When bonuses are paid in shares, it risks share price rigging, so why do it with RBS?

The boss of the RBS is to get his bonus in shares.

Share prices in RBS are exceptionally low at present but that is nothing to do with his stewardship, apparently, and so he deserves(!) his bonus.   I’d like to know how he qualified for this bonus.

What criteria were set that he has been able to meet?

Why has no-one asked or answered this point?

Obviously the anticipation is that he will be motivated to see the bank run more profitably, so that these share prices will rise and thus increase his pay-out, when he sells the shares.

The assumption is that he is an honourable man.

That he didn’t take measures to depress the share price, prior to his award and that he won’t indulge in artificially bumping the share prices, when it comes to time for him to sell them.

[I was told eons ago that the simplest means of doing this is by sacking staff and selling stock in January, before the end of the financial year, then rehiring and re-stocking in June after the budget figures have been released and the share prices boosted.]

Capitalism isn’t the problem it’s greedy capitalists and incompetent politico’s

This is my response to Guardian’s

“Capitalism only creates misery – we need a system that puts human wellbeing first.”  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jan/27/capitalism-creates-misery-human-wellbeing?commentpage=last#end-of-comments

Capitalism is a useful means of funding business start-ups.

The problem arises when the power it has is used to destroy good businesses for profit or corrupt the political process.

The first scenario arose back under Maggie, when many firms, which had trading difficulties, were asset stripped instead of just being stripped fitter (the main benefit claimed for private enterprises).

The second scenario, although originating in the John Smith Institute, was again seized on by Maggie.

That is the notion of privatisation.

Gas etc. had, wisely, been nationalised, because the plethora of independent enterprises was causing chaos.

The State (funded by the taxpayer) bought these companies up , standardised and modernised them, before Maggie sold them off.

They lie in the hands of cartels.

These work against the public good and show one area in which Capitalism needs to be removed from the equation.

I.e. where it acts against the good of the Nation.

Essentially those facilities that an enemy nation would target, in the event of war.

Privatisation is also contrary to public interest, when it relies on State funding and is enforceble by Law.

Here I include BBC licensing, most Arms-Length organisations, quangoes, PFI’s etc.

Keep Capitalism but keep it in check.

@occupylsx stop further privatisation

I looked up privatisation on Wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatization

Quite apart from anything else it uses the U.S. spelling but the main point to notice is the poundage of words used.

It is  Obviously written by someone with more than a passing interest  in privatisation and, from the substance, someone biased in favour of it.

I get a sense of someone muddying the waters (obfuscation), to dissuade any depth of discussion, so here’s my take, as someone who opposes it.

First, any Government function or concern that is passed over to a separate organisation, which is funded either directly from public funds, or indirectly from Government enforced levies, or through monopoly/cartel position as the chosen provider has been privatised.

In all these cases the public pays (after providing the infra structure at minimal cost, or even free of charge), without any control over a facility, which the public either need or are legally required to take.

For me the arguments, given, in favour of privatisation boil down to the claim that they are allegedly more efficient and provide a better service.

The supposed logic is that ***Civil Servants get paid, no matter what, whereas a privatised organisation trims the fat to maximise profits. Employees being incentivised, by bonuses and threat of the sack.

What we’ve found in practice is that the logic is false.

Yes they trim the fat and yes they use stick (hourly paid) and carrot (management) to maximise profits.

But the profits, coming from public money, isn’t being re-invested to provide the supposedly better service, it’s being bled out to share-holders.

In many cases it’s being bled out of the country to foreign shareholders, who recognise a money-on-tap investment.

Who looks after our interests?

Politico’s, supervised by ***Civil Servants, who both get paid no matter what.

The main difference for the politico’s is that they can now claim that they have no direct control over these functions, so people should stop moaning to them about the problems.

Privatisation is about about enslaving your customer base using resources that they previously owned and the connivance of their corrupt, or ideologically misguided, political masters.

number10gov Why do Gov’t Joint Committee’s ask for public opinions if they don’t want them?

