This will get you going!

[five bellies]

I have been listening to James O'brien On LBC today and he aired a piont of veiw that I though would warrent further conversation on AN

 

Owing to Many local Goverments having Invested our money in the form of Council Tax collections In failed Icelandic Banks our Council tax will need to be raised in order to off set the Loss of our own money . What the Bl00dy hell is that all about!!

I can sort of under stand a short fall needing shoreing up, But what where they doing making a proffit in an off shore account with our hard earned money without declairing it and why wasnt any past proffets handed on the the real investors namely us in the form of rebates, these gains prior to the crash should have been clearly shown on our breakdown of expenses we recieve every year along with a demand for yet more Money.

 

In Buisness if you dont spend your complete budget in the financial year Nine times out of Ten It is cut the following year!

 

Am I over simplifieying the issue or am I right to have the hump?

Edited October 10, 2008 by five bellies

[ColinW]

What the Bl00dy hell is that all about!!

 

It's about some guy in your council office trying to justify his job. He will have spent months researching all the banks to find who was offering the best rates. Then he will have attended endless meetings, where he convinced his superiors that this was a great idea. Then he will have flown to Iceland for a week or so (with his family) to get feel of the place. Then he'll have gone on a course telling him how to transfer huge sums abroad.... and so it goes on and on.

 

Of course if he hadn't been spending so much money on this project, he wouldn't have needed to maximise returns in the first place.

[five bellies]

It's about some guy in your council office trying to justify his job. He will have spent months researching all the banks to find who was offering the best rates. Then he will have attended endless meetings, where he convinced his superiors that this was a great idea. Then he will have flown to Iceland for a week or so (with his family) to get feel of the place. Then he'll have gone on a course telling him how to transfer huge sums abroad.... and so it goes on and on.

 

Of course if he hadn't been spending so much money on this project, he wouldn't have needed to maximise returns in the first place.

 

 

Im afraid you might be right!

 

Im not niave enouth enough to think that the council keeps our money in Cave in the woods but I would have thought It would have been tied up safely on shore in low yeild safe bonds with a fixed return, Preferably investing in the country over all. Not in what amounts to a current account in Iceland.

Edited October 10, 2008 by five bellies

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Im afraid you might be right!

 

Im not niave enouth enough to think that the council keeps our money in Cave in the woods but I would have thought It would have been tied up safely on shore in low yeild safe bonds with a fixed return, Preferably investing in the country over all. Not in what amounts to a current account in Iceland.

 

This has always been my shout, globalisation is high risk, as soon as your money goes off shore outside the controls of the British banking system your treading on thin ice.

 

Our system has some damn great dents in it but compared to others it is a safe haven.

 

FB how the hell do you think these fat cat local government officers have been able to afford their £165000 per year salaries and bloody great pensions, it was done by risking our money in high interest off shore banks.

 

And I don't care what any body says, it matters little who you put in, be they right wing, middle wing or left wing they will all wing away with as much of our money as they can and blame every body else.

 

Most of them couldn't organise a decent p*** up in a brewery.

[Vagabond]

Some very unpleasant reality checks now apply.

 

If an interest rate sounds too good to be true, then it almost certainly is - which is why I preferred Goverment Bonds to Northern Rock - and certainly to Icelandic banks!. As 5B says, councils have no business to be investing abroad, it is their constituents' money they are gambling with. A solicitor who gambled with clients' money in this way might well be struck off - which is why they invest money held in trust in boring but safe bonds.

 

Other realities -

 

Someone paying a mortgage is NOT, as the media have it a "home owner" - they are would-be home buyers, with a home at risk until the mortgage is paid off.

 

Someone running a business on a bank overdraft is NOT a "businessman", but a chancer, with everything at risk if the bank folds - or even thinks it may fold, and wants its money back.

 

Someone buying shares is NOT an "investor", but a gambler. I was always careful never to "invest" (I mean wager) more than I could afford, and ran my share holdings down as soon as Labour took office.

 

....and I see that the price of gold is rocketing - three cheers for "Prudence" Brown, who sold off our gold reserves when the price was rock bottom.

 

All the financial "experts" are now running around like headless chickens - who will ever trust them again?

Edited October 11, 2008 by Vagabond

[Ken Davison South Wales]

99.9% of business run on an overdraft of some sort, chatting to a small supplier only yesterday who said and I quote " Converted my overdraft into a loan and operate in credit but it is hard work"

 

The reality is he is still operating on borrowed money like the vast majority of businesses.

 

The problem with a lot of businesses is they have no solid assets, they have lease hold properties which are valueless on a falling market.

 

A prime example is a florist shop which came up for sale. £50,000 for a lease and good will which can be lost over night. The rent has gone up so they have had to let half the shop go so now they are stuck for space and have only half of a near worthless lease.

 

Any business is a gamble whether the banks are involved or not, however some are calculated and well thought out gambles with contingencies built in, others are great while things are tickety boo but a total loss at times like these.

Edited October 10, 2008 by Ken Davison South Wales

[Vagabond]

99.9% of business run on an overdraft of some sort,

 

The reality is he is still operating on borrowed money like the vast majority of businesses.

 

Like I said, chancers.

 

I hope that 99.9% is an overestimate. Now is not a good time to be owing money to a bank.

[Sportsman]

The trick is in borrowing enough.

As the old saying has it:

If you owe the bank £5000 your in trouble.

If you owe the bank £5000,000 the bank's in trouble

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Like I said, chancers.

 

I hope that 99.9% is an overestimate. Now is not a good time to be owing money to a bank.

 

It's those chancers Dave that keep this country afloat, be they farmers, retailers or manufactures. Small businesses account for 75 % of our turnover and employment without them whatever you have going would be worthless.

 

The vast majority of "your so called" home owners do have mortgages, only a very small percentage of freehold properties are owned outright and I see nothing wrong with that they are all hard working people who should be admired not belittled.

[Vagabond]

It's those chancers Dave that keep this country afloat,

Afloat? Like wide-spread job losses, bankruptcies, house repossessions etc that they will generate.

 

Our family business (building and selling houses) will be quiet for a while, but will survive - why ? -because we are not in hock to a bank. We built up the business at a sustainable rate.

Too many businesses want to become millionaires overnight and borrow (to "expand" - bubbles "expand", then they burst) beyond their means, which is why I call them chancers.

The vast majority of "your so called" home owners do have mortgages, they are all hard working people who should be admired not belittled.

I neither admire nor belittle them, but (in their own interests) they should not be under a self-delusion that they are "owners" until the mortgage is paid off - like I said, its reality, - not me being judgemental.....and as for hard-working, well, hard work is not the prerogative of borrowers alone - if it wasn't for sound businesses working hard and banking profits, there would be nothing for the chancers to borrow.

 

PS Having written that last sentence, it occurs to me that the present mess might be the result of the chancers now out-numbering the sound businesses - but what do I know, I'm just a dinosaur who started with nothing, owned his own house by age 48, helps run a family-owned business, and still finds time to travel the world and fish.

Edited October 10, 2008 by Vagabond