BBC Blog Network

User Profile

KaitainCPS

Listed below are comments made by KaitainCPS between Wednesday, 3rd December 2008 and Tuesday, 20th October 2009.

«Newer
Older»

A sombre warning 10:47pm on 20 Oct 2009 "but the fact remains that taxes on those banks and bonuses form a large part of the UK's tax income, and prior to the bail outs not many were complaining when they funded the schools and hospitals"

Imagine that burglary is legal.

Pro burglars, who declare their takings as taxable income, might well provide more tax than anyone else in the economy. However, they are actually providing nothing at all, because their tax "contribution" is merely the appropriation of existing wealth created by somebody else. So the "bankers provide loads of tax" argument isn't any kind of knock-down argument on its own. You need to demonstrate that the bankers create wealth and give some of that created wealth to the tax base, rather than merely moving other people's created wealth onto their ledger and then passing some on to the government.
The best prepared award 01:20am on 01 Apr 2009 "Canada`s resources go much further than the oil and gas industry. The country is a major supplier of electricity to the east coast of the US. It has a large forestry industry as well as mining."

This misses out one other asset that is going to become increasingly important in the 21st century:

Canada has the largest supply of fresh water of any country in the world.
The best prepared award 01:05am on 01 Apr 2009 "Luxury goods are less easily purchased, high quality versions of everyday essential items are equally difficult to afford"

Oh, puh-LEASE! Where are your friends living? The Yukon?

Total nonsense. The UK is far more expensive, although the recent collapse in its currency's value has certainly made my visits cheaper.

In the UK, you get fleeced across the board. Electronic goods are WAY more expensive, cars are more expensive, public transit is more expensive, energy is more expensive, you have to pay council tax, eating out is EYE-WATERINGLY expensive...

The only things which are better value in the UK are alcohol and some supermarket goods.
The best prepared award 00:58am on 01 Apr 2009 "Paul Martin put Canada's financial house in order after the profligacy of the Mulroney years. His reward was to be given the boot. I don't even remember why."

Simple. Martin carried the can for the Liberals' "sponsorship scandal", even though that didn't happen on his watch. In essence, the public were fed up of Liberal arrogance and petty corruption, and Harper managed to present himself as a not-insane alternative (i.e. he cranked his right wing religious tendencies WAAAAAAY down in order to appear electable). It was all slightly unfair on Martin, but such is politics.

btw, GrantBudding, "Stephanomics" is the name of the blog (after its author) and is not a reference to Stephen Harper.
A brief escape 02:02am on 19 Feb 2009 "a solution to the downward spiral in asset valuation would be to cancel all personal mortgage/secured debt."

Get lost. That would reward those who have overstretched themselves at the expense of all those who have savings, and teach the lesson that overstretching for a house is much smarter than saving up a deposit. It's that kind of idiocy that got us into this trouble in the first place.

I mean, just going out on a crazy limb here...you wouldn't happen to hold a large mortgage and/or secured debt, would you?

Thought so. (Rolls eyes.)
A brief escape 01:47am on 19 Feb 2009 "You remove bonuses for all RBS/Lloyds bankers: all the good ones will to US or Swiss banks based in London who -are- still paying bonuses."

I don't think you've quite adjusted the new paradigm, mate.

RBS's days of quant-based buccaneering are in the past. That era was a catastrophic failure, and its methods won't be repeated. RBS needs to return to its core business: basic banking. Basic banking is *easy*. Let the whizz-kids leave for investment banks in Zurich. They won't be missed at all.
Should bankers repay bonuses? 6:53pm on 05 Feb 2009 Robert,

You're absolutely right. It is absurd. In every case where the government has intervened to save a bank, you have an existential proof that no bonus should be awarded. Bonuses should come only when a firm has made profits. A bank whose existence has been maintained only through state aid cannot have made true profits.

There is a separate argument that those in profitable *divisions* of a bank that has made losses overall should be rewarded. This would make sense only if there were concomitant reductions (negative bonuses) in the loss-making divisions.

One can view any firm as, in essence, a group of people who agree to work together and take out collective income insurance such that if some people do very well and others do less well in a given year, pay is evened out nonetheless. If one person has a lean year, they can still get by, and the firm keeps them on because they will probably be of greater value in other years. (If the firm did not think this were the case, the person ought to be fired.) Bonuses to some extent move away from this model, but you cannot move away from it entirely. If a firm had made overall losses, it should not be able to pay bonuses unless it had reserves or guaranteed future cash flow. In this situation, the cash is coming from the taxpayer. In effect, taxes are being privatized by the very firms who are responsible for the disaster we are facing.

To repeat: no state-assisted bank should be paying ANY bonuses. None. Nada. Zip. Banks lost the right to pay bonuses and try to "retain the best staff" when they effectively went bust. Allowing them to pay bonuses with state aid is indirect theft, a wealth transfer from the responsible to the irresponsible. Labour need to be told that if they allow this, people will not vote for them at the next election.
Taxpayers' mortgage guarantee 00:01am on 04 Dec 2008 "Finally, to those talking of leaving the country all I can say is STOP TALKING AND GET ON WITH IT. We need to reduce the population."

I agree. Get on with it. Leave the greedy boomers and other tax thieves in the UK, their children and grandchildren abroad, alone, with only wave after wave of immigrants to support their retirement.

Let them reap what they have sown with their short-sighted selfishness.
Taxpayers' mortgage guarantee 11:58pm on 03 Dec 2008 #120:

"there never will be a better time to buy property."

Don't talk garbage.
Taxpayers' mortgage guarantee 8:07pm on 03 Dec 2008 "I hope Gordon Brown took into consideration the fact that I will be looking to emigrate from away from this country and its punitive regime against prudent savers as soon as I have opportunity."

I heartily encourage you to do so. The UK has become a joke, where work and reward are virtually uncorrelated.

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

KaitainCPS