Gordon Brown, the banks and the survival of the fattest

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Hoe verdienen aan het bijna algemene bankfalen?

De vorderingen van de niet gedekte schulden kopen voor een prikje, en dan
het verschil tussen de nominale schuld en een eventuele opbrengst af te
boeken van elders gemaakte winst.
De vermindering van belasting over de aftrekpost is dan de winst ;)

Iets voor DSB-klanten?

Groet / Cees

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1221328/PETER-MCKAY-Gordon-Brown-banks-survival-fattest.html
Gordon Brown, the banks and the survival of the fattest

By Peter McKay
Last updated at 12:01 AM on 19th October 2009

Hardly a day passes without a new banking outrage. We're told banks could
avoid paying £80billion tax on their profits over the next 15 years. How?
By setting the heavy losses they incurred in the past against future
profits.

Meanwhile, the state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland - long a custodian of
the McKay fortunes - plans to distribute £4billion among its staff in
bonuses, with some fat cats getting £5million cheques.

Today, the Financial Services Authority is due to issue proposals designed
to prevent irresponsible mortgage lending. Yet some banks now offer
five-times-annual-salary deals - the key reason for the near-collapse of
the world financial system.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Gordon Brown says: 'Britain needs to emerge
from recession with financial services that work for you, not for them.
Banking for people, not for bankers.'

Yes! But what does this mean? Precisely nothing. It is empty, political
gibberish.

Why do banks think they can get away with it? Because they can - and have.
As the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott says: 'The
masters of the universe in investment banking are taking away lorryloads
of loot because they are the last men standing. They have a virtual
monopoly, partly because governments chose to save some banks and let
others fail...it's the survival of the fattest.'

Charles Darwin never considered the survival of the fattest.

Political leaders talk tough about bankers' irresponsibility, but don't do
much about it, do they? Brown says: 'For too long the financial markets
have been too powerful and too dominated by self-interest. Now they must
be channelled to work in the public interest.'

But Brown has been in a position to do this for 12 years, since he became
Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1997. So why hasn't he done it? Because it
wasn't in his interest then to do so.

While the banks were making giant profits - often on the back of dodgy
lending - his Treasury was creaming off billions in taxes for him to
'invest' (i.e., waste) in the public sector.

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66 uwvoornaam uwachternaam
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********