I’m rapidly starting to lose track.....
I’m rapidly starting to lose track of the whole credit crunch, "are we in a recession yet?" business and don’t know whether or not the people making the decisions know anymore about what do to for the best than I do. We just seem to be hurling money at the problem and I find it hard to see where this dosh is coming from and what happens if / when it runs out.
If I’m reading the current situation correctly, we tax-payers all own a part of various major banks, although I don’t think that gives us much of a say in what happens with our cash next. Part of the problem seems to me to have been caused by former building societies, which begs the question that had the Northern Rock, the Halifax and the Bradford & Bingley and others remained mutual organisations, would they have got themselves into their current pickle ?
Maybe the members of those societies now regret being so keen to vote for the conversion in return for the free shares ? I guess bearing in mind that each share is probably now worth the price of a cup of tea, I think that those who hung onto their shares would certainly have cause to wonder. If the Northern Rock had remained a building society, they may not have dabbled in such different, some might even say crazy, business models and, therefore, may not have ended up to their necks in the brown stuff. Also, customers probably noticed little difference in dealing with their new PLC than they did their old building society. A converted building society couldn’t clear a cheque any faster and customers couldn’t pay a gas bill over the counter in a branch.
Who really benefited from the change ?
The rush for organisations such as the Halifax to convert just seemed to cause its staff to be at the end of their tethers with the constant "Where are my shares?; How much with they be worth?; Why aren’t I getting more shares?; I must be one of your oldest customers, so I think I deserve more shares!" and other similar mantras recited by customers on an almost hourly basis down the phone and in person. Conversion bought out the worst in human greed and building society members voted in their droves to dump the old mutual ethos, trouser their free shares and it seems to me that we’re all now paying the price.
As published in the November 2008 edition of The Kemptown Rag
If I’m reading the current situation correctly, we tax-payers all own a part of various major banks, although I don’t think that gives us much of a say in what happens with our cash next. Part of the problem seems to me to have been caused by former building societies, which begs the question that had the Northern Rock, the Halifax and the Bradford & Bingley and others remained mutual organisations, would they have got themselves into their current pickle ?
Maybe the members of those societies now regret being so keen to vote for the conversion in return for the free shares ? I guess bearing in mind that each share is probably now worth the price of a cup of tea, I think that those who hung onto their shares would certainly have cause to wonder. If the Northern Rock had remained a building society, they may not have dabbled in such different, some might even say crazy, business models and, therefore, may not have ended up to their necks in the brown stuff. Also, customers probably noticed little difference in dealing with their new PLC than they did their old building society. A converted building society couldn’t clear a cheque any faster and customers couldn’t pay a gas bill over the counter in a branch.
Who really benefited from the change ?
The rush for organisations such as the Halifax to convert just seemed to cause its staff to be at the end of their tethers with the constant "Where are my shares?; How much with they be worth?; Why aren’t I getting more shares?; I must be one of your oldest customers, so I think I deserve more shares!" and other similar mantras recited by customers on an almost hourly basis down the phone and in person. Conversion bought out the worst in human greed and building society members voted in their droves to dump the old mutual ethos, trouser their free shares and it seems to me that we’re all now paying the price.
As published in the November 2008 edition of The Kemptown Rag
posted by Mister H at 12:13 AM
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