Whitewash and Christmas

Former United States Presidential Candidate, three times governor of Colorado and lawyer, Richard Lamm, once said, “Christmas is a time when kids tell adults what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it” yet despite four long years in the grips of a global financial crisis it remains an unwelcome fact that both adults and kids are still paying the price of a banking crisis deficit which lined our banksters pockets with millions while their regulators condoned and excuse them.

During the past year we have been encouraged to believe 2012 was to be the year in which regulation and banking reform would finally make a difference.

•    Martin Wheatley, managing director of the FSA said,

“CEO’s are ultimately accountable for the way their staff are incentivised, so we expect them to take a real interest in fixing this [and] we have made sure the firms where we found failings are fixing their incentive schemes, improving governance and controls and, in the worst cases, checking past sales to identify if mis-selling has occurred.”

•     Andy Haldane, executive director of financial stability at the Bank of England said,

“The occupy movement has been successful in its efforts to popularise the problems of the global financial system for one simple reason : they are right” and “policy makers like me will need [their] support in delivering radical change” while this “quiet but unmistakable leaf is being turned” by our bankers.

•     Danny Alexander, UK Treasury chief secretary said,   

     What I want to see is [banking reform] recommendations made quickly so that we can get on and implement them, which is, I think what the people of this country want to see".

    

    However, despite encouraging words, the talk of 2012  proved cheap and instead of our banking fraternity calculating the prospects of repaying their ill gotten gains, it is only EU threats to cap their remunerations to a modest couple of million which have captured their undivided attention while, in complete contrast to the lifestyle afforded the favored few who waged economic war on the masses, the victims of their banking crimes continue to endure,

• Widespread and economically damaging unemployment  
• Austerity measures which have cost the average family more than twenty pounds a week
• Possession order applications against UK homes filed, on average, every two and half minutes

Insisting “we are all in this together” Prime Minister David Cameron said, 

“ It takes time to recover and we've got to do more. We’re going to do more. We’re going to roll up our sleeves and do everything possible to get business going in Britain, to get housing going, to get jobs going.”

However, if Andrew Bailey, chief executive designate of the Prudential Regulatory Authority’s words are to be believed, nothing could be further from the truth. Without a shadow of a doubt it appears,

•    Some banks are just too big to fail
•    Some banks are just too big to jail

And unlike the rest of society,

•    Some bankers enjoy carte blanche to operate outside the law 

Benjamin Franklin once said, “A good conscience is a continual Christmas” and while I cannot pretend my four years of fighting and two years of complaining to the FOS about HBOS  is in any way reminiscent of an eternal Christmas, I cannot help but wonder how those responsible for the avarice and arrogance which brought about levels of widespread hardship likened only to that of a world war have, despite all corporate, governmental and regulatory attempts to whitewash their crimes, enjoyed the festive traditions of proffering goodwill to all men or the peace of a good conscience during the fourth Christmas of this ongoing economic crisis.

Posts, Mail and Shots

Franklin D Roosevelt once said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough for those who have little” and while reports continue to illustrate the extent to which bankers avarice for their obscene levels of remuneration have infected and disabled moves towards regulatory change across the globe, I have embarked on a campaign to increase my readership in a bid to raise awareness of the impact their actions have had on the individual. With little more than a years experience as a writer and next to no knowledge of the Internet, social media sites or forums, this decision has taken me way beyond my comfort zone.

Over the past two weeks I have,

·        Signed up to, commented on and posted my blog on numerous articles relating to the economic recession.

·        Sent 562 tweets on my hitherto unused twitter account to a variety of recipients together with a link to my blog.

·        Applied to several different sites inviting writers to post pieces with a view to linking them to my blog

·        Explored Avatars, Gravatars, badges along with all things Google in order to improve the access to my blog

·        Posted new threads and links to my blog on Mumsnet in an effort to acquire information about the ongoing issues I have with HBOS.

Throughout this two week period, I have been filled with trepidation at the potential for abusive responses to my unsolicited “mail shot”.

I am delighted to be able to report the following.

I have,

·        Been invited to write a piece for Women Writers for September 2012

·        Acquired twenty one new and communicative followers on twitter

·        Heard from three separate individuals who are also suffering at the hands of HBOS

·        Tripled the number of people who have read my blog in previous months

·        Received three very supportive comments and expressions of encouragement with respect to my posts on Mumsnet

However, I have also received,

·        My first block, ever, from a former banker for “sending her spam”.

·        Had a post deleted from the Mumsnet legal section for inadvertently posting it where I should not have

And

·        Been subject to eight outraged and unsympathetic comments proclaiming my attitude to shortfall debt is naive, self indulgent and irresponsible.

