UK PoliGAF thread of tell me about the rabbits again, Dave.

zomgbbqftw said:
So, good news. Steve Hilton, George Osborne, Francis Maude and Justine Greening have won their battle with the Lib Dems. They are killing off HS2 (£37bn train line to Birmingham that is about 10-15mins faster than the current one) in favour of a new airport with 4-6 runways so that airlines can run multiple direct flights to almost every major destination in the world.
Click to expand...
Erm, that's quite big news. How sure are you about that?
 
I just wish they could deprivatise the entire rail industry. Every rail network in this country is fucking shit, and they are all exploiting their passangers together - as a cabal. We are the shame of Europe when it comes to public transport. I can accept the economic arguments for a new London airport, but I'm with Meadows, I think infrastructure activity which benefits the country outside of the M25 is badly needed. I wish that rather than trying to make London bigger, we'd look at maybe trying to encourage one or more of our other cities to become an attractive proposition and competent business rival. I believe I said it no more than a page or so ago -- politicians don't give a fuck about anything outside of the M25 unless it is going to affect them in election year.
 
radioheadrule83 said:
I just wish they could deprivatise the entire rail industry. Every rail network in this country is fucking shit, and they are all exploiting their passangers together - as a cabal. We are the shame of Europe when it comes to public transport. I can accept the economic arguments for a new London airport, but I'm with Meadows, I think infrastructure activity which benefits the country outside of the M25 is badly needed. I wish that rather than trying to make London bigger, we'd look at maybe trying to encourage one or more of our other cities to become an attractive proposition and competent business rival. I believe I said it no more than a page or so ago -- politicians don't give a fuck about anything outside of the M25 unless it is going to affect them in election year.
Click to expand...

I thought Labour were supposed to give a fuck about that, at least historically?
 
They need to properly upgrade the London underground, with rising population in 10 years it will collapse on itself, we are paying higher fees for some shitty Victorian infrastructure
 
UnblessedSoul said:
They need to properly upgrade the London underground, with rising population in 10 years it will collapse on itself, we are paying higher fees for some shitty Victorian infrastructure
Click to expand...
They decided to waste money on Crossrail instead, despite the money being much better spent on upgrading the tube.
 
Eh, he's alright. He seemed to take some enjoyment from that Liverpool victory yesterday :)

He seems funnier than I expected on Twitter... arguing with people and trolling, he'd make a good GAFfer.

I miss the days when he stewarded Tottenham and they weren't fighting for top-4though :P
 
It's quite understandable that the posters on a gaming forum would be quite jealous of Lord Sugar's swag so I'll let this argument pass.
 
Meadows said:
I'm going to pretend that you didn't say that. Lord Sugar is a gentleman and a scholar
Click to expand...

I think that, strictly speaking, he is neither of the above. But that doesn't mean he is any of the other things mentioned either.

Now about that airport. I'm kind of with Meadows in bemoaning the business of everything ending up in London, though I do see zomg's point about the economic impact. What worries me a bit is the likelihood that it ends up not only near London, but on the wrong side of London for nearly anywhere else to get to easily, unless and until Crossrail happens, and even then it is a hell of a journey from where I am.

But I think the argument could go the other way around. If there were a huge transit airport somewhere, then that's where the people needing outside investment would move to, unless you're telling me that all the investment bankers who would apparently up sticks and shift their operations to foreign parts at the drop of a hat would somehow not up sticks and move to, say, York if that's where the airport was and where the customers were?

Nice place York. Can't say it would be necessarily be made better by having an airport next door, but then you can't have everything can you?

It would still be a bastard for me to get to though, unless you shove it in somewhere equally nice like Cardiff or Taunton.
 
I think a fair place to put something (if it was to be built), would be midlands somewhere, maybe around Coventry or wherever rail/road links are good.

(wherever the centre of the country is really)
 
Cameron just smacked Ed the fuck down on his bonus tax, listing every problem he said could be solved with it. Miliband looked like he was about to cry
 
dKKkp.gif


I need a video of this.
 
