. They are, in short, a dangerously perfect match. You will have read about the millennium bug. You know then that at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2000, all the computers in the world will for some reason go through a thought process something like this: “Well, here we are in a new year that ends in ’00. I expect it’s 1900. But wait—if it’s 1900, computers haven’t been invented yet.


Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath

"Hurricane Katrina" Superdome, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, airport security, Albert Einstein, bank run, British Empire, Buckminster Fuller, call centre, cloud computing, cognitive dissonance, colonial rule, correlation does not imply causation, cuban missile crisis, en.wikipedia.org, epigenetics, food desert, high-speed rail, Housing First, illegal immigration, Internet of things, mandatory minimum, millennium bug, move fast and break things, Nick Bostrom, payday loans, Ralph Nader, RAND corporation, randomized controlled trial, self-driving car, Skype, Snapchat, subscription business, systems thinking, urban planning, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, Y2K

lost touch… with some intelligence satellites: President’s Council, The Journey to Y2K: Final Report of the President’s Council on Year 2000 Conversion, March 29, 2000, https://itlaw.wikia.org/wiki/The_Journey_to_Y2K:_Final_Report_of_the_President%27s_Council_on_Year_2000_Conversion. delayed paychecks, stalled payments, repeated charges: Ibid. “Low-level Windshear Alert Systems”: Ibid. “ ‘Must not have been a problem’ ”: Interview with John Koskinen, May 2019. “arrive with a yawn”: David Robert Loblaw, “Millennium Bug Is a Misnomer,” Just a Number blog, 1999, http://www.angelfire.com/oh/justanumber/whatitis.html. “You Got Conned”: David Robert Loblaw, “You Got Conned and I Told You So,” Globe and Mail, January 6, 2000, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/you-got-conned-and-i-told-you-so/article765168/.


pages: 312 words: 93,836

Barometer of Fear: An Insider's Account of Rogue Trading and the Greatest Banking Scandal in History by Alexis Stenfors

Alan Greenspan, Asian financial crisis, asset-backed security, bank run, banking crisis, Bear Stearns, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, bonus culture, capital controls, collapse of Lehman Brothers, credit crunch, Credit Default Swap, Eugene Fama: efficient market hypothesis, eurozone crisis, financial deregulation, financial innovation, fixed income, foreign exchange controls, game design, Gordon Gekko, inflation targeting, information asymmetry, interest rate derivative, interest rate swap, London Interbank Offered Rate, loss aversion, mental accounting, millennium bug, Nick Leeson, Northern Rock, oil shock, Post-Keynesian economics, price stability, profit maximization, proprietary trading, regulatory arbitrage, reserve currency, Rubik’s Cube, Snapchat, Suez crisis 1956, the market place, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, too big to fail, transaction costs, work culture , Y2K

If the events are well anticipated (which they sometimes are), central banks can simply inject ample amounts of liquidity to maintain financial stability. However, when events are not anticipated, fear in the money markets can quickly emerge. And these fears are invariably reflected in LIBOR. For instance, on 29 November 1999, the one-month US dollar LIBOR jumped 86 basis points because of fears surrounding the so-called ‘millennium bug’. Considering that the Federal Reserve often tended to cut or raise interest rates in 25 basis points at a time, and rarely changed them more than a few times per year, 86 basis points represented a remarkably large move. Banks had spent billions on system upgrades and contingency plans relating to the Y2K software problem.


Work! Consume! Die! by Boyle, Frankie

Boris Johnson, Desert Island Discs, Donald Trump, heat death of the universe, Jeffrey Epstein, Large Hadron Collider, Mark Zuckerberg, Marshall McLuhan, millennium bug, no-fly zone, Norman Mailer, offshore financial centre, open immigration, pez dispenser, Piper Alpha, presumed consent, Slavoj Žižek, Stephen Fry, Stephen Hawking, systems thinking, the medium is the message, trade route, WikiLeaks

