The Personal Touch From Sir Mervyn
This story reported on the BBC, is a good one, as it shows the tensions between the Bank of England and the so-called retail banks well. The guy who wanted to buy a van, sums up the banks as follows.
But Mike Benson is unimpressed, and is thinking of turning to other lending schemes which do not involve banks, like peer-to-peer lenders.
“There will come a point when we don’t need the banks. And sayonara to the banks!”
That is why he eventually decided to buy his van with his own cash.
I wonder if any of the peer-to-peer lenders have contacted him or as they tend to be low profile, he’s contacted any himself!
Sir Mervyn’s letter may be typical of the Bank of England. I once wrote to another director, who was writing a report on a particular subject. Not only did he reply, but he put some of my thoughts in the report and when it was published I received a copy, which acknowledged my contribution in an Appendix, along with all the others who’d done so.
Would you have got that response from Lloyds, Barclays or RBS?
Hands Off Our Banks
Our banks may have not been friends of the general public, but they are going to get a lot worse if the US government has its way. Just read this article by Carl Mortished, entitled the Long Arm of the US Taxman.
It is all part of the relentless drive to treat us all like criminals. I pay my taxes and I resent having to fill in forms just to make sure I’m not money laundering or stashing fifty pound notes in my socks. Today, I’ve got to drive into Cambridge to get a lawyer to certify that I am who I am. Apparently, my word is no longer good enough.
Don’t get me talking on what our MPs got up to. And what are they doing on all these invasions of our privacy? Baa! Baa!
It is far better to analyse what is happening and target those who are up to no good!
Madoff with the Money
So Madoff has got away with life in jail and no remission.
Now I have no sympathy for the crook at all, but doing this doesn’t really do anything for those who he defrauded like the Miriam Siegman, who is reduced to food stamps and collecting things from skips.
Madoff’s wife has been allowed to keep $2.5 million and I have to ask is this right. She claims that she knew nothing, but if she did, then she was pretty stupid, as I don’t believe you can live with someone without getting an inkling of what is going on.
I don’t think I’m stupid, but where did all the money he got in go? And how did he hide the fraud from everybody who worked for him?
It all just beggars belief.
Years ago, I met a guy who worked for an organisation that was going pear-shaped. He was the guy who programmed the computer system and knew what was happening. There was no fraud, just incompetence! So he got out early. Perhaps what he did wasn’t ethical, but at least he saved himself.
Didn’t anybody in Madoff’s organisation spot that?
He must have been one clever guy!
There is also the point that these days, I believe that there is a tendency to use nothing but Excel to analyse companies accounts. Accountants and regulators don’t dig as deep as they should, as they know that certain bosses might ruin their careers and perks.
There is a large overhaul needed in the methods and management of a lot of companies, so that we don’t get another Madoff, HBOS, RBS or Northern Rock.
Setanta
Setanta has gone bust and as a widower living mostly alone, I’m not particularly pleased as I like my football and it also gave me RacingUK at an affordable price. For that now, I’ll need to shell out £20 a month, as opposed to the £12 for Setanta, that included it. Daft!
But there was this in PopBitch about Setanta.
RIP Setanta. A victim of global financial meltdown? A brave underdog bringing choice to the TV football fans? Or a profligate company which had arse-elbow knowledge issues? One Premier League club told us that to screen a live game Sky Sports asked for two car park places and 22 stadium passes, to accommodate crew, pundits and guests. Setanta – 66 car park places, and 120 stadium passes.
If you want to be a success, you must control the expenses in a company.
And very hard!
A Disabled Mess
There is a court case going in London at the moment about discrimination on grounds of disability. It concerns Abercrombie and Fitch and a student who was employed by them to work as a sales and stockroom assistant. The had been born without her left forearm.
I’m not going to talk about the rights and wrongs of this case, as I have no legal training. Although, as my late wife was a barrister, I do have more than the average grasp of a barrack room lawyer.
I think that everybody takes much too much notice of disability.
I was brought up after the war and virtually every year in my schools had someone who had a withered arm or leg through polio. We didn’t bother and they usually got on with it. Perhaps the most famous polio victim was the great Indian bowler Chandrasekhar, who used to bowl with his damaged arm. No-one could tell how it would spin. There was also Murray Halberg, who won Olympic medals over 5,000 and 10,000 metres.
This was long before disabled sports and no-one bothered. But both were champions in their sports.
I also remember employing a guy with one leg. We were the first to give him an interview and he got the job as he was eminently suitable. But everybody else had turned him down at the application stage, as he was disabled. In my view and I suspect his, he wasn’t, as he probably did most things that we all do. He trained people all over the world for the company for a start.
The girl in the story may be disabled in the legal sense, but she is totally capable of performing the job for which she was hired and should not be hidden away in a back room. Compare this with a b ranch of one well-know chain store that I know, which employs someone with Down’s Syndrome on the till. That’s positive for everyone!
But perhaps for me the saddest thing in this tale is that it has come to court.
No-one will benefit!
Except of course lawyers.
The Anonymous Widower 