Barclays Takes You For A Ride

Banks Take You For A Ride

This sticker campaign from P K Munroe in 2010 seems even more pertinent now in the face of the Libor interest rate fixing scandal. Sadly I can’t crow too much because shortly after all the other banks – well ones that were functioning *snigger* got fined as well for wrongly selling financial products to small businesses – and also are being investigated over the Libor scandal.

It is possible but it’s getting hard to find a bank that isn’t hypocritically taking money (either bailout, governmental or citizens) and then claiming they have no responsibility for what they do with it, nor any responsibility for kick-starting investment needed in the recession. And remember those recessions were started by financial institutions and banks with bad investments, dodgy financial ‘instruments’, currency speculation and a credit boom in the first place.

Although historically investment during recession has always been the measure of the Government, but I can’t see Dear Dave doing that either – and he’s happy to let the banks get it – well until he wants some more party funds then it’s ‘how high should I jump’?

Interesting also how the script has changed from 2009 – from evil bankers to evil people who just couldn’t stop buying things on credit cards. Remember that when the boom kicks in again and they all want you to spend, spend, spend. And it seems those that profited are not the ones who are blamed, ever. Thus is capitalism, one of mostly unessential buying, boom and spend followed by bust – but to state that you get called a ‘commie’ and a socialist. But I’m also uncomfortable with the ‘austerity’ measures as they are all designed to attack the working and middle classes and leave the rich out of it – from Jimmy Carr to Google and Apple and Vodafone. And that’s 1bn in tax avoided by Vodafone is extra to the £6bn they’ve already avoided oh and the CEO of Voda just said we should give him back more money and then he might pay more tax. Fuck, and off are my response.

These offshore laws I’m guessing are for the likes of Amazon, which is arguable whether they are onshore or off as an internet company that’s based in the States but does have UK warehouse stock (similar to the Google example, but I don’t think Amazon has much property here – might be wrong). If you have infrastructure here, like say a mobile phone network with all the masts and shops etc, then you cannot ever be ‘offshore’ as a company as you can’t ever move your network abroad. These laws are stupid.

I think with the general hatred of banks and the government, and this is before anyone here has realised how much their savings and pensions are being devalued through clipping the currency – that maybe I should invest in that Bailout! tshirt I saw back in 2009.

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