Adding up | simplesimon8

Never mind tax havens – the real hidden billions are in company coffers | Richard Seymour | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

May 13, 2013 simplesimon8 Leave a comment

English: Map of tax havens, using the 2007 proposed “Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act”, US Congress, list of tax havens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Never mind tax havens – the real hidden billions are in company coffers | Richard Seymour | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

So the question is (again) is your government taxing the right people?

Canadians have $170B stashed in top 12 global tax havens (canada.com)
UK’s top companies condemned for prolific use of tax havens (guardian.co.uk)

sound advice from the #FCA #interestrates #0 #banks #economy #pensions

May 3, 2013 simplesimon8 Leave a comment

Goldman Sachs New World Headquarters (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Over 1 million Brits will face interest-only mortgage shortfall.

Interesting and no doubt sound advice from the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority, not the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, I assume)

Although sadly it’s a bit like Goldman Sachs not paying any tax, a failure by authorities to understand who is paying for the mess of the past few years.

Yes its middle England mug taxpayer AGAIN. This is the guy who works for 8-10 hours a day, pays all his taxes on time not to mention his inflation capped energy bills (NOT), fines, council taxes, road taxes, school fees, airport departure taxes, airport landing taxes, health care bills, insurances….the list goes on.

So thanks for the thought from the FCA, my advice would be to save a little more each month to pay off your mortgage.

What? You haven’t got any spare cash left at the end of the month?

My advice would be, stay at home on the dole, watch TV all day and get all your bills paid for you.

UK watchdog steps in early over interest-only mortgage time-bomb (xe.com)

Nat West Bank fraud department #commonsense #rbs #bank #losttheplot

April 19, 2013 simplesimon8 Leave a comment

I’m writing this in an attempt to reach out to somebody at Nat West Bank, which as a UK tax payer and customer, I have a vested interest in.

I received an automated message this morning from the ‘fraud’ office, regarding certain transactions on my account and was asked to enter my birth date.

Now to be honest, I can’t standing talking to a machine at the best of times. Press 1 for music, press 2 for more music, enter details on the keypad, more music, speak to a customer advisor and then confirm all the details I just entered on the keypad. It just doesn’t work for me.

Hence the chances of me entering my birthdate on a machine that purported to be Nat West Bank fraud department, are about as high as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown apologising for the mess they left this country in.

So I called the telephone number on the back of my debit card, rapidly pressed hash, star, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc etc and got put through to customer services. The lady put me through to the fraud department where I confirmed my details and several recent transactions.

As everything was now ok, the fraud department informed me that my card would be unlocked within the next few minutes.

Finally I asked him which transactions had been identified as ‘suspicious’

And this is my point……he replied “I don’t know that information, the computer just throws up random transactions”

So my understanding is that a machine has been programmed to look for suspicious transactions but it would seem that only the programmer know what these transactions are!

Shame the programmer wasn’t around when Sir Fred (gilt-edged pension) bought out ABN Amro Bank in October 2008

Commonsense, get some of it before it’s too late #natwest #fraud #rbs #bank

Since writing this article, in a further twist of fate, I received a letter from Nat West with whom I have had a bank account and credit card for 30 years.

The letter invites me to inform the bank of my christian name as they only have my initial and surname on record. Failure to do this will result in the suspension of my credit card!!! It’s frankly too much for words, just laughable!

What are you doing Nat West?

Have you gone completely mad? #getagrip #commonsense

NatWest launches talking cash machines (telegraph.co.uk)
More problems for NatWest bank as customers locked out of mobile app (independent.co.uk)
NatWest hit by system failure less than a year after last outage (guardian.co.uk)

How to cause a run on your bank #EU #bonkers #mad #losttheplot #banks #bailin

March 26, 2013 simplesimon8 Leave a comment

wm-license-information-description-missing wm-license-information-description-missing-request European stars.svg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

EU to push for losses on big savers at failed banks: lawmaker | Reuters.

If you needed further evidence that Euro politicians are stark raving bonkers, this must be it.

Basically if you avoided the big financial crisis of the past few years, by saving your money away in a bank, this could be your reward!

How much longer before good bank, bad bank and the state run bank.

Common sense, find a politician with it #couldbeawhile

Revealed: German Banking Fraud Worse Than Nicosia’s, Luxembourg Banking Sector @ 24x Gdp (hat4uk.wordpress.com)
EU Says Deposits Not Safe From Seizure (greece.greekreporter.com)
Europe Keeps Missing The Point (businessinsider.com)

Two headlines today in the WSJ #morality #world #mess #somethingwrong #taxation #funds #money

March 25, 2013 simplesimon8 Leave a comment

English: Dell Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Business News & Financial News – The Wall Street Journal – Wsj.com.

The two main headlines on this page are about Cyprus and Dell.

A nation nearly goes bust and a $24bn deal for Dell.

Commonsense, just commonsense.

Report: Dell likely to receive more takeover bids (sfgate.com)
Just Let the Insolvent Banks in Cyprus Fail (cnbc.com)

IMF Chief Christine Lagarde’s Home Searched by French Police #Bloomberg #lagarde

March 20, 2013 simplesimon8 Leave a comment

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

IMF Chief Christine Lagarde’s Home Searched by French Police
2013-03-20 14:36:23.313 GMT

By Mark Deen and Sandrine Rastello
March 20 (Bloomberg) — French police today searched the
home of Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the
International Monetary Fund, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
The Cour de Justice de la Republique, which
investigates ministers’ actions in office, is looking into
whether former French finance minister Lagarde erred in agreeing
to an arbitration to end a dispute with businessman Bernard
Tapie, a supporter of Former President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Tapie won a 385 million-euro arbitration award in damages
to settle his dispute over his company’s sale of German
sportswear brand Adidas AG. Tapie claimed Credit Lyonnais
mishandled the 1993 sale and pursued a claim against the
formerly state-owned bank’s liquidator.
The court opened its investigation into whether there was
“complicity in forgery” or “complicity in misuse of public
funds” in the case in 2011, soon after Lagarde became head of
the IMF.
“It would not be appropriate to comment on a case that
has been and is currently before the French judiciary,” said
Gerry Rice, the Director of the External Dept of the IMF.
“Prior to its selection of the Managing Director, however, the
IMF’s Executive Board discussed this issue and expressed its
confidence that Madame Lagarde would be able to effectively
carry out her duties.”