Where are the CEO poachers when you need them?

Fee convinces KJ that CEOs aren't worth their huge salaries

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An alternative to switching energy supplier

Chris and his wife find a way to make all family members contribute to household bills

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Pensions – the monstrous truth about the inflation indexation change from RPI to CPI

The financial competence of Gordon Brown, the former Chancellor and Prime Minister until the ejection of the Labour government in 2010, was exposed with hindsight by his government’s failures in protecting the British economy from the Credit Crisis that started in 2008. However, the evidence of financial dizziness in the rarefied atmosphere he once sucked up was there in his earlier statements.

When, in 2008, Brown was pushing for a long-term pay settlement with public sector workers, he stated

"What people all round the country want is certainty moving forward, greater stability in their family finances and the knowledge that they have a longer-term pay settlement that can meet their bills, particularly the mortgage. I know that many of the people representing teachers, nurses, other groups in the public services are interested in securing long-term pay deals."

It seemed that Brown hadn’t got to the chapter in his economics book that would have taught him: it is not only certainty on your pay that provides stability, it is certainty on the cost of your bills. To be charitable we must assume this was simply too difficult for Brown to comprehend – as the alternative would be that he was being, shall we say, misleading. 

The Bank of England’s own inflation projection – its estimate of what inflation is likely to be over the next few years – shows that nobody really has much idea where inflation is going. Bank of England estimates for the next few years show inflation is likely to be anything between –0.5% and 4.5%.

Just as Labour pulled a fast one with inflation back in 2008, so are the Conservatives in 2011 with their change in the indexation of pensions from a link with the Retail Price Index (RPI) to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

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Diffusing the doorstep energy salesman

Chris turns the tables on an energy salesman who won't take no for an answer

Gas

Electricity

Utility

Bills

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PPI leaves its mark on the population

Chris, Fee and KJ pay their respects to the PPI victims

UK banks won't appeal ruling to compensate customers missold payment protection insurance, Lloyds to settle PPI claims, PPI: 'Banks behaved disgustingly', Coming up: Jan. PPI, housing starts, Payment protection insurance complaints still rising, US core PPI falls in Oct, largest drop in 4 yrs, Payment protection insurance sale curbs approved

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Beware of Greeks bearing public sector pensions

Fee and KJ discuss the Greek situation, with another bailout on the horizon

Germany powers eurozone economic surge

Portugal learns terms for $115 billion bailout

Osborne: eurozone crisis shows dangers to UK

Portugal seeks EU bailout

Portugal closer to bailout

Eurozone leaders meet to bolster euro

Eurozone retail sales up for first time since July

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Beware bankers bearing Structured Products – the Great Dividend Robbery

Is investing in the stock market all it’s cracked up to be? Judging by this rocketing graph, it would seem so. But take a closer look and you will see how you can get ripped off by investing via a “Structured Product”. The worm on the Structured Product hook is the promise that you can invest in a risky market, but if even the worst happens you are guaranteed to get your money back.

“Structured Products” are yet another method used to bamboozle the public. In the last decade there has been an avalanche of products promising returns running into the tens and hundreds of percent with minimal risk. These have included investments such as “Equity Bonds” that promise the “chilli-hot” returns of the equity markets. These come not just from known shysters like the big high street banks and building societies, but even from our own dear United Kingdom government’s NS&I (National Savings and Investments):

“NS&I is an Executive Agency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer”

The agents of the Chancellor are perhaps not quite so shameless as those in the City, as NS&I haven’t been issuing these bonds since the election last year. But for the majority of us, who sometimes get a whiff of rumours that there are chilli-hot returns available from investing in shares, there are a multitude of similar rip-offs on offer from other providers.

The weasel words for this kind of bond are “may not get as high a return as they might through investing directly in the stock market” and  “will not be eligible for dividends”. 

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Fear of financial services outguns terrorism

After a historic victory over the banks on mis-selling Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), our heroes discover why the FSA is now investigating the banks' newest idea: ID Theft Insurance

[KEYWORDS: Three million bank customers ripped off over payment protection insurance in line for payouts worth £4.5bn after High Court victory, Payment protection insurance complaints still rising

Payment protection insurance sale curbs approved, Payment protection insurance complaints soar

Lloyds stops selling payment protection insurance, Complaints over payment protection insurance on the rise, says FOS, New rules on payment protection insurance are delayed, PPI, refund, compensation, rip-off

income protection, income protection insurance, ppi, redundancy insurance, unemployment insurance, mortgage payment protection, mortgage protection insurance, mortgage protection, mortgage insurance]

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A better alternative to the Alternative Voting system

Fee comes up with a novel political solution.

[KEYWORDS: UK Votes 'No' To Alternative Vote, Alternative Vote 'Would Have Kept Brown In', David Cameron ignores calls to rearrange alternative vote referendum over royal wedding date Electoral reform: The case for alternative vote Alternative Vote: the wrong referendum on the wrong question What exactly is fairer about the Alternative Vote? Would the alternative vote have changed history?]

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Forget ELECTION reform! It is EJECTION reform that really matters

Forget whether “First Past The Post” or “Alternative Vote” is the best way for you to elect your politicians. With the imminent referendum on the voting system in the UK, politicians, journalists, activists, and even ordinary voters interested enough to have any opinion at all are focusing on the procedure of “elections”. Getting terribly heated, calling each other rotters and liars, threatening legal action for dishonesty in politics (!), they are being successfully distracted from the real issue. Not "Elections", but “Ejections”.

The question should be, “What is the most effective way to eject our politicians”. In short, “First Past The Post” is probably the most effective Ejection System for the very same reasons it is a poor Election System. Just as an MP doesn’t need more than 50% of the vote to get elected, his opponent doesn’t need more than 50% to boot him out.


Reforming the Election System is as futile as reforming the shape of clouds. Clouds form to other winds than your or my whistling. “Elections” are stitched up long before it comes to Election Day, and the stitching continues in a continuous seam long after that day. Stitched up not in the result, but in the choice.

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