Scientists have been told to conceive a strategy where people can survive without computers. They have started handing out pens and paper. If the internet shuts down, will that actually mean the end of the world? Won’t it just mean the end of the last 20 years? Does looking things up in The Thompsons qualify as the end of the world now? Last year, PlayStation 3 was hit by the millennium bug ten years late. The editor of a gaming website said it was the same as the Toyota crisis – I imagine it’s annoying, mate, but in fairness, you and your family aren’t going to go crashing through a house because you can’t finish Medal of Honor. It would be weird if it was the year 2000 again – you’d have just over a year to persuade Caitlin Moran,* the inventor of Total Wipeout and Vernon Kay to all take jobs on the top floor of the Twin Towers.


pages: 496 words: 174,084

Masterminds of Programming: Conversations With the Creators of Major Programming Languages by Federico Biancuzzi, Shane Warden

Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL), business intelligence, business logic, business process, cellular automata, cloud computing, cognitive load, commoditize, complexity theory, conceptual framework, continuous integration, data acquisition, Dennis Ritchie, domain-specific language, Douglas Hofstadter, Fellow of the Royal Society, finite state, Firefox, follow your passion, Frank Gehry, functional programming, general-purpose programming language, Guido van Rossum, higher-order functions, history of Unix, HyperCard, industrial research laboratory, information retrieval, information security, iterative process, Ivan Sutherland, John von Neumann, Ken Thompson, Larry Ellison, Larry Wall, linear programming, loose coupling, machine readable, machine translation, Mars Rover, millennium bug, Multics, NP-complete, Paul Graham, performance metric, Perl 6, QWERTY keyboard, RAND corporation, randomized controlled trial, Renaissance Technologies, Ruby on Rails, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, seminal paper, Silicon Valley, slashdot, software as a service, software patent, sorting algorithm, SQL injection, Steve Jobs, traveling salesman, Turing complete, type inference, Valgrind, Von Neumann architecture, web application

You can’t advise somebody which of those to do, but there are plenty of ways of making money and avoiding doing science. And vice versa. If I am advising somebody who wants to do the science, then I would say talk to people who are doing the designs, and don’t sit in a vacuous room designing a theory that looks beautiful, but make sure it’s going to have some relevance to practice. You’ve described the millennium bug as a good example of a situation in which we didn’t know what type of problems we were about to face. How can we prevent similar structural problems during the design phase? Robin: I don’t know. The market is so hungry for software products that if you spend time analyzing what you are going to sell, then somebody else will get the contract.

The market is so hungry for software products that if you spend time analyzing what you are going to sell, then somebody else will get the contract. That sounds very cynical, but I think it’s actually true. If you are going into the real world, you really don’t succeed if you try to bring in analytical tools, even when they do exist. Of course, very often they don’t yet exist. In the face of the millennium bug, we actually had all the theory we needed to completely avoid the problem if we had written the programs in appropriate ways; all it needed was the care to use a type theory that had been around for 20 years. Of course there are a lot of conjectures about why that theory had been ignored, but I think it’s largely because of market forces.


pages: 391 words: 99,963

The Weather of the Future by Heidi Cullen

2013 Report for America's Infrastructure - American Society of Civil Engineers - 19 March 2013, air freight, American Society of Civil Engineers: Report Card, availability heuristic, back-to-the-land, bank run, California gold rush, carbon footprint, clean water, colonial rule, data science, Easter island, energy security, hindcast, illegal immigration, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Isaac Newton, Kickstarter, mass immigration, Medieval Warm Period, megacity, millennium bug, ocean acidification, out of africa, Silicon Valley, smart cities, trade route, urban planning, Y2K

The thinking is that if people can see what New York might look like in the future, they will opt to avoid the unnecessary drama, of which rising temperature is just one example. “I know it’s old-fashioned. But I am very much into win-win solutions. And anything we do today will help us today,” Rosenzweig adds. That ended up being true of Y2K as well. Saffo says you can credit the millennium bug for the swift rebound of New York City’s computing systems after the attacks of 9/11. “Y2K forced Wall Street to make upgrades. Wall Street had a Y2K drill. They practiced that drill and it paid off,” Saffo says. The system redundancies developed in anticipation of Y2K allowed the city’s transportation and telecommunications sectors to provide service despite the enormous damage on 9/11.


