Is Truth Finally Catching Up With The Finance Industry?

There are encouraging signs that, despite the Tory party's best efforts, the finance industry is gradually cleaning up its act after 30 years of running riot. George Osborne has told us that, in the wake of public disgust for loan shark companies such as Wonga, he will legislate to cap the eye-watering rates they charge to desperate poor people. Of course he hasn't even suggested what that cap will be since he fears that Wonga and other criminal organisations might cap their "donations" to the Tories in return. In fact Osborne's initiative has all the hallmarks of being window-dressing with lots of warm fuzzy words and very little in the way of actual cold prickly measures. Stand by for the Tory's favourite "voluntary code of conduct" confidence trick. It has also been revealed that RBS has been operating a scam that would make the Mafia blush. They have been in the habit of moving perfectly good viable businesses into remedial measures in order to bankrupt them, purchase their assets at knock down prices and then flog them off at a profit. Essentially they have been mugging small businesses in much the same way as they have been mugging the public for the last three decades of the neoliberal economic "experiment". Stand by for yet another raft of banking executives resigning and walking off with lottery-sized pay-offs as they weep all the way to their offshore banking accounts. Who says that crime doesn't pay?

Lending Increases (But Only To The Tory Party).

The man pictured above is Henry Angest, the Chief Executive Officer of Arbuthnot Banking Group PLC which includes Everyday Loans - a company that makes huge profits by offering hard working and hard-up ordinary people loans at rates of up to 75% per anum. In other words he is one of the new breed of loan sharks who are revelling in the hardship that people like him caused in the first place. He was also responsible for bankrolling the Tory party to the tune of £5 million at an interest of just 3.5%. Of course loans are handed out on the basis of risk and giving the Tory party millions is a sure bet since they could be expected - and have - ignored the scandal of legalised usury. Of course Henry Angest is not on his own - Lord Beecroft, who likes to pretend he's an "historian", is the head of Wonga which charges up 4,000% for payday loans and is also a major "contributor" to the Tory party. Criminal organisations bankrolling other criminal organisations is nothing new - business is business after all - but the spectacle of a British political party accepting bribes that effectively transfer money from the poor into their pockets is a tough pill to swallow. Meanwhile, back at RBS, Stephen Hester is being forced to accept a measly £5 million lottery win to step aside while the bank is flogged by George Osborne to yet another bunch of fatcat supporters of the Tory party at a knock-down price. The public were made shareholders in RBS without asking their permission and the bank will now be "privatised" at a loss - again without our permission - having been the grateful recipient of several billion £'s in "quantative easing" courtesy of the taxpayer. This is not "business", this is fraud pure and simple and political corruption on an epic scale.