Wednesday 26 May 2010

Stephen Green ain't leaving HSBC

Is that news, someone ain't leaving somewhere? Well, it must be because you're here reading it, ain't ya? In further news, Bob Diamond ain't leaving Barclays Capital. And for those of you who really like to be tuned in to all that ain't happening, Lloyd Blankfein ain't leaving Goldman Sachs.

Ain't that a shame?!

Not really. But back to the executive chairman of HSBC, Mr Stephen Green. Oh, he will be leaving eventually. Everyone leaves eventually. Just not yet. He's not leaving yet. And we're not leaving yet. WE WILL REMAIN ON THIS COLD EARTH.

For the foreseeable future.

Of course. But back to the executive chairman of HSBC, Mr Stephen Green. I'm getting all Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Is there an echo in here?

It's eternal recurrence! That's what it is. Nothing less than eternal recurrence!

O my child, if you're finished with giving me your amateur opinion, maybe I can get back to the executive chairman of HSBC, Mr Stephen Green.

Take it away!

Okay, I know I'm not the ********* ****, but I do need to put a quote in here: 'When the sound and wholesome nature of man acts as an entirety, when he feels himself in the world as in a grand, beautiful, worthy and worthwhile whole, when this harmonious comfort affords him a pure, untrammelled delight: then the universe, if it could be sensible of itself, would shout for joy at having attained its goal and wonder at the pinnacle of its own essence and evolution. For what end is served by all the expenditure of suns and planets and moons, of stars and Milky Ways, of comets and nebula, of worlds evolving and passing away, if at last a happy man does not involuntarily rejoice in his existence?' That's Goethe.

O Master, it's a really wonderful quote. I'm welling up over here. But what's the connection with Stephen Green? How's it relevant?

It's not relevant at all. But it was you who said there won't be tomorrow, I mean, it was you who mentioned eternal recurrence, so there will be endless tomorrows, and I had to look it up in my copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Is that my voice? Yes. I had to look it up, and I found the Goethe quote in the introduction.

Oh, so you are the ********* ****, then?

I most certainly am not!

You're worse than him! At least he doesn't go flying off at a tangent.

Fuck off!