Category Archives: Finance

Eat your heart out lottery winners: this is winning

Posted on May 13, 2019 by odeboyz

“Over the past 54 years, shares in his [Warren Buffet’s] company, Berkshire Hathaway, have outpaced the S&P 500—a broad index of American stocks—by almost 2.5 million percentage points. The degree to which Buffett has outwitted successive generations of Wall Street … Continue reading →

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Comparative Poverty: The Top 1% vs the Top 0.1%

Posted on March 21, 2019 by odeboyz

Someone at the bottom of the top percentile of incomes is on about £120,000 a year. The top 0.1%, however, gets over £500,000…. The very rich price the reasonably rich out of houses and schools: top private school fees have … Continue reading →

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Why posh boys and girls run the Arts

Posted on December 13, 2018 by odeboyz

Not long ago, my wife, a composer, asked me if I would ever advise a student from a low-income family to pursue a career in the arts. “What do you mean? Of course.” “Really?” “If that’s what they wanted to … Continue reading →

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The world’s most successful criminals: Banks

Posted on November 22, 2018 by odeboyz

A single small branch of Danske Bank in Estonia processed £120 billion between 2007 and 2015. “No one really knows where this money went. All we know is that the last people to see it was…three large banks in the … Continue reading →

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Fancy banking in the Ukraine?

Posted on October 25, 2018 by odeboyz

There is a bank in Ukraine that is offering *21%* interest on a checking account. But you must take 10,000 steps a day, tracked by their app, to qualify. Miss one day and you get nothing. I can’t decide if … Continue reading →

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Why the Conservative Party Treasurer reads obituary columns

Posted on October 15, 2018 by odeboyz

According to the Tory Party’s own accounts last year [2017] it received twice as much in donations from the dead, in the form of legacy payments, as from the living. It lost half of its membership between 2005 and 2013. … Continue reading →

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Some banks who wrecked the world economy

Posted on October 8, 2018 by odeboyz

Britain: 2009 In Britain, the most egregious case was RBS, a now majority state-owned bank that announced in February 2009 that it intended to honour £1 billion in bonus contracts.1 2012 The Barclays chief executive, who was paid £18 million last … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Michael Lewis ~ Flash Boys: Cracking the money code

Posted on September 24, 2018 by odeboyz

This is a wonderfully entertaining book, which reads like a novel, an incomprehensible techy textbook and a polemic against the US stock market. Parts were beyond my understanding. For example- “Round-trip travel time from Chicago to New Jersey has been … Continue reading →

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Exploitation of public assets by London Borough of Havering, 2018

Posted on September 13, 2018 by odeboyz

This year (2018) our local Harrow Lodge Park was subjected to two hideous instances of corporate exploitation. The flats can be viewed as luxurious, they are spaciously built to “Parker Morris” standards and with an envious view over the park … Continue reading →

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A blatant insurance salesman

Posted on June 22, 2018 by odeboyz

Salesman: This policy is called the Peace of Mind Policy and it’s perfect for you. Customer: Why? Salesman: Well the exclusions are printed in light blue on a green background and I don’t think that you’re the sort of person … Continue reading →

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