Greece Is The Word

Well, who would have thought it......Greece has counted its pennies and has realised that the public spending cuts that it must make over the next 2 years can't be achieved. And if Greece doesn't agree to make the cuts and then deliver them, the bail out agreed by the Eurozone (well Germany and France plus the 'hangers on') will not be granted. And if the bailout is not granted......take your cash out of the bank and hide it under the mattress.

The bailout is a complete joke anyway. It is a bit like a bank lending money to someone to buy a house who is unemployed. Ah, bugger......that's exactly what they did. In essence, lending money to someone that can't afford to repay it will only offer short term respite......the problem doesn't go away. As a result Greece is asking for more time to implement the £11 billion of cuts.

So why now?

Unbelievably, it's because European politicians are now back from holiday. Sad but true.

One of the outcomes of all the Eurozone debt problems is that Greece is now the most powerful player in Europe as it decides all our fates.

Hold tight......the next few months could be bumpy.

A New Low (Updated)

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UPDATE

I can’t quite put into words my feelings on this……I feel sick to the bottom of my stomach.

The Background……

As per below, New York regulators accused Standard Chartered (the UK’s fifth largest bank) of hiding $250bn of transactions with Iran that was used to fund their nuclear program and terrorist activities. Standard Chartered defended this by stating it was nearer £14 million. My opinion……the amount is irrelevant - it should never have happened.

The Update……

Standard Chartered has agreed a $340m (£217m) settlement with New York regulators as their fine / punishment.

One Quick Question……

Why pay a fine of £217m if you believe that you have only done £14m of wrong doing?

This pretty much sums everything up nicely.

Sickening

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ORIGINAL POST

Well, who would have thought it……a new banking scandal that reaches new depths of dishonesty and morality. And for what? Yet more corporate profit.

The Accused……

Standard Chartered (the UK’s fifth largest bank) is stood accused by the New York State Department of Financial Services of laundering as much as $250bn (£161bn) over nearly a decade. It said the bank hid transactions for "Iranian financial institutions" that were subject to sanctions. The regulator said that Standard Chartered had hidden 60,000 such secret transactions, with the proceeds used to fund Iran’s nuclear program and terrorist activities. Essentially, Standard Chartered are accused of falsifying payment directions by stripping the message of unwanted data that showed the clients were Iranian, replacing it with false entries.

The Defence……

Standard Chartered have refuted the claims and stated that the US Regulator did not present “a full and accurate picture of the facts” as the figure was nearer $14 million.

 

So that’s ok then? The fact that a penny had been laundered to fund nuclear programs and terrorist activities is a penny too much……let alone $14 million. Do Standard Chartered just not get it? $14 million is not excusable if you were originally accused of $250 billion.

Is there no barrier to what a bank won’t do for corporate greed?

 

Olympic Blames......Time To Count The Pennies

There is no doubting that these Olympics games will live long in the memory of many in Great Britain (or is that now GB?).

Many will judge the games from the abundance of memories offered by watching supreme athletes achieve their dreams up close. It is nothing short of inspiring.

Many will judge the games by the medal haul for Team GB.

Many will judge the games from an efficiency perspective because the games appear to have been delivered with such competence (despite a few ticket grumbles along the way).

However, rightly or wrongly, many will judge the games from a financial perspective. When GB makes an investment of £9 billion to host the games, it seems completely fair that many will judge the games by what the financial return was. Especially when you consider only one of the last 8 cities to host the Olympic Games turned a profit.

I have been fortunate enough to visit Sydney and see the ghost town that is the former Olympic Park (apart from a handful of sporting events each year) and we need only look at Athens to see the legacy that the games left on Greece.

Having seen up close a number of Olympic events in London, I came away thinking that the organisers had missed a trick somewhat. When there are millions lining the streets for the cycling and triathlon and no rights have been sold to ‘officially’ sell food and drink, questions start to form and head scratching will begin. Damn it, I would have bought a Team GB t-shirt, hat, flag and anything else tacky but......the merchandise stalls were nowhere to be seen. Could you imagine the opportunity that this brings not being maximised at a Premier League football match? Really disappointingly……we had 7 years to prepare for this.

I really do hope that when all the pennies have been counted, we don't regret not doing more to have maximised our once in a lifetime opportunity and covered our costs. It will all just lead to political sparing and nothing cheapens a memory so quickly like ‘those lot’ bickering at Westminster.

