Am I About to Pay for my Olympic Tickets?
When I log in to my Visa account, transactions don’t appear immediately. I do find this a bit strange, but it is the way it happens. After all if I draw money out of a cashpoint and then look at my account on-line, you can see the transaction virtually immediately.
So this morning, it would appear that there are some transactions to be processed on my Visa account for about £800. I did order about £3,300 of Olympic tickets, which may seem a lot, but I’ll never see another one and I knew I’d only get a percentage. So it looks like I may get about a quarter!
Strauss-Kahn is a Disgrace
The Times today carries an article under the title of Love bomb that failed to go off, which describes in detail how he pursued a French reporter working in London. I’m not quoting from the article, as it is copyright and although it is in a respectable newspaper, it might not be 100% true. I’m no lawyer, but I would feel that Strauss Kahn did enough to fall foul of The Harassment Act.
If I or any other person, behaved like the article alleges, I would certainly have had the police at my door.
If he is that desperate for women, then he can always phone up and get one delivered on a plate wrapped to whatever taste he prefers.
Type “Strauss Kahn escort” into Google and you find this.
On a positive side perhaps Strauss Kahn and Fred Goodwin should form themselves a bank called the Wunch Bank. They deserve each other.
Those That Live By The Shredder Die By The Shredder
It is often said that everything comes to him who waits. The partial lifting of the so-called banker’s, Fred Goodwin‘s super-injunction, shows that no matter how tight you jam the lid on a can of beans, eventually the pressure builds and it blows up in your face.
There are some choice headlines.
- Daily Mail – Sir Fred, adultery and the public interest.
- Independent – Goodwin’s affair at bank exposed after peer breaks gagging order
- Daily Mirror – No good in these gags
- The Sun – Fred the Bed
There’s a lot more.
The tone is set by this from the Daily Mail.
While RBS was undergoing the biggest collapse in British corporate history, he was busy carrying out an extra-marital affair with a senior colleague involved in the strategic direction of the bank.
Truly, there can be no doubting the public interest in disclosing Sir Fred’s conduct. The collapse of RBS, under his control, led to a £45billion bailout by taxpayers.
Thousands upon thousands lost their jobs and businesses in the financial devastation which followed.
If Fred had had an affair with a Page 3 bimbo, that wouldn’t have mattered so much to the bank and in the end UK taxpayers. The tabloids might have made us laugh as they did years ago with Ron Halpern, a long forgotten businessman in the 1960s or 1970s, but because he had an affair with a senior executive, it meant that his crazy policies were able to get through board and other meetings. I had problems years ago with a company, where I served on a technical committee that had a husband and wife on it. We all had to convince two people who slept together of the correct course of action. It was not easy and the company suffered.
Two people having a relationship in an organisation is rarely a good idea!
Fred Goodwin was knighted in the 2004 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his services to banking. So at least we can’t blame that one totally on Prudence, as he wasn’t Prime Minister until four years later. It will be interesting to see in twenty or so years time, when the details of Sir Fred’s knighthood are released, what dicussions took place on his suitability for such an award.
If ever there was a case for a knighthood to be taken away, then Sir Fred is at the top of the list.
Strauss-Kahn Reporting in the United States and France
I have read this enlightening report on Bloomberg about the difference of the reporting of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York, in the United States and France.
Here’s a typical couple of paragraphs.
For the U.S., the public’s right to know about an arrest is paramount, while in France the privacy — even of a criminal suspect — takes precedence.
“For the moment, the French media has been very restrained” in avoiding saying or writing anything to imply guilt, said Dominique de Leusse de Syon, a member of Strauss- Kahn’s legal team. “The problem is the images, whether they convey Mr. Strauss-Kahn as guilty.”
In other words anything goes in France, if you are French.
After all, the French published any old tosh they could find about Princess Diana, when at the time several high-profile French politicians were as crooked as a hurling stick.
Strauss-Kahn may indeed be innocent, but then seeing the allegations that have appeared in respected newspapers, he doesn’t appear to hsve been a saint in matters sexual.
