A few years ago my wife used to keep a security box around the house. Locked with a combination lock. If she ever forgot the combination all the stuff in there became inaccessible.
Ask her why we needed it, we are not zillionaires or anything close.
The answer got lost in translation from Thai to English.
Never did quite understand. Never understood either why she threw it out when she did. Her world and mine tend to differ at times. In the days I ever had money as regular income from my job, that went in the bank. Other investments? What other investments? We are not zillionaires or anything close ....
I grew up as a child respecting banks. I had a small savings account from a very young age. Every so often some money, with the help of my none-too-affluent parents, would get put in there. At secondary school (age 11 to 18) we were encouraged to put so much money into a savings book, and transfer that, when we had a suitable amount, to our savings account at the bank.
By the time I went to university at the age of 19 in 1967 I had 92 pounds saved.
Yee-ha! Those were the days.
Saving, not spending. Planning for the future. Having a savings account properly looked after by an institution that was secure and helped grow your small amounts of money - slightly, don't expect miracles.
Into a rare attack of nostalgia at this point.
Those were the days when banks were banks not casinos.
Those were the days when investment was investment not speculation.
Those were the days when saving was encouraged not debt.
And those were the days when countries were not brought to their knees by banking crises!!!!
And yet this was capitalism. Do not forget that!
The latest chapter in the European banking crisis following the 2008 international financial crash is Cyprus. The Cypriots last week turned down an EU loan as the terms were too severe. I understand their pain. They have a short period of time to come up with the money or go bankrupt.
Meanwhile, back in the world of the small investor:
One quote from a Facebook item I read this morning on European Parliament deliberations upon the Cyprus situation:
http://eu-infothek.ch/article/rettungsplan-fuer-zypern-eu-abgeordnete-fordern-faire-loesung
"Wichtig sei, dass Menschen, die ihr Geld auf die Bank bringen, es wieder zurückbekommen".
Translated that reads along the lines that it was a prerequisite of banks that investors should be able to access their money when they want.
Eventually the bank is their security box. The combination code is the PIN number on their bank card. And there should be no need for the owners of the money to have any difficulties with this. The money does not belong to the bank, they are merely the guardians.
Usually they get paid for the privilege of guarding your money by way of charges and the like. If you ask them to provide a service (a direct payment on a standing order for which you have insufficient funds available), they are only too keen to charge you for it.
But if you want to get hold of your money and they have a problem?
In Cyprus this weekend, DUE TO THE BANKING CRISIS, people cannot access the money in their accounts. In other words the banks are holding on to other people's money to save their own skins as far as it is possible!
And if the banks cannot return the money that investors have given them for safe keeping????
In 2008 let us repeat we had a worldwide crisis caused by banks and other financial institutions gambling (no other word for it) and losing heavily. They had to be bailed out by governments using taxpayers' money - often people (like myself among many others) who had not subscribed to the ridiculous speculation that caused the crash in the first place.
Don't bail out the banks? Check 1932 and the state of the capitalist world if you want an example.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Financial institutions are the core of the capitalist system. If those institutions are insecure .....
It stinks to high heaven. Frankly.
In a world where "moral justice" exists, the innocent would not have to suffer with the guilty. The wise would not have to pay the price of the behaviour of the foolish. The sane and the sensible would not have to pay the price for the crazy and the crooked.
And so much for "moral justice"! I am heading for the proverbial knackers-yard, where poverty is going to be an imposed norm despite all my attempts to prevent it. But I am not alone. Ask the people of Spain. Or Greece. Or Cyprus!!!!
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Postscript: I noted yesterday that one of the Russian oligarchs and ultimate speculators, Boris Bereszovsky, died in the past couple of days. I will not risk prosecution for libel by saying that he was a crook. Let me merely say that the world is no worse a place for his demise, and possibly (and very probably) better!
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