Thanks LOVEFiLM!

The two of us are subscribers to Lovefilm (which was acquired by Amazon early in 2011).  I've been a bit suspicious about the service quality over the last few months, mainly because neither of us can remember ordering a lot of the DVDs that arrive.

This month was no exception.  Neither of us ordered Insider Job, which confirmed what we suspected - Lovefilm is sending out films that were not ordered, probably based on previous selections and probably due to a need not to hold too much stock.

Anyway, it was an interesting film which exposes the links between the US government and the major investment banks.  In particular, it looks at what happened during the 2007-8 crisis - and the preferential treatment doled out by the US government.  Primarily, in my opinion, at the expense of private investors and workers all over the globe.

Famously, Al Capone said of wild market speculation in the late 1920s: "its a racket".  This has come to mind a lot recently as I've watched the collapse in Facebook's share price (down 30% as of today), and as I watched the narrator of Inside Job describe how, whilst selling pension funds "triple A" subprime-based loans, were betting they would fail (and bringing down major insurers like AIG at the same time).  These people have no scruples, and watching them get a hard time from US elected representatives was reasonably entertaining.

Why's this all relevant?  Well, it made me think: the markets are always going to be manipulated by bankers (at least until governments either heavily regulate them or nationalise the retail bits), which makes investing for retirement a very long and stressful game.  I am not sure it is a lesson, but it is certainly a thought: make sure that stocks that are bought are in companies that make things that people actually need.  Structured, complex products are difficult to understand (even for those who are paid full time to do so), so avoid them.

Interesting stock to think about?  De La Rue prints money for 150 countries worldwide (that's more than 90% of them!), and no matter what you think of money and the way it is managed, a common language that governments can print to steal from investors and their populations are going to stick around for a long time - and with a 4.2% dividend, I should probably get involved.  They are almost certainly printing drachma already!