BEWARE! THE BANKS ARE OUT TO GET YOU!

[Tizer]

HMRC are at it again - they'll take over from the Mafia the way they're carrying on these days!
From two articles in The Times (these are the few paragraphs available because I don't have a subscription)...

`Exposed: HMRC and councils using debt collecting firms owned in tax havens: The taxman has shown questionable judgment over the companies it hires to pursue struggling families during the pandemic'
`They have pursued families struggling to pay tax bills during the pandemic. But debt collection firms hired by the Revenue and local councils include some that have owners based in tax havens. Another of the companies is owned by a family that ran a notorious payday loan firm, leading to questions over the judgment of those who have hired them. The findings come after The Times revealed yesterday that HM Revenue and Customs has sent letters to families during the pandemic accusing them of “deliberately” choosing not to repay debts and threatening to “take things you own and sell them”. The department also uses private debt collection firms and has passed on 4.5 million personal records to them since 2014 without taxpayers’ specific consent..'. LINK

`HMRC enforcers: ‘I’ve had to borrow from friends just to survive . . . I’m so stressed I can’t eat’: Struggling Britons tell Paul Morgan-Bentley how demands for money have left them anxious and afraid'
`While millions of high earners benefit from financial aid during the pandemic, HM Revenue & Customs and local councils have pursued families on low incomes for relatively small amounts in tax. In more than 1,000 cases since April people have been visited at business premises by HMRC enforcement staff. Thousands of others have been sent letters and text messages from private debt collection agencies used by HMRC, including care home workers, those who have been unwell with Covid-19 and the vulnerable. ‘I got the letter, went upstairs and cried’. Tax officials have been shamed into dropping a case against a young mother after her MP accused them of chasing her for £2,000 in error and causing her distress during the pandemic..'. LINK

[plaques]

As I crawl towards the food bank wondering if someone is going to walk away with my overnight cardboard box accommodation I now find that the food I bought on the pay later agreement which I have no money to pay has triggered a default HMRC tax return when I was working as a part time Taxi driver. I now find it could now affect my unblemished CV for the rest of my life. Never mind its all going to a good cause, Amazon could do with a break.

[Stanley]

Just another example of the catastrophic erosion of public service we are labouring under. Resources, supervision and even competent leadership have suffered. Where does it all end?

[Tizer]

In a black hole?

[Stanley]

Never mind, Xmas is coming so we can all have a jolly good time and forget our troubles.

[PanBiker]

I am probably the last to find out but I received mail this morning with exciting news from Yorkshire Bank! They are having a "make over" and have merged with Virgin Money, bloody Branson! End of an era proper now, I know that the bank has not been the same for years with various partners, Australians and Scottish folk etc but this is the final straw. New branding and exciting apparently for the staff who will get new uniforms and new flashy signs outside the bank. Won't matter in Barlick of course.

Yorkshire Penny Bank when I was a little lad and had my little bank book to take to school with my bob a week from my dad. When it got up to a pound you took your little book and the larger hard backed blue one into the bank and they updated your account. Drew your savings out for your weeks holiday. I still have the 1932 Ohio Safe Company savings bank that I had when I was a little lad. It still has a cache of pre decimal coins in, they are not having it back!

[Stanley]

I didn't know that Ian.... I understand your frustration!

[PanBiker]

I am fortunate that I had the benefit of dealing with them when they had a bank manager that could call the shots. A relationship as well that ran to unsecured short term loans done on a handshake and a promise not to get knocked down to get the job done, profit for me and more cash flow for the bank. All gone now no matter who you bank with.

[Stanley]

Those were the days Ian! We'll never see them again.

[Tizer]

This is on the front page of the Telegraph this morning. I think it's their own survey.
`Customer service decline revealed as top retailers only deal with email or social media complaints: Of the UK’s biggest 100 High Street retailers, only 36 have both a phone number and email address on their websites'

The results don't surprise me. They should do a similar survey of other customer-facing organisations such as insurance companies. There should be a rule that phone number, email address and postal address are provided on all web sites and paper literature of businesses. I remember that when I started my own business long ago every business had to show a street address somewhere on its published documents and advertising.

