Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

I'm not so sure that I'd hang the same label on all of the rich and powerful.
Dishonesty varies from those who would nick their Grannies false teeth if she slept with her mouth open, down to those who have done little worse than to forget paying for a bus ticket or else kept a coin they found in the street.

What about Bill Gates for instance ?
No doubt he made millions from his enterprises and milked the public to full capacity, but overall he doesn't seem such an evil guy and his charitable foundation seems to be run with genuine good intentions.

Contrast that with Kamprad, who was still openly recruiting members for the Nazi party, long after WW2 and its associated attrocities were public knowledge.
Like Gates he also set up a charitable foundation,.....only thing was he was and still is the main beneficiary of his own charity.

No I certainly wouldn't tar them all with the same brush.

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

[QUOTE=Domino;10050199]
This would be the same Philip Green that David Cameron saw fit to apppoint as a Government spending advisor - you couldn't make it up.

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

[QUOTE=Lynn R;10050676]Method in his madness maybe.

There's a better chance of a successful business man being able to help balance the countries books, than some jumped up socialist brought up on union funds and local authority hand-outs without the faintest clue about business, finance and the economy as per the previous shower of sh!t.

At spending and borrowing like most of ther kind they could have won Olympic gold medals, but for running the economy and balancing the books not even the faintest clue, as the present shadow chancellor at least was honest enough to admit.

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

Interesting programme on the BBC last night with Michael Portillo, mainly about Greece and Germany. In Greece, hundreds of Porsche Cayennes for sale, they bought them in their hundreds, harbours full of exotic yachts purchased by those avoiding paying taxes, state of the art Siemens trains all produced in Germany. He spoke to top politicians, offering them all the chance to stick with the euro or revert to the drachma or deutsch mark, everyone opted for the euro.

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

Looks like some British councils are getting jittery about Spanish banks, Kent in particular have pulled out all their liquid capital amid ongoing banking fears at Santander, if a giant like that is causing problems then god knows what else is being frantically covered up eh?

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

I moved a sizeable chunk savings from a Santander owned UK building society recently, but mainly because it was paying crap rates and there were better rates available elsewhere. I've always been of the opinion a lot of the Spanish companies are hiding all sorts of problems, houses they can't sell, credit rating downgrade etc, I'm glad to be out of it.

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

I keep dropping into my local Santander to withdraw a few thousand in cash and move it somewhere a bit more secure.

However I was told on my last visit that there was a 2,500 limit, otherwise if I requested more, I had to write a letter to the bank/authorities to say why I needed the funds.

Anyone else come across this or know if it's correct ?

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

That sounds a bit worrying. Was it in Spain or the UK?

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

Spain.

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

Isn't it illegal now to pay more than a couple of grand in cash? I believe it's a similar to what's been introduced in Italy.

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

Not good when a government wants to know. Sounds like a 2,500 withdrawl every day

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

If I was in Greece right now I'd be shitting myself, its not so much the Euro question that is being fretted about but bloody civil war!

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8491LI20120511

Banks have until the end of the year to move their holdings of repossessed property into asset management firms for a fire sale, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told a news conference. All banks must do this, he said.

Interesting.

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

:confused:Yes, what has been introduced in Italy is that even a pensioner that may have the amazing good fortune to have a pension of more than 1000 eurines can't withdraw it in cash. From July no cash payment can be accepted by anybody for anything over 500 eurines. We are now in a dictatorship that with electronic wizardry is far more frightening that anything Mussolini/Franco & co. could have dreamed up. We now even pay tax on the tax that we paid when withdrawing cash to pay our tax!
No. 2 son runs the business that used to be mine. His accountant paid a 700 eurine local tax bill 2 days late about 3 years ago. It turns out that he overpaid by about 400 eurines. Thatnotwithstanding he now has a fine of 250 eurines for the delayed payment; but no mention of reimbursment of the amount overpaid. All this is done by an official Mafia type organisation called 'Equitalia'. Mention the word ' equitalia' on the Italian section of BE and see what reaction you get.
ciao for now,
'o nonno

Re: Crisis? What crisis?
 

Maybe for a single item, but does that mean it's also illegal to draw out more than two grande in cash to cover various daily expenses and purchases for a few weeks ahead ? :confused:

If that's the case, it could have the opposite effect and encourage the well-heeled who like to splash their cash around a bit, to simply keep it stashed away at home, rather than keep it in the bank.