MakemineVanilla Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 In the same week, the media reported that the fall in house-ownership was a bad thing, and then reported that the BoE's decision to prop up the price of houses, was a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Interest rates cannot rise. Global debt is now at levels far in excess of that during the great financial crisis (tm). Now that says nothing about mortgage rates, afterall profit must be made given the huge amount of work our banking overlords put in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Quote Inheritance tax, and how the Dukes of Westminster avoid it on their £9bn fortune Telegraph Leave the tax burden to us PAYE mugs, hey? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted August 22, 2016 Share Posted August 22, 2016 You, the little people, you're being **** left, right and centre: Quote Dominic Chappell used £1.5m BHS loan to pay off family mortgage The family home of Dominic Chappell, the former owner of BHS, was on the brink of being repossessed before cash from the department store chain was used to pay off the mortgage. The Guardian has learned that financial company Amicus initiated legal proceedings against the Chappell family to repossess the property unless their debts were repaid. The debt was settled when the parent company of BHS paid out £1.5m. The money came from BHS and was paid out as an interest-free loan. It has not been repaid. The saga raises further questions about Chappell’s management of BHS and highlights the chaos behind the scenes as the chain headed for collapse. The last of BHS’s 164 stores are scheduled to close before the end of month. The demise of BHS has led to the loss of 11,000 jobs and left a £571m pension deficit, which Sir Philip Green, the previous owner, has pledged to “sort”. MPs described the corporate governance of Retail Acquisitions, the company that owned BHS, as a “joke” after Chappell admitted to the parliamentary committee investigating the demise of BHS that a £1.5m loan had been paid out. One of the directors of Retail Acquisitions, Eddie Parladorio, voted against the loan, with the only two votes in favour cast by Chappell and his friend Lennart Henningson. However, the MPs were unaware of the financial predicament facing the Chappells and the house at the time of the loan. Chappell told the committee that the £1.5m was paid because the property, which is in Dorset, “needed to be remortgaged”. Retail Acquisitions, which is 90% owned by Chappell, bought BHS from Green for £1 in March 2015. The company collapsed just 13 months later, but Retail Acquisitions banked at least £17m from it. The failure of BHS is being investigated by the Insolvency Service, the Financial Reporting Council and the Pensions Regulator. The Serious Fraud Office is also considering whether to launch a formal inquiry. Journalists must fight Companies House proposal to delete records The mortgage on the family home, where Chappell’s mother and father still live, was provided by London-based lender Amicus. It is thought the loan was initially for less than £1m but was gradually increased. Chappell claimed he had “absolutely no idea what was going on” with the property despite describing it to MPs as “my family home” and the fact that the £1.5m payment that settled the debt was paid from his company. “I don’t know, it is nothing to do with me, it is my father’s property,” Chappell said when asked about the loan. “I have absolutely no idea what is going on there, nor do I want to know. That is as far as I am prepared to make a statement. I don’t discuss finances with my father on these matters, so that is where we are.” The payment of the £1.5m loan from Retail Acquisitions was complex. It was paid to a company called JDM Island Properties, which had only one director and shareholder, Colin Sutton, an associate of the Chappells. JDM Island Properties then bought the Chappell family house. Filings on Companies House reveal that this month the shares in JDM passed from Sutton to Olivia Investments, a Gibraltar-based vehicle that acts as the Chappell family’s investment fund. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Iceland locks up senior bankers proved responsible for the 2008 crash. Quote These guilty verdicts are just the latest in Iceland’s unprecedented clampdown since the economic crash. Authorities have been pursuing bank bosses, chief executives, civil servants and corporate looters for crimes ranging from insider trading to fraud, money laundering, misleading markets, breach of duties and lying to officials. Meanwhile the economy that collapsed so spectacularly has rebounded after letting its banks go bust, imposing capital controls and protecting its own citizens rather than the elite bank bosses responsible for the mess. This determination to hold people to account for actions that caused intense financial misery contrasts strongly with the U.K., the rest of Europe and the US. Yes, fines were imposed on the 20 biggest banks for transgressions such as market manipulation, money-laundering and mis-selling mortgages, but these costs fall on shareholders and, by hampering the banks’ ability to lend, they also punish the rest of society. Meanwhile the guilty senior bankers, thanks to government bail outs, carry on making enormous profits and collecting their obscene bonuses as though nothing happened. Newswire 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 Well thanks to Brexit, looks like the powers that be will finally get the inflation they have been craving for the past 6 years. Unfortunately its the poorest and those on fixed incomes that will be hardest hit as usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 (edited) Inflation was obviously always on the cards since the UK is a net importer and the impact on the forex of the sterling affecting the cost channels of UK firms who rely on foreign imports for the goods and service they produce/provide. Now if we had a vibrant manufacturing sector this wouldn't be as much of an issue, but clearly we do not. It's quite clear that the government is going to have to run a larger deficit to help the economy, ideally through a significant and sustained program of investment in public infrastructure to offset the decline in consumption and investment that will occur. Edited October 15, 2016 by Dr_Pangloss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted October 15, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted October 15, 2016 ...snigger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 7 hours ago, mockingbird_franklin said: Well thanks to Brexit, looks like the powers that be will finally get the inflation they have been craving for the past 6 years. Unfortunately its the poorest and those on fixed incomes that will be hardest hit as usual. Earlier in the year we were being warned of the dangers of deflation, with people delaying purchases, problems for the bond market, punishingly low interest rates eroding savers' deposits and producing low annuity rates reducing people's pensions. Now the bad news is that we are likely to actually meet the 2% inflation target which we signed up for in the Maastricht treaty. There is no such thing as good news apparently. