Posts under ‘Finance’

Can private banks ever be trusted, after fines of £61n?

by Michael Meacher.

The size of the penalties imposed on the UK’s Big 4 banks for illegal misconduct since the crash in 2008-9 is stunning. It amounts to £42bn already levied up to 2014, plus a further £19bn for conduct and litigation charges this year and next. That £61bn total is a staggering figure, equal by one measure […]

Hound of Hounslow shows non-regulation of banks remains extremely dangerous

by Michael Meacher.

No-one had heard of Navinder Singh Sarao until on 6 May 2010 he ‘spoofed’ the international stock markets while sitting in his room in his parents’ semi in Hounslow and made $879,000 on that day alone and, it is alleged, $40 millions fraudulently over 5 years. He is now awaiting extradition to the US to […]

Greek myths retold: confronting the ideologues of austerity

by Michael Burke.

The world economy is not strong and the President of the United States is sufficiently concerned about new shocks to it that he recently met the Greek Finance Minister to urge ‘flexibility on all sides’ in the negotiations between the Syriza-led government and its creditors. US concern is fully justified. In any attempt to reach agreement it […]

Even the Tories’ naked bribery has now gone pear-shaped

by Michael Meacher.

There is a very noticeable difference between the way that the Tories and Labour have conducted this election. The Tories have used the twin-prong approach: personal vilification which has proved counter-productive and now blatant giveaways (of other people’s money) to try to produce a false feel-good factor. However, no serious policy proposals for the country’s increasingly […]

Big four banks (with 1,629 subsidiaries in tax havens) are rotten heart of UK economy

by Michael Meacher.

The more that comes to light about the nefarious activities of the Big four banks, the more extraordinary it is that these banks (a) demand a return to business as usual (which of course caused the financial crash in the first place), (b) continue to fight back against any reforms of a dysfunctional finance sector, feeble […]

Do we want predatory capitalism or an economy geared to the common good?

by Michael Meacher.

Despite the predictable whines of some FTSE-100 bosses reported yesterday about a post-election Labour-SNP pact, Ed M should flesh out more about his vision to replace ‘predatory capitalism’ both because that is what a majority of people want and also to put paid to the ignorant mantra that self-interested executives like to propagate that anyone […]

Osborne budget: watch out for impossible future service cuts he’d rather keep hidden

by Michael Meacher.

Osborne’s last budget in a week’s time will proclaim the usual fanfare of ‘long-term economic plan’ brilliantly succeeding, if not quite Bush’s ‘Mission Accomplished’. Forget that the deficit today is touching £100bn, not the £37bn Osborne predicted in 2010 – any private sector director who got his sums that wildly wrong would be sacked on […]

If you think bankers are greedy and self-interested, you should meet fund managers

by Jon Lansman.

The latest incomes data shows bankers still getting obscenely high remuneration and whopping big bonuses, yet they are being overtaken by another group within the finance sector. Fund managers have now overtaken the pay and bonuses of bankers, though they’re keeping it very quiet. They say there’s no need for customers (i.e. the investing public) […]

HSBC chairman admits bank too big to manage, so shrink it till it can be managed

by Michael Meacher.

Douglas Flint, the chairman of HSBC, put his finger on it when under scrutiny by the Treasury Select Committee last week: “I don’t feel that proximate to what was happening in the private bank (at Geneva)”. He felt ‘very ashamed’, but not enough to forfeit past bonus payments in response. He was finance director when […]

The costs and benefits of Grexit

by Tom Gill.

by Emiliano Brancaccio and Gennaro Zezza – translated from Italian by Tom Gill You cannot say that between 2010 and 2014, Greece has not “done their homework” assigned by the Troika. The tax burden has grown by five percentage points of GDP, public spending has fallen by a quarter and wages have fallen by twenty […]

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