pages: 383 words: 105,021

Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Fred Kaplan

air gap, Big Tech, Cass Sunstein, Charles Babbage, computer age, data acquisition, drone strike, dumpster diving, Edward Snowden, game design, hiring and firing, index card, information security, Internet of things, Jacob Appelbaum, John Markoff, John von Neumann, kremlinology, Laura Poitras, Mikhail Gorbachev, millennium bug, Morris worm, national security letter, Oklahoma City bombing, operational security, packet switching, pre–internet, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, seminal paper, Seymour Hersh, Silicon Valley, Skype, Stuxnet, tech worker, Timothy McVeigh, unit 8200, uranium enrichment, Wargames Reagan, Y2K, zero day

They’d sensed the same threat when they met with the Marsh Commission: here was an Air Force general—and, though retired, he referred to himself as General Marsh—laying down the rules on what they must do, as if they were enlisted men. And now here was Dick Clarke, writing under the president’s signature, trying to lay down the law. For several months now, these same companies had been working in concert with Washington, under its guidelines, to solve the Y2K crisis. This crisis—also known as the Millennium Bug—emerged when someone realized that some of the government’s most vital computer programs had encoded years (dates of birth, dates of retirement, payroll periods, and so forth) by their last two digits: 1995 as “95,” 1996 as “96,” and so forth. When the calendar flipped to 2000, the computers would read it as “00,” and the fear was that they’d interpret it as the year 1900, at which point, all of a sudden, such programs as Social Security and Medicare would screech to a halt: the people who’d been receiving checks would be deemed ineligible because, as far as the computers could tell, they hadn’t yet been born.


pages: 566 words: 122,184

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold

Bill Gates: Altair 8800, Charles Babbage, Claude Shannon: information theory, computer age, Dennis Ritchie, digital divide, Donald Knuth, Douglas Engelbart, Douglas Engelbart, Dynabook, Eratosthenes, Fairchild Semiconductor, Free Software Foundation, Gary Kildall, Grace Hopper, invention of the telegraph, Isaac Newton, Ivan Sutherland, Jacquard loom, James Watt: steam engine, John von Neumann, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, Ken Thompson, Louis Daguerre, millennium bug, Multics, Norbert Wiener, optical character recognition, popular electronics, Richard Feynman, Richard Stallman, Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs, Turing machine, Turing test, Vannevar Bush, Von Neumann architecture

The record would include the person's name, a birth date, and other information. Many early COBOL programs were written to deal with 80-column records stored on IBM punch cards. To use as little space as possible on these cards, calendar years were often coded as two digits rather than four, leading to the most common (but least publicized) instances of the infamous "millennium bug" as the year 2000 approached. In the mid-1960s, IBM, in connection with its System/360 project, developed a language named PL/I. (The I is actually a Roman numeral and pronounced one, so PL/I really stands for Programming Language Number One.) PL/I was intended to incorporate the block structure of ALGOL, the scientific and mathematics functions of FORTRAN, and the record and report capabilities of COBOL.


pages: 542 words: 132,010

The Science of Fear: How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain by Daniel Gardner

Atul Gawande, availability heuristic, behavioural economics, Black Swan, Cass Sunstein, citizen journalism, cognitive bias, cognitive dissonance, Columbine, correlation does not imply causation, Daniel Kahneman / Amos Tversky, David Brooks, Doomsday Clock, feminist movement, haute couture, hindsight bias, illegal immigration, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), lateral thinking, Linda problem, mandatory minimum, medical residency, Mikhail Gorbachev, millennium bug, moral panic, mutually assured destruction, nuclear winter, Oklahoma City bombing, placebo effect, precautionary principle, public intellectual, Ralph Nader, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, social intelligence, Stephen Hawking, Steven Levy, Steven Pinker, the long tail, the scientific method, Timothy McVeigh, Tunguska event, uranium enrichment, Y2K, young professional

Authors, activists, consultants, and futurologists are constantly warning us about threats so spectacular and exotic they make scenarios of nuclear Armageddon look quaint. Genetically enhanced bioweapons; self-replicating nanotechnology turning everything into “gray goo”; weird experiments in physics that create a black hole, sucking in the planet and everyone on it. The millennium bug was a bust, but that hasn’t stopped theories of annihilation from piling up so quickly it’s become almost commonplace to hear claims that humanity will be lucky to survive the next century. Ulrich Beck isn’t quite that pessimistic. As the German sociologist and professor at the London School of Economics told The Guardian newspaper, he merely thinks it “improbable” that humanity will survive “beyond the 21st century without a lapse back into barbarism.”