It makes good commons theatre, but is it true?, The only policy i know of that Labour have regarding the bonus tax is 50% going on house building and the rest on job creation. It's a pretty big fuck up to mess up a high profile issue like that, Both Ed's need to get a grip if its true.
 
It's just some superficial class warfare bollocks. If they taxed bonuses then the banks would just stop giving out bonuses in favour of non-taxable stuff like a company car or just increase their pay or something. It's just for headlines really, complete twaddle.
 
Meadows said:
It's just some superficial class warfare bollocks. If they taxed bonuses then the banks would just stop giving out bonuses in favour of non-taxable stuff like a company car or just increase their pay or something. It's just for headlines really, complete twaddle.
Click to expand...

It was bringing in about £3.5 Billion before wasn't it? and the levy is about £1.5 Billion. You might be correct and they somehow avoid it, but its more than just class warfare.
 
revenue raising debates aside i'd say a bonus tax is good in of itself merely for helping fight bonus culture, something which encourages the kind of short termist investing that led to the financial crisis.
 
Meadows said:
It's just some superficial class warfare bollocks. If they taxed bonuses then the banks would just stop giving out bonuses in favour of non-taxable stuff like a company car or just increase their pay or something. It's just for headlines really, complete twaddle.
Click to expand...

They've all but stopped being linked to performance anyway, I feel the same way about it as I do the MPs expenses scandal... if they're worth the money, just pay them the money in the first place.

Don't insult the lower rungs and the public at large by trying to feign the illusion that they are a part of the same performance pay bonus scheme as someone who has to sit through tiresome appraisals... they're not. They get huge payouts because companies want to keep them. If they want to keep the best, they will still pay them a bonus actually - and I don't see why the treasury can't cash in on that. Why not, they exploit normal taxpayers often enough.

Likewise, if an MP needs to have two houses (they don't) or they need to pay for assistants or whatever, just make it happen so they don't have to engage in spurious paper pushing exercises.
 
In a perfect world I'd tax it too, but the accountants of these banks are cleverer than the government's and they'd just find other ways around it, so it's a bit pie in the sky for me.
 
PJV3 said:
It was bringing in about £3.5 Billion before wasn't it? and the levy is about £1.5 Billion. You might be correct and they somehow avoid it, but its more than just class warfare.
Click to expand...

£3.5bn first time, but even the Treasury and OBR say that a second time around the banks won't be caught off guard and will plan in advance to minimise their exposure to such a tax. Estimates for a second "one-off" bonus tax range from £1-2.5bn, our bank estimates closer to the £1bn side. We have a contingency plan should the government cave which would minimise our payment of this tax to less than £50m (edit - compared to £180m the first time around), and I'm sure other banks have got similar plans.

I haven't had a chance to watch the video yet, but I think Dave has got it right, someone in our office counted how many times Labour have pledged to spen the bonus tax and she counted something like 7x more than the original £3.5bn. She said almost every spending cut they oppose (all of them) can be avoided by a bankers bonus tax which is why it makes an easy target for Dave.

Just so you know, this financial worker is not receiving a cash bonus this year, not many at my bank are. Most are taking options, equity or no bonus. Very few will be taking home cash bonuses this year at this bank.
 
zomgbbqftw said:
Just so you know, this financial worker is not receiving a cash bonus this year, not many at my bank are. Most are taking options, equity or no bonus. Very few will be taking home cash bonuses this year at this bank.
Click to expand...

Are those bonuses in proportion to the profitability/growth of the bank?
 
Galvanise_ said:
Are those bonuses in proportion to the profitability/growth of the bank?
Click to expand...

Yes. For example I made around £9m profit for bank through deals and trades so I receive a proportion of that money as part of a bonus as outlined in my contract. I can take some in cash, but the less I take in cash the more I receive in option or equity.

