15 Mar 2017

THE LAND OF THE FREE-FROM-RESPONSIBILTY The Occupy protesters (what was it they were protesting about again?) used to chant “We are the 99%”. The 1% were portrayed as the selfish and/or crooked people who had appropriated most of the wealth. It is demonstrably easy to be part of the 99% – in fact, it’s darned hard not to be. Rarely had so many ever been against so few. The trouble with being part of a 99% majority is that it is difficult to be focused. Even the French revolutionaries of 1789, who had pretty much the same numbers on their side, could not agree on their objectives and ten years later succumbed to dictatorship (by a chap named Napoleon). But the recent UK budget, delivered by the harassed Chancellor, Philip Hammond, highlighted one point on which close to 99% of politicians, lobbyists and commentators are agreed. They all have limitless opinions about how public money should be spent but next to no constructive suggestions about how that spending should be funded. There is no responsibility for funding that is commensurate with the responsibility for spending. This seems unfair because the latter offers all the joys of patronage and moral superiority and the former, as Mr Hammond might agree, is like having toothache in a land of no dentists (whose absence is widely attributed to your own austerity policy).      I believe that most citizens are supportive of the idea that they should pay their fair share of taxes. But what weakens their support is any suggestion that the government is misusing their money, either by waste and incompetence or by channelling it to family and friends or by funding causes with which they do not agree. (The 2016 EU referendum ticked all those boxes for many people). There was a great experiment in California in the 1970s that showed what happens when people revolt against their social obligation to pay taxes. PROPOSITION 13 Essentially, Proposition 13, passed overwhelming in a referendum in 1978, imposed severe restrictions on the ability of local Californian politicians to raise taxes. Its genesis was the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. The US has a history of taxing real estate that...

10 Sep 2013

Your savings have gone down the plug ’ole, Your savings have gone the plug… I am giving up on saving with the UK retail banks and building societies. I can potentially live with low interest rates if the service is competent and not annoying, but it appears that customers willing to be paid badly are losers who must expect to be treated badly. Last week a young man who was not born when I started working in the City told me that I would need to book a 30 minute appointment with him on a different day in order to be offered 1.7% on a two year fixed bond. In a rival establishment, another half hour appointment was required if I wanted to switch out of a savings account that pays 0.2%. In each case, the only convenient option was to close the account. This is fine with me, but why does it seem to be what the retail banks want? Here are three reasons. First, the bank rate is at a record low (0.5%) and the new Governor of the Bank of England is very keen to convince us that it is going to stay there. The experiences of the last few years have lowered savers’ expectations and have caused them, understandably, to be suspicious of those who offer surprisingly attractive interest rates. Why are they bidding for our money? Surely it must be safer to deposit our hard-earned with those who appear to be indifferent to it? Secondly, the regulations introduced to protect us from unscrupulous financial advisers have caused many of the banks to withdraw from the advice business. Since 1 January, independent financial advisers have to charge a fee rather than take a commission out of what they sell you. If banks were ever pretending to offer independent advice, they cannot do so now. A person with financial flair and ambition would not stick it for long as a customer advisor in a retail bank reading out the small print and asking us to sign here and here. Consequently, nobody working in the local branch of your bank really gives a toss what you do with your savings. Thirdly, another...