Fiduciary Trust. Having banked at a ‘Good Address in the City’ for well over half a century it bemuses me to be phoned, by some perfectly charming young lady at a local Branch thereof, offering me her services as my Account Manager. I do not doubt that she is the most capable among Managers. Unfortunately as Banks have lost a lot of their credibility over recent years, one has lost faith in the ability of a Bank to manage anything at all. It would be a foolish person who put all his pennies in any one Bank’s Basket, or accepted their advice, or even the advice of many a Financial Advisor be such a person Independent or otherwise. It was after all their Professions that landed Global Finance in the Mess that it seems to be in today. A while back I, so doubtlessly everyone else was being bombarded with offers of Cash advances in the form of blank cheques that merely needed to be filled in; and was proffered unlimited supplies of Credit
Cards. Seemingly many advantaged themselves of such largesse, and now find themselves on the edge of insolvency, because what such money paid for is now worth far less than the debt incurred. Easy mortgages were largely responsible for the inflation of the price of Houses. However the ‘subsidised’ sale of Council Housing, and the Enfranchisement of Privately owned Freeholds, and the Planning Laws all had a part to play. How foolish the Banks and Building Societies were to give such easy credit. How Stupid Government was to de- regulate the City, and too meddle in the Housing Market. Were those who borrowed too much money more or less foolish than those of us who followed Mr. Micawber’s precept, or even the advice of Polonius ‘neither a borrower nor a lender be etc’. It was all very well putting ones Savings on Deposit or on the Stock Market, but what now the value of the shares purchased or even the interest
received? When Investment income falls many have to encroach on the residual value of diminished capital to fund basic living expenses. Possibly all might have been wiser ‘to eat drink and be merry.’ and save nothing. At least the allegedly imprudent may have had a good time at our expense.
I recall being at a Bonfire way back in the 1950’s outside a London Depository when ‘Tea Chest after Tea Chest’ packed with Reich Marks were being incinerated at their owner’s request, because the money was worthless. Do Bankers and Politicians never learn? It was not only Germany, but too Greece, Italy, France, and now the like of Zimbabwe. Hopefully it will not be us next.
It is all very well for Government to legislate about this that or the other. Bring in new laws and regulations, subscribe to the Human Rights Act, and employ more and more personnel to ‘Police’ such matters, but penny by penny it has to be paid for by the tax payer
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