America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism by Anatol Lieven

"World Economic Forum" Davos, American ideology, British Empire, centre right, cognitive dissonance, colonial rule, cuban missile crisis, desegregation, driverless car, European colonialism, failed state, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, full employment, Gunnar Myrdal, illegal immigration, income inequality, laissez-faire capitalism, mass immigration, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, millennium bug, mittelstand, Monroe Doctrine, moral hazard, moral panic, new economy, Norman Mailer, oil shock, open immigration, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan, Seymour Hersh, Thomas L Friedman, Timothy McVeigh, World Values Survey, Y2K

Millenarian beliefs also indirectly influence a wider American "ecology of fear," to use the phrase coined by Mike Davis for Los Angeles, and therefore a wider culture of national paranoia and aggression.119 As Paul Boyer points out in his magisterial book on this subject, the strength of millenarian feelings among a minority of Americans means that they have also had an effect on wider culture, feeding into Hollywood films such as the Omen series, science fiction novels and pop music.120 146 A N T I T H E S I S PART II: F U N D A M E N T A L I S T S AND GREAT F E A R S Often these fantasies have a racial edge. Thus in 1999 Jerry Falwell warned his followers to prepare for possible chaos as a result of computer meltdown (consequent on the so-called Y2K or Millennium Bug problem) by stocking up on essential supplies. These he said should include arms and ammunition, to protect the well provided (the Careful Virgins, if you will) against the hungry and improvident others—and we can be pretty sure what colors he imagined those others were going to be. Drawing once again on "Heartland" anti-immigrant and antiurban sentiments, much of apocalyptic literature is set amid urban collapse and upheaval.


pages: 655 words: 156,367

The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era by Gary Gerstle

2021 United States Capitol attack, A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, air traffic controllers' union, Airbnb, Alan Greenspan, Alvin Toffler, anti-communist, AOL-Time Warner, Bear Stearns, behavioural economics, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, Black Lives Matter, blue-collar work, borderless world, Boris Johnson, Brexit referendum, British Empire, Broken windows theory, business cycle, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, Cass Sunstein, collective bargaining, Cornelius Vanderbilt, coronavirus, COVID-19, creative destruction, crony capitalism, cuban missile crisis, David Brooks, David Graeber, death from overwork, defund the police, deindustrialization, democratizing finance, Deng Xiaoping, desegregation, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Donald Trump, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, European colonialism, Ferguson, Missouri, financial deregulation, financial engineering, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, Frederick Winslow Taylor, full employment, future of work, Future Shock, George Floyd, George Gilder, gig economy, Glass-Steagall Act, global supply chain, green new deal, Greenspan put, guns versus butter model, Haight Ashbury, Henry Ford's grandson gave labor union leader Walter Reuther a tour of the company’s new, automated factory…, Ida Tarbell, immigration reform, informal economy, invention of the printing press, invisible hand, It's morning again in America, Jeff Bezos, John Perry Barlow, Kevin Kelly, Kitchen Debate, low interest rates, Lyft, manufacturing employment, market fundamentalism, Martin Wolf, mass incarceration, Menlo Park, microaggression, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, millennium bug, Modern Monetary Theory, money market fund, Mont Pelerin Society, mortgage debt, mutually assured destruction, Naomi Klein, neoliberal agenda, new economy, New Journalism, Northern Rock, obamacare, Occupy movement, oil shock, open borders, Peter Thiel, Philip Mirowski, Powell Memorandum, precariat, price stability, public intellectual, Ralph Nader, Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan, scientific management, Seymour Hersh, sharing economy, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley ideology, Silicon Valley startup, social distancing, Steve Bannon, Steve Jobs, Stewart Brand, Strategic Defense Initiative, super pumped, technoutopianism, Telecommunications Act of 1996, The Bell Curve by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Chicago School, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas L Friedman, too big to fail, Uber and Lyft, uber lyft, union organizing, urban decay, urban renewal, War on Poverty, Washington Consensus, We are all Keynesians now, We are the 99%, white flight, Whole Earth Catalog, WikiLeaks, women in the workforce, Works Progress Administration, Y2K, Yom Kippur War

