UK LOAN-SHARKS

LOVEABLE LOANSHARKS

LOAN-SHARK CHAMPION
AL CAPONE.
UK LOANSHARKS ARE LICENSED BY
THE GOVERNMENT

A HAPPY AND A HOLY CHRISTMAS TO ALL FAITHS - CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS, JEWS, BUDDHISTS, HINDUS, TAOISTS, HUMANISTS, AETHEISTS, OR SIMPLY HUMAN BEINGS. YOUR RELIGIONS OR YOUR ETHICS ABHOR BULLYING AND USURY – SO HELP TO STOP THEM -

HOW? Sign our AVAAZ petition, or start one of your own, and support Stella Creasy, MP, who is pressing the UK Parliament to ban loan-sharks.

 

ANTI-LOAN-SHARK CAMPAIGNER
STELLA CREASY MP

 UK Payday lenders, licensed by Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition Conservative and Lib-Dem government* to charge whatever they like e.g.  2,000% to 4,500% (there is now no legal UK limit) trap poor people into inescapable revolving debt – backed by the UK’s “Justice” system of County Courts, which pursues about 92,000 debt victims a year into bankruptcy, homelessness and ultimately into prison. 

STELLA CREASY MP – CAMPAIGN AGAINST LOANSHARKING.

http://www.workingforwalthamstow.org.uk/

YOU MIGHT APPROVE OF THESE “FREE MARKET” LOANSHARK PRICES – ONLY MADE POSSIBLE BECAUSE THE VICTIMS (CUSTOMERS), THE POOREST FAMILIES IN THE LAND, EARN LESS THAN “THE LIVING WAGE”; FORCING THEM TO BORROW EVERY WEEK TO BUY FOOD FOR THE WEEKEND. IT’S A GREAT BRITISH BUSINESS MODEL. MONEYLENDING IS WHAT THE UK EXCELS AT NOW IT HAS NO INDUSTRY, PRODUCTS OR COMMUNITY ETHICS. WE LEARNED THE BASICS FROM THE US MAFIA – AND THEN RAMPED IT UP; LONDON CITY STYLE. 

(Future citizens in a fully automated economy will all be as rich as today's millionaires, and have no need for "Money" - readAD2516 - After Global Warming )

GLOBAL ECONOMY - BLOG ARCHIVE

In 1960 my UK Manchester firm was asked for tax advice by a “Journeyman” or back-street door-to-door moneylender. Pre-Thatcher he had to keep his charges under 30% or risk a prison sentence. He confided that he always got paid by his “customers”, mostly housewives while husbands were at work, because on first default - “I NAIL HER HAND TO THE DOOR” – before getting really nasty about subsequent defaults. Today the UK County Court system does the enforcing for him. We turned him away.

Compared to today’s loan-sharks, “The Nailer” was hugely underpriced. Read Suffolk Mike’s 17 year entrapment tale below – at a mere 2,018% per annum. What clever, admirable, monetarist Capitalism.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS – PEACE ON EARTH TO MEN OF GOODWILL.

UK PRIME MINISTER, DAVID CAMERON
WHO WILL CAP LOAN CHARGES
AT 5% AND FREE 1.5 MILLION
FAMILIES FROM CRIPPLING DEBT.

There are reported to be 1.5 million UK homes in these debt-traps, borrowing an average, say, of £500, which is £750 million in total. If PM David Cameron bans all loan charges above 5% APR next week, the Bank of England* could pay-off all the loan-sharks balances and refinance the victims at Base Rate 0.5% APR. Of the UK’s consumer debt of £1.3 trillion, £750 million is 0.5%, which would not rock The City one jot. Making all debts repayable at 5% or less will kick-start the economy from the grass-roots upwards – and reduce ALL prices by an inflation beating 25% as the 15 stage multilayer on-cost price  process is limited to 5%. Ten times Base Rate is still good business capitalism.

*Under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 lenders must have a licence from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT)

It will also give the Prime Minister a “Go to Heaven Free” card. Its time we re-introduced the Plenary Indulgence system for sainted public figures.

