"Until the eighteenth century, we hanged guilty animals, after a formal condemnation, for causing a man's death. We even hanged horses" - Michel Foucault.
Some things are simply too surreal - the duck-billed platypus, a cap-and-trade scheme alongside a protectionist carbon tax on imports as a cure-all for climate change, your average Werner Herzog movie, the concept of 'new-men', and the mainstream media obsession with Michael Owen/ mainstream media obsession with Goldchip Bookmakers (one or the other...).
Michael Owen to lead the Manchester United attack is self-harming enough for Sir Ferguson but his new business venture with Sir Frost, aAim Capital Finance, is taking his current wave of self-destructiveness to new levels - commercial property is not a good bet as we approach the worst phase of the Depression.
Indeed, oversight bodies on both sides of the Atlantic have stated that bank stress tests should be repeated as the full current risk of commercial property has been excluded from the projections.
Buying in at a perceived bottom is only a good idea if a) you are not buying a toxic asset, and b) there is no longer term macro-systemic risk related to the purchase.
Michael Owen represents the former and any venture into commercial property the latter, so what is to be done?
Sir Ferguson started one of his periodic windows of losing-the-plot in the lead up to the Champions League Final window.
We strongly suspected from the match performance that team spirit had been punctured pre-match but it was only after the match that an array of contacts have filled us in on the hyperreality of the Barcelona match.
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What was Sir Ferguson thinking?
Was he thinking commercial property?
The aAim venture with Sir David Frost is set up with £1 billion of Middle East investment. Buying at a perceived but fake market bottom is only practical if one is able to take a seriously long term perspective (think Berkshire Hathaway) AND there are no holistic matrices that suggest serious supersystemic risk.
aAim fails to take aim at either of these targets.
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There is no market to compete in and the external investment is fluid.
The Michael Owen gamble is more entertaining still.
Owen was on the verge of joining Hull City...
Longer term Football Is Fixed readers will know that Owen has a little bit of form when the word 'gambling' is in the vicinity.
To put it in a nut-shell, Owen's business partner is Steve Smith, who runs Goldchip Bookmakers - a private bookmaking firm that has historically focused heavily on England international matches.
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As Owen is being rewarded by performance rather than by basic salary, we have a neat little hierarchy of incentives here.
As professionally (as a footballer, at least), Owen is past his sell-by date by some distance, the overperformance-for-financial-reward incentive is not on the table.
But little Michael has to pay for his helicopter somehow, so what other options does our ################################################## have up his sleeve?
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Perhaps what is happening is that Sir Ferguson is trying to rundown his legacy before taking over the United Kingdom Disunited team for the 2012 Olympics nonsense?
By leaving United in a parlous state, whoever takes over after him will be left with a dysfunctional business with ropy finances.
Sir Ferguson understands better than most that winning the Champions League and Premier League every year in order to breakeven financially is not a viable business model.
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Peter Taylor: "United create so many chances it wouldn't surprise me if Michael is the Premier League's top scorer next year. And I'm sure he'll be on the plane to South Africa [for the World Cup] next summer."
And, if he is on the plane, we guarantee that England will not win the World Cup.
Rob Lee: "It's a piece of genius management... It's no gamble."
By Steve Smith, the management has undoubtedly been slick - ###############
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As for it not being a gamble.
It is.
And in every sense of the word...
When not amassing a private fortune, Sir Ferguson has found the time to tell us that the Premier League is "a league with the best integrity in the world."
Sir Ferguson, with his horseracing and property interests and longevity in the game, must understand the hyperreality of the signing of Michael Owen, with his horseracing and property interests and longevity in the game.
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The Owen Affair also reveals the role of PR companies in dictating the 'news' that we view.
Owen hasn't been out of the papers since the 32 page PR brochure was produced at the conclusion of the season.
Mainstream football journalists are either gutter or inept and Michael Owen sells papers. Truth has nothing to do with anything, of course, just random variations on the hyperreality with a fine sprinkling of rampant disinformation serves the cause nicely.
A few weeks ago, John Barnes said, after accepting the Tranmere Rovers job: "I think there is still a race barrier in this country."
But being a variation on apartheid-era South Africa is apparently not worthy of further consideration in the press.
After all, there was the Owen PR document to promote.
In the Infantile Solipsis of ScudamoreWorld, stuck in the excruciating slap-stick of the summer transfer window, this is no longer football.
There is nothing left to be done in this place.
Vladimir Voinovich: "Something has been clarified here, but something remains obscure."
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