Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 31st July)

Regulators want reckless bankers to be criminally liable under new plansThe bosses of leading City firms are to be made more accountable for their actions under proposals that could make them wait up to seven years for their bonuses and potentially be jailed if their banks fail. Responding to recommendations made by the parliamentary commission on banking standards, the two main City regulators on Wednesday set out lengthy consultations aimed at framing a new licencing regime for bankers and the creation of a "potential criminal liability under...

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Lloyds fined £218m for rigging Libor and the taxpayer-backed bailout scheme that saved them

SOURCE BBC NEWS: Lloyds fined £218m over Libor rate rigging scandalLloyds manipulated the London interbank offered rate (Libor) for yen and sterling and tried to rig the rate for yen, sterling and the US dollar. Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland have previously paid $453m and $612m in fines related to the Libor scandal. But a "novel" development, setting the bank aside from competitors that have already been fined for Libor-rigging, was its abuse of the government-backed Special Liquidity Scheme. During the financial crisis the Bank of England...

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Graphs At A Glance: Elections in the UK are decided by people who don't vote.

v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} A survey by the market research organisation Survation looked into why people don't vote:In answer to another question in the same survey: "If a UK general election was held tomorrow, would you be likely to vote or not?", the survey showed 56% of people who didn't vote in 2010 said they would vote if an election was held tomorrow. A severe case of non-voters remorse.The main reason for not voting is...

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At last! From September 2014 financial education becomes part of the national curriculum in schools!

Fee, KJ and Chris wonder what difference it'll make...Association for Citizenship Teaching: GCSE Citizenship Studies continues to be used by many schools and centres across the country with just under 54,000 candidates attaining the qualification in 2013. The provisional statistics for the subject published by the Joint Council for Qualifications show that overall candidate numbers for Citizenship Studies have fallen in the short course, but there has been a small increase in numbers for the full course.OUR RELATED STORIES:Riposte: What does banking...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 25th July)

U-turn: RBS bosses 'wilfully obtuse' over alleged mistreatment of small firmsSenior directors at RBS have been strongly criticised for giving misleading evidence to MPs investigating claims that the bank mistreated small firms. An earlier report by Lawrence Tomlinson, a Government adviser, alleged that the bank’s Global Restructuring Group (GRG) division was forcing small businesses into administration so that the bank could take their properties and sell them for a profit. Another report by Sir Andrew Large concluded that there were potential...

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We need to cut wages to stay competitive? But our wages are already lower than our rivals'

SOURCE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES: UK Employment Rate Hits Record High but Pay Decline WorsensThe Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the UK employment rate hit 73.1% in March to May 2014, the highest rate on record. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.5% over the same period, from 6.9% before. But total pay growth, which includes bonuses, slowed sharply to 0.3% - a record low. Regular pay, excluding bonuses, grew by 0.7%. These readings are far below price inflation, which jumped in June to 1.9%, meaning the real-terms decline in wages...

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Graphs at a glance: Britain is a low-pay economy with falling average wages. Beware of politicians bearing legislation to push wages down further.

The economic crisis caused by the banking crash of 2008 has been used as a smokescreen for many fundamental changes in Britain.UK GDP has already recovered to its pre-crisis level. However employment rights, pension rights, legal rights and more have been permanently cut under cover of this temporary crisis.Among the most basic rights is pay. Since the 2008 crisis pay in both public and private sector has fallen well behind inflation. The graph, using Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, shows that average earnings have grown in cash...

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Since the 2008 bank collapse the incomes of those under 30 have fallen 13%, almost twice as much as anyone else’s

Chris and his wife figure out who's rescuing who...SOURCE DAILY MAIL: Young adults hit hardest by financial crisis: Think-tank claims real incomes of those under 30 fell 13% since 2008Between 2008 and 2013, the real household income of the under 30s fell by 13 per cent while among 31 to 59 year-olds, the fall in household income was just over half that at 7 per cent. The IFS said the employment rate among the under-30s fell by 4 per cent following the financial crisis while remaining unchanged for 31 to 59-year-olds. Moreover, those...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 17th July)

Young adults hit hardest by financial crisis: Think-tank claims real incomes of those under 30 fell 13% since 2008Between 2008 and 2013, the real household income of the under 30s fell by 13 per cent while among 31 to 59 year-olds, the fall in household income was just over half that at 7 per cent. The IFS said the employment rate among the under-30s fell by 4 per cent following the financial crisis while remaining unchanged for 31 to 59-year-olds. Moreover, those under-30s that could find work found their average pay fell by 15 per cent compared...

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Graphs at a glance: The UK has the worst investment record of the 27 EU nations, so where does all the money go?

For years one of the favourite excuses for making all us Ripped-off Britons worse off by hiking prices and keeping down wages has been the need to pay for "investment". Energy , telecoms and transport companies warn of blackouts and overcrowding unless we swallow price hikes for "investment". Employers and governments say wages and pensions can't go up because the  money kept from us is needed for "investment". A report by the National Audit Office, "Infrastructure Investment: the impact on consumer bills", reveals the extent of...

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FTSE fat cats now earn 180 times the average worker's wage, as their salaries hit £4.7m a year

SOURCE DAILY MAIL: FTSE fat cats now earn 180 times the average worker, as their salaries hit £4.7m a yearThe gap between bosses and workers has soared over the past 20 years - from just 60 times the average wage in the 1990s. On average the bosses of Britain's 100 biggest companies took home £4.7million last year - up from £4.1million the year before, according to the High Pay Centre. Ordinary workers, meanwhile, earned £26,884. A Business Department spokesman said: 'The Government has introduced comprehensive reforms to give shareholders more...

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