Write to your MP, Congressman/ woman and all your media contacts.

A Happy and a Holy Christmas.

STELLA CREASY MP – CAMPAIGN AGAINST LOANSHARKING.

http://www.workingforwalthamstow.org.uk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/nov/20/mp-demands-apology-tweets-wonga

The MP and anti-payday loans campaigner Stella Creasy has demanded an apology from the online lender Wongaafter a Guardian investigation uncovered evidence that an employee of the firm has been using an anonymous Twitter account to publicly attack her, calling her mentally unstable.

Wonga's slogan and adverts promise "straight talking money", but company computers appear to have been used to post anonymous comments on blogs critical of its practices and there is evidence that a second Wonga employee has deleted criticism from its Wikipedia page

***********

SIGN THE PETITION FOR:

A 5% per annum cap on all interest rates & charges

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/5_per_annum_cap_on_all_interest_rates_charges/

***********

“Suffolk Mike” – Loan-Shark Victim. There are 1.5 million UK families trapped like this. You can free them this Christmas.

EARN 2018% ON YOUR SAVINGS

BRITISH JUSTICE:  When just 20 years old, “Mike” in Suffolk UK borrowed £250. In the next 17 years he paid back £90,000 (2018% interest a year), losing his house, job and his health. Mike sought help only when the loan-shark threatened his wife and children. The loan-shark was imprisoned for 8 months (4 months served) for being unlicensed. If he had applied, he would be entitled to suck the lifeblood from his victims at twice the rate. Legalised WONGA can charge up to 4,500%. Four months jail isn’t much to suffer for £90,000 and blighting a family’s life for 17 years. (Jill Insley, Guardian 27 June 12, “Loan shark’s victim wins award”)

For Heavens Sake! – Sign the 5% CAP petition and eliminate these evil “financial services” FSA authorised tapeworms.  5% is ten-times the UK Base Rate. Making 10 times Base Rate is enough for any lender.

Sign: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/5_per_annum_cap_on_all_interest_rates_charges/

		Mike of Suffolk - Loan & Debt	repaid
Years	Interest	£                                        250
1	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
2	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
3	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
4	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
5	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
6	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
7	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
8	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
9	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
10	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
11	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
12	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
13	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
14	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
15	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
16	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
17	2017.6%	£                                        250	£ 5,294
			£        2
		Total Repaid	£90,000

Loan-Shark operations are as active in the USA as in the UK. Stop them.

GOOGLE Search 21 Nov 2012 “PAYDAY LOANS” gives 9.1 million results.

The Annual Percentage Rates (APR) here, are boldly advertised by the lenders. 

PaydayUK APR 2,090%

https://www.paydayuk.co.uk/?p=PUGE4&aid=payday%20loans&pid=1t1&pubid=e&gclid=CJ3S76X237MCFePHtAodpRoAvA

Payday Express APR 2,670%

http://www.paydayexpress.co.uk/index.aspx?source=google&p=PEXGL1&gclid=CKjk36f337MCFe7MtAod-hMAaw

KWIK CASH APR 1,737%

http://www.kwikcash.co.uk/PL/Main/default_pl_ms1.aspx?ref=g5_PLM_pls&gclid=CJ2-_-b337MCFYXLtAodZHEAhg

Polly’s Payday Loans APR withheld (US firm)

http://www.pollyspaydayloan.co.uk/

Payday Loan-Quick APR 2,120%

http://paydayloan-quick.co.uk/

WONGA.com APR 4,214%

https://www.wonga.com/?A=46&gclid=CKrxp-r537MCFSnJtAodbE8A_g

Tax avoidance UK court

Take That stars face the music after tax ruling

Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen among investors likely to face hefty tax bills after tribunal decision

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/10/take-that-stars-face-the-music-after-tax-avoidance-ruling

• Simon Bowers
• The Guardian, Saturday 10 May 2014

Around 1,000 wealthy investors including Take That's Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen could face hefty tax bills after a tax tribunal on Friday ruled that a partnership in which they invested was a tax avoidance scheme.

