Top 10 at 10 to 1: Provocative Clash of the Generations book; Currency traders the new pirate kings; Dilbert

Here are my Top 10 links from around the Internet at 10 to 1pm. I welcome your additions and comments below or please send suggestions for Thursday's Top 10 at 10 to bernard.hickey@interest.co.nz 1. Clash of the generations - The Economist points here to a new book in Britain that is causing a real stir. It is called The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took their Children's Future"”and Why They Should Give it Back and is written by a Tory MP. It basically says the great clash to come is between Generations X,Y and their Baby boomer parents and grandparents. Here's the gist:

Altogether British people are worth about £7 trillion ($10.9 trillion). This can be divided roughly into £1.6 trillion in personal financial assets (shares, savings), £3.7 trillion in housing (£2.5 trillion if you subtract mortgages) and £1.8 trillion in personal and company pension schemes. It is logical that older people should have accumulated more wealth than younger ones. But the proportions seem to be shifting sharply in favour of the older cohorts, especially those aged 55 to 65. Half the population are under 40 years old but they hold only about 15% of all financial assets. People under 44 own, again, just 15% of owner-occupied housing. Comparing the financial and housing wealth of different age groups in 1995 and 2005 the Bank of England found that those aged 25 to 34 had seen their wealth fall, whereas those aged 55 to 64 had seen theirs triple.

2. Here David Willetts saying it in his own words at the Independent.

Government needs to do a better job of taking on its own responsibilities rather than undermining the efforts of families. For a start, it must not impose its own heavy burdens on future generations. This week the Government sold several billion pounds' worth of debt which will mature in 2034 "“ the burden of interest on that debt will be on our children and grandchildren long after many of us have left the workplace. It is not just the national debt. It is the cost of adjusting to climate change and securing energy for the future: my generation of boomers will have used more energy to sustain our lifestyle than generations before or after us. A third challenge is to improve educational opportunities for our children. We can hope for a society that truly values this mutual dependence between the generations "“ with families, civil society and government each doing its bit.

3. And here's The Telegraph's review of the book, which is broadly sympathetic despite being written for rich and elderly people.

This is a time bomb primed to explode around 2030, amid declining energy supplies, rising food prices and climate change. A divisive new mass politics based on age could be on its way. Seemingly the only alternative to painful tax rises "“ further increased immigration of working-age people "“ would bring its own demands and be politically explosive to boot. Willetts sets out these looming problems in horrifying detail. Yet aside from a brave endorsement of progressively funded education vouchers, he fails to propose how they could be fixed. He clings to a Cameroon obsession with marriage and family as saviour. But, as he explains, the Anglosphere has never produced the extended families of Mediterranean idylls or German mittelstands that might insulate against crisis. Even David Cameron accepts that a tax system favouring marriage probably can't discourage divorce. Willetts is ultimately left scrambling for reasons to hope relatives will start looking after each other better. Styling himself as a latter-day Edmund Burke, he pleas for the social contract to be viewed as a pact between the generations, for a more realistic pricing of the cost of our actions to the future. This is classic conservatism, the sort of appeal to the long-run dismissed by Keynes.

4. David Willetts also makes his points at the Joe Public blog at The Guardian

I believe that a lot of our social and economic problems arise from a failure to understand and value the contract between the generations. Much of what we see as social breakdown is the breakdown of relations between the generations, much mistrust is between generations, and much of what has gone wrong with our economy is failure to get the balance right between generations. This is what low saving and big deficits are all about, and it is what environmental degradation is about too. Sometimes, we do not even appear to understand what we are doing to future generations, and how much we owe to previous generations. However, I do not believe that the baby boomers are bad people. But we are so sensitive to injustice within a generation that the problem of unfairness between the generations seems to pass us by. The start of setting this right is just to recognise the issue. And the next step is, of course, to develop policies that follow. One ­obvious example is the importance of tackling the budget deficit, which imposes a burden on younger workers that is potentially far greater than any individual student debt they may have, however burdensome that feels.