Sincerely hoping the mood of these Mumsnet readers is not a reflection of the thinking woman or the public in general, this venomous outburst has left me wondering how I, and those like me, can hope to succeed in bringing about change in the attitude of the government, the financial regulators, and the banking elite if so many individuals are of the opinion the blame rests squarely with the very people who are struggling to keep their heads above water during this economic crisis, instead of the reckless and fraudulent risk-management strategies of the too big to fail banks who put them there.

English born American poet and dramatist W H Auden once said, “We are all here on earth to help others: what on earth the others are here for I don’t know” and after a week of this kind I can empathise with his viewpoint entirely.

No Change of Circumstance

US president, Ronald Reagan once said, “Governments view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it. And if it stops moving subsidise it” however if this is indeed the economic philosophy of the UK government too there is clearly a great deal of latitude in its interpretation as, to date, “if it keeps moving regulate it” has yet to register on the banking reform To Do list while “if it stops moving subsidise it” has only been applicable if it further strengthens the position (and the power) of the banksters.

For the vast majority of us, economic crisis has meant a 3% decline in wages (in real terms) but, despite being the villains in the mix, the banking elite have enjoyed a very different outcome. Instead of wage cuts and austerity measures they have enjoyed both tax breaks and subsidies along with a very respectable 37% increase in their remuneration packages while “ New Few”  have basked in an even more astounding 49% increase on 2010 earnings amounting to more than 900 times that of an average wage packet. 

David Cameron may wish us to believe we are all “in this together” but good sense dictates we are most definitely not and where Obama’s “settlement” to rescue homeowners with underwater mortgages has admittedly fallen foul of state governors discretionary powers to use these funds to prop up their deficits, our UK government has paid lip service to justice for the victims of banking fraud and instead sold on shortfall debt arising from RBS repossessions to replenish the coffers depleted by bank bailouts while repeatedly turning a blind eye to the crimes of the banking elite.

As the gap widens between the rich and the poor and irresponsible banking continues to go both unpunished and unregulated, it is only the Icelandic government who appear to have addressed the distress of the individual.  Debt forgiveness of residential mortgages over 110% of their 2008 valuations has not only played a huge part in rescuing their economy but it has saved a large proportion of their householders too. However, in the UK oligarchs continue to rule our politicians, reports of banking fraud continue to fall on deaf ears and as a result those of us with Bank of Scotland created mortgage shortfalls can only look forward to endless years of persecution born out of widespread regulatory lethargy and banking avarice.

British writer, novelist, columnist, Conservative Party politician and 3rd Baronet, Sir William Robert Ferdinand Mount says, “Britain will begin to heal its divisions only when oligarchs and their opposite, the poor, are reconnected to the rest of the society, so that the first are no longer seen as uncontrollable and the second as irredeemable”. Unfortunately, for the less than affluent individual this is unlikely to become a government directive because, if my own HBOS experience is anything to go by, the government along with our errant bankers have one fundamental viewpoint in common.

They believe, because they are all in it together, the individuals who makes up the 99% simply do not count.

Sink or Swim

In the mid 1800’s American activist, journalist and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison said, “You cannot possibly have a broader base for government than that which includes all the people with all their rights and with an equal power to maintain their rights.” He was speaking in support of the emancipation of slaves at the time and, although I do not pretend to claim the banking crisis is equal in abhorrence to the plight of the twelve million Africans who were sold into slavery between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, there are definitely parallels.

Like the slave traders, there are a number of bankers worldwide who have pursued personal gain with no regard for the pain and suffering levied on others. When those enslaved by debt could no longer afford their mortgages, often as result of austerity related job losses, these bankers threw them out of their homes along with their families without a backward glance. Having systematically asset stripped the global economy to line their own pockets, this very same fraternity has maintained an aloof detachment from the cruelty their psychopathic and narcissistic actions have had on their victims. Masterfully in denial of all culpability, they have stood by while millions of homeowners (forecasters predict twenty five million foreclosures in the US alone) had both their livelihoods and their equity removed from their grasp with a single expertly placed blow.

Shackled indefinitely to mortgage shortfalls as a direct result of bank profiteering, and bullied and beaten by the banks henchmen, the individual is also expected to pay the price of the global economic crisis. In contrast the bankers are still enjoying remunerations of up to 500 hundred times that of the national average earnings. For many of those trapped in debt sentences for life, emancipation is unimaginable and with debt forgiveness out of the question, it is little wonder there has been a 36% increase in the suicide rate. Even more staggering, this figure by far exceeds the 21% increase in suicides during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Throughout the years of financial crisis help for those paying the consequences has definitely not been at hand. The UK government and their regulators have paid little more than lip service to the much needed rescue packages promised to those experiencing mortgage distress while news of a further drop in share price for many of the “too big to fail” UK banks following the announcement of two billion dollars in losses at “too complicated to control”JP Morgan only serves to highlight how little has changed since the onset of the global recession.