Email from “Unlock Democracy”

You may have spotted on the internet that one of the members of the Joint Committee looking into the draft House of Lords Reform Bill, Lord Norton [1], is claiming that they have only received 22 written submissions.

This simply isn’t the case. In response to our campaign last year, over 4,100 people took part in our survey and over 2,400 people separately wrote their own submission, entirely in their own words. We even submitted the ones from people who didn’t want reform.

We encouraged people to submit their views in this way because we were asked to do so by the clerks. Indeed, the committee made it clear that they would not accept submissions from individuals unless they submitted them both on paper and by email – a completely unnecessary act of bureaucratic nonsense. Having jumped through their hoops, it is quite repugnant to now see certain committee members claiming that means your views don’t count.

We’ve taken this matter up with the committee’s clerks and they have assured us that they have read your submissions and that your name will be published as a respondent (unless of course you don’t want it to – in which case please reply to this email and let us know).

It is unfortunate that a member of the committee feels they can play games like this but it just goes to show that they will say anything to try and stop democratic reform of the House of Lords.

All the best,

Peter Facey

Director, Unlock Democracy

[1] Lord Norton’s blog post can be found here: http://lordsoftheblog.net/2012/01/09/stirring-up-apathy-2/

@Number10gov Time for a new definition of a colony and a re-defined role for the U.N.

Argentina President Cristina Kirchner says:

“The United Nations Committee on Decolonisation has 16 cases open on places that remain colonies, of which 10 are British colonies, and one of the best known is our beloved Malvinas islands,”

Time to decolonise ?

We need to do something to blunt the point of this accusation.

Could we declare these colonies, Departments, as the French did?

They’d have voting rights in the British and, for the present, European Parliaments, and they could insist on being addressed by their own chosen name.

[Incidentally, what name would The Falklands be listed under by the United Nations Committee on Decolonisation?]

There must be some legal nicety that would remove the opportunity for Argentina, Spain etc. to use the U.N. as a soapbox to demand control of English speaking territories.

Above all, a line needs to be drawn under which territories can be declared colonies; perhaps they should be territories captured or annexed since the inception of the U.N. and the international agreement that colonies are a “bad thing”.

If the Argentine claim to the Falklands has to go back to 1883, why not go back to the seizure of South American Territories from the Amerindians in the 1500′s. There are probably a few native people’s, deep in the jungles, who weren’t exterminated. We could have a U.N. resolution for their present overlords to negotiate a settlement on sovereignty with some of their representatives.

Sounds ridiculous but then we have our own example of Welsh independence for land that was captured, even earlier and populated by people who are genetically indistinguishable from the rest of the population of Britain.

We could go back even further and split England along the lines of the Viking North and the Saxon South.

What role has the U.N. played?

All I could find was this load of blather (http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2009/gaspd422.doc.htm ), which makes it clear that the mighty peacemakers of the U.N. have done no more than ask us to negotiate with Argentina.

The wisdom of Pontius Pilate, rather than a Solomon.

Why ask us to negotiate?

What possible agreement can there be?

It’s just a playground “They’re ours…. Oh,No, they’re not!”.

In its present context, it’s as soluble as a debate on Theism.   We need a new context that removes the debate.

Above all of this:

What is the point of the U.N., except as a talking shop, fermenting (not fomenting) discord?

 

#occupy.. cost to build iPhones in the United States

This piece is from Fullermoney newsletter.

One point it neglects is that, like many large U.S. companies, they can’t repatriate oversea’s profits, without incurring a 35% tax hit.

Presumably, similar applies to other Western Corporations.

Perhaps Gov’t's need to work a deal that brings these businesses back to the West, or offers tax breaks for oversea’s profits used for domestic Labour intensive Public Works.

Politicians and Union’s need to find some way of getting Capital and Capitalists to regrow domestic economies.