5. Gratuitous Muppets link - Because I can.

6. Currency traders rule (NZ) - Matthew Lynn at Bloomberg points out that the way to make money in the next 10 years is to become a currency trader. John Key shouldn't have any problems feeding the family after he's finished as Prime Minister. But will he still be PM in 202o? HT Ross in this comment.

The sovereign-debt crisis, the demise of the dollar and the creation of new reserve currencies all mean that the great financial reputations and fortunes will be made in foreign exchange in the coming few years. In any decade, one sector of the financial markets is usually dominant. There is one corner of the financial universe where so much new stuff is happening, and it is of such importance to the rest of the world, that it is far easier for a young, ambitious person to make their mark than anywhere else. In the 1980s, it was mergers-and-acquisitions deals. In the 1990s, it was the venture capitalist who backed technology companies, and the bankers who arranged initial public offerings for dot-com companies on the stock market. In the 2000s, it was hedge funds, along with the derivatives traders that supplied them with products. But in the 2010s, it will be currency trading.

7. The Aussies are coming - Sarah McDonald at Bloomberg in Sydney points out that some Australian corporate borrowers are eyeing up retail bond issues to New Zealand retail investors to get around a rule in Australia that stops them from using credit ratings there without a license. Hmmm. Is that a good thing or not? HT Kevin via IM

Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings didn't apply for a retail license after the new rule came into force Jan. 1, meaning companies are unable to disclose credit ratings from the firms for debt aimed at individuals. The rules don't apply in New Zealand and marketing a retail bond offer in both countries may be one way of publicizing a credit rating, participants at a Finance & Treasury Association conference said Feb. 12. "This additional regulation will undoubtedly force Australian corporates to potentially structure transactions to pick up rating information available to investors in other markets such as New Zealand," Fairfax Media Ltd. Group Treasurer Dale Bridle said yesterday

8. Greece stripped of vote - Ambrose Evans Pritchard is at it again in The Telegraph scooping everyone on the latest twist and turn in the Greek debt debacle. He reports the European Union has stripped Greece of its vote at a crucial meeting next month, the worst humiliation ever suffered by an EU member state. He uses a big word in one sentence to say Greek will become a serf state to the rest of Europe. Yikes. HT Andrew Wilson via email.

The council of EU finance ministers said Athens must comply with austerity demands by March 16 or lose control over its own tax and spend policies altogether. It if fails to do so, the EU will itself impose cuts under the draconian Article 126.9 of the Lisbon Treaty in what would amount to economic suzerainty. The EU has still refused to reveal details of how it might help Greece raise €30bn (£26bn) from global debt markets by the end of June. Investors are unsure whether this is part of Kabuki play of "constructive ambiguity" to pressure Greece and keep markets guessing, or reflects the deep reluctance by Germany to be drawn deeper in an EU fiscal union.

9. Westpac profit up - The Westpac Group announced a 33% profit increase yesterday, a couple of months after raising its variable mortgage rate by more than the rest of the market and issuing its now infamous 'banana smoothie' video to explain it. The political pain is growing across the Tasman as voters who were behind the Australian government support for the big four (CBA, NAB, ANZ and Westpac) wonder about the increasing dominance of Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac in particular after they expanded their market share during the crisis. They bought BankWest and St George at the depth of the crisis. Here's Danny John at the Sydney Morning Herald capturing the mood.

Westpac's performance was notable for a 33 per cent improvement or $400 million in cash terms on the corresponding period 12 months ago - a time when the immediate outlook across the financial world was a great deal more uncertain. Earnings then were under pressure from a huge jump in bad debts and with governments around the world scrambling to keep their economies from plunging into recession, it was not surprising that all banks were battening down the hatches. That said, Australia's major banks were in a much better position than most of their global counterparts and the understandable flight to quality by customers, coupled with consolidation across the domestic banking and wealth management sectors, has seen them emerge stronger than ever before.

10. Totally irrelevant video - Slugs getting jiggy with it. David Attenborough commentates. It's slimy, yet somehow fascinating. HT brenda09 via Twitter.