Overall my bank (as a whole) made around £12bn in profits for the previous financial year and the investment banking side made around 50% of that profit. Some of the top traders bring in up to £100m in profit for the bank and they take home up to a 20% bonus based on their profits which is why you see bankers taking home multi-million pound bonuses.
 
zomgbbqftw said:
Yes. For example I made around £9m profit for bank through deals and trades so I receive a proportion of that money as part of a bonus as outlined in my contract. I can take some in cash, but the less I take in cash the more I receive in option or equity.

Overall my bank (as a whole) made around £12bn in profits for the previous financial year and the investment banking side made around 50% of that profit. Some of the top traders bring in up to £100m in profit for the bank and they take home up to a 20% bonus based on their profits which is why you see bankers taking home multi-million pound bonuses.
Click to expand...

I see. I'm in a profession with performance related bonuses too. Would the guys who create a lot of profit/revenue for the banks based on their investments for that bank still take home a bonus even if the bank, overall, made a loss for the year/quarter?

The reason I ask is that in my line of work, if the overall attainment target (across the whole year-group) gets lower results than the year before, or below expected results for that particular cohort, I still get a bonus if, I, individually do well with the cohort I teach and get them to target or above target. Awkward staff rooms ahoy.

I like to think of it as a 'thank fuck you were here' bonus.
 
My uni's Lincoln.

We don't have such aspect of 'university pride' or 'university jealousy' needed for me to "suck it".


...oh yeah, working on the open day on saturday, so i mean yeah we're awesome come here please give me money
 
zomgbbqftw said:
Yes. For example I made around £9m profit for bank through deals and trades so I receive a proportion of that money as part of a bonus as outlined in my contract. I can take some in cash, but the less I take in cash the more I receive in option or equity.

Overall my bank (as a whole) made around £12bn in profits for the previous financial year and the investment banking side made around 50% of that profit. Some of the top traders bring in up to £100m in profit for the bank and they take home up to a 20% bonus based on their profits which is why you see bankers taking home multi-million pound bonuses.
Click to expand...

Out of interest (because i haven't got a clue), do many people not get a bonus?, or is it no bonus= the sack?.
 
PJV3 said:
Out of interest (because i haven't got a clue), do many people not get a bonus?, or is it no bonus= the sack?.
Click to expand...

Most get a bonus, but usually they are not over £20-30k. You have to have done exceptionally well for the bank to receive a bonus of over £1m. I didn't get a bonus last year because the bank didn't do well and they cancelled 90% of bonuses (including executive and boardroom level) to build up capital reserves. Many were worried that we would lose our top talent and up and coming talent but I don't know anyone from my office (1,500) that left last year because there was no bonus.

It really depends on the type of contract one has with the bank, mine is fairly flexible and I count myself pretty difficult to sack. For that I get paid slightly more but I also have a much lower take home %age for my bonus. I don't mind because I enjoy what I do and my salary is pretty high so a lower bonus doesn't worry me. Other traders (usually ones about 28-35 years old) will take a lower basic pay less job security and a high profit retention percentage because they have more experience and are confident of bringing home the bacon. I know one trader who made £87m for the bank in profit this year and is going to take home nearly 40% of it as his annual bonus as outlined by his contract, he is on a lower salary than I am.
 
zomgbbqftw said:
Most get a bonus, but usually they are not over £20-30k. You have to have done exceptionally well for the bank to receive a bonus of over £1m. I didn't get a bonus last year because the bank didn't do well and they cancelled 90% of bonuses (including executive and boardroom level) to build up capital reserves. Many were worried that we would lose our top talent and up and coming talent but I don't know anyone from my office (1,500) that left last year because there was no bonus.

It really depends on the type of contract one has with the bank, mine is fairly flexible and I count myself pretty difficult to sack. For that I get paid slightly more but I also have a much lower take home %age for my bonus. I don't mind because I enjoy what I do and my salary is pretty high so a lower bonus doesn't worry me. Other traders (usually ones about 28-35 years old) will take a lower basic pay less job security and a high profit retention percentage because they have more experience and are confident of bringing home the bacon. I know one trader who made £87m for the bank in profit this year and is going to take home nearly 40% of it as his annual bonus as outlined by his contract, he is on a lower salary than I am.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you've said this earlier but what part of the bank do you work in? I'm doing a sandwich year with Lloyds as part of my course but I'm not working where the money is I think.
 
f0rk said:
I'm guessing you've said this earlier but what part of the bank do you work in? I'm doing a sandwich year with Lloyds as part of my course but I'm not working where the money is I think.
Click to expand...