Barlow's Larkdale LLP is just one of 51 so-called "Icebreaker partnerships", affected by the decision of Judge Colin Bishopp in a landmark victory for HM Revenue and Customs. Investors could now face substantial tax bills as a result of the decision.

Bishopp ruled: "The underlying, and fundamental, conclusion we have reached is that the Icebreaker scheme is, and was known and understood by all concerned to be, a tax avoidance scheme."

He accepted the partnerships were carrying on the trade of the exploitation of intellectual property rights, often in the creative industries, but said their main aim was to secure tax relief for members. Icebreaker partnership investments included aspiring pop acts, publishing ventures and the sale of "personal alarms".

In evidence, some unnamed Icebreaker partners had earlier told Bishopp they had a genuine interest in the exploitation of rights, that they took an active role in the partnerships, and that they were aiming to make a profit from these ventures. They claimed: "Tax advantages were incidental to and not the principal reason for their having decided to join a partnership."

The judge did not agree. "We are, indeed, quite satisfied that no serious and even moderately sophisticated investor, or one with a competent adviser, genuinely seeking a profit, even one willing to engage in a high-risk venture, but 20 unmindful of any possible tax advantage, would rationally have chosen an Icebreaker partnership."

Through the partnerships, wealthy investors were claiming lucrative tax losses. In some cases Icebreaker scheme partners were attempting to claim tax relief on losses of up to five times more than they invested in the partnerships.

Take That manager Jonathan Wild was also a member of the Larkdale partnership. Other band members, Jason Orange and Robbie Williams, were not Icebreaker investors.

Details of the scheme emerged in 2012 in a Times investigation. At the time Take That's lawyers insisted the bandmates believed the investments were legitimate enterprises and not schemes designed to avoid tax, and that all four named paid "significant tax". There has been no suggestion of any illegality.

Last night HMRC said: "We have put in place generous reliefs to support genuine business investment and our tax reliefs for the creative industries work well, enabling the UK's world-class film, television and video production companies to compete on the global stage.

"But we will not tolerate abuse of the system by people trying to dodge their tax obligations."

It is not clear whether the judgment will be appealed.

HRH ROYAL FAMILY AUCTION

UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, has devised a brilliant scheme to solve Britain's chronic $1.3 trillion debt crisis. He plans to sell the HRH Royal Family Brand to the highest bidder and apply the proceeds to reduce the UK's massive debt - incurred to bail out the City of London 2008/09 losses - underwritten by British Taxpayers, amounting to the whole of National Debt.

"World Class financial consultants, Hedge Funds and Bankers in The City and on Wall Street have valued the Royal Windsor Brand Name at a starting bid price of $1 trillion. We are confident of receiving bids from several Sovereign Funds in the Middle East, The Americas, Russia, China and other major world blocs - as well as from Limited Liability Partnerships tax free consortia comprising individual members of the international super-rich - the Masters of the Universe." 

In preparation for the Biggest Brand Name Sale in History - the HRH Brand Name and all associated Intellectual Property Rights, on advice from Formula One owner, Bernie Ecclestone, will first be "sold" nod-nod wink-wink - at a knock down price of $5 to a UK Government "Trust" set up in Lichtenstein, which in turn will be the seller of the Windsor Packaged Assets - for tax purposes. David Cameron said "This scheme is quite normal, based on sound commercial tax-avoidance and is of course all perfectly legal".  He added - "The UK leads the world in embracing the Free Market economic philosophy. My government welcomes and needs such Inward Investment. We are selling everything we can lay our hands on. Today Astra-Zeneca - tomorrow The Windsors"

Global independent Brand-Name and Logo advisers affirm The Prime Minister's view that HRH Great Britain Inc will be a highly profitable asset, particularly when broken up into family households and exploited by Media Empires across the world. David Cameron will be the CEO and a major shareholder in the offshore HRH Holding Company. He promises "There will be no forced redundancies and the interests of the great British Public will be strongly protected. But we won't, of course, commit to any of this contractually."

Auction details will be announced shortly and serious bidders will be able to view the sale property - only by Royal Appointment.

