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economic situation is dire


ianrobo1

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Family have their benefits doubled to pay for £360 Million house refurbishment, after 13 minute review.

2996835B00000578-3122591-image-a-189_143

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The .committee' was only established to consider raising the so-called 'Sovereign Grant' from 15 per cent to 25 per cent of the Crown Estates income, in order to fund the estimated £360m upgrade to Buckingham Palace, and now it has done so, it will be disbanded.

 

Edited by chrisp65
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  • 3 months later...

Barclays charged with fraud in Qatar case

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Barclays PLC and four former executives have been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and the provision of unlawful financial assistance.

The Serious Fraud Office charges come at the end of a five-year investigation and relate to the bank's fundraising at the height of 2008's financial crisis.

Former chief executive John Varley is one of the four ex-staff who will face Westminster magistrates on 3 July.

Barclays says it is considering its position and awaiting further details.

It added: "The charges arise in the context of Barclays' capital raisings in June and November 2008. Barclays awaits further details of the charges from the SFO."

Mr Varley, former senior investment banker Roger Jenkins, Thomas Kalaris, a former chief executive of Barclays' wealth division, and Richard Boath, the ex-European head of financial institutions, have all been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud in the June 2008 capital raising.

In addition, Mr Varley and Mr Jenkins have also been charged with the same offence in relation to the October 2008 capital raising and with providing unlawful financial assistance.

Mr Jenkins will "vigorously defend" himself against the charges, his lawyer has told Reuters.

...

The first charge, conspiracy to commit fraud, relates to "advisory" fees paid to Qatar. The second - "unlawful assistance" - could be more serious.

It relates to a £2bn loan advanced to Qatar after the fundraisings were negotiated - the implication being that there was a money-go-round at work - Barclays was handing Qatar some of the money it was using to support the British bank.

...more on link

 

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  • 4 months later...

In a couple of decades, we're completely ****.

An ageing population, and a hefty portion of our population either isn't able to save for their retirement, or doesn't give a shit about doing so.

What do we do? They either retire in poverty, the young working population face tax rises to pay for the elderly, or they stay in work in to their seventies...

With younger people not only failing to pay in to pensions but also struggling to get on to the property ladder, expecting them to prop up older people is surely just kicking the can down the road. How do we get out of this mess?

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/oct/21/uk-retirees-state-pension-financial-future

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About 15 million people have no pension savings and face a bleak future in retirement, according to a major survey of Britain’s personal finances published this week by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The Financial Lives survey of 13,000 consumers by the FCA, the biggest of its kind, found that 31% of UK adults have no private pension provision and will have to rely entirely on the state in their retirement. The full state pension is£159.55 per week, but that is only available to individuals who have a complete record of national insurance contributions.

Of particular worry is the group of people aged over 50 who are not paying into a pension and have few years left to build one up before they reach their 60s. When the FCA asked why they had made no provision, 32% said it was too late to set one up, 26% said they could not afford it and 12% said they were relying on their partner’s pension.

Auto-enrolment has brought millions of people into pension saving for the first time, but millions of self-employed and part-time workers are not in the scheme.

The figures reveal a big gap between men and women: 33% of men expect to retire with just the state pension, but that rises to 53% among women.

Even among those with a company pension, the survey reveals few people will benefit from a generous “final salary” arrangement, which is based on their income just before retirement. The FCA found that only 16% of working people have a final salary pension, while 41% will have to depend on a “defined contribution” (DC) pension, where the payouts will depend on the vagaries of the stock market.

Most people with DC pensions state that they have relatively little in their pension pot. Around two-fifths have less than £5,000 and only 12% have more than £100,000. Half the people who have so far accessed their DC pension say it is not enough to live on.

People also find it difficult to envisage how long they will live in retirement. The average 55- to 64-year-old said they expected to live until 83, which is a few years below actuarial predictions.

The report notes widespread pension confusion among the public. Four in 10 adults aged 35-44 had no idea how much their company was paying into their pension pot, while a third said they had not given any thought to how they would manage financially in retirement. The FCA cited one respondent, Obedi: “All the information is on the [work] intranet, but I don’t understand it. They try and describe it in layman’s terms and I’m not thick, but you’ve got to know what they are talking about ... the full comprehension of it is difficult.”

 

 

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1 minute ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Outrageous. Hope you told them to **** off

Sorry, thats 700 a month for three days per week. Bit its still crazy. Absolutely zero incentive for my missus to go back to work. Can understand why people dont bother.

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Just now, turvontour said:

Sorry, thats 700 a month for three days per week. Bit its still crazy. Absolutely zero incentive for my missus to go back to work. Can understand why people dont bother.

I was going to say :) yes, that's still a lot of money. As you said it gives people no incentive to go back to work. I'm sure if you asked @mjmooney he could fit you on for a day or two. He's trying to make a new career out of it. Luckily for us we've had help in the past off family members. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
14 hours ago, peterms said:

 

based on data from 2007 to 2015  ...almost as if the timeframe was selected to start at about the peak of the bubble and ride it down ...

it also appears to be missing rather a lot of Countries  ?

 

got any newer data ?  like this for examples ?

More than 150,000 workers will get an inflation-beating pay rise on Monday as the UK living wage, which is paid voluntarily by more than 3,600 employers, is increased against a backdrop of rising transport, food and housing costs. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I think the last few days news has certainly underlined the thinking that the economy is ****.

Really ****.

To the extent that the BBC has an opinion piece today that seems to ask the question 'what's the point of capitalism if people don't see any benefit of it?'.

Living standards squeeze is being pegged at 17 years.

Astonishing.

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8 minutes ago, Chindie said:

I think the last few days news has certainly underlined the thinking that the economy is ****.

Really ****.

To the extent that the BBC has an opinion piece today that seems to ask the question 'what's the point of capitalism if people don't see any benefit of it?'.

Living standards squeeze is being pegged at 17 years.

Astonishing.

Go look at Bloomberg Chind. :(

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On 06/11/2017 at 14:36, Dr_Pangloss said:

There's not a lot wrong with that, if qualified. It demonstrates that whilst GDP has grown since that point, wages have not. In other words the UK economy has recovered from the crisis in terms of (real) GDP but wages haven't. This is fairly telling and opens up distributional concerns in terms of the winners and losers of the recession. 

I didn't think anyone (even the tories) were disputing that. ???? 

The Tory argument was that the years of wage growth were not sustainable...........:) :) 

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Good blog post feom Wren-Jones, here.

Conclusion:

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...Thus we have three aspects to the UK’s productivity slowdown. The first is the global slowdown, which we managed to avoid for two decades but no longer. The second is a long term structural weakness in developing and applying new technology. The third is the impact of two shocks, austerity and Brexit, which has caused UK firms to put productivity improvements on hold and become very gloomy about the UK’s future. I somehow doubt that we can start doing something about the UK’s long term structural weaknesses while we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot with crazy policies like austerity or Brexit.

 

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Palmer & Harvey gone.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42157854

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Major UK wholesaler Palmer and Harvey (P&H) has gone into administration following failed rescue talks.
Administrators at PwC have said 2,500 jobs will be lost with immediate effect.
The firm had been in takeover talks with private equity firm Carlyle, but these fell through.
P&H, which is the UK's largest tobacco supplier, had been struggling with debts and owed substantial sums to key suppliers.
It is the UK's fifth biggest privately-owned firm, and delivers more than 12,000 products, including food and alcohol.

Palmer-and-Harvey.jpg

Edited by Xela
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