[Stanley]

Couldn't agree with you more Peter. I think it's disgraceful how many firms, large and small, don't give basic contact information. It ought to be compulsory.

[Stanley]

You and Yours are looking again at the Dolphin property group in Germany which proved to be a sink hole into which many pensions were sucked. (LINK)
It was so easy, double your money in five years.

[Tizer]

A quick explanation of why the rising stock market gives a false impression...
`Why have global stock markets gone up this year?' LINK

[plaques]

From the above link...

"Money has become cheaper and cheaper money boosts the valuations of financial assets and that is what we have seen globally supporting the stock market," says Ms Noffke.

Great if you are part of the asset owning class but not too clever if you rely on a daily wage in cash. At some point in time the purchasing value of cash will become part of the cheap money and buy less and less. All part of the smoke and mirrors of levelling up.

[Stanley]

As I understand it the only source of real wealth is adding value to raw materials by manufacturing or extracting resources from the ground. All the other factors which are used to explain and support the workings of the financial industry are a cost and charged to the original real money.
In a period when 'real wealth' is curtailed there is less support for the other factors and yet the treasuries are spending more. That will take a hell of a lot of explaining away......

[Tizer]

Keep in mind that even the big banks are developing their own `cryptocurrencies' now so we're moving even further away from those sources of real wealth and into a fantasy world.

[Whyperion]

Keep in mind that even the big banks are developing their own `cryptocurrencies' now so we're moving even further away from those sources of real wealth and into a fantasy world.

Cowrie Shells?

[Tizer]

It won't be long before we have only one world car manufacturer!
`Fiat Chrysler and PSA merger faces final hurdle' LINK
`A merger between Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA Group faces its final hurdle as the two companies seek shareholder approval on Monday. The deal, if approved, will create the world's fourth biggest carmaker and comes two years after talks began. The combined company will bring together well-known brands such as Peugeot, Citroen and Vauxhall from PSA with Fiat, Jeep and Chrysler. The new company following the $52bn (£38bn) deal will be called Stellantis. Stellantis, which means to brighten with stars, will have 14 car brands under one roof including niche players Maserati and Alfa Romeo..'.

[Whyperion]

Tesla ? And Tata ?

[Stanley]

One Bitcoin each, any colour as long as it's black.

[Stanley]

Why do I get the feeling that in economic terms we are in limbo. Bit like the phoney war in 1939 and 1940, we are waiting for something to happen. This applies to the progress of Covid19 as well. Lockdown has belatedly been deployed, now we wait to see if it and vaccination are working. Question is, what's the best (or worst) we can expect? There's only one thing to do... KBO!

[Tizer]

Here's something that needs changing although I don't see this government doing it, especially with Dishy Rishi in charge of the money...
`FTSE 100 chief executives 'earn average salary within 3 days'' LINK
`Bosses of Britain's biggest companies will earn more in the first three days of this week than the average worker's annual wage, research claims. By 17:30 GMT on Wednesday, the pay of FTSE 100 chiefs will have overtaken the £31,461 annual median wage for full time workers, the High Pay Centre says. Bosses' pay was flat last year, while average wages generally rose slightly. That meant that FTSE chief executives had to work 34 hours to beat median annual pay, not the 33 hours in 2020. The High Pay Centre think-tank based its annual calculations on analysis of disclosures in companies' annual reports, combined with government statistics. High Pay Centre director Luke Hildyard said chief executive pay is about 120 times that of the typical UK worker, up significantly from two decades ago. "Estimates suggest it was around 50 times at the turn of the millennium or 20 times in the early 1980s," he said..'.

[Stanley]

Dead right Peter, nothing will be done. Sunak is hand in glove with too many city institutions to rub them up the wrong way. It would take a very left wing Chancellor to attack the foundation of the higher financial classes!
Do away with 'remuneration committees' and institute a system where executive income is capped at a reasonable multiple of worst paid workers wage. That would leave them a very simple way of raising their wage and if that system of caps was present right through the wage structure a rising tide really would float all boats!

[chinatyke]

Never in a million years could I have imagined I would go into a bank with a mask on and ask for money.

[Stanley]