General Election the Ballers Vote
- Thread starter Lump
- Start date
Hopefully, now that they are part of the Govt they can put a stop to all the rhetoric and spin. The Genie is out the bottle on banking, so any solution is hugely complex and will require other countries cooperation and involvement; particularly the US. If we go it alone on banking reform, you can guarantee the rest of the European vipers nest - particularly France and Germany will look to fcuk us. I'm not sure a Tobin Tax is the best way to go, but you can obviously do something with bank capital requirments (or reserves). Not too mention tightening up on lax tax rules the banks take advantage off (utilisation of leasing companies to shelter revenues, offshoring and not too mention use of Tax losses to negate Corporation Tax). They should also be looking into the activities and regulation of Pension Funds and other institutional investors to ensure that there behaviour is not impacting those of the banks (they ultimatley hold hude positions in Banks and Hedge Funds shs). Also a review of the wholesale re-insurance and protection sellers (such as AIG), to ensure they can fully meet their obligations. The balancing act that needs to be performed is protecting the end consumer, whilst aso protecting the national interest (and with Banking as one of the UK's top export industry's this is a must).
What the Govt (and in particular Vince), must'nt be tempted into is blatently populist policies on the banks. His "envy" lists and limiting bank (and other) bonus to 2.5k, are counter productive for tax revenue purposes and smack of ill concieved idea's (or soundbites for the press). At a basic level his numbers don't add up. Take the 2008 London bonus run. An estimated GBP 12-15billion being paid. Assume a conservative 50% paid in cash (the rest in deffered Equity and Shares so subject to future taxes), subject to 40% (now 50%) income tax nets the Treasury approx GBP 2.5 - 3bn or half the 1% increase on ALL National Insurance. Limiting bank bonus to 2.5k would mean Gross bonus off approx GBP 500m nationally and Net the treasury less than GBP 200m, so a drop in the ocean for rasing revenue. This example doesn't take into the fact that the people spending the bonus's then spend them in the local community - new kitchens, extensions, cars, clothes, holidays etc etc.
I don't think they would actually do something like this (better to restrict board level pay and rewards to fixed salary or equity), but using this type of soundbite, vote grabbing nonsese does lead you to questions their motives and objectives (as in just to get into power???). That or the electorates ability to understand the issues, which is a whole other discussion.
What kinds of things can be done at a government level?
Are we talking about the export of financial services or physical goods?
Or neither?