Money Category
Money in the news and how you are going to pay and pay and pay
Alistair Darling Apologises For His Bad And Fraudulent Investments
ALISTAIR Darling writers a letter embargoed until June 2010:
Dear Northern Rock, Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Lloyds TSB investor,
“The investments that you made in good faith never existed. The money was used in a futile attempt to recover losses incurred by me in the hope that I could repay everyone who invested.”
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Posted: 17th, November 2008 | In: Key Posts, Money | Comment (1)
George Osborne Creates Panic In Currency Markets: Update
GEORGE OSBORNE says sterling is to collapse.
– Keep talking Geroge – it’s working!
George Osborne is powerful man and the markets hang on his every word.
“Osborne defensive as markets brace for fall,” says the Guardian’s front-page headline.
“We are in danger, if the Government is not careful, of having a proper sterling collapse, a run on the pound,” he tells the Times…
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Posted: 17th, November 2008 | In: Key Posts, Money | Comments (3)
Black Women Need To Work More Then Whites
“BLACK women ‘now earn more than white,” says the Mail’s headline.
“Black women are earning more than white women in Britain for the first time.”
The Mail talks of a pay gap of 6 per cent, with black women earning on average £462 a week – against £436 for white women.”
Or as the man talking to the Times says:
The Equality and Human Rights Commission said the figures may be explained by the fact that half of all black women live in London, where average pay is higher than elsewhere in the country.
Which would suggest that – get this – immigrants in search of better life gravitate towards areas of higher pay.
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Middle-Class Shoppers Throw Broccoli To The Poor
GOOD news for bean munchers is that they will no longer be looked down on by eaters of more expensive canned meals.
As the Mirror reports on its front page, beans have never been more expensive, especially those that come coated in lashing of ketchup.
Sainsbury’s beans have risen from 19p to a reassuringly expensive 29p a serving.
Which middle-class prisoners of the credit crunch have not fretted about cheap food? Now, with cheap food getting more expensive, it will meet shoppers’ expectations.
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Posted: 17th, November 2008 | In: Money | Comment (1)
The Only Contact You’ll Need To Do Business In China
OLD Mr Anorak is looking to trade in China., And by providence, we receive a mesage fromgroupAMS, via Skype:
[11:49:57 AM] groupAMS says: Dear sir or lady:
we are so happy for connect with you, we introduce ourself to you.Our company from more than 11 years do the business in China.In different city in China and different kind of goods product in China.Our boss from Egypt country,we can take care by you and your bussiness in any city on China for any kind of goods.Because we have customers from different countries.We hope can found you in our office.For Prove to you our do the business more best than our talking to you,we look the future with you for do the business. Don’t thinking if you have any question ask us we can reply you at once.My emial is:groupams@hotmail.com
Do get in touch with them. Bombard them with emails if you must. They are very busy be must and you’ll need to stick with it…
china
Posted: 16th, November 2008 | In: Money, Photojournalism | Comment
LIBOR Climbs Aboard The Titanic
I KNOW, just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, sorry, financial markets, the vultures are circling as the rate at which banks lend dollars to each other, dollar LIBOR, starts climbing again.
If I were really cynical I would view this as a concerted attempt at persuading the Group of 20, who are meeting this weekend, to throw yet more taxpayers’ money at the banks so that they can continue their inalienable human right of paying themselves huge bonuses whilst presiding over the biggest f*ck up since the Great Depression.
On second thoughts, rescind that; it suggests that the bankers are competent enough to actually come up with a plan, and that the US Treasury might see something wrong with the taxpayers’ stumping up for the fat bonuses.
So, why is it happening?
Posted: 15th, November 2008 | In: Money | Comments (4)
Currency Moves Against Sterling
IF investing in a nation’s currency is a sign of confidence in that nation’s ecnonomy, what can we make of this?
Well..?
Posted: 15th, November 2008 | In: Money | Comment (1)
Tired 1963 Pontiac, One Dead Owner, Offers In Region Of £226,521
AN eBAY auction for the 1963 Pontiac LeMans Tempest (left) is a credit-crunch busting story that gives hope to memebrs of the Anorak carpool:
The advert:
Obtained after owner died. Appears to have original interior but no motor, no transmission. Body has a little rust and some dents. There’s stuff in the trunk, but no key to open it. Opening bid nine days ago was a mere $500.
As he says:
After one week, eBay seller 123ecklin will pocket $226,521 before auction fees. What happened between Day 1 and Day 9 is an amazing story.
Nearly going once… stalling twice…
Posted: 14th, November 2008 | In: Money | Comment (1)
Buying Shares With Australia’s Mr Bud Gerigar
THIS native Australian has made his first purchase is in reputable listed company Downer EDI.
He receives a welcome letter from Downer EDI company secretary Stephen Mockett: Dear, Mr Bud Gerigar ….
As The Age notes:
Holding shares under false names can help in tax avoidance and money laundering. The extent of off-market transfers of shares to fake identities and the amount of tax revenue lost in Australia as a result remains a mystery.
If only they’d have used Mr Parrot instead. He’d have talked, wheras Mr Bud Gerigar only tweets.
Read on…
Posted: 13th, November 2008 | In: Money | Comment (1)
UBS Is Bleeding: All’s Weil That Ends Weil
SWISS banks have long been noted for their customer service, but it’s unlikely that, post financial markets melt-down, Raoul Weil, the chairman and chief executive officer of global wealth management at UBS in Zurich, who has just been indicted on a single charge of conspiring to help 20,000 wealthy Americans hide assets from the Internal Revenue Service, is likely to meet much sympathy from jurors, Grand or otherwise.
