Bingo

You are an idiot,,, based on posting history... It's hard to argue when someone makes a blatantly incorrect statement isn't it?!

Haven't been on this site much in the last few months, I got a bit bored with the Daily Mailesque style rantings of the regular users. I just browsed to the site to see what comments were posted regarding the so called shorting on the high street and the first thing that hit me was a banner ad sponsored by Persimmon advertising 95% mortgages. Sell out or what?? It seems the site has fallen victim to the very interests it was originally set up to combat. Or am I wrong???

Helga is the proprietor of a bar. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. Helga keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers' loans). Word gets around about Helga's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Helga's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in town. By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands Helga gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer - the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Helga's gross sales volumes and paper profits increase massively. A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognises that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Helga's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral. He is rewarded with a six figure bonus. At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS. These "securities" are then bundled and traded on international securities markets. Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as "AA Secured Bonds" are really debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses. The traders all receive a six figure bonus. One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Helga's bar. He so informs Helga. Helga then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons but, being unemployed alcoholics, they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since Helga cannot fulfil her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and Helga's 11 employees lose their jobs. Overnight, DRINKBOND prices drop by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank's liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community. The suppliers of Helga's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations; her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers. Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multibillion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from the government. They all receive a six figure bonus. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who've never been in Helga's bar. Now do you understand?

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2012/06/17/axed-celtic-coach-alan-thompson-slashes-flat-price-by-10k-86908-23897141/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter Divorce can be expensive, even when it doesn't happen...

I need to figure out how to get my mitts on some of this cash... After all, it must be ending up somewhere...?

Historically every country which hosts either the Olympics or the World Cup experiences a boom in the years preceding the event. The aftermath is a mixed bag. China of course never missed a beat, but Athens on the other hand,,, oh dear.

As soon as it goes commercial something more trendy will come along to replace it. It isn't as though there aren't already alternatives out there. Remember Friends Reunited? Utter waste of money...

Can I be the first to say,,, that is unexpected...!

Shouldn't the council tax be regionally weighted, just as they are proposing with civil servants incomes? After all, public sector workers will be more expensive in the south east as opposed to the north east... so it stands to reason that the people in the south east will have to pay more for their civil servants, as they cost more... My dad just called me to say he had just received his council tax bill for the year, it has been frozen. However, the council appears to have forgotten that they are supposed to provide certain services to the local populace in return for said council tax... It seems the whole thing has been 'value engineered'...

I think you are being a little harsh, it is never too late for someone to 'wake up' to their reality. On the one hand you are correct, some never do... I have a nephew who worked for Barclays and realised this same problem 5 years ago,,, he told me that he had massive personal conflicts selling financial products to people who neither understood them or could even benefit from them. But he was pressured by his bosses to sell, sell, sell... Ironically he became a policeman.

You bluffed me... what you linked to might be the case if it wasn't for the banks having real machismo issues. They are not interested in making their businesses smaller and more streamlined. They need to feel big. Bob's ego will not let any kind of structured downsizing happen. Remember, bankers are more human than the rest of. All the great men in history suffered from self esteem issues (part of the reason they became great), and these bankers are a long way off being great men...!

So is Bob really a Diamond,,, or just cubic zirconium, looking good but basically prettty worthless...?

I see your Protium and raise you Qatar... http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/26/qatar-barclays-rescue-bank

Just how dodgy does a company have to be before it is just too embarrasing for the Government to allow it to remain un-investigated? They are downgraded 1st http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17060660 Then they are making nice profits http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16985821 Then they are shown to be avoiding (not evading) paying corporation taxes http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_9700000/newsid_9700300/9700394.stm Finally they have been shown to have borrowed more money than they made in profit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17230797 And they are still able to value their own assets,,, unbelievable... Now if my company only had access to the kind of credit facilities available to these guys, all of a sudden my desktop comuter would be worth 1 trillion quid, I could call it a profitable asset and call the balance of £999,999,999,650 clear profit... couldn't I?