British Aerospace (BAe) and the Serious Fraud Office

The directors of British Aerospace must be shaking in their boots at the news that the Serious Farce Office is to report them to the Director of Public Prosecutions for alleged bribery.

This will possibly end in another dirty little deal and these death merchants will go on just as they always have, peddling arms around the globe by fair means or foul. More likely, however, is that their lawyers will point out to them

1. that the Serious Fraud Office couldn't catch a cold in an igloo even with their power to suspend the right of silence
   
2. even if they do get it to court, the case will collapse because the crown prosecution service are useless at handling complex cases where the nature of capitalism itself is involved
   
3. even if someone is convicted, the rich look after their own and they'll do little or no jail time. We only have to look at the case of Ernest Saunders to see that. He is still the only person to make a complete recovery fromAlzheimer's disease

Doesn't it make you proud to be British?

Alistair Darling (of the City)'s Second Bank Bail Out

It's like deja vu and so very predictable. Having concealed the true extent of their gambling losses in the hope that there would be a resurgence in confidence the major banks have now, with results due to be published and the previously incompetent regulator taking a close interest, been forced to admit the real depth of the shit they are in and come to government (me and you) for more money.

This looks more and more like more than just incompetence and it is really time that the Serious Fraud (Farce) Office took a much greater interest, but that would damage confidence and confidence tricksters like New Labour and their big business cronies depend on confidence.

Capitalism is crumbling due largely to its own values of greed and inequality.

I've posted a link to The Red Banker in the Sidebar for a socialist analysis.

Big Dave Cameron and Consensus Politics

I just saw Big Dave Cameron on the telly saying that there is no alternative to Big Gordy's master plan. As I suspected neither he nor the Prime Minister seem to have heard of socialism, even although they seem to be in favour of nationalising banks hand over fist.

Capitalism was failing the people of this country for years before the Iron Woman (she's no lady) finally took away all semblance of restraint. It has finally failed completely. The more freedom the market has to steal the more it will steal from the people of the country. Senior executives will get no bonuses this year, but they will be allowed to retain the bonuses the received while they were seriously failing to do their jobs properly. No doubt bonuses were based on results, but we should go back now that we know better what the result of their greed really is.

Shame.

Financial Institutions and Toothless Regulators

It looks as if they might just about stopped the financial world from unravelling but recent events make my previous comments (12th September) look strangely prophetic. The banks with the most money are gobbling up the lesser banks and we all know the consequences of that for the workers in the financial services industry. The corridors of the Parliament (both in Westminster and Edinburgh) are awash with crocodile tears as the Capitalist system creaks under the strain of unfettered greed. Apparently 'Greed is good' doesn't apply any more.

Meanwhile the regulator issues a toothless ban on short selling of the shares of banks and insurance until the end of the year. The whole system of share trading has turned into a giant casino where no-one really knows the rules, because there are no effective rules. Big Gordy and Smirky Salmond might try to scapegoat the short sellers, but they were acting completely within the law, and it is Governments which still make the law. The fact that there are too many financial institutions in the USA and the UK which have grown so large that if they are allowed to go down they take the country with them is a national disgrace. It means that they can indulge in massively risky behaviours in the knowledge that the taxpayer will cover the losses should they fail.

The real answer is to break them up, and sooner rather than later and preferably put them into public ownership so that the workers who generate the profits share in the success of the enterprise, rather than the present situation where the greed generates massive losses, the workers lose their jobs, the bosses walk away with all the remaining assets, and the taxpayer bears the loss.

This crisis was avoidable, and had the regulators real powers to stop abuse then the people would have been better protected.

Nationalisation of Financial Institutions

Now that the UK has effectively nationalised Northern Rock (almost the first birthday of the nationalisation) and the USA has effectively nationalised both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we can only applaud this new spirit of public ownership. It's just a pity that the taxpayer always seems to get lumbered with the losers rather than the shareholders who were paid large dividends rather than creating reserves to see their companies through financial crises. It's also a pity that the same spirit of providing a safety net for investors couldn't have been brought to bear on the problems of Farepak, but then their investors weren't already the rich so they don't count for much to Big Gordy.

Just a further comment on the global financial meltdown. Money doesn't just disappear, so if everyone is going to get poorer, who is going to get richer? Capitalists are fighting like ferrets in a sack each trying to save his own arse at the expense of the rest and, as usual, the poorest will pay the price and the rich will get richer. Banks are queueing up to buy each other at bargain basement prices and it's about time the national and international regulators stepped in and sorted out this fucking mess they have allowed to be created by pure greed.

Gordon Brown and Fuel Poverty

I must admit that, despite my severe misgivings, when Gordon (the big clunking fist) Brown followed Bliar I thought that there might be a slightly increased opportunity for some sort of anti-poverty measures. Today's announcement on measures to relieve fuel poverty show that he is as big a coward in the face of big business as ever Bliar was. Brown/Bliar, it's like a choice between the pox and the clap. Both are awful but one is worse.

Pensioners will die of booty capitalism this winter because power generation and distribution is in private hands and a toothless regulator can do nothing to control price increases. Shame!

Forth Estuary, Thames Water, and the Sewage Spill

Having been brought up on the Firth of Forth I feel a bit distressed about the estuary being polluted with untreated sewage as a result of a pump failure in a treatment station operated by Thames Water.

My first reaction to the reports was that the Forth is a long way from the Thames, and if you want to operate local resources perhaps it is better to operate them by means of local authorities, rather than PFI booty capitalists, who have at heart the interests of their shareholders in the City of London rather than local people.

Mechanical breakdowns in machinery are not unforseeable, they are inevitable and predictable given proper inspections and maintenance, and if the back-up systems are not in place to deal effectively with these failures then it is because someone decided not to have these systems. It wasn't an accident, it was a conscious decision motivated by minimising cost and maximising profit.