A New Low

Well, who would have thought it……a new banking scandal that reaches new depths of dishonesty and morality. And for what? Yet more corporate profit.

The Accused……

Standard Chartered (the UK’s fifth largest bank) is stood accused by the New York State Department of Financial Services of laundering as much as $250bn (£161bn) over nearly a decade. It said the bank hid transactions for "Iranian financial institutions" that were subject to sanctions. The regulator said that Standard Chartered had hidden 60,000 such secret transactions, with the proceeds used to fund Iran’s nuclear program and terrorist activities. Essentially, Standard Chartered are accused of falsifying payment directions by stripping the message of unwanted data that showed the clients were Iranian, replacing it with false entries.

The Defence……

Standard Chartered have refuted the claims and stated that the US Regulator did not present “a full and accurate picture of the facts” as the figure was nearer $14 million.

 

So that’s ok then? The fact that a penny had been laundered to fund nuclear programs and terrorist activities is a penny too much……let alone $14 million. Do Standard Chartered just not get it? $14 million is not excusable if you were originally accused of $250 billion.

Is there no barrier to what a bank won’t do for corporate greed?

 



Time To Add A Few More To The Unemployment Figures?

As an independent body, the Bank of England (fronted my favourite civil servant  Mervyn King) is redundant as an organisation.

I have spent far too much time highlighting their inability to regulate the behaviour of the banks past, present and future. But one of their other key responsibilities is to control our economy to stop boom / bust scenarios being played out and create a stable environment for our economy.  They do this through controlling inflation, setting interest rates and instigating Quantitative Easing.

HOWEVER

Since 2009 we have seen interest rates reduce to their lowest level in history, £375 billion pumped into the UK through Quantitative Easing and VAT rise from 17.5% to 20.0%. The result......a double dip recession that is currently the longest in 50 years.

The latest inflation figures highlight that we are currently at a level of 2.4%, hitting the Bank of England target (2.5%) for the first time since 2009. But here's the thing......the target has been hit by accident not through good policing of economic policy.

To put this simply, the Bank of England is powerless to control / manipulate our economy and as such, might as well not exist at our vast expense.

Surely it’s time for a rethink / fresh approach?

Just a thought……

La Historia Más Grande Del Verano No Son Los Juegos Olímpicos

(The Big Story of the Summer Is Not The Olympics!)

Interesting that the biggest threat to our economy currently is not the idiots running our country, but the mess unravelling in Spain.

A few key points for you:

A third of Spanish Government debt is owned by Spanish Banks. Spanish Banks are all but collapsing financially. The Spanish Government has tried to borrow money from the open market to help prop up its banks but the cost to do so has increased dramatically due to the perceived risk to lend to Spain.

And there in lies the problem......Spain can't afford to borrow itself out of trouble. We've seen the same problem before with Ireland / Portugal and it led to mass hysteria with the financial markets and a Eurozone bailout with huge implications for all of Europe.

And where next for Spain? It seems that the only real outcome will be a full scale Eurozone / IMF bailout. Messy at best......deeply deeply worrying at worst.

The only real surprise is that it has taken so long for everyone to stand up and notice.

Don't let the Oympics mask the big story of the summer!

Best of British?

The Background Bit……

A US Senate probe has disclosed how lax controls at Europe's largest bank left it vulnerable to being used to launder dirty money from around the world (to the tune of billions).

The report into HSBC identifies huge sums of Mexican drug money almost certainly passed through the bank. In addition, suspicious funds from Syria, the Cayman Islands, Iran and Saudi Arabia also passed through the British bank. The US Department of Justice said it is conducting a criminal investigation into HSBC's operations and HSBC has stated that it expected to be held accountable for what went wrong.

The Issue……

Well, there are plenty of issues to pick from this story. Drugs, criminal activities, dirty money, money laundering, corrupt banking. But my biggest issue with the whole story is one word that may have got lost……

British

HSBC are registered in Britain, run their operations from here and come under British law and regulation. Yet, it took the US to uncover the issue with Money Laundering. How many more stories (or clues as I like to call them) do we need to understand that the banking sector and the control of it is, well, out of control?    

More bank bashing? More regulator bashing? More Government bashing? No……just a mere citizen worried about the greater powers that run our country only doing half a job……

Shameful.