Off on the summer cruise - Kingston-on-Thames, mid 1970s

Praktica LTL - Pentacon 50mm 1.2, Ilford B&W

The Cannibal South - An inferiority complex-ridden region depends on eating its own.

From How Things Work
by Hamilton Nolan

The Cannibal South - An inferiority complex-ridden region depends on eating its own.

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-cannibal-south

“New York and California Each Lost $1 Trillion When Financial Firms Moved South” a Bloomberg headline blared this week. The headline itself was journalistic malpractice—in fact, the $1 trillion it referred to was the combined amount of assets managed by all of the financial firms who moved, a number designed to look big in a news story but that tells you little about the actual economic impact of these firms leaving. Now we are sure to get politicians waving that headline around clamoring for tax cuts, and frantic residents assuming that New York, a state with a $229 billion annual budget, has fallen $771 billion in the hole thanks to the decline in bottle service revenue from Wall Street analysts who relocated to Miami.

Still, the underlying trend is real. Since the Covid pandemic struck in 2020, more than two million people have migrated to the six fastest growing states in the South, bringing with them $100 billion in new income. This population shift is held up by Southern governors as proof of the success of their policies—and as a herald of an ongoing shift in the balance of economic power that is bound to continue due to the South’s inherent advantages. What spurred this grand relocation? Traditional wisdom will tell you that it was the more relaxed and open posture of Southern states like Florida during the Covid pandemic, along with the perpetual allures of warmer weather, lower taxes, and more affordable housing prices.

In reality, though, this current sloshing of America towards its drain is not the start of anything new at all. It is spurred not by any new economic paradigm, nor by any Texan or Floridian governor’s new ideas about unleashing the power of free enterprise under the nation’s sunniest skies. It is, instead, a normal reaction to a temporary rise in the appeal of something that the South has been offering for more than 200 years. Politicians will tell you that the South is attractive because it offers greater freedom. Actually, it offers cannibalism: it is willing to kill and eat its own to fuel a marginal improvement in your lifestyle. Don’t let this deal pass you by!

A right swipe or a left swipe? Asking for a friend.

London in the 1970s

Waiting for a job


Back to work in the City


Soho Square

Some photos that I might have lost - But thanks to Old Crank and a scanner, I have recovered

All the pictures here were made from around 1975-1979 in England, using a Praktica LTL3 with a Pentacon 1.8 50mm lens on either Ilford or Kodak film.

Covent Garden juggler - What goes up, must come down


Covent Garden - Listening to the minstrel


Irene in the sea - Devon

Ideal meme for trolls

The piano man

The piano man - 7 September 2019 - Bologna - iPhone6s -

Maybe I should have used these for the August contest

"In the clearing stands a boxer....."

An historical factoid regarding Loser and Warren G. Harding -

Aug. 2, 1923: Warren G. Harding dies in office.
Aug. 2, 2023: Trump deals with fallout after being indicted for desecrating his office.
100 years to the day!
Of course, while fun, it's pointless.