Be Careful Very Careful

As the good ship "HMS Government" sails into the unknown regions of next week and next month many perils of the deep await it.

They are on all the maps, if the navigator knows how to look at them, and the risks are evident from the many wrecks of governments that have gone before them.

Some of the hazards are below water, but because the lookout cannot see them then they are assumed not to be there, despite all the evidence.  Some of them are all too evident, sticking up for all to see.  But because a course is plotted this is no reason to avoid them.

The care of the aged is one outcrop of rocks for which the ship of state is now headed.  This story from the Independent is about what is going on in money terms in this area of provision where the financial operators collide with social need.  This is not the first time and all the signs are of a major crisis in the making.

Do we really want our care homes and related facilities run by Hedge Funds engaged in high intensity trading volumes?  Why not the Hospices as well?  Could their rate of turnover could be calculated in algorithms to predict viability of funding turnover?

One can almost hear the phone call to the manager telling him that the termination rate needs improving and not to worry about the coroner, that can be fixed.  And hey, do these cost units really need feeding and liquids and by the way turn off the heating?

Then there is retirement housing.  That could be worked on to enable added activity in collateralised debt obligations.  But wait, it seems that most of the freeholds in this sector are owned ultimately by a major offshore trust in lien to Deutsche Bank.

Deutsche Bank is in control of much of our retirement housing?

Oh dear.