The scary thing is that this is just as relevant now in 2023 as it was when it was originally filmed. Nothing has changed. The rich get richer (and more numerous), and the poor get, well, shafted... as has become 'tradition'...
I don't know what the world would do without British humor. Sheer genius in taking a very important but very hard to understand topic and making it incredibly entertaining and informative.
The post office privatisation sketch they do is Political Satire at its best. Two quotes from that sketch that never fail to make me laugh are "Have you ever tried to live on £150.000 a year? Its next door to impossible" and "Its not just international competition we have to worry about, as we may not be alone in the universe, the possibility of extra-terrestrial post offices, does exist. And we can't be sure, but they may have just spotted this niche in the market"
If you notice here, the eyelines of both Johns are not facing each other as they used to in their earlier chats. From around 2007 they would have their lines written on autocue and would read them off. This was down to the ill health of John Fortune who found it hard to remember these conversations. The two Johns in the early years would ad lib most of these wonderful conversations, however by 2007 they began using cue cards or autocue. Remember 2008 was the last year of a full series of Bremner, Bird and Fortune, however they would continue with specials until 2010.
WONDERFULLY entertaining, they had no equal. Satire it'self, was seemingly banned from our TV screens. Along with impersonation of Political targets in general
These two have been doing this for years now. I think they are the most overlooked comedians of recentish years. Got lots to say on this not sure about word limit here. Might have to start a blog. In short im a fan
In theory, securitization should work. If you put a lot of loans with a certain probability of failure together, the combined thing should have a smaller probability of failure since it's an average. In practice it doesn't work because almost all the individual loans fail.
Not quite. You have a bunch of AAA loans wrapping a bunch of subprime loans in these financial instruments, but the AAA reduces the average risk, which made it easy for the Rating Agencies to rate them as lower risk than they really are. They found it easy to do so, as they were paid by the issuing banks to do so.
This is a much shorter, and a lot more satirical version of the same subject as the film The Big Short, which I recommend. As Ms McCarthy here in the comments said, we miss you, John Bird.
Dry humour of a real topic, the way things should be treated, and we do this so well over here, that is, in the past. We used to have satire as a staple diet here in England, but over the years things have become more controlled
Also in theory it doesn't work - for the law of large numbers to make the combination be more stable, the individual outcomes need to be independent (i.e. non-correlated). By analogy, when your individual probabilities are independent, it's like making bets on 100 coin tosses: you can be very sure how many times you'l win. When the individual probabilities are correlated it's like making 100 bets on one coin toss - you're either going to win big or lose big.
Credit default swap is basically one lender exchanging it's bad debt with another lender to avoid having to admit the money is irrecoverable, when really it doesn't even exist, and thus they can leave it on their balance sheet as an asset, thereby perpetuating the illusion that there is no bad debt.
Read TheBank of England Q1 2014 Bulletin two short articles on “Money Creation in the Modern Economy.” You’ll be laughing with shock. Private commercial banks get to create 97% of the UK money supply out of nothing. They call it “borrowing.” The first casualty of the class war was language. Since 1694, when the then private Bank of England was founded.
If you notice here, the eyelines of both Johns are not facing each other as they used to in their earlier chats. From around 2007 they would have their lines written on autocue and would read them off. This was down to the ill health of John Fortune who found it hard to remember these conversations. The two Johns in the early years would ad lib most of these wonderful conversations, however by 2007 they began using cue cards or autocue. Remember 2008 was the last year of a full series of Bremner, Bird and Fortune, however they would continue with specials until 2010.
If it's humour it's british if it isn't british is not humour it is something else, maybe funny, maybe hilarious but humour is some cartesian stuff like I think therefore i laugh and no one in this world are so able to make you do that as the british do.
...if an office cleaner went to the government and threatened to go and clean an office in the Cayman Islands, the government would say "well piss off then" XD
As relevant today, yes. Superb comedy. How ironic. Just goes to show that whilst we sit around our "keep the masses happy and silent" boxes watching satire like this and feeling we've done our bit by watching it, the bastards have a free rein to continue being greedy, uncaring bastards. AND THEY ARE STILL DOING IT. Form a queue behind the guillotine.
Being born and brought-up in Brazil, English is not my mother language. Anyway I can understand John Fortune quite well but John Bird is a lot harder. He seems to "swallow" some syllables as he speaks. Why is that?
English is a stress-timed language unlike syllable-timed Portuguese, with equal stress.You just can't hear the unstressed parts of the word! Admittedly JF speaks quite slowly - Ill health as below, probably. BTW, hope the judges in Brazil unmask the bankers - all that illegal cash in circulation and hardly anyone noticed?