“Watching for the Y2K Bug,” New York Times, December 30, 1999, 26; Andy Beckett, “The Bug That Didn’t Bite,” The Guardian, April 24, 2000, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2000/apr/24/y2k.g2, accessed August 12, 2021; Francine Uenuma, “20 Years Later, the Y2K Bug Seems Like a Joke—Because Those Behind the Scenes Took It Seriously,” Time, December 30, 2019, https://time.com/5752129/y2k-bug-history/, accessed August 12, 2021. For a cache of the contemporary reporting of the New York Times on the millennium bug, see https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/reference/millennium-index.html, accessed August 12, 2021. 2.Jeffrey Toobin, Too Close to Call: The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decode the 2000 Election (New York: Random House, 2001); Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A.


pages: 554 words: 168,114

Oil: Money, Politics, and Power in the 21st Century by Tom Bower

"World Economic Forum" Davos, addicted to oil, Alan Greenspan, An Inconvenient Truth, Ayatollah Khomeini, banking crisis, bonus culture, California energy crisis, corporate governance, credit crunch, energy security, Exxon Valdez, falling living standards, fear of failure, financial engineering, forensic accounting, Global Witness, index fund, interest rate swap, John Deuss, Korean Air Lines Flight 007, kremlinology, land bank, LNG terminal, Long Term Capital Management, margin call, megaproject, Meghnad Desai, Mikhail Gorbachev, millennium bug, MITM: man-in-the-middle, Nelson Mandela, new economy, North Sea oil, offshore financial centre, oil shale / tar sands, oil shock, Oscar Wyatt, passive investing, peak oil, Piper Alpha, price mechanism, price stability, Ronald Reagan, shareholder value, short selling, Silicon Valley, sovereign wealth fund, transaction costs, transfer pricing, zero-sum game, éminence grise

While an appeal was prepared, he ordered his staff to start lobbying against Pitofsky in Congress and the White House. John Gore returned from London to offer Fuller, Bowlin and Bob Healy, Arco’s experienced lobbyist, “a list of talking points to push on Capitol Hill.” “One idea is that we should urge swift approval,” said Gore, “because 2000 is coming and we must be ready for the Millennium Bug.” Healy roared with laughter. “The FTC could say then wait until after 2000.” Gore was unamused: “We have to do this because that is what John Browne wants.” No one, Byron Grote reminded them all, said “no” to John Browne. “We’re going to spin it in this way,” he ordered. Healy became disenchanted that while Bowlin and Arco’s directors waited impatiently for big payoffs regardless of the company’s fate, the British refused to listen to any American advice.


pages: 568 words: 164,014

Dawn of the Code War: America's Battle Against Russia, China, and the Rising Global Cyber Threat by John P. Carlin, Garrett M. Graff

1960s counterculture, A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, Aaron Swartz, air gap, Andy Carvin, Apple II, Bay Area Rapid Transit, bitcoin, Brian Krebs, business climate, cloud computing, cotton gin, cryptocurrency, data acquisition, Deng Xiaoping, disinformation, driverless car, drone strike, dual-use technology, eat what you kill, Edward Snowden, fake news, false flag, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, Hacker Ethic, information security, Internet of things, James Dyson, Jeff Bezos, John Gilmore, John Markoff, John Perry Barlow, Ken Thompson, Kevin Roose, Laura Poitras, Mark Zuckerberg, Menlo Park, millennium bug, Minecraft, Mitch Kapor, moral hazard, Morris worm, multilevel marketing, Network effects, new economy, Oklahoma City bombing, out of africa, packet switching, peer-to-peer, peer-to-peer model, performance metric, RAND corporation, ransomware, Reflections on Trusting Trust, Richard Stallman, Robert Metcalfe, Ronald Reagan, Saturday Night Live, self-driving car, shareholder value, side project, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Skype, Snapchat, South China Sea, Steve Crocker, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Steven Levy, Stewart Brand, Stuxnet, The Hackers Conference, Tim Cook: Apple, trickle-down economics, Wargames Reagan, Whole Earth Catalog, Whole Earth Review, WikiLeaks, Y2K, zero day, zero-sum game