“It is hard to estimate how much more it would cost to build iPhones in the United  States. However, various academics and manufacturing analysts estimate that  because labor is such a small part of technology manufacturing, paying American  wages would add up to $65 to each iPhone’s expense. Since Apple’s profits are   often hundreds of dollars per phone, building domestically, in theory, would  still give the company a healthy reward.   But such calculations are, in many respects, meaningless because building the iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans – it   would require transforming the national and global economies. Apple executives believe there simply aren’t enough American workers with the skills the company   needs or factories with sufficient speed and flexibility (These jobs and skills were exported, just re-import them the same way).

 Other companies that   work with Apple, like Corning, also say they must go abroad.
 Manufacturing glass for the iPhone revived a Corning factory in Kentucky, and   today, much of the glass in iPhones is still made there. After the iPhone became a success, Corning received a flood of orders from other companies hoping to imitate Apple’s designs. Its strengthened glass sales have grown to more than   $700 million a year, and it has hired or continued employing about 1,000 Americans to support the emerging market.
  But as that market has expanded, the bulk of Corning’s strengthened glass manufacturing has occurred at plants in Japan and Taiwan.
  “Our customers are in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China,” said James B. Flaws, Corning’s vice chairman and chief financial officer. “We could make the glass here, and then ship it by boat, but that takes 35 days. Or, we could ship it by air, but that’s 10 times as expensive. So we build our glass   factories next door to assembly factories, and those are overseas.”
  Corning was founded in America 161 years ago and its headquarters are still in upstate New York. Theoretically, the company could manufacture all its glass   domestically. But it would “require a total overhaul in how the industry is structured,” Mr. Flaws said. “The consumer electronics business has become an Asian business.  As an American, I worry about that, but there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Asia has become what the U.S. was for the last 40 years.”

This is a more likely incentive for the City of London and Wall Street to shift abroad, unless Politicians can find a way to encourage wealth production here that doesn’t rely on I.T., so much.

In British terms, an example would be to give tax breaks to home based entertainment Industry, such as Film. It could fund universities to provide serendipitous research, instead of tying funding to expected/provable outcomes.

@occupylsx @number10gov I can’t accept that we can’t make our bankers take more reasonable bonuses.

The Government line for not stopping the publicly owned banks from shelling out tax-payers’ money on obscene bonuses is that (a) the previous Gov’t agreed to it and (b) that if they do act, the Banks might move abroad.

I don’t understand the first, because they agree all sorts of things with us, then renege. I’m not just talking election promises, which we all seem to accept as being blatant lies.

I’m talking about pension rights etc. Welfare payments, etc. which control our weekly budgets and hence are crucial in making long term decisions. At the simplest level, consider the question of further education. To stay on at school, work hard for good exam results, apply for University and get a better job, where I can make a greater contribution to Society, or should I grab that short life job at McDonalds, which will bring in some cash now, knowing that the future is uncertain and can be changed on a political whim.

I say renege on any foolish agreement with OUR  banks.

The second aspect is highly suspect. Quite apart from HSBC already being in talks with China, having scented bigger profits in that more authoritarian regime, what is keeping them here now?

The factors that keep them here rather than going to the Far East, or S.America, or even The U.S.A. will probably be more significant than any small attempt to tax them, or curtail their excesses. They’re certainly not going to move into Europe, if its a question of location.

In fact as no-one has even attempted to elucidate these factors, or clarify how far we’d have to push them, I’m even further inclined to believe that this is a spurious excuse for not taking effective action against their flagrant disregard for the consequences of their cavalier attitude towards public sentiment. I’m even more convinced that politicians have a financial self interest in maximising the power of the Banks and other financial institutions.

In short, the pleadings of Osborne etc. stink.

@occupymarines notepad version of link

I don’t know if your computerese is good enough to translate this.

It’s the notebook version of the m.facebook.com html link that I was getting from occupymarines

<noscript><META http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0;URL=https://m.facebook.com/?refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwwww.facebook.com%2F&amp;_rdr#!/photo.php?fbid=297647396950122&amp;id=246310432083819&amp;set=a.248065118575017.53607.246310432083819&amp;__user=100003052083480″></noscript><script>location.replace(“https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/?refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwwww.facebook.com%2F&_rdr#!\/photo.php?fbid=297647396950122&id=246310432083819&set=a.248065118575017.53607.246310432083819&__user=100003052083480″)</script>

I don’t know if it’s just an advert hitchhiker, an attempt at a virus or what. I won’t be re-tweeting it, because I don’t know what it is.

