$50 billion for a knighthood?
An iron rule of government is that prestige project + government = huge waste of money. Think Millennium Dome. Fear the Olympics. Actually "Prestige" is a redundant term in the above equation. Government = huge waste of money.
Naturally, the private sector is far superior to government, even when it comes to blowing money away and no one being accountable. As the Count's first exhibit, step forward the senior management of Britain's banks.
Today, RBS announced that it was writing off £5.9 billion. Woops. That would pay for the Olympics with change left over for a couple of Millennium Domes, if the government's cost estimates are to be believed.
RBS, HBOS, HSBC and the whole alphabet soup of Britain's banks, plus the quaintly named Barclays (what, a real name) have written off $52 billion. That's only £27 billion in real money.
Next time my impertinent bank manager tries charging me for my very modest overdraft, I will ask him where all the money goes. Down the drain. The banks have become expert at fleecing good customers and throwing the money away on vast salaries and dodgy lending. The basic idea of lending money is that you get it back at the end of the loan. This very simple principle seems to have eluded the geniuses that run Britain's banks. They are highly skilled and giving money away, but have no idea how to get it back. This myopia has been a windfall for the Kostov estates which are kept afloat with dodgy loans from dodgy banks. Banks have been very obliging about investing in the Russian economic renaissance (more hunting estates for the Kostov clan): they have all realised far too late that in the absence of the rule of law they have as much chance of getting their money back as mad Uncle Vanya has of winning the Nobel prize for temperance.
In Russia, we know what to do with people who lose our money. It is a mistake they can only make once.
What happens when you lose $52 billion in the UK? Arise Sir Fred Godwin: CEO of RBS. Arise Sir James Crosby, the CEO who bled HBOS. Feel that ermine, Lord Stevenson, Chairman of HBOS. Arise Sir John Bond, the Chairman who led the losses at HSBC.
How many senior executives and city grandees have lost their jobs as a result of losing $52 billion? Precisely none. How many people will lose their homes because of the bankers' greed and incompetence? 40,000 home repossessions for 2008 alone. To add insult to injury, the government has asked Sir James Crosby, who screwed up so badly with his dodgy mortgages at HBOS, to lead a government inquiry into how to make mortgages and housing work better. You can not make this stuff up.
Its enough to turn any self-respecting aristocrat into a communist. But then when the revolution comes, I will have to be the first person to line myself up against a wall and shoot myself.
Naturally, the private sector is far superior to government, even when it comes to blowing money away and no one being accountable. As the Count's first exhibit, step forward the senior management of Britain's banks.
Today, RBS announced that it was writing off £5.9 billion. Woops. That would pay for the Olympics with change left over for a couple of Millennium Domes, if the government's cost estimates are to be believed.
RBS, HBOS, HSBC and the whole alphabet soup of Britain's banks, plus the quaintly named Barclays (what, a real name) have written off $52 billion. That's only £27 billion in real money.
Next time my impertinent bank manager tries charging me for my very modest overdraft, I will ask him where all the money goes. Down the drain. The banks have become expert at fleecing good customers and throwing the money away on vast salaries and dodgy lending. The basic idea of lending money is that you get it back at the end of the loan. This very simple principle seems to have eluded the geniuses that run Britain's banks. They are highly skilled and giving money away, but have no idea how to get it back. This myopia has been a windfall for the Kostov estates which are kept afloat with dodgy loans from dodgy banks. Banks have been very obliging about investing in the Russian economic renaissance (more hunting estates for the Kostov clan): they have all realised far too late that in the absence of the rule of law they have as much chance of getting their money back as mad Uncle Vanya has of winning the Nobel prize for temperance.
In Russia, we know what to do with people who lose our money. It is a mistake they can only make once.
What happens when you lose $52 billion in the UK? Arise Sir Fred Godwin: CEO of RBS. Arise Sir James Crosby, the CEO who bled HBOS. Feel that ermine, Lord Stevenson, Chairman of HBOS. Arise Sir John Bond, the Chairman who led the losses at HSBC.
How many senior executives and city grandees have lost their jobs as a result of losing $52 billion? Precisely none. How many people will lose their homes because of the bankers' greed and incompetence? 40,000 home repossessions for 2008 alone. To add insult to injury, the government has asked Sir James Crosby, who screwed up so badly with his dodgy mortgages at HBOS, to lead a government inquiry into how to make mortgages and housing work better. You can not make this stuff up.
Its enough to turn any self-respecting aristocrat into a communist. But then when the revolution comes, I will have to be the first person to line myself up against a wall and shoot myself.
posted by Count Kostov at
2:39 pm
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