It’s for warriors now.”80 Throughout government and the private sector, the arrival of the millennium underscored just how tightly organizations had integrated technology into their systems without realizing the potential downsides. As the final minutes of December 31, 1999, ticked away, Shawn Henry was locked inside the FBI’s special Y2K command center. He—and hundreds of others across the government—nervously waited to see whether the millennium bug would wreak havoc. The Y2K problem was that computer programs that had relied on just two digits to display the year (“112189” for November 21, 1989, for instance) were suddenly presented with the prospect of their calculations being off by a century as 1999 ticked over to 2000.81 People feared that planes would fall from the sky, ATMs would cease to function, and employee records or accounting software would go haywire as programs struggled to account for years of conflicting data.


pages: 708 words: 176,708

The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to US Empire by Wikileaks

affirmative action, anti-communist, banking crisis, battle of ideas, Boycotts of Israel, Bretton Woods, British Empire, capital controls, central bank independence, Chelsea Manning, colonial exploitation, colonial rule, corporate social responsibility, credit crunch, cuban missile crisis, Deng Xiaoping, drone strike, Edward Snowden, energy security, energy transition, European colonialism, eurozone crisis, experimental subject, F. W. de Klerk, facts on the ground, failed state, financial innovation, Food sovereignty, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, full employment, future of journalism, high net worth, invisible hand, Julian Assange, Kickstarter, liberal world order, Mikhail Gorbachev, millennium bug, Mohammed Bouazizi, Monroe Doctrine, Nelson Mandela, no-fly zone, Northern Rock, nuclear ambiguity, Philip Mirowski, post-war consensus, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, Seymour Hersh, Silicon Valley, South China Sea, statistical model, Strategic Defense Initiative, structural adjustment programs, too big to fail, trade liberalization, trade route, UNCLOS, UNCLOS, uranium enrichment, vertical integration, Washington Consensus, WikiLeaks, zero-sum game, éminence grise

Pratt, chair of Pfizer Plc, attended GATT negotiations as the official advisor to the US trade representative, and he remarked: “Our combined strength enabled us to establish a global private sector government network which laid the groundwork for what became TRIPs.” Edmund J. Pratt, “Intellectual Property Rights and International Trade,” Pfizer Forum, 1996, quoted in “WTO Millennium Bug: TNC Control Over Global Trade Politics,” Corporate Europe Observer 4 (July 1999). 56See “Remarks by Ralph G. Neas on Trans Pacific Partnership,” Pharmacy Times, December 17, 2014. 57Simon Lester, “The WTO vs. the TPP,” Huffington Post, May 2, 2014, at huffingtonpost.com. 58“WikiLeaks Reveals True Intent of Secret TiSA Trade Talks,” ITUC, June 26, 2014, at ituc-csi.org. 59http://wikileaks.org/tisa-financial/Analysis-of-secret-tisa-financial-annex.pdf.


The Concepts and Practice of Mathematical Finance by Mark S. Joshi

Black-Scholes formula, Brownian motion, correlation coefficient, Credit Default Swap, currency risk, delta neutral, discrete time, Emanuel Derman, financial engineering, fixed income, implied volatility, incomplete markets, interest rate derivative, interest rate swap, London Interbank Offered Rate, martingale, millennium bug, power law, quantitative trading / quantitative finance, risk free rate, short selling, stochastic process, stochastic volatility, the market place, time value of money, transaction costs, value at risk, volatility smile, yield curve, zero-coupon bond

If a good fit cannot be obtained then it is probably time to consider a different parametric form, or to consider whether there's an economic reason to expect a lack of time-homogeneity. For example, interest rate volatilities for the millennium period were much higher because of worries about the millennium bug. Similarly, volatilities tend to be much higher around uncertain U.S. presidential elections. If we do believe in a good reason for the lack of time-homogeneity, we might want to try a fitting function of the form h(t)g(t1 - t), with h reflecting the expected information arrival rate, whilst g reflects the sensitivity of the forward rate f1 to the information. 14.5 The instantaneous correlations between forward rates We have seen that for certain options assessing the amount of decorrelation between neighbouring forward rates is crucial for pricing.