Bedbugs In New York
Two stories from New York catch the eye today; Bedbugs bite into the US economy and the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The latter of course would have like to be a bedbug, but didn’t go about it in the right way. As he was one of the most important of the wunch of the great and good trying to sort out Greece, we’re all going to pay for his indiscretions. I do hope the man gets a sentence in jail, even if it is less than what the prosecutors seem to be demanding, as he seems to be rather a serial whatsit and we don’t want people like him in public life, if all the stories are true. After all, how can he make a proper decious, if all he’s thinking about is the next legover.
But then the French see things differently and the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair could all lead to some serious problems between the United States and France.
What is so stupid about all this, is that several times in my life, when I’ve stayed in top-class hotels alone, I’ve been offered serious ladies by the staff for my pleasure by the concierge or other staff. I’ve never taken them up on their offer, as I’m not that sort of person. I say person, as once in the Copley Plaza hotel in Boston, I was having a late night drink and talking to the barman, as one does, when he discretely fixed-up the lady at the other end of the bar, with someone twenty or so years her junior. All it took was one quick phone call on his part. And this was in a pre-mobile age. That lady incidentally was French and the barman said she was a regular customer.
So the French do do things differently.
Credit Where It is Due!
It is difficult these days to find what you need and when you do I think it should be rewarded by a small plug.
When I needed some pictures framed, an old friend of nearly forty years recommended that I try A + B Glass in Stoke Newington High Street, who do windows, mirrors, tabletops and picture framing. I’ve had quite a few reframed and they have certainly done as good a job as I’ve found and at a price that is very competitive to what I used to pay in Newmarket or Cambridge.
I would point to their web site, but they don’t have one. If you need A + B Glass, they are at 124, Stoke Newington High Street, N16 7NY with a phone number of 020-7254-4541. Here’s a picture.
A + B Glass and Framing, Stoke Newington
Since they have replaced three of my double-glazed panels in my windows, that had been broken when I bought the house. Again, friends said the price was very reasonable. They also came and measured one week, giving me an estimate at the time and then delivered and installed the new panes late the next. It was completely hassle free.
One thing that they do is give you a bill immediately, so you can do a transfer immediately over the Internet. I often think that one of the causes of bad cash flow in small businesses is their tardiness in sending out bills. So if it takes three months to arrive, you feel entitled to wait another three.
As I said in this post, if it’s a direct transfer and it fails, it usually isn’t your fault. Cheques have this amazing habit of getting lost in the post. Thatb is if you can find your cheque-book. But it seems that bank transfers are very difficult to lose on the Internet, unless someone makes a typo and then the system hopefully flags it up.
Greece Melts
I like the Greeks, but it would appear that the rest of Europe will soon lose patience with them.
They had yet another General Strike yesterday and it wasn’t peaceful and quiet.
The Times today says that a Greek default could provoke another banking crisis. Certainly, the amount we’ve lent to Greece borders on the suicidal.
There was also another report last night, where it was said that Greeks were drawing out their money in cash and sending it abroad to safer countries.
I think we should all beware of giving gifts to Greeks.
Zopa’s Credit Checking
I’ve just received my financial statement for the tax year ended on the 5th April 2011 from Zopa.
The interesting line says that the capital written off this year due to bad debts was nothing. Incidentally, I’ve only had three contracts go bad in 2,500, that have been written and they have cost me just over £300 out of over £50,000 invested.
So on those figures, I think I can say that Zopa checks on who they accept for loans are very good.
Perhaps if some banks had been as careful we wouldn’t have had a banking crisis!
Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers Is Still a Money Pit
Reports this morning show that we are still propping up this memorial to the stupidity of the so-called banker, Fred Goodwin.
There will come a time, when we sell or even give it to the highest bidder, as that will be the best financial course for the country as a whole.
Bank Holiday Effects On Zopa
My repayments from Zopa over the last week or so have been rather erratic, with a lot of payments failing from otherwise good borrowers, quite a few loans being cancelled and other non-normal occurrences. I also didn’t have any repayments for several days, probably because the banking system was virtually shut down. I don’t think there is anything to worry about as the system seems to be levelling out to normal behaviour. Today for instance, I had the highest daily level of repayments ever.
The Anonymous Widower 