International Finance: Banks can be a bit slippery …even those across the pond.
A pension body has called for the resignation of Sir John Sunderland, Barclays’ pay review committee chairman, accusing the bank of “misleading shareholders.”
“In a strongly worded statement, Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) chair Kieran Quinn said: ‘It is inexplicable how Barclays can have gone back on its promise to the 2014 AGM that Sir John would step down. Having messed up remuneration for 2013 Sir John has in fact stayed on as chair and presided over another year of still unacceptably high pay for 2014, and is still in place in March 2015. It’s nothing short of misleading shareholders.'”
Mr Quinn continued by saying Sir John’s participation in distributing “‘grossly excessive bonuses’ and his support for former chief executive Bob Diamond, amongst other things, had been ‘disastrous for shareholder returns and the reputation of the bank.’”
It seems you and me, “the little people” in this equation, fortunately have a voice in the LAPFF as they seem to have gone to bat for us by being particularly critical of executives receiving exorbitant high levels of compensation and of their entire bonus culture.
Last week, Barclays penned a 21% fall since their 2014 report of $3.4billion. Ouch, that really hurts (was I sincere enough to convince you I feel terrible for them…?), especially learning that they “increased its provision to cover any fallout from a probe into currency market manipulation by $1.13bil to $188.2bil. [Meanwhile,] Boss Antony Jenkins was awarded a $1.65mil bonus –his first as chief executive.”
Please don’t misunderstand my directness: I have no problems with making profit. It’s just that when corporations are making these types of profits and have “insurance” to protect their business from going under, then I start to feel a bit insignificant and disadvantaged.
Further, Heaven forbid a bank falls into the red and teeters on bankruptcy, then the government typically comes in to rescue them. Where the hell is the government when Mum & Pop shops across our towns are crumbling, giving way to all these mega corporate chain stores, greatly hampering the average jane or joe to make a living for her/himself?
It’s simply this type of huge discrepancy I’m highlighting. What’s worse is that we have been conditioned to believe that we are not worth it, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. “Bah humbug” …that’s the way the cookie crumbles. It’s important to recognize how the system we live in is set up in order to march, protest, and advocate for change. Nonviolent protesting, of course! 🙂
Step down, Sir John, and while you’re at it …take a few billion and create a program or two that actually assists others in getting back on their feet.
Barclays ‘Misleading Shareholders’ Says Pension Body by BBC.
Financial Investing: Am I skeptical, or just the only one who remembers the LIBOR scandal?
Investment strategist Sam Stovall states that after losing 15-20% of your initial investment, you should not bailout but rather stay in because it only takes an average of four months to make your money back. (1) Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never invested in stocks. Why? Because I do not trust that rigged game.
Although, I personally have not invested, I certainly know plenty of people who have …and I’ve never heard any of them report that after four, or even six, months they’ve recouped their money –just to break even. And maybe it does happen frequently. Does it happen for you, my dear readers, when you’re investing in the stocks? Tell me, let me know how well your stock investments pay off for you, in the name of financial investment education …and I’ll write a story here.
They tell us we’ve been in a bull market for six years now.
They tell us the “biggest threat to the bull market is…the Federal Reserve raising interest rates.”
They tell us the stock market has surged 200%.
And yet, “stocks tumbled on Friday …as a surprisingly strong February jobs report increases the chances of a Fed hike in June. In other words, good news was suddenly bad, for the market at least.”(1) Are they talking in circles …or is it just me?
On the surface, it seems that economic conversation is so extremely intelligent …some might call it complicated or sophisticated. You know what I call it? “Intellectual b.s.” Please forgive me for saying such a thing, yet there is no other way around it, in this circumstance. This is intellectual mumbo jumbo.
Speaking big words, sounding intelligent, yet every statement has some exception or actual life experience that contradicts it. By definition, a “theory” talks in circles: A theory is something that cannot be confirmed or proven nor disproven, for that matter; hence, “theory.”
When said theorem is proven, then it can change into a rule or a law of nature, for example. But here, we’re talking about a man-made concept (economics), derived from the human brain living in 3rd Dimension. How funny is that?! We’re trying to take this concept of money and elevate it as if it’s something bigger than it really is: Just a tool, to help us get items or services we want. This is the result of the negative ego, sliding in and pretending it’s important.
Let me further explain: Did I mention that economics is theory? It’s not like math (1+1 always equals 2). It’s not like chemistry, where mixing yellow and blue gives us green. It’s not like genetics, where a recessive blue-eyed mom and a recessive blue-eyed dad conceives a recessive blue-eyed daughter.
One “tried and true” method of investing actually never works for long, right? Because before long, this method stops working, and then one has to try something different. Betting on one stock is never always a winner. Betting on one horse, or one racing dog, or one basketball team in March Madness will not win every time.
Gambling your own money on a global level –now that has “corporate cabal” written all over it. For sure, this has been a world’s financial controllers “game” since its inception. “During the Renaissance in the 12th and 13th centuries, Venice and other city–states in Italy began issuing bonds as a way to raise money for wars and other ventures. These bonds were bought and resold, or traded, which is comparable to what goes on now.” (2)
“The first stock exchange as we know it, though, wasn’t created until 1602 with the creation of the Dutch East India Company and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. The Dutch East India Company was a group of entrepreneurs who banded together to explore the New World and make money off the enterprise…. They issued stocks and bonds and set up the stock exchange so these assets could be bought and sold – even to the public.” (2)
“In modern times (and by modern I mean the last two centuries), stock markets emerged as a way to get members of the public-at-large to invest money either into stock from companies or bonds from the government.” Aha, there it is: Researching online the origins of stock markets… I knew I’d come across that part: “A way to get members of the public-at-large to invest [THEIR] money.” (2)
Investing our own money in this game immediately makes me recall the LIBOR scandal brought to the surface of our societal consciousness in June 2012, even though some studies show “fixing the game” was happening as early as 1991. LIBOR revealed that banks (largely Barclay from previous story today –such a surprise, wink wink) were falsely inflating or deflating their rates to profit from trades, or to give the sense of security that they were more financially lucrative than they really were.
This was such a huge deception that it impacted several areas of our world economic arena, considering that LIBOR rates were used as a reference point and global foundation for student loans, financial derivatives, mortgages, and other financial products. And we learn it was rigged (ouch) …affecting so many areas of our livelihood.
Personally, I’d say the “biggest threat” to investing is simply investing in corporate markets …period. It’s all a fixed game –get out while you can. Find private funds or programs in which to invest …our government and corporate billion dollar peeps are not to be trusted.
1. The Biggest Threat to Stocks Now: A Fed Rate Hike by Matt Egan. CNN Money.
2. When Did the Stock Market Begin? By Karl Marrion. Wise Stock Buyer.
Across this beautiful world, We Are All One.
Gavin