I'd rather Brown had just guaranteed everyone's (People & Companies in the UK or pays taxes in the UK) mortgages and other debts for the next 5 years and allowing the Banks to work their shit out without any bonuses
As relevant today as back in 2008. RIP John Bird. Superb ironic comedy at its best. Thank you.
Amen !
Yes! Hits nail on head. Banks are corrupt. They know they will be bailed out. Like USA sub-prime mortgages. $130 billion bale out.
Indeed, and apparently a lot of these sketches were largely ad-libbed too.
Fantastic talents, the both of them.
Good comment. Destroying every one of Thatcher’s rules has led us to where we are today….
RIP John Bird , thank you for the howls of laughter. Loved you both. RIP both John xxx
Nothing has changed ! This is satire at its best . Thank you both Johns , RIP.
The scary thing is that this is just as relevant now in 2023 as it was when it was originally filmed. Nothing has changed. The rich get richer (and more numerous), and the poor get, well, shafted... as has become 'tradition'...
GBE ANSWER @10:25
A REAL MVP
Marley24 lengend!!!
@Muslim Zukhurov
legend mate
😂😂😂😂
I don't know what the world would do without British humor. Sheer genius in taking a very important but very hard to understand topic and making it incredibly entertaining and informative.
Am slightly shocked that I now have a new understanding of why the crisis happened (I am 60). Really miss you both!
3 or 4 years old now, but having just see 'The Big Short' , this is probably the clearest explanation of International Finance I can think of
Best DOCUMENTARY on the 2008 financial crisis. Spot on. Genius.
@5:40, it was called a sub-prime mortgage.
Superb satire by two masters of the craft, sadly no longer with us. RIP John Bird.
The post office privatisation sketch they do is Political Satire at its best. Two quotes from that sketch that never fail to make me laugh are "Have you ever tried to live on £150.000 a year? Its next door to impossible" and "Its not just international competition we have to worry about, as we may not be alone in the universe, the possibility of extra-terrestrial post offices, does exist. And we can't be sure, but they may have just spotted this niche in the market"
Satire at its finest. Thank you Johns for all laughs you gave us - RIP.
Satire and truth presented at its best and educational way!
They never thought you those facts at Schools did they?!?
These two are just brilliant I am an enormous fan, its so good to laugh, they are so clever..
“Well, I don’t think there’s any call for insults or name-calling”.
Quality!
Nobody did biting satire like the two Johns. RIP.
If you notice here, the eyelines of both Johns are not facing each other as they used to in their earlier chats. From around 2007 they would have their lines written on autocue and would read them off. This was down to the ill health of John Fortune who found it hard to remember these conversations. The two Johns in the early years would ad lib most of these wonderful conversations, however by 2007 they began using cue cards or autocue. Remember 2008 was the last year of a full series of Bremner, Bird and Fortune, however they would continue with specials until 2010.
IMHO, they didn’t look at each other because they can’t do so without losing their seemingly seriousness. 😂😂
@@khangvutien2538 Yes, I've seen them struggling not to laugh many times. wonderful tallents, greatly missed.
Reminded me Yes, Prime Minister (episode Conflict of Interest).
Truly Gifted and Inspirational Sadly Missed! ..RIP
Best political satirists ever...wit at its best!!
WONDERFULLY entertaining, they had no equal. Satire it'self, was seemingly banned from our TV screens. Along with impersonation of Political targets in general
RIP John Bird.
"Stupidity and incompetence that's all" LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These two have been doing this for years now. I think they are the most overlooked comedians of recentish years. Got lots to say on this not sure about word limit here. Might have to start a blog. In short im a fan
Difficult questions like: where's the money gone?
RIP John Fortune
In theory, securitization should work. If you put a lot of loans with a certain probability of failure together, the combined thing should have a smaller probability of failure since it's an average. In practice it doesn't work because almost all the individual loans fail.
Not quite. You have a bunch of AAA loans wrapping a bunch of subprime loans in these financial instruments, but the AAA reduces the average risk, which made it easy for the Rating Agencies to rate them as lower risk than they really are. They found it easy to do so, as they were paid by the issuing banks to do so.
I saw John at bath theatre , such a talented man who mad us laugh and political humour.
This is a much shorter, and a lot more satirical version of the same subject as the film The Big Short, which I recommend. As Ms McCarthy here in the comments said, we miss you, John Bird.