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 Inflation is a tax that purely benefits those with huge credit lines, and access to said credit. Peons... bah, don't you have electricity! It's not like people are starving to death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 Free ATMs could start charging fees as banks squabble over costs Quote Free access to cash is under threat as banks as banks and other organisations fall out over who pays to maintain Britain's network of ATMs. Banks, building societies and other members of the Link ATM network - which currently operates 70,000 ATMs up and down the country - are meeting next week following demands from some firms who want to cut their contributions. If a new funding agreement is not reached and the Link arrangement breaks down, more ATMs could charge for withdrawals - or deny cash to customers of rival banks. Some ATMs, particularly those in remote areas where they are more costly to maintain and keep secure, could be closed down altogether. This would reverse the trend of recent years which has seen greater provision of free-to-use machines. It would also heap further political pressure on banks, which have been accelerating their branch closures and attracting criticism for their "abandonment" of rural communities. Access to cash is viewed as an essential banking service, and reduction in post offices has added to the need for a large, free-to-use ATM network provided by banks, MPs have argued. Of the 70,000 ATMs in the network, around 16,000 charge users a fee per withdrawal. Fees can be as high as £1.80 per transaction, with most fee-charging machines located inside convenience stores or in purpose-built booths in busy locations. The fees are hugely unpopular with consumers, however, and machines charging them account for just 3pc of withdrawals. As a result the number of ATMs charging the public for their cash has declined from a high in 2008 of 27,000, according to Payments UK, the body which oversees and facilitates the Link network. ...more on link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 (edited) Quote Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes On Wall Street With AI Trader Sentient Technologies won't disclose its performance, but is being closely watched by the finance and artificial intelligence communities. Babak Hodjat believes humans are too emotional for the stock market. So he's started one of the first hedge funds run completely by artificial intelligence. Bloomberg Let's see what happens to pay and jobs in the finance sector? I think we know Directors will be laughing. Edited February 10, 2017 by Xann Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ermie123 Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Whatever happened to the free market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted February 20, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20, 2017 Given that the economy in the UK has supposedly been propped up by consumer spending, an unexpected drop seemingly caused by food and fuel price rises (...why has that happened...? ) probably isn't good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 A report has come out today (PDF: https://www.royallondon.com/Documents/PDFs/Research and Consultation/PTTA Final.pdf/) that tries to look at the future of pensions. There's a stat on page 14: £14,000 is the median current pot value for people between 30 and 40 with pensions. I was discussing it at work today and was stunned by how many people didn't even have one, or contribute only the auto-enrollment minimum. When generations start to retire with the majority being without adequate private pensions, and no property, things are going to get very, very messy. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted March 2, 2017 Share Posted March 2, 2017 (edited) On 2/27/2017 at 19:42, Davkaus said: A report has come out today (PDF: https://www.royallondon.com/Documents/PDFs/Research and Consultation/PTTA Final.pdf/) that tries to look at the future of pensions. There's a stat on page 14: £14,000 is the median current pot value for people between 30 and 40 with pensions. I was discussing it at work today and was stunned by how many people didn't even have one, or contribute only the auto-enrollment minimum. When generations start to retire with the majority being without adequate private pensions, and no property, things are going to get very, very messy. It's a tough one for a lot of people. A lot of people, especially in London, have little left after rent and living costs to even contribute, especially those who are looking to save for a deposit house. Moreover private sector pension contributions are frankly pathetic for the most part, no where near as generous in % terms than they were a few decades ago. Edited March 2, 2017 by Dr_Pangloss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted March 2, 2017 Share Posted March 2, 2017 On 2/10/2017 at 12:41, ermie123 said: Whatever happened to the free market. They are called foodbanks now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted March 2, 2017 Share Posted March 2, 2017 If we accept that in capitalism there's a tendency toward monopolies (Marx, Schumpeter, Stiglitz etc) then markets can't be 'free', if by free we are talking about conditions for perfect competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted March 2, 2017 Share Posted March 2, 2017 On 27/02/2017 at 19:42, Davkaus said: There's a stat on page 14: £14,000 is the median current pot value for people between 30 and 40 with pensions. is that that bad? For example, someone aged 34, probably only started a pension aged 28 - before that they were young, partying and had commitments such as buying a car, saving for a deposit for a house, etc. So they've probably only been putting into the pension for 6 years at a couple of thousand a year. Their income will increase between age 35 and 45 and so as long as they keep putting money in the pension, the amount they put in each month will also increase. As they hit 40, they will become more aware of pensions, and might start saving more into their pension. They might also have savings going into ISA's. My wife had a pension pot of around £18k aged 30. Ten years later she now has a pension pot of £70k, increased from growth of the pot and putting in regular amounts in the past 8 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted March 2, 2017 Share Posted March 2, 2017 7 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said: If we accept that in capitalism there's a tendency toward monopolies (Marx, Schumpeter, Stiglitz etc) then markets can't be 'free', if by free we are talking about conditions for perfect competition. The argument would be that you can't have a free market when there is big government and a substantial part of a nation's spending power is within their gift, which leads to markets being manipulated and protected for the benefit of those who the politicians are beholden to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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