The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America by Margaret O'Mara

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, accounting loophole / creative accounting, affirmative action, Airbnb, Alan Greenspan, AltaVista, Alvin Toffler, Amazon Web Services, An Inconvenient Truth, AOL-Time Warner, Apple II, Apple's 1984 Super Bowl advert, autonomous vehicles, back-to-the-land, barriers to entry, Ben Horowitz, Berlin Wall, Big Tech, Black Lives Matter, Bob Noyce, Buckminster Fuller, Burning Man, business climate, Byte Shop, California gold rush, Californian Ideology, carried interest, clean tech, clean water, cloud computing, cognitive dissonance, commoditize, company town, Compatible Time-Sharing System, computer age, Computer Lib, continuous integration, cuban missile crisis, Danny Hillis, DARPA: Urban Challenge, deindustrialization, different worldview, digital divide, Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life?, don't be evil, Donald Trump, Doomsday Clock, Douglas Engelbart, driverless car, Dynabook, Edward Snowden, El Camino Real, Elon Musk, en.wikipedia.org, Erik Brynjolfsson, Fairchild Semiconductor, Frank Gehry, Future Shock, Gary Kildall, General Magic , George Gilder, gig economy, Googley, Hacker Ethic, Hacker News, high net worth, hockey-stick growth, Hush-A-Phone, immigration reform, income inequality, industrial research laboratory, informal economy, information retrieval, invention of movable type, invisible hand, Isaac Newton, It's morning again in America, Jeff Bezos, Joan Didion, job automation, job-hopping, John Gilmore, John Markoff, John Perry Barlow, Julian Assange, Kitchen Debate, knowledge economy, knowledge worker, Larry Ellison, Laura Poitras, Lyft, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, market bubble, Mary Meeker, mass immigration, means of production, mega-rich, Menlo Park, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, millennium bug, Mitch Kapor, Mother of all demos, move fast and break things, mutually assured destruction, Neil Armstrong, new economy, Norbert Wiener, old-boy network, Palm Treo, pattern recognition, Paul Graham, Paul Terrell, paypal mafia, Peter Thiel, pets.com, pirate software, popular electronics, pre–internet, prudent man rule, Ralph Nader, RAND corporation, Richard Florida, ride hailing / ride sharing, risk tolerance, Robert Metcalfe, ROLM, Ronald Reagan, Salesforce, Sand Hill Road, Second Machine Age, self-driving car, shareholder value, Sheryl Sandberg, side hustle, side project, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley ideology, Silicon Valley startup, skunkworks, Snapchat, social graph, software is eating the world, Solyndra, speech recognition, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Steven Levy, Stewart Brand, Strategic Defense Initiative, supercomputer in your pocket, Susan Wojcicki, tacit knowledge, tech billionaire, tech worker, technoutopianism, Ted Nelson, TED Talk, the Cathedral and the Bazaar, the market place, the new new thing, The Soul of a New Machine, There's no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home - Ken Olsen, Thomas L Friedman, Tim Cook: Apple, Timothy McVeigh, transcontinental railway, Twitter Arab Spring, Uber and Lyft, uber lyft, Unsafe at Any Speed, upwardly mobile, Vannevar Bush, War on Poverty, Wargames Reagan, WarGames: Global Thermonuclear War, We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters, Whole Earth Catalog, WikiLeaks, William Shockley: the traitorous eight, work culture , Y Combinator, Y2K