Dry humour of a real topic, the way things should be treated, and we do this so well over here, that is, in the past. We used to have satire as a staple diet here in England, but over the years things have become more controlled
I was one of those that was stuffed! And I am bloody Spanish!
RIP both Johns - will we ever see their like again?
Brilliant. RIP.
I always thought John Fortune was Brilliant. R.I.P
& now we've lost Bird ;(
Also in theory it doesn't work - for the law of large numbers to make the combination be more stable, the individual outcomes need to be independent (i.e. non-correlated). By analogy, when your individual probabilities are independent, it's like making bets on 100 coin tosses: you can be very sure how many times you'l win. When the individual probabilities are correlated it's like making 100 bets on one coin toss - you're either going to win big or lose big.
Back in the dim and distant past when people understood satire. RIP John and John.
People still understand satire but, honestly, it's difficult to come up with more ridiculous jokes than reality.
Pure genius!
Brilliant. A one off
The Two Johns were magnificent satirists .... the very best! ....alas sometimes satire hurts like hell .... right now it hurts like hell.
Silicon Valley bank goes down and history repeats itself. "Except just this once"...
Credit default swap is basically one lender exchanging it's bad debt with another lender to avoid having to admit the money is irrecoverable, when really it doesn't even exist, and thus they can leave it on their balance sheet as an asset, thereby perpetuating the illusion that there is no bad debt.
Read TheBank of England Q1 2014 Bulletin two short articles on “Money Creation in the Modern Economy.”
You’ll be laughing with shock.
Private commercial banks get to create 97% of the UK money supply out of nothing.
They call it “borrowing.”
The first casualty of the class war was language.
Since 1694, when the then private Bank of England was founded.
Silly money should be common curriculum
brilliant! thank you.
Only one thing to say Superb!
So much of it reality...
Brilliant satire
The bottom line is greed, cunning and irresponsibility , in equal measure .
Superb.
So good. RIP namesake.
In the data age bankers take a stand against the organisation of data
Man, those chairs must have Been uncomfortable. They both kept shifting their positions in them every minute.
If you notice here, the eyelines of both Johns are not facing each other as they used to in their earlier chats. From around 2007 they would have their lines written on autocue and would read them off. This was down to the ill health of John Fortune who found it hard to remember these conversations. The two Johns in the early years would ad lib most of these wonderful conversations, however by 2007 they began using cue cards or autocue. Remember 2008 was the last year of a full series of Bremner, Bird and Fortune, however they would continue with specials until 2010.
If it's humour it's british if it isn't british is not humour it is something else, maybe funny, maybe hilarious but humour is some cartesian stuff like I think therefore i laugh and no one in this world are so able to make you do that as the british do.
the worrying thing is that this might be how bankers ACTUALLY think
Subliminal mind control @4:45
...if an office cleaner went to the government and threatened to go and clean an office in the Cayman Islands, the government would say "well piss off then"
XD
Awesome
Genius..
remember when we used to comment about Seinfeld ïts funny because its true, whats so sad is it applies to these guys
WE are having another reprise of the endless reprise FFS .
"The Big Short" in a nutshell.
Why... why are they taking about today? This is 11 years old.
As relevant today, yes. Superb comedy. How ironic. Just goes to show that whilst we sit around our "keep the masses happy and silent" boxes watching satire like this and feeling we've done our bit by watching it, the bastards have a free rein to continue being greedy, uncaring bastards. AND THEY ARE STILL DOING IT. Form a queue behind the guillotine.
Nail On Head.
Being born and brought-up in Brazil, English is not my mother language. Anyway I can understand John Fortune quite well but John Bird is a lot harder. He seems to "swallow" some syllables as he speaks. Why is that?
English is a stress-timed language unlike syllable-timed Portuguese, with equal stress.You just can't hear the unstressed parts of the word! Admittedly JF speaks quite slowly - Ill health as below, probably.
BTW, hope the judges in Brazil unmask the bankers - all that illegal cash in circulation and hardly anyone noticed?
I'd rather Brown had just guaranteed everyone's (People & Companies in the UK or pays taxes in the UK) mortgages and other debts for the next 5 years and allowing the Banks to work their shit out without any bonuses
Bankers are like priests. They too sometimes have human instincts.
I don't think the government liked this programme as it told the truth.
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
It is easy to blame investment bankers but i blame governments bailing them and standard banks out putting the burden on the citizens..
Too close to reality to be funny IMO...
it's not funny it's tragic
Just goes to show that satire is useless.
Other peoples money