Such times as these

It looks like Greece CC will have to follow on.  There is talk in pavilions around the world of stagflation.  Skippers are thinking of quantitative easing.  Slip cordons are concerned about sovereign debt.  High St CC is losing players.

Silver linings on the business and economic pages of the newspapers are hard to find.

There are many fine songs about hard times.  For Fantasy Bob the finest might be that written in 1929 by Blind Alfred Reed - How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live. 

Reed was born blind in W Virginia and played fiddle and sang. All his recordings come from 2 sessions in the late 1920s and he gave up performing in 1937 when a local statute prohibited blind street musicians.  He died in 1956.  His songs present a pretty conservative and occasionally evangelic viewpoint.  A number of verses in How Can a Poor Man rail against the Government, but its key verses - those used by Ry Cooder in his version tell the truth about a cricketer finding things tough.

There are many versions of this fine song - here is a link to FB's favourite by Ry Cooder.