BEWARE! THE BANKS ARE OUT TO GET YOU!

[PanBiker]

Nerlson will be the nearest branch to Barlick when Skipton closes but for how long?

[Stanley]

Nearest HSBC is Burnley......I only use it, by post, if I have a cheque to pay in. A big problem for traders trying to bank their takings. Card payments by post to Camberwell.

[Stanley]

The world of industrial takeovers is not without its problems. See THIS BBC report on the problems the Bayer buy out of Monsanto has produced. Thousands of cases are waiting to go to court over possible carcinogenic effects of Round Up the weed killer that is essentially Glyphosate.

[Stanley]

If you want to make dodgy money here's how to do it. Buy British Steel at Scunthorpe at a knock down price because it's become uneconomic. Make the purchase via a shell company in Jersey where the taxes are low. Then capitalise the company with a large loan from the shell company and charge it 10% interest. This ensures an income but the company declines. When the Carbon Charge comes in from the EU ask the government for a loan to pay it. (I forget the amount, but I seem to remember it was over £100million.) The company still loses money so you ask the government for another bail out. (They are considering that at the moment). All the time you are raking in the 10% and there is still the demolition value when all else fails.
Cunning isn't it. And hundreds of large enterprises in the UK are run like this. No wonder we are in such a mess.

[plaques]

I think this one slipped passed us. 'Five banks have been fined €1.07bn (£935m) by the European Commission after traders clubbed together to rig the foreign exchange market.' Bank Fined
This nice little earner was a little like bookmakers knowing what money was going to be laid out and arranging the odds so that they always won. And the losers were... Joe Public. If this level of collusion is going on where the rules are adamant that it should never take place just think of what these cartels are hatching up in the name of competition that we never hear about. Would our BoE be strong enough and our criminal system be prepared to take this action if we are independent of the EU?

[Stanley]

The short answer to that P is no.

[Tizer]

It hasn't slipped past us, Plaques. We've come to regard it as normal and don't bother to comment!

[Whyperion]

ForEx is a weird thing though, didn;t Harold Wilson say you can't buck the market ? Given the spread at the post office or even M&S I would not worry over trifles of fractions of percents on large deals, which is probably where the skim came from. Anyone who has done a A level Economics Course would bump into the problems of international money flows for trading purposes, investment purposes, borrowing purposes and capital goods sales and purchases, tbut will thinking one can find a generally forward predicatable movement of currencies.

[Stanley]

A tiny percentage of the trillions a day that is traded is still a lot of money.....

[plaques]

I don't think this was a case of grabbing fractions of left overs. The banks were talking to each other giving notice of what they may be putting into the end of day pot. These were then adjusted between themselves to make sure the resulting exchange rate move round on a Buggin's turn next basis. It was fraud no more no less.

[Stanley]

I agree, but based on the fact that a relatively small adjustment raked in oodles of cash.....
Looks as though Scunthorpe is going to get bad news shortly..... I wonder if the Jersey based investment fund will lose money.... No mention of the 10% interest they have been getting. It's an old and discreditable story.

[Stanley]

Re. Scunthorpe and British Steel. I saw yesterday that the sharks were charging the company an 'administration fee' as well.
I heard part of a report yesterday about the buy to let market. The 'expert' witness was saying that the expectation is for house prices to fall and that many landlords are going to get their fingers burned. They will not be the only ones. None of this is certain but in an economy fuelled by so much debt, the possibility of a down turn in our fragile economy must be high and one wonders what the knock-on effects will be. If it happens it will depress everything.

[Stanley]

See THIS report that Johnson and Johnson are in court in Oklahoma accused of 'inappropriate marketing of opioids. This on top of the other matter of asbestos in the talcum powder. It's a dangerous world out there in business when litigation comes into the frame.
Incidentally it was stated that 130 people a day are dying from misuse of these powerful pain killers. That's a shocking figure!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on Neill Woodford, up to now a respected fund manager. It looks as though his fund is in trouble.
See THIS also. Another major service provider seems to be in trouble. Kier seems to be following other providers in this sector.

