The Gov of Bank of England says the cuts are because of the bailouts..

[wednesday1]

Not just Sheffield. There were regional centres built and have still not been moved into months or years on, costing the taxpayer thousands. A number of them have £6000 coffee machines in them.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12042563

 

http://swns.com/government-slammed-over-6000-fire-centre-coffee-machines-011621.html

 

 

 

Chicken feed compared to a Bankers bonus!

[alchresearch]

Chicken feed compared to a Bankers bonus!

 

Yet more apologising for Labour. <sigh>

[Rupert_Baehr]

1. How much did the Bank Bailout cost?

2. Did the Nation get anything (like partial ownership of the bailed out banks) for their money?

3. How much is this year's (long after the bank bailout, paid by the last government) government deficit?

4. How much is the National Debt?

5. How much is the interest on the National Debt?

 

Do you still think the bank bailout is responsible for all the financial problems?

[donkey]

1. How much did the Bank Bailout cost?

2. Did the Nation get anything (like partial ownership of the bailed out banks) for their money?

3. How much is this year's (long after the bank bailout, paid by the last government) government deficit?

4. How much is the National Debt?

5. How much is the interest on the National Debt?

 

Do you still think the bank bailout is responsible for all the financial problems?

 

The evidence that our economic woes are aa a result of the financial sector is in the undeniable fact that every country with a strong finance based economy in now deep in dung.

 

The efforts to put the blame elsewhere only demonstrates how much the deluded die hard capitalists are prepared to skew the truth in support of their self serving political 'philosophy'.

[DiDoDoDatDoe]

Because of what bailouts ? it cant mean the banks because we all know from the hundreds of times its been drilled into us from every Tory and Lib Dem in the media that its all Labors faults that are causing the cuts.

 

How dare anyone suggest it could be anything to do with Banks ?

[green]

The evidence that our economic woes are aa a result of the financial sector is in the undeniable fact that every country with a strong finance based economy in now deep in dung.

 

The efforts to put the blame elsewhere only demonstrates how much the deluded die hard capitalists are prepared to skew the truth in support of their self serving political 'philosophy'.

 

[Rupert_Baehr]

The numbers are the evidence and they're readily available.

 

1. How much did the Bank Bailout cost? £850 Billion

 

2. Did the Nation get anything (like partial ownership of the bailed out banks) for their money? Yes. The country now owns 84% of RBS, 77% of Lloyds,100% of Northern Rock and the mortgage department of Bradford and Bingley.

 

3. How much is this year's (long after the bank bailout, paid by the last government) government deficit? In 2010, the government deficit was £147,297 Billion

 

4. How much is the National Debt? Depends which figures you use. From the Debt Bombshell site, it's £2.336 TRILLION. (Did the £850 Billion bailout actually cost more than £2 Trillion?)

 

5. How much is the interest on the National Debt? From the same Debt Bombshell site, the interest was predicted to be 43 Billion. They said on that site: "To pay this year's £43 billion interest bill, every household will stump up more than £1,800 in tax." Those predictions were made when the National Debt was (a mere ) 900 Billion. Now that it's £2.336 Trillion - 2.59 times as high as it was when the £43 Billion interest was calculated, presumably the interest is nearer £111 Billion.

 

The Bank Bailout was £850 Billion. The National Debt is £2.336 Trillion. The Bank Bailout may have been the single biggest cause of the problem, but it represents only 36.3% of that problem; it's not responsible for the lot.

[green]

The numbers are the evidence and they're readily available.

 

1. How much did the Bank Bailout cost? £850 Billion

 

2. Did the Nation get anything (like partial ownership of the bailed out banks) for their money? Yes. The country now owns 84% of RBS, 77% of Lloyds,100% of Northern Rock and the mortgage department of Bradford and Bingley.

 

3. How much is this year's (long after the bank bailout, paid by the last government) government deficit? In 2010, the government deficit was £147,297 Billion

 

4. How much is the National Debt? Depends which figures you use. From the Debt Bombshell site, it's £2.336 TRILLION. (Did the £850 Billion bailout actually cost more than £2 Trillion?)

 

5. How much is the interest on the National Debt? From the same Debt Bombshell site, the interest was predicted to be 43 Billion. They said on that site: "To pay this year's £43 billion interest bill, every household will stump up more than £1,800 in tax." Those predictions were made when the National Debt was (a mere ) 900 Billion. Now that it's £2.336 Trillion - 2.59 times as high as it was when the £43 Billion interest was calculated, presumably the interest is nearer £111 Billion.