Investment. What Vince the Cable likes to call casino banking. In reality it is far from it, everything has about 20 risk analyses performed for different factors. The failure at RBS and HBoS was in risk analysis, that is what I work on specifically, though not in an actuarial sense (which is all numbers) but in an economic sense. I look at economic trends and price in risk to certain investments (currently sovereign paper, previously tech) which gives our traders a heads up on when to buy and sell.

It was really dead until the failed German Bund auction a couple of days ago. After that shockwave the market has picked up and investors are starting to worry about German economic strength. I look into that and am now following about 60 economic and monetary indicators for Germany to have a deeper look into their underlying strength (or lack of it). Lots of people who do what I do did the same for France and Britain earlier in the year, the results were not good for France, but were favourable for the UK. Hence the upwards price movement in Gilts and downward movement in OATs.

Galvanise_ said:
I see. I'm in a profession with performance related bonuses too. Would the guys who create a lot of profit/revenue for the banks based on their investments for that bank still take home a bonus even if the bank, overall, made a loss for the year/quarter?

The reason I ask is that in my line of work, if the overall attainment target (across the whole year-group) gets lower results than the year before, or below expected results for that particular cohort, I still get a bonus if, I, individually do well with the cohort I teach and get them to target or above target. Awkward staff rooms ahoy.

I like to think of it as a 'thank fuck you were here' bonus.
Click to expand...

It really depends on the contract, but generally if the bank makes a loss we expect either a cancellation or reduction in the bonus pool. The bank rarely makes a loss though, last year was bad in terms of a large profits dip and new capital requirements so they cancelled most bonuses (barring any contractual obligation) and retained the capital to shore up the balance sheet.

In a normal year bonuses are wholly dependent on one's own performance, if one does well and the rest of the team does poorly they won't get a bonus but the star performer still does. It does create tension sometimes, but the working environment is already super competitive so it just makes the poor performers want to improve more than anything else.
 
zomgbbqftw said:
Investment. What Vince the Cable likes to call casino banking. In reality it is far from it, everything has about 20 risk analyses performed for different factors. The failure at RBS and HBoS was in risk analysis, that is what I work on specifically, though not in an actuarial sense (which is all numbers) but in an economic sense. I look at economic trends and price in risk to certain investments (currently sovereign paper, previously tech) which gives our traders a heads up on when to buy and sell.

It was really dead until the failed German Bund auction a couple of days ago. After that shockwave the market has picked up and investors are starting to worry about German economic strength. I look into that and am now following about 60 economic and monetary indicators for Germany to have a deeper look into their underlying strength (or lack of it). Lots of people who do what I do did the same for France and Britain earlier in the year, the results were not good for France, but were favourable for the UK. Hence the upwards price movement in Gilts and downward movement in OATs.
Click to expand...

I see, sounds quite interesting. I figured it would be investment banking, I'm doing Retail Risk which hasn't been awful but not sure if I want it to be my lifetime career yet. Definitely doesn't get paid more than any other office job.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Locked
UK PoliGAF |OT3| - Strong and Stable Government? No. Coalition Of Chaos!
37 38 39 40 41
2K
261K
firehawk12 replied
  • Locked
My French assistant has a thing for me...
3
7K
Yoshi replied
  • Locked
PoliGAF 2017 |OT6| Made this thread during Harvey because the ratings would be higher
338 339 340 341 342
17K
2M
UselessNapkin replied
  • Locked
PoliGAF 2017 |OT5| The Man In the High Chair
395 396 397 398 399
20K
2M
RDreamer replied
Something wrong with the Funny post thread?
0
1K
Amakusa replied
Top Bottom