UBS signed an agreement to identify its clients, and then allegedly helped those clients to create fake identities; competition amongst banks for wealthy clientsbis pretty tough, but it looks as if UBS overlooked the one unbreakable Commandment:
Thou shalt not get caught.
– Chenier
Stock Exchange Goes Long On Obamas And Short On Clintons
MAKING money in the credit crunch: Going long on Obamas.
THIS morning the FTSE experience its biggest ever tenth-of-a-second fall. Fact!
In the US, at 3:24 and 12.24 seconds yesterday, the Dow Jones was lower in real terms than it had ever been at that point in trading in its history on November 5th.
It’s is a day that will linger long in the memory.
One day one from that, the Telegraph reports that the ‘Obama bounce’ has stopped bouncing.
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Posted: 6th, November 2008 | In: Money | Comment (1)
A Good Day To Bury Goldman Sachs
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman, Christopher Cox, last seen trying, and failing, to explain to Congress just how the US financial institutions could be so comprehensively f*cked without him noticing anything amiss, has issued another defence of his regime coupled with a clarion call for improved regulation.
In the darkest reaches of the Washington Post.
On Election Day.
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Posted: 4th, November 2008 | In: Money | Comments (3)
A Rosy View Of RBS Troubled Assets
We were right.
Yet again.
I’m sure you will all remember the voodoo accounting measures pushed through the EU by banking lobbyists and panicking pols; we were very rude about the likely consequences of banks taking a rosier view of their Troubled Assets than fair open market values provide. Investors really don’t like that sort of thing.
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Posted: 4th, November 2008 | In: Money | Comment (1)
Anorak Was Right About AIG
TIME to stare once more at the horror which is AIG; first it needed $85 billion, then it needed another $38 billion.
A week ago I predicted that more would be needed.
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The Perfect Credit Crunch Retreat
CREDIT Crunch Watch: Anorak’s look at credit crunch in the news…
YOURS for $189,000…
With built in wood burning stove, bed, sofa…
Posted: 3rd, November 2008 | In: Money, Photojournalism | Comments (4)
Credit Crunch Watch: Wooden Headstones
CREDIT Crunch Watch: Anorak’s look at credit crunch in the news…
“Grieving families are turning to wooden headstones in a bid to beat the credit crunch” – Lancashire Evening Post”
Thinks of the trees!
Spotter – AGW
Posted: 1st, November 2008 | In: Money | Comments (3)
Pray To The Wall Street Bull
PEOPLE are worshipping the Wall Street bull in order to save the stock market.
Via Boing Boing:
Did you know that some Christian dingbat has dubbed today the “Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies?” Well here they are, at the Wall Street bull statue thing, praying to Jesus for money.
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Posted: 31st, October 2008 | In: Money, Photojournalism | Comments (5)
The New York Times Wants Economy Both Ways
ON today’s New York Times front page:
“Stark Signs of a Slowdown, Days Before Election”
“Wall Street Rises After Report on Economy”
Two headlines on the New York Times homepage; both articles are about the same report…
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Posted: 30th, October 2008 | In: Money | Comments (11)
AIG And A Voodoo Are Walking Down Wall Street
AS AIG, the world’s largest insurance company, continues to work its way through the best part of $125 billion, courtesy of the US taxpayers, its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers must be nervously wondering whether they will suffer the same fate as Arthur Andersens, the massive accountancy firm destroyed by the Enron debacle.
PWC has covered its back to a certain extent; it insisted that AIG’s accounts disclosed a material weakness in the valuation of the credit default swaps.
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Posted: 30th, October 2008 | In: Money | Comments (3)
Tax Payers Pay Dividends To Bank Shareholders
AS the storm across the Pond gathers force it’s time for Anorak to propose a solution; let’s cut out the middlemen and go direct.
Banks who’ve had $163 billion of bailout from the US Treasury Department propose to use more than half of it to pay shareholders, with government permission, over the next three years.
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The Hanging Banker Of China
THIS is the advert on the side of the Yinji Shopping Mall in Zhengzhou, China. A mannequin is hanging from the top of the billboard.
Says the legend:
“It’s better to invest money here than put it into the stock market.”
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Posted: 29th, October 2008 | In: Money, Photojournalism | Comments (4)
Pepsi Cola Backs Obama
PEPSI has a new logo. Can you take the Pepsi challenge and say which of the following is the new logo, as described by Frank Cooper, Pepsi’s VP-portfolio brands:
“We felt like, as we move out of this traditional mass marketing and mass distribution era into today’s culture, there’s an opportunity to bring humanity back, both in terms of the design but also in the way we engage consumers,” he said. “
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Posted: 28th, October 2008 | In: Money | Comments (3)
How Banks Bankrupt Schools
ONE of the nastier sides of the way the titans of Wall St shafted anyone in sight is emerging; investigative reporters at Bloomberg have put together the sort of story which is so nasty that people are refusing to return their calls.
Arranging the issue of municipal bonds for schools, local authorities and the like provide a modest income to banks like Tony Blair’s employer’s at JPMorgan, and obviously if you are a Big Swinging Dick then modest profits are unsatisfactory.
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Posted: 27th, October 2008 | In: Money | Comments (2)
Investment Bankers Turn To Paedophilia
ASKS a banker in the FT: “Should I be ashamed for being an investment banker?”
At a dinner party last Saturday I was asked by a fellow guest what I did and I said I was an investment banker. I might as well have said I was a paedophile.
Suddenly the whole table – all friends of my wife from the art world – turned on me with such venom I was really taken aback.
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Posted: 25th, October 2008 | In: Money | Comments (6)
If Only We Had A Credit Card Type Thing
“IF you could create a gadget, what would you create?”
Spotter: T-Man
Posted: 24th, October 2008 | In: Money, Photojournalism | Comments (6)