While the Greeks and the Spanish struggle to reach any solution at all, newly elected French prime minister, Francoise Hollande may well have had the task firmly in his sights when he stated, “My principal adversary has no name, it has no face, and it does not belong to a political party, it has never presented its candidature and has never been elected but it still governs. This adversary is the world of finance” but, encouraging as his words are, he too has yet to deliver.

However, in the US, it appears the tide may at last be turning.

Distressed homeowners with underwater mortgages and more than two months of arrears are to receive aid in the form of principal reduction in an effort to enable them to stay in their homes. After year long government negotiations the banks in question hope to avoid 850 million dollars of penalties by financing a rescue package for the individual which not only avoids the huge costs and the heartache of foreclosure, but helps those in difficulties get back on their feet. Although some would say the twenty five billion dollars set aside to implement this is still not enough and the banks have, once again, got off lightly, it is a far cry from the heartless foreclosure policies of the UK’s banking industry.

Delighted to hear our American cousins are soon to benefit from the support of a government prepared to take some of their errant bankers to task, I cannot help but wonder why a similar settlement has proved impossible to arrange for sufferers of negative equity mortgages here in the UK. Had this been the case when I was in the grips of repossession at the hands of HBOS, my story would have been very different to that which I tell now.

Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States once said, “When people fear the government there is tyranny: when the government fear the people there is liberty” and hearing these words I am left wondering what future can we in the UK can expect when it blatantly obvious that our government lives in fear of the banks.                                                                                                               

Needs Must

Emperor Claudius (10 BC- 54 AD) once said “beware, lest in your anxiety to avoid war, you obtain a master” and I appreciate a potential Eurozone collapse together with endless examples of regulatory incompetence in the banking sector means  I will certainly not be alone when it comes to locking horns on every front as I battle against the banks while simultaneously maintaining equilibrium in a life where I have made responsibility to my family my master.

Fully aware there is no such thing as a free lunch when I accepted three bursaries for my youngest daughter and two son’s private education, it was no surprise to discover I had sold my soul to my children’s school when I agreed to become the Chairman of the Friends Committee. This term so far I have given a recruiting speech to parents of the whole school, written the text for the Friends website and school magazine, hosted a quiz night with a sit down meal for thirty and organised fund raising stalls, refreshments and a disco at the schools bonfire night function.

In addition to this I have implemented and run a Christmas Market for twenty stall holders where there were hundreds of children, parents and local people in attendance.

For this event alone I have been required to,

·        supply, print and distribute the advertising material without spending any money

·        plan and set up tables, seating, music and Christmas decorations for the event without any guidance

·        spend thirteen hours on my feet meeting a veritable plethora of Friends and market traders needs with very little assistance

·        referee helpers enlisted to sell refreshments and raffle tickets while thwarting all power struggles and keeping ruffled feathers to minimum

·        eat humble pie as a method of damage limitation when dealing with traders who didn’t check vehicular access to our event in the hope they are not tempted to blacken the school’s reputation because of their own oversights.

During the same period I have written, another letter of complaint, this time to the Department of Energy and Climate Change in response to their ten page letter to me dismissing my case for provision of a new boiler under the governments Energy SavingTrust scheme.

Once again I have,

·        told them they are wrong not to uphold my case of eligibility

·        reminded them their administrative shortcomings should not result in my being disadvantaged

·        requested they send me a copy of the heating and insulation guidelines that were in place at the time of my application

·        enlisted the help of my local MP to ensure I am provided with a meaningful response.

On top of this, and ever hopeful that the regulatory authorities will eventually step up to the mark in my case against HBOS,  I also have emailed the FOS this week, this time to tell them that according to their latest letter they have,

·        set up a third reference number for my Bank of Scotland complaint that bares no reference to my ongoing dealings with them

·        returned my 14 page letter  to me (which cost me £5.90 to send them by registered post), with a new complaint application form

·        still not replied to this self same letter, which they originally insisted should reach them no later than 7 November or else not be proceeded with  

And,

Faced with over whelming fury on the part of my eldest child (now age thirty four), I have endeavoured to use the best of my literary skills to explain a decision I made twenty three years ago when, at the age of thirty, I chose to keep the details of my first husband’s paranoid schizophrenia and subsequent suicide from our then eleven and eight year old daughters.  At the time I spoke only of his passing.

They say the hardest battle ever to be fought is the one in which you try to be yourself. Ever mindful that I am not a failure just because I continue to fail, I take solace in the fact that “continuing to try” is my success. For this reason I have decided it is time to focus on living simply, loving kindly and caring deeply. With this in mind and for the time being at least, my battles can wait until after I have mastered the fast approaching and much anticipated family Christmas.