[lit-ideas] Where does the money go?

  • From: cblists@xxxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:15:20 +0200

First off - condolences to those whose travels have been disrupted by the cancellations arising from the antics of the Icelandic Volcano Unpronounceable.


I'm just hearing a report in which it is stated that the airlines are losing US$250 million per day as a result of those cancellations.

In a former life, I worked for about a year as a bookkeeper for a small business, and I've retained just enough knowledge from that episode to realize that money doesn't just disappear - it must show up in the books SOMEWHERE.

What has happened (or will happen - I understand enough to realize that costs and losses are often deferred) to all of that money (now over a billion dollars by my reckoning)? If the airlines are losing, who's gaining?

I realize - especially since the so-called 'finance crisis' - that my idea of 'balanced books' is perhaps simplistic and / or out-modish. I'm also worried that it is more the latter than the former - and that a lot of wool or synthetic ersatz fabric is being pulled over a lot of eyes or other video receptors.

Chris Bruce,
who still counts his pennies (at least the Euro equivalents)
and balances the household books at least quarterly, in
Kiel, Germany
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