Forum Topic

First the IMF and now the Bank of England

Bank of England announces emergency action to try to calm the marketshttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bank-of-england-emergency-announcement-b2177101.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IND_Breaking_News%20BofE&utm_term=IND_Breaking_NewsletterPlease read the very last paragraph re NHS...  Grrrrr

Ivonne Holliday ● 1224d23 Comments

B*ll***ks over for the day now or is there more to come? You seem to know even less about economics and finance than you do about science and medicine. Have you considered stand-up?

Michael Winstanley ● 1222d

I agree with you Michael I.Mr Tate appears to repeat his views like a parrot or a stuck record and posts them on more than one entry at the same time.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1222d

Mr Tate, thank you for demonstating the weakness in your arguments by attacking individuals rather than producing verifiable evidence to support your argument. I'm not sure of Mr Peston's views, perhaps he was just doing his job in holding the government to account? Anyway, the reactions to the mini-budget have come from those who control the markets, set interest rates, etc and have lost confidence in the government's actions; I doubt my thoughts or even Mr Peston's have much influence over those hard nosed traders and financiers! (And who I doubt vote Labour?)On a point of detail I think you're incorrect. I don't think I ever actively called for a lockdown. My stance was that having seen the evidence available at the time lockdowns seemed a reasonable stance to protect the NHS from collapsing and, hence, loss of lives. (I may have a personal interest in that I'm sure my late father would have wished for some similar interventions during the 1918 flu pandemic which might have avoided him being orphaned and thus having a difficult childhood being brought up in children's homes in the 1920-30s.)

Michael Ixer ● 1222d

This country spent £350 odd billion on the cost of lockdowns.Robert Peston was at the front of the MSM queue hammering Boris to lock us down harder and for longer.He is an absolute hypocrite now blaming the government for the debt crisis🤡Same goes for the clowns on this forum like Ixer and Winstanley spewing their garbage slamming the government after calling for the unaffordable lockdowns 🤡

Robin Tate ● 1222d

The bankers bonus "cap" was introduced in Europe after the 2008 financial crisis to better align bankers' remuneration with the long-term risks which they take.It is not a cap on the amount paid but a cap on the ratio of variable to fixed remuneration.It thus has nothing to do with matching sums paid to bakers in the USA - with whom our banks seem to have managed to compete comfortably enough for the last 14 years.In fact the motivation is to try to tempt back some of the bank business which has moved to mainland Europe by enabling greater flexibility in remuneration policies. Not likely to have much impact against the impediments to cross-border trade created by Brexit.

Michael Winstanley ● 1223d

Interesting that some EU countries which still have the bonus cap seem to be able to fund pensions and some have far better pensions than the UK (and, ok, I know that varies across the EU). Food banks are already a growth industry in the UK and the current economic strategy just indicates "levelling up" was just a load of wind from Johnson.

Michael Ixer ● 1223d

On fairness you are probably right. But life ain't fair and the fact is that some earn more than others and always will.Banks should have more conscience having been bailed out in 2008 and as a corporate body would be better thought of if they did something with a larger % of their profits to help those less well off.But they would argue that to attract the best people and to generate wealth ( for shareholders and pension funds) they need to match what banks in USA etc are paying.there is no perfect answer but again this announcement and the 40% shows a distinct lack of tactical nous on behalf of the new leadership.

Andy Pike ● 1223d

I wholeheartedly agree with you Nick!

Ivonne Holliday ● 1223d

Hello Andy,Raising the cap of bankers bonuses is, I think, a matter of principle and fair play.Where has the idea of levelling up gone? Forget about mobility.It is Dickensian.Saying that not paying bonuses does not help those lower paid workers or the unemployed, is true.  So where does the "trickle down" from?If we are, in fact, in this altogether, it seems profits go one way and there is no consideration for all the people that make it happen.  By this I mean, all those NHS workers we used to applaud as well as all those people that help the country work but are not being paid much. I am not a socialist, but I do have a very strong sense of fairness.  Raising bonus caps for bankers does not seem to be fair to all.  Please do tell me I am wrong.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1223d

Andy, but is it fair when so many people are plunged into poverty that Banks are allowed to increase their already enormous incomes?Nick

Nicholas Evans ● 1223d

I agree, but why do it in the first place?One of Maggie Thatcher's main arguments was that the government has no money, only funds collected through taxation. For somebody trying so desperately to emulate her, it seems that the basics proclaimed by Thatcher have gone through the roof, well completely forgotten or "massaged" for convenience.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1223d

On the bankers bonus's isnt this about envy more than anything else.If the limit remains unchanged no one benefits apart from the corporate body that retains the money.  But for every £1m extra that's paid I  bonus the exchequer gets £400k in tax receipts.And maybe the banker in receipt spends some of the remainder.Nit paying the bonus does not help those lower paid workers or the unemployed.

Andy Pike ● 1223d

It was a presentational error dropping the 45% but if they put it back it changes nothing at the lower levels.

Andy Pike ● 1223d

Robin Tate, I beg to differ.From your previous post, the 2008 financial crisis was fuelled by subprime mortgages, mainly in the USA, which went completely wrong.  Because of the intertwined business banks do, if they had not been propped up, they would have gone bankrupt and our money would have disappeared.That recession was overcome by June 2009.A lot of the deficit from COVID in 2020 to date comes from lockdown (which was necessary), furlough (which was also necessary) and dodgy contracts for non-existent PPE and a track and trace that did not work. The amounts spent on these failed contracts is eyewatering and reaching the hundred of billions of pounds.  Back to today, it is insulting that the highest tax rate has been cut at the moment.  Why?  On one side of the spectrum, you have people using food banks.  On the other, those earning over £150,000 a year, are suddenly paying the same rate of income tax as those earning £50,000.  Let us not consider the people earning less than £10 and hour, many of which work for the NHS.The discrepancy is enormous but I suppose Rees-Mogg and the ERG must be delighted, and they succeeded in avoiding ATAD.  That is not a resounding endorsement of a very badly conceived idea - in essence, in honesty and in timing.And before you start shouting, I am certainly not a Labour supporter by any stretch of the imagination.  Lately, I am not a supporter of the latest dubious conservative policies.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1223d

Seems in doing its job ....at last... it is propping the pension market.Similar to how it propped the banks 12 years ago? Seems the bank is doing its job.

Andy Pike ● 1224d

This country has spent over £300-400 billion on the cost of lockdowns, and £150 billion on an energy support package.Yet the MSM and the technocratic elite want you to believe a £2 billion tax cut policy is the problem. Dishonesty and misinformation at its absolute worst.

Robin Tate ● 1224d

Seems they are considering 'closing hedging' positions not the pension fund overall. The roulette wheel has meant losses for those that depend on investments of this nature. No sign if the bank of england propping these schemes.

Andy Pike ● 1224d

Did I hear correctly on the news?  Bank of England stepped in to stop several Defined Pensions Schemes becoming insolvent?  The country is bankrupt, imo.

Martine Guy ● 1224d

For your grand theory to work, it needs to explain why the UK is alone amongst western countries to be suffering the ignominious financial difficulties it has in the last few days, when all had lockdowns and all carried out quantitative easing (which the ill-informed like to call "money printing") since 2008. What it doesn't? Perhaps it just more B**LL***S then. You should be Chancellor, you seem to have the skills which now adhere to the office.

Michael Winstanley ● 1224d

Will be interesting to see how Labour square the circle if they get in power. Public sector unions want 10% rise, that puts 10% on local tax bill. Whilst the 45% to 40% was a tactical error that's really all it was in that it raises very little ( in the overall scheme of things) in tax revenue.it also brings the top level down to that for most of the 13 years of the last labour govt. They only put it to 45 in their final months. Will be interesting how they get the Nimbys to agree to windmills across the landscape and nuclear power plants up and running by 2030.of course he never said what of his policies he would drop in negotiation with the lib dems for the coalition, if needed. Long time for this all to play out and interest rates remain a third of what they were in the 80s.

Andy Pike ● 1224d

Kicking the can down the road since the 2008 crash is finally coming home to roost.This global debt crisis has been brewing since the money printers were switched on during the Covid lockdowns.World debt is spiralling out of control.The Covid lockdowns are to blame for this crisis happening so quickly. Labour wanted a harder and faster lockdown than the Tories so they can also take their share of the blame for this mess.

Robin Tate ● 1224d

I think our current government needs the Nobel prize of the most utterly useless.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1224d

It just seems a complete mess :-(

Michael Ixer ● 1224d