Life on Mars?

I think that these "time warp" tele-dramas must be having some weird effect on the nation. What started with Life on Mars and now Ashes to Ashes has moved into the general economy.

In the Sunday papers and on the news this morning were several references to distinctly "old fashioned" events.

Nationalisation and Strikes.

Remember these? The good old days! The 3 day week, Winter of Discontent, Beer and Sandwiches at Number 10 and price controls.

We all thought this stuff was a thing of the past. Workers now too scared to lose their jobs to strike and the socialist dream of nationally owned business dead and buried. But these relics of our recent past serve only to remind us that the "new paradigm of the economy", so often referred to, is really only a new blanket thrown over an old sofa.

There is no doubt that these are wobbly times for business but at the same time the lessons of the past are worth re-visiting.

Warren Buffet, sage of Omaha and often referred to as the greatest investor ever uses times like these as opportunities. He has recently started to acquire stakes in distressed businesses that he believes are long term winners. His philosophy? Stick to what you know. If you don't understand the business keep away from it.
This may be a little simplistic but hey, who argues with a guy worth 56 Billion dollars?

More to the point, his positive sense that a turnaround will occur and to be well placed to profit from that fact is quite inspiring.

Although the news might sound like a clip from the 1970's, chances are that we have learned enough from the past not to endure a long, grey period such as that.

Who knows, in the upside down, celebrity obsessed culture we live in, maybe the Northern Rock will become the "must have" brand for the next few years and rather than striking for pay increases the new workers will instead strike for fame.