[Stanley]

The latest High Street casualty is Sir Philip Green's Arcadia group. See THIS BBC report. Not many people will shed tears for Green and his wife but we mustn't forget the 18,000 employees who are now unsure of their future which now lies in the hands of the landlords, if they take a hit on the rents the group will survive. It's expected that the group could survive, just.

[Stanley]

More bad news about the Ford plant at Bridgend in Wales. The expectation is that today the complete closure will be announced. The 1,700 strong workforce have already been hit by 1000 redundancies, the future of the remainder looks bleak.

[chinatyke]

More bad news about the Ford plant at Bridgend in Wales. The expectation is that today the complete closure will be announced. The 1,700 strong workforce have already been hit by 1000 redundancies, the future of the remainder looks bleak.

Years ago I worked for a small chemical company and we used to supply Ford's Bridgend Works with a product which was routinely used by them to decontaminate parts for reworking. They were terrible payers and our company responded by stopping business with them until they paid what they owed in CASH, and then future business would be on a cash with order basis. Our product was critical to their operation and after telephoning many times to try to get us to dispatch their order, they commented "no-one has ever done this to Ford" to which our chairman replied "no-one has ever taken 9 months to pay us and you're still not getting our product until you pay cash." Because they couldn't do without it, Ford sent someone to our works with the cash and collected their goods!

Imagine a big company trading with 9 months arrears, it's a huge sum and they deserve to go out of business. Trading like this can sometimes make a company insolvent, eg RR. A small trader can issue a claim of insolvency against a much larger company and the debt doesn't have to be very much. Once issued the company must show it is not insolvent and can cover ALL of its debt, not just the amount outstanding to the small company.

[Stanley]

A very common ploy by big companies China. When I was at Bancroft we had to settle our account with Courtaulds in full every month or they would refuse to supply yarn. We sold them cloth and they operated on a 6 month payment..... I remember talking to Doug Hoyle about it at one time and he told me about the efforts the Labour Party had made to level the playing field but they never succeeded.
In a report yesterday one industry expert said that the closure was expected because Ford has stopped investing in the UK. He also said that foreign investment in British Manufacturing had fallen by 80% over the last three years I think it was.
Can't understand it, I thought the Tories were the Party of Business......

[Stanley]

The High Street sales figures for May are dire, down again on last May which was itself down by 2% on may 2017. Is the boom in personal debt starting to slow down? There must be an end to it at some time!

[Stanley]

I see that there is going to be an enquiry into the circumstances of the failure of British Steel at Scunthorpe and this will include close examination of the role played by the last owners,offshore based Greybull Capital. (LINK)
Good!!

[Tizer]

Not really banks but it's still big business causing trouble. I'll be interested to see how this progresses. It's not only the manufacturers who were at fault, the regulations and official testing methods were inadequate...
`Grenfell survivors and relatives open US legal battle' LINK

[Stanley]

My god Tiz.... Isn't the world getting complicated! I seem to remember the Inquiry chairman saying he was aiming for preliminary findings 'quickly' in 2017. Oh dear.....

[Stanley]

Serco are talking to Babcock.... So what? See THIS and other reports which suggest that not all is well with these two companies that depend largely on revenue from providing outsourced services to the UK government.
The companies both say that reports of problems are greatly exaggerated. Let's wait and see but I wouldn't bet the farm on ether of them if I was you. This sector is not healthy.

[Tizer]

Another piece of evidence for that...
`Kier to cut 1,200 jobs as it seeks to cut costs' LINK
`Troubled construction and services firm Kier has said it will cut 1,200 jobs to help make cost savings of £55m a year from 2021. The company will sell its homebuilding business, Kier Living, and will shut or sell other interests, including its recycling and rubbish processing units. Kier said it would focus on businesses including construction and road maintenance. Shares in the company have fallen by more than 85% in the past year...'.

Apparently the Kier troubles have also been a factor in the problems with Woodford Investments.

[Stanley]

I can see so many areas of finance where what looked like good economic models are failing. Add the pension and annuity market and then reflect on the rise and rise of debt.... I watched Panorama last night on pay day loans and noted that no solution was advocated. Being a simple minded Old Fart I can't help reflecting on a conclusion I came to many years ago after looking into the Inter War years, the main flaw is distribution of national wealth. This is described by some as 'the politics of envy'. They couldn't be further from the truth.