Queen Elizabeth the Second said, "We are not amused. But I suppose we will  have to comply - for the sake of our 72 million Subjects".  

REAL & PRESENT DANGER - CLI-FI

US scientists yesterday published a National Climate Assessment - specifically concerning America, which reinforces the scientific forecasts that even America, which Trusts in God, is experiencing extreme weather events due to Climate Change; in turn due to Global Warming. 

Soggy FLORIDA. Water on Main Street.

DO NOTHING - Republicans, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, some pop TV weather presenters, Mickey Mouse, and the whole rag-bag of the usual suspects deny the findings. They claim that Superman and Angels of the Lord are magically weaving an invisible dome over the United States of America that protects the nation - even protects Democrats - from any consequences of global warming; which in any case is not happening, and, if  it is happening, is entirely due to Obama and /or natural planetary evolution that is beyond the wit of man to influence - or prepare for. These believers in fate and natural forces counsel total paralysis and "business as usual". A climate change deniers spokesperson said "Even if the Earth does warm up a bit ...it didn't do the dinosaurs any harm. Look how big and healthy they were. Its just a cyclical thing - a passing phase".

FOR GOD'S SAKE - DO SOMETHING - Neurotic, panicky, cowardly scientists and politico's - almost certainly unarmed socialists and communists - blabber about more forest fires, persistent drought, typhoons, rain-floods, mud slides, sea level rising, gales, Arctic meltdown, permafrost thawing, species extinction, economic disruption and collapse, mosquitoes, plagues, starvation and the end of life as we know it. These (mostly unarmed pacifist) wimps want government to take the lead in slowing the inevitable progress of the process of global warming - and to waste hard earned tax dollars on preparing for the worst - even though it will never happen. These scaremongers even threaten that millions of once hardworking, now retired blameless senior citizens in Florida will see their homes inundated as the Gulf of Mexico sea level rises by a mere 4 feet. (NB - When the ice-caps fully melt, sea-level will rise 300 feet).

WHO DUN IT? The most important debate to have right now is about whose fault it is. Huge public conventions are now being organized on all American beaches; starting with fervent prayers to stop the tide coming in. When the culprits are identified - have no doubt, they will be sued and jailed - and all right thinking citizens will be fully compensated - and thereby will all be millionaires. The future (for America) is bright. A new era, The Rapture, and a new dawn is coming.  God Bless America. 

Douglas Adams philosophy graduates will all know that now is the time to immediately build, populate and launch the B Ark - to save our world. 

• GLOBAL WARMING - CLI-FI NOVELS

CAPITAL & THOMAS PIKETTY

CAPITAL IN THE 21ST CENTURY.

For the majority of economists, economic commentators, bankers, politicians, Treasury officers, Tax officials, wheelers, dealers, brokers, investors and business men and women, the French economist Thomas Piketty is stating the 'bleedin' obvious' in his best selling book CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. And we all wish that we had written it, whether we agree with the author or not. 200,000 copies sold in its first month is a phenomenal success for a book of economic statistics - that might normally have been expected to sell 100 copies a year, until decades after the author's death when it would be bought for all college libraries and included in all economics courses - making the Frenchman posthumously wealthy - and celebrated.

But in this case, the glittering prizes are being heaped upon Thomas in his own lifetime; and will continue to be heaped upon him and his heirs for the foreseeable future. Careful Scholarship Rules - OK!

I haven't bought a copy yet. I will buy one later today at Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford along with the latest edition of the UK's incomprehensible Taxes and Companies Act(s), to keep me bang up to date. Numbers, Tables and Laws: I can hear you yawning loudly already. (Update - Bought the last copy of CAPITAL - Blackwells have sold out twice. It has 685 small-print pages - I must get out more). So, briefly, what I understand 42 years old Thomas Piketty to be telling the world is that 1% of us own (at least) 70% of the global goodies - and 99%, the worker bees, are becoming relatively poorer. I think most of us know this; but the big plus factor in the 577 pages of CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY is that it collates and publishes reliable tables of current and historical data, from many countries, which prove the point.

