It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, January 29, 2007
Compare and Contrast
Sometimes it's just impossible to seperate the right wing from the right wing, in this case, as with the recent debate in the blogosphere over minimum wages, some Liberal blogs at Progressive Bloggers sound just like Blogging Tories on the issue of the NDP calling for an end to bank service charges and ATM's.
Which shows, once again, that despite the catcalls from the right the Liberals are no more progressive or left wing than the Conservatives.
See
Service Charges
ATM
Bank Profits
Progressive Bloggers
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Friday, April 20, 2007
The Cone of Silence Bank Presidents and the RCMP
Funny but Bank Presidents sound just like the RCMP Superintendent and Commissioners when it comes to telling the truth to Parliamentary Committees.
Deputy Commissioner George, who was suspended from duty after a previous appearance before the committee, was rebuked by MPs, who said her testimony has been evasive and incomplete.Staff Sgt. Frizzell said the pension investigation took an unexpected turn when documents were uncovered suggesting insurance funds were being diverted with Deputy Commissioner George's approval.
But he was ordered off the case before he had a chance to follow the trail, he said.
She said she had nothing to do with the winding down of the pension-fund investigation, or the issuing of a "cease and desist order" to Staff Sgt. Frizzell directing him to return to other duties.
She did not rule out the possibility that she might have seen documents related to transferring insurance funds to the pension fund.
She did not recall this, but she said she relied on advice from another senior Mountie with expertise in insurance and financial matters that there was nothing untoward with the life-insurance funds.
Back off on ABM legislation, banks warn MPs
Whenever members of the Commons committee probing ATM fees tried to peer inside the world of banking, they were met for the most part with blank expressions or no comments."We won't comment on that," said the Royal Bank's Jim Westlake, group Head, Canadian Banking, when asked about profit margins on the ATM fees.
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Thursday, April 27, 2017
Do They Even Work? The Sad Saga of North Korea's
SERIOUSLY BECAUSE IF THE ATM'S DON'T WORK
PYONGYANG, North Korea — No modern airport terminal is complete without an ATM, and Pyongyang's now has two. But they don't work — because of new Chinese sanctions, according to bank employees — and it's not clear when they will.
ATMs are an alien enough concept in North Korea that those in the capital's shiny new Sunan International Airport have a video screen near the top showing how they work and how to set up an account to use them. The explanatory video is in Korean, but the machines, which are meant primarily for Chinese businesspeople and tourists, don't give out cash in the North Korean currency.
ATMs are not entirely new to the North.
Years ago, the Ryugyong Commercial Bank installed one in a midrange tourist hotel in central Pyongyang frequented by Chinese. Another ATM was spotted at the airport last year, but it never appeared to be turned on.
Since North Korea set off its second alleged nuclear test over a decade ago I have asked a simple question, where is the radiation signature identifying it as a nuclear blast. I first brought it up here , and have continued to post my thesis that North Korea is Nuke Free on my Facebook News page.
Simply put no nuclear test done by North Korea over the past decade and a half,
has emitted any significant detectable radiation associated with a nuclear blast.
There is no detection of radiation immediately after the blast, nor for days nor weeks later. In fact only trace amounts have been found no more so than would occur after a volcanic eruption for instance. I GOOGLE it on a regular basis and still have found no significant report on radiation detected. YOU SHOULD GOOGLE IT TOO
When is an earthquake not an earthquake? How we'll find out when North Korea conducts its next nuclear test
Nuclear weapons are so powerful that when North Korea has tested them previously, it initially produced what appeared to be an "earthquake" measuring around magnitude 5.0.In September last year, a 5.3 magnitude tremor was recorded not far from North Korea's testing facility in Punggye-ri, in the country's mountainous north-east.That "earthquake" was quickly deemed to have been the rogue state's fifth nuclear test, another step towards its stated goal of building a nuclear weapon that could reach the US.It followed an earlier test in January, of what North Korea claimed was a "miniature hydrogen bomb". That exercise triggered what initially appeared to be a 5.1 magnitude earthquake.
North Korea has conducted its recent nuclear tests by placing the nuclear device hundreds of metres below ground in a narrow hole and detonating it.
While most of the radiation generated stays below ground, some can escape or is deliberately released.
Two weeks after the September test, a monitoring station in Canada, more than 7000km downwind of North Korea's test site, detected elevated airborne levels of a radioactive isotope produced by nuclear fission.
A tell-tail sign it's a nuclear explosion and not a natural earthquake is by observing the depth of the, "shake". Natural quakes originate from far under the ground. The epicenter of a nuclear bomb's localized quake is right at the surface.
For comparison, a natural quake today near Fuji registered 5.8 magnitude at 285 miles deep. A September 9, 2016 nuclear bomb test in North Korea registered a 5.3 on the Richter scale at 0.0 km (0.0 miles) deep.
Making WavesBut whether there’s fury behind the sound is still in question. Whatever North Korea blew up, it did so underground. Which is why the specific characteristics of seismic energy are among the most important analytical factors in finding out exactