Financial fuckery thread

[Junkenstein]

HA HA
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23249466

Postal workers are set to receive millions of pounds' worth of Royal Mail shares when the company is privatised later this year.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said employees would be given 10% of shares as part of a stock market flotation.

He described it as "the biggest employee share scheme for nearly 30 years".

Unions have reacted angrily to the plans and have threatened to ballot for strike action.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said the sale of Royal Mail was "unwanted by public, customers and the workers".

PRIVATISE ALL THE THINGS. FREE MARKET. SOMETHING.

There's only one way this will end. I never liked post anyway. No doubt there will be a lovely slice of corruption to go along with this somewhere too.

Totally unrealated topic, totally not a bung for everyone to keep quiet about everyone else's fuckups/bribes/other:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23262503

The MPs' expenses watchdog will recommend a pay rise for MPs to £74,000 but will say there should be cuts to other allowances, the BBC has learned.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson says the body will back a rise for after the 2015 election but will recommend a less generous pension scheme.

There could also be cuts to meal allowances and taxi claims.

The proposals, to be unveiled on Thursday, will go to consultation before being finalised later this year.

MPs are currently paid £66,396, but that is due to rise to £67,060 in April 2014 and rise by a further 1% the following year.

The recommendation amounts to a rise of around £6,300 a year, or 9.3%, on what MPs would be getting in 2015.

Suddenly a lot of UK politicians have a lot of flattering things to say about the lawyers running IPSA. Total co-incidence.

[Junkenstein]

Paranoid fantasy moment - Royal mail sell off forces more communication electronically. The idea of this being pre-meditated for that exact effect is somewhat concerning. It would certainly seem easier for a government to totally monitor digital communications compared to physical mail.

Please, anyone, tell me that's utterly insane.

[hirley0]

3:45 http://www.edf.com/the-edf-group-42667.html
3:45  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lectricit%C3%A9_de_France
i will try to find the Paris utility share? prior to NY.open:
discounting both Germany & Japan as viable AsHo.ecoN'$
^READ UP^ not down

v DOWN v
ad 41500 tekcf ? bmrn 5D/s  B/V5d
ad 41563  yeah: LoOks like its OvEr A.M. Lost? is my guess
ad 41618 { Maybe?/? if long? sell the open & take the cash
ad 41643 Look? With A German offing France Seams a sure bet

[hirley0]

EDF.PA 2y 6m 3m 5d>  1d>  | KEP.1yr
That's more like it 10%/d     i do hope THEY can flat line the rate /
LoOk Water it down, soak it up |Stability|stability|stability| that is the ONLY solution

DOW ag|/ 1 X KGC | 2y 6m 3m 3mC 5d 1d  Q5/S&P   spy?dow SPY

DAX 2y 6m 3m 5d 1d | CVS5PMC CVS60WAG | forecast( )McD |
Celesio AG (CAKFY.PK)(CAKFF.PK) is a German pharmaceutical |n,cludes: CVS, PMC, WAG

Brazil EWZ Bovespa | B/V5d  B/V6m |

NIKKEI 2y 6m 3m 5d 1d | TKECF 5D/s |_China_>SSE> 2y 6m 3m 5d

YES: -10%/d does make ¢ents to me / get on with the Tails Pillar to Post?
NO: i am not to stable myself | get over it.

[hirley0]

ad 41955 Weakly: ERA of Island$ is over (Japan Britten Hong Kong Tiawan etc}
ad 41876 ?/? 41911
ad 41759 & yeah? Paris is open already & .EP down again
anyway i do wonder about the New Martian Probe? Curiosity
&THUS i wonder if EArthTHings HAve not gone 1 wheel turn to
far and started a inner planetairy war | & now Martians have replied
with bed bugs & atmospheric floaters | Hello bad Air | good by space R
Shirley: My guess once across the 20 | no looking back

[MMIX]

Paranoid fantasy moment - Royal mail sell off forces more communication electronically. The idea of this being pre-meditated for that exact effect is somewhat concerning. It would certainly seem easier for a government to totally monitor digital communications compared to physical mail.

Please, anyone, tell me that's utterly insane.

Well I would love to, except . . .

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/23321835

More British bankers earned more than one million euros (£860,000) each in 2011 than the rest of the European Union (EU) put together, according to the European Banking Authority (EBA).

Figures from the EU's banking regulator showed 2,346 bankers earned more than 1m euros in the UK, compared with 739 in the rest of the EU.

In Germany, Europe's second-largest economy, there were just 170.

The figures illustrate why Britain opposed EU plans for a bonus cap.

It was outvoted by countries that believe it will prevent bankers taking the kind of risks that led to the financial crisis. Under the plans, a senior banker's bonus will be limited to 100% of salary, or 200% with shareholder approval.

"The data show what has been feared for some time," said Nicholas Stretch, of law firm CMS Cameron McKenna.

"Because London has a very large number of people with variable high pay, the forthcoming bonus capping rules... will have a particular impact on our financial services industry and lead to extensive changes in how remuneration is provided."

Well, fuck.

[Cain]

LYNCH MAHBS

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23330477

The Archbishop of Canterbury has described the naming and shaming of bankers in the wake of the financial crisis as "lynch mobbish".

The Most Reverend Justin Welby admitted sympathy for former bankers when hearing evidence as a member of the Banking Standards Commission.

He admitted "thinking, 'I'm not sure I would have been very different,' rather than thinking how bad they were".

But he also said some senior bankers had tried to avoid accountability.

"Certainly one of the trends that has been very unfortunate, to put it mildly, is that in some financial services companies there was a clear policy of not telling the top people - they made sure they weren't told things - because then they could plead ignorance, and that's just unacceptable.

"But this business of somehow saying that one individual bears the whole blame as opposed to simply the accountability - it feels lynch mobbish," he said.

Archbishop Welby was an oil executive before becoming a priest.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

LYNCH MAHBS

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23330477

The Archbishop of Canterbury has described the naming and shaming of bankers in the wake of the financial crisis as "lynch mobbish".

The Most Reverend Justin Welby admitted sympathy for former bankers when hearing evidence as a member of the Banking Standards Commission.

He admitted "thinking, 'I'm not sure I would have been very different,' rather than thinking how bad they were".

But he also said some senior bankers had tried to avoid accountability.

"Certainly one of the trends that has been very unfortunate, to put it mildly, is that in some financial services companies there was a clear policy of not telling the top people - they made sure they weren't told things - because then they could plead ignorance, and that's just unacceptable.

"But this business of somehow saying that one individual bears the whole blame as opposed to simply the accountability - it feels lynch mobbish," he said.

Archbishop Welby was an oil executive before becoming a priest.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Nothing shocking about that. When you're already making a living on the second biggest racket on the planet, the only way up is to move to the biggest racket on the planet

[Cain]

And then defend the third biggest racket.

Incidentally, quite interesting, how inextricably linked London finance and oil fortunes made in the Middle East are.  That is the basis of our "special relationship" with our Saudi allies, after all.  They keep selling us oil, and investing the profits in London, London's political elite grow rich and fat off the proceeds, and everyone is happy except the hundreds of thousands of people we allow to be killed by the policies of our Saudi allies or our own to secure those goals.

[Cain]

And the Church of England just got very weird:

The archbishop of Canterbury has told Wonga that the Church of England wants to "compete" it out of existence as part of its plans to expand credit unions as an alternative to payday lenders.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said he had delivered the message to Errol Damelin, chief executive of Wonga, one of Britain's best-known payday lenders, during a "very good conversation".

"I've met the head of Wonga and we had a very good conversation and I said to him quite bluntly 'we're not in the business of trying to legislate you out of existence, we're trying to compete you out of existence'," he told Total Politics magazine.

"He's a businessman, he took that well."

The archbishop's remarks come after he launched a new credit union for clergy and church staff earlier this month at the General Synod in York.

Welby, who has served on the parliamentary Banking Standards Commission, has said he plans to expand the reach of credit unions as part of a long-term campaign to boost competition in the banking sector.

There are also plans to encourage church members with relevant skills to volunteer at credit unions. Small, local lenders could also be invited to use church buildings and other community locations with the help of church members.

The government announced an investment of £38m in credit unions in April to help them offer an alternative option to payday lenders.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.  On the one hand, not being in thrall to pay day loans companies is undoubtedly a good thing.  But is being in debt to the CoE really going to be better?  How is the CoE going to use this newfound economic relevance to leverage their position and influence in the UK?

[P3nT4gR4m]

I'm reminded of a fairy story I read as a child. Something about an undead wizard kicking a bunch of tables over...

[Doktor Howl]

I'm reminded of a fairy story I read as a child. Something about an undead wizard kicking a bunch of tables over...

He wasn't undead at that point.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I'm reminded of a fairy story I read as a child. Something about an undead wizard kicking a bunch of tables over...

He wasn't undead at that point.

...allegedly