WATCH THESE INFORMED TALKS ON YOU-TUBE

The Bizarre Economics of Tax Havens and Pirate Banking: James 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znYA0yIQMq0

Daniel Reeves: Offshore tax havens and the financial community

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajxRkXxAL0A

How the Rich Beat the Taxman (2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oElLtJ00Po

Piketty also tells the world that the trend, constantly accelerating since Thatcher, Reagan  and the Madness of Monetarism, to screw the poor and reward the rich, is unsustainable. In other words, it needs fixing or the global system will break down - and bloody revolutions will ensue. Maybe the second French Revolution and the second Russian Revolution will sweep unchecked across the world. So, the capitals of capitalism, the United States of America, The City of London and other citadels of the 1% and their mercenary armies of bookkeepers, lawyers and bankers, who record our wealth on bits of paper and in electronic traces, may now be trembling. 

Piketty might also have said - I wonder if he does say - that the famous invitation from America, exemplified by the French gifted Statue of Liberty "Give us your poor and huddled masses...etc " has been turned on its head. The oppressed and crushed populations of France, Russia, Britain, Poland, Ireland, Scotland, Spain and of all nations, were indeed encouraged to flee from aristocratic tyrants to The Land of The Free and the Land of Opportunity; but what was and is not advertised is that the wicked aristocrats got there first - claimed all the land - killed the natives - slaughtered the herds - and scoured the world for talented cheap labor, who built the richest nation on Earth. Good for them. Well done America. 



M. Guillotine's invention for a more humane
execution - compared to blows with an axe.

But, the embedded aristocrats then activated their instinctive agenda - and since 1980 have crushed the 99% of American peasants, holding down wages for 30 odd years, and have enriched themselves enormously with unearned incomes. A major part of the 1% aristocrats' strategy is to siphon as much (paper) wealth as they can to the world's 70 tax-havens and to bury it there. This diminishes the money in global circulation and so drives up the value of flexible capital over deep frozen wages - and so buys more cheap police, armies, wage-slaves, drudges, sycophants, media PR and private islands. The most visible impact of hiding the surplus cash is the huge unemployment total - particularly among the world's youth. Unemployed, part-time, zero-hours contracts, below the Living Wage (subsidizing mean employers with our tax dollars), homeless, shoe-less, on Food Stamps - the list goes on; and is darkly mirrored in almost all OECD countries. 

Another symptom of hoarding cash offshore is manifest in the current USA Pfizer $75 billion offer to buy UK Astra-Zeneca. The cash is offshore and if Pfizer take it home to America, billions in tax will be payable - jobs will be created - schools, roads, bridges, infrastructure will be repaired, and government programs will be financed - benefiting the 99%. The 1% don't like that. It stinks of fairness, decent pay and wealth re-distribution. The American nation mustn't share in the accumulated profits; they belong to the global 1%, the cunningly disguised, arrogant aristocrats. 

The aristocrats have won again. The French and Russians did not kill off their wicked, obscenely greedy aristocrats - they exported them to America, from where they have spread their destructive, selfish creed around the world. We live in a time of Milton Friedman's Monetarism; an evil system that converts all our fixed assets and "monetizes" the goodwill of all good people, into flexible cash - so the aristocrats can gouge it out for themselves and take it offshore, at the rate of $1 trillion a year - $32 trillion to date. Their system depends on the interpretation and application of the law. 

Laws can be changed. Thomas Piketty asks how things can be changed - to prevent global economic calamity. Here's how:-

1) Repatriate the $32 trillion from 70 tax-havens and re-boot the world economy.

• $32 TRILLION OF BACK-TAXES - NOW!

2) Adopt BIRTHRIGHT and spread the wealth. Pensions from birth.
     
          BIRTHRIGHT REBORN

3) Bring back 1950's Surtax and Super-tax rates of up to 98% on immense incomes.

• GANGSTER ECONOMICS - WHISTLING IN THE WIND?

Or - we can suffer the bloodiest social revolution of all time. The end of days.