@occupylsx email newsletter from avaaz.org to petition Osborne to stop RBS bonuses

email newsletter from avaaz.org

In days incompetent Royal Bank of Scotland bosses want to pay themselves astronomical bonuses from our taxes!

But we can stop these fat cats swallowing more cream.

Despite losing the bank £750 million in the last six months, RBS executives are spending a fortune lobbying the government and now want to get another £500m in bonuses! It’s a scandal at a time when cuts are biting all of us.

But George Osborne heads up the body that will negotiate the deal. If we raise a massive public stink, the Chancellor could be shamed into rejecting RBS’s outrageous claim.

We don’t have long to stop this offensive corporate greed — RBS executives meet on Wednesday.

Let’s deliver a deafening 100,000 strong petition to Osborne to force a drastic cap on RBS bonuses and ban the use of our money to lobby the government.

Click here to stop the great fat-cat rip-off, and then share this with everyone: http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_rbs_bonuses_a/?vl

RBS’s crash in 2008 shook the global economy, and the British taxpayer had to step in with £45bn to buy most of the bank. Since then RBS’s management have sold off the best bits of the bank, sacked around 20,000 people, and refused to boost lending to embattled businesses.

The share price has plummeted, and British taxpayers are currently £23bn out of pocket.

Shockingly, RBS’s arrogant executives still want to award themselves “performance” bonuses.

 It’s incredible, but the chief executive wants a repeat of the £6.8m he took in 2011, and the head of the investment banking division wants to cash in share options for over £5m.

Yesterday Cameron made vague promises about tackling unfair rewards, yet claims his hands are tied on RBS.

The truth is that over 80% of the bank is owned by the British taxpayer through a company whose board reports straight to Chancellor Osborne.

 Let’s remind him that he is accountable to us, not the greedy gamblers at RBS.

Sign now and share this with everyone: http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_rbs_bonuses_a/?vl

Fat cats and corporate raiders have pillaged our economy, and we are paying with our jobs and services while executive pay continues to skyrocket.

But our campaign against the Murdochs shows that, when we stick together and stay strong, we can stop even the seemingly untouchable.

Let’s stop the RBS bonuses and turn the tide of corporate greed..

With hope and determination, Alex W, Luis, Alex R, Carol, Alice, Ricken, and the rest of the Avaaz team

SOURCES BBC: “What is ‘appropriate’ pay at RBS?”: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16609987

Independent: The £1m question: Will Cameron really tackle bonus excess?: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-1m-question-will-cameron-really-tackle-bonus-excess-6292248.html

This is Money: “Government to demand RBS caps cash bonuses at its investment arm”: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2086696/Government-demand-Royal-Bank-Scotland-caps-cash-bonuses-investment-arm.html#ixzz1ji6FA3NZ

Telegraph: “RBS chief to be paid almost £7m”: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8248374/RBS-chief-Stephen-Hester-awarded-a-2.5m-bonus.html

Telegraph: “RBS horror story as 20,000 jobs cut”: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/rbs/7978529/RBS-horror-story-as-UK-job-cuts-top-20000.html

Support the Avaaz Community! We’re entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way.

Welsh patriot or Welsh blowhard?

Poor, bilingual Noel Jones having to pay a parking fine, which is printed in English.

I have no love of car park fees, restrictions or fines but the hypocrisy of this man is shameful.

 He’s not upholding his cultural rights, he’s hiding behind them.

The Welsh have been lumbered with bilingual signs by their politicians and are prepared to pay the extra cost.

Good for them.

When our politico’s eventually drag us kicking and screaming into union with Europe, we can all can have our own Euro’s printed.

They can probably get software that will automatically translate the internationally used English language of their various computer programme’s into Welsh.

 It would be a real plus, if, when informing The Press of their shameful treatment, they insisted on giving their story in Welsh and having bilingual versions printed.