If the machines thought we’d returned to the year 1900, everything from electrical grids to air traffic systems would go haywire. “The new millennium heralds the greatest challenge to society that we have to face as a planetary community,” warned The Times of India ominously. The industry estimated that eliminating the “Millennium Bug” would cost $1.5 trillion. Perennially cash-strapped governments faced a hefty bill as well; governments ultimately would spend $6.5 billion on the fix.18 The thing that was a bane for big cities and big companies was a windfall for the software services business, and the rush to reprogram created a white-hot demand for coders that far exceeded supply.


pages: 872 words: 259,208

A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr

air freight, Albert Einstein, anti-communist, battle of ideas, Beeching cuts, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, Bletchley Park, Bob Geldof, Bretton Woods, British Empire, Brixton riot, clean water, collective bargaining, computer age, congestion charging, cuban missile crisis, deindustrialization, Etonian, falling living standards, fear of failure, Fellow of the Royal Society, financial independence, floating exchange rates, full employment, gentleman farmer, Herbert Marcuse, housing crisis, illegal immigration, Kickstarter, liberal capitalism, Live Aid, loadsamoney, market design, mass immigration, means of production, Mikhail Gorbachev, millennium bug, Neil Kinnock, Nelson Mandela, new economy, North Sea oil, Northern Rock, offshore financial centre, open borders, out of africa, Parkinson's law, Piper Alpha, post-war consensus, Red Clydeside, reserve currency, Right to Buy, road to serfdom, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, strikebreaker, upwardly mobile, Winter of Discontent, working poor, Yom Kippur War

It first began to attract popular interest in the mid-nineties: Britain’s first internet café and internet magazine, reviewing a few hundred early websites, were both launched in 1994. The following year saw the beginning of internet shopping as a major pastime, with both eBay and Amazon arriving, though for tiny numbers of people at first. It was a time of immense optimism, despite warnings that the whole digital world would collapse because of the ‘millennium bug’ – the alleged inability of computers to deal with the last two digits in ‘2000’, which was taken very seriously at the time. In fact, the bubble was burst by its own excessive expansion, like any bubble, and after a pause and a lot of ruined dreams, the ‘new economy’ roared on again. By 2000, according to the Office of National Statistics, around 40 per cent of Britons had accessed the internet at some time.


In Europe by Geert Mak

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Berlin Wall, British Empire, classic study, clean water, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, European colonialism, Ford Model T, German hyperinflation, Great Leap Forward, Herbert Marcuse, illegal immigration, Louis Blériot, Mahatma Gandhi, Marshall McLuhan, mass immigration, means of production, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, millennium bug, new economy, New Urbanism, post-war consensus, Prenzlauer Berg, Sinatra Doctrine, Suez canal 1869, the medium is the message, urban renewal

Below that, thirty-six names, thirty-six boys, enough to fill the village café. 1999 was the year of the euro, of the general proliferation of the mobile phone, of Internet for all and sundry, of bridges bombed at Novi Sad, of jubilant stock markets in Amsterdam and London, of the hottest September in living memory, of the fear that the millennium bug would drive all computers crazy on 1 January. In Vásárosbéc, 1999 was the last year the ragman made his rounds with horse and cart. I had the good fortune of being there on that historic day: he had bought himself a truck. That same spring, four unemployed Gypsies had begun work paving yet another stretch of the sandy road, perhaps even with a layer of tarmac this time.


pages: 1,169 words: 342,959

New York by Edward Rutherfurd

Bonfire of the Vanities, British Empire, Charles Lindbergh, Cornelius Vanderbilt, cotton gin, gentrification, Glass-Steagall Act, illegal immigration, margin call, millennium bug, out of africa, place-making, plutocrats, rent control, short selling, Silicon Valley, South Sea Bubble, the market place, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, urban renewal, white picket fence, Y2K, young professional

Had it changed in the last year? He sketched a situation at a company in which he was a minority shareholder. What would be Gorham’s advice if they wanted to approach a commercial bank for a loan? They talked about their families, and Gorham and Maggie learned that Peter and Judy had lost a son. They discussed the millennium bug. Were all the world’s computers really going to crash when the date went to zero? “The bank has spent a fortune preparing for it,” Gorham said, “but Maggie reckons nothing will happen at all.” He was also curious to know what areas Peter was looking to invest in next. “America will continue to be our core business,” Peter said, “Europe, less and less.