Stumbling Ahead , livre ebook

Stumbling Ahead
Thore Staff
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-05-31
Stumbling Ahead About the Author About the Book Copyright Information Adjusting Wrong Which Was Right André Being of Value Caribbean Xmas Conflict Solving Deal-Making Techniques Distribution of Principles Idiots Little Me Loss of Face Lots of Dalmatians Misery in Misery Reaction and Timing Related Challenges Relative Values Sailing Stop Stand In Taxing The Bride Not to Be The Conventionalist The Final Solution The Middle East The Tinkerer Unique Compensation Voodoo Experience What We Really Need to Decide Wonderful Ladies Wondering Wanderings Wonders We Want, All Year Worry, Me? Building Easter Journalism Changes Genealogy James, the Eternal Hater Moscow Visit Neither Me On the Edge The Congress Travelling Child Ways and Means When the Catastrophe Is Mine
About the Author
Thore Staff was born in Norway in a family working internationally for generations, which he also has done, meeting wonderful people, scheming bastards and quite likeable people, like you and him. This book makes his experiences yours and entertains you as well, like he did with his last book – Flashes in the Wake and Light Ahead.
About the Book
This Scandinavian sailed through life in his previous book of short stories Flashes in the Wake and Light Ahead .
Many readers enjoyed his observations along wonderful coasts and a few choppy stretches.
You might not have chosen the same harbours as him, but you’ll enjoy his company in this book of new challenges and experiences in the turbulent world of international trade. Getting there, but not always the easy way
Copyright Information
Copyright © Thore Staff (2019)
The right of Thore Staff to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528905329 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528957953 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ

All the stories here are true in the sense something like them happened to the author or close friends, but disguised here to not embarrass anyone, or to claim that there cannot be other interpretations of what took place! Historic facts are not tampered with and happenings without any seen consequences are not changed either.
With an open mind and a ready smile, we can expect more wonders as we stumble ahead in the direction we choose.
Thore Staff
Adjusting Wrong Which Was Right
“I am the Director in charge of investment regulations at the Finance Department,” said the voice on the telephone, and mentioned his well-known name.
“What can I do for you?” was my somewhat mystified response.
“Let us see what we can do together,” he said. “I am calling you concerning a mortgage you have brokered between the largest pension insurance company in the country, and a company wanting to build a large warehouse just outside Oslo.”
I accepted that this transaction had been agreed, adding that he probably also knew that it was the first of a completely new type of lease back loans – the legality of which had been thoroughly checked by the probably most respected tax specialist law firm in the country. “Well, that is the issue,” he continued. “There are very strict rules as to how insurance companies can invest the moneys entrusted them as premiums for future claims, especially concerning pensions. But there is another side to this, not much discussed – and that is that the regulations also give governments control over much of the credit market, really making these important actors in the finance market to invest in low yield projects, keeping them out of the higher risk market. And your system even introduces an inflation bonus on top of a low basic interest.”
“So, you are suggesting that our financing method will advance inflation in our country?”
“No, but it is logical that any influence it might prove to have on the market, most probably will be in the direction of unwanted, increased inflation.”
Theoretically, I had to agree. Our lawyers had found a loophole in the laws of company structures, investment controls and taxation, the size of a barn door. The single regulations were from different periods of time and really unrelated, but what was left of texts after numerous changes, together made sense of the interpretation of our lawyers. And the end result was that the insurance companies could spend a higher percentage of their investments on what the authorities considered higher risk projects, not listening to the trade’s guaranteed protest to come, that they would never invest in anything that could endanger the clients’ (future) money, no matter which financing system was to be used.
“I can see the way this conversation is drifting,” I said. “But you surely understand we already have invested and paid quite a lot of money for this project, which looked so promising.”
“That is why I am calling you, and not the lawyers,” said the Director. “They would have protected their findings, with some good reason, and might even have an economic interest in dragging your project through all the levels of courts, if my people decided to go that route, after having instituted new laws and regulations making your project illegal. As a lawyer with a doctorate in this field, I am not too sure of what the Supreme Court would decide, when they could be ready in three or four years. But it should be stressed that in cases where a losing government would be obliged to pay out enormous sums due to the court decisions, the government usually wins in the end – without too much attention to the finer points of law.”
“OK, what is the deal, which I of course have to discuss with our shareholders?”
“We’ll let you go through with this financing deal, making the commissions you have earned. You will sign a letter to us and your lawyers, which I’ll send you, where you declare this is a one off due to your understanding of this being in the interest of the country and the authorities, with no admittance of any own wrongdoing. If nothing goes wrong with this, we’ll not change the regulations and laws your lawyers refers to right now, but have them adjusted as necessary with other legal requirements, over time. I won’t see you in court – will I!”
End of story, after internal considerations, and a teeth-grinding conversation with our lawyers.
André
He was unique. Nobody was like him and nearly everybody loved him. I met him two days after I moved to my Spanish village. He just relieved me of some of the things I was carrying, and when he had deposited his part of the burden inside my new home, he told me that his name was André, and that he was French Canadian who for many years had been living next door with his wife Beatrice.
She was an equally helpful and wonderful person, also a superb cook, good for me staying without family or any catering knowledge, while refurbishing the house. Their only fault was that they did not drink proper whiskey, only something to do with gin, so I furnished them continuously with a bottle of good whiskey, and kept a bottle of their plunk in my house.
André had in Québec been sales manager of a paint company, and was the master of selling his goods to architects and builders – often while testing the golf courses. His grandfather came from Scotland as a regimental medical doctor, whereas Beatrice descended from a French shipping family. She had run several haut couture shops before retiring to Spain.
When we were together, you never knew what would happen next. They would always be on the lookout for helping somebody with something, which I often could not even imagine to be an issue. And so, they always met new people, delighted by being interesting to Beatrice and André. We met an awful lot of nice people this way, and some very queer ones! He had the gift of the gab, meaning that there was no limitation to the arguments he could muster for whatever cause he chose to promote. If he had a complaint about some communal service, the department heads would notice him approaching the entrance, and they would all be well out of the building rear door, before he entered. This was the only way they knew how to avoid agreeing to whatever he had decided was necessary.
They had an extremely old Citroen, which even André had to have inspected at intervals. Something was not quite as it should have been, so with the obviously legally unsafe technical paper in hand, André invited the inspector for a cup of coffee. An unknown number of minutes later the poor inspector was seen leaving the cafe with the document in his shaking hand.
We always had good time together, wonderful discussions, and delightful meals. But the most memorable situation even included a hawk. This young male had been sitting at different positions on our veranda – obviously looking for somewhere to settle. At this point it sat on top of an exterior lamp on the wall. André could not understand what had happened to our nice lamp, so he put his hand on what he thought was its top, but was in fact the head of the hawk. It jumped a metre into the air, and André a metre back on the terrace. André claimed afterwards that he was probably the only person in the world who had patted a wild hawk on its head. What the hawk claimed, I don’t know.
Being of Value
The exact meaning of words cannot always be found in a dictionary. The explanation found there is what well-ed