 

The Bank Bailout was £850 Billion. The National Debt is £2.336 Trillion. The Bank Bailout may have been the single biggest cause of the problem, but it represents only 36.3% of that problem; it's not responsible for the lot.

 

 

If we hadnt have had the banking crisis, would we have had the huge cuts to services/jobs/economy that we are having today?

 

Why are we taking the cuts and not the banking industry?

 

Did you know, that a bankers bonus is based on turnovers of a deal? Not profit.......but turnover? Where is the incentive to ensure the deal is right?

[Rupert_Baehr]

The evidence that our economic woes are aa a result of the financial sector is in the undeniable fact that every country with a strong finance based economy in now deep in dung...

 

I'd certainly agree that the finance sector represents a disproportionally-large part of the British economy and if the UK had no finance sector at all it wouldn't have had to spend £850 Billion bailing out the banks with problems (remember, not all the banks received bailout money - some where better managed.)

 

But if the UK had no finance sector at all, the British economy would've been far smaller during the past 25 years or so.

 

What effect would that have had on the National Debt and on the annual deficits?

 

It appears that bank regulation (in the UK and elsewhere) was inadequate.

 

Who is responsible for that? Isn't the government responsible for making (and enforcing) the rules?

[Rupert_Baehr]

If we hadnt have had the banking crisis, would we have had the huge cuts to services/jobs/economy that we are having today?

 

I don't know. IMO, the financial sector represents an overly-large part of the British economy and given that much of British Industry closed down in the 70's and 80's (and you can't blame all of that on Thatcher - even the Brits wouldn't buy British products), how would the country have made its money during the 80's, 90's and Noughties (before the crash) without the finance sector?

 

Why are we taking the cuts and not the banking industry?

 

Are we? How much of the money made in the UK last year was made by the financial sector? How much tax did they pay on that money? Do bankers pay taxes at a lower rate than you or I?

 

Did you know, that a bankers bonus is based on turnovers of a deal? Not profit.......but turnover? Where is the incentive to ensure the deal is right?

 

That - unfortunately - is the way the industry works. I was a stockbroker (not a wealthy stockbroker, an impoverished broker ) in the US for about 9 months. I worked for a (long defunct) Merchant Bank known in the trade as 'Blind 'em and Rob 'em'. I didn't get a penny in salary; I (was supposed to) live(d) off my commissions and commissions were a percentage of the value of the trade - not in any way linked to the future performance of the securities I sold. Being a stockbroker does require you to learn a few hundred pages of theory and to pass a few exams, but after that, it's hardly a skilled job. You're a salesman. Just like a door-to-door salesman selling other products. 'Ding-Dong, Rupert calling' )

 

In theory, a good bank employs a number of highly-skilled 'technicians' who evaluate the securities sold. (That's the job I really wanted - heavy maths and an analytical mind.) Back then (late 1980's) technicians were salaried staff (and high salaries, too - if they were any good) . They were responsible for advising the brokers on what to sell. Well, that was the theory, anyway.

 

We had technicians - but they were absolute crap and they pushed whatever junk the company wanted sold. (Usually securities in which the bank 'made a market'.)

 

In theory, the brokers were regulated (by the New York Stock Exchange.) The regulation was intended to ensure that the brokers were 'honest brokers' but it was totally inadequate. - It was supposed to be a 'big stick' (no carrots) approach, but in reality, the 'big stick' was a Nerf sword.

 

The regulators were grossly underfunded and (almost) totally ineffective.

 

IMO, it's up to the governments in whose territories the banks operate to regulate them tightly. No government seems to be interested in taking on the task (though they're all quite willing to take the revenues the financial sector generates.) The system itself isn't broken, but the controls are lacking.

 

I don't agree with the size of the bankers' bonuses, but that's the way that particular industry operates. Whether Cameron (or Milliband, for that matter) has the balls to take on the bankers and insist that they revert to salaries [which would probably be impressively large] is probably irrelevant.

 

The UK doesn't have the clout to tell the whole world that the bankers will scrap bonuses and I suspect that if the UK acted unilaterally and either scrapped bankers' bonuses (or taxed them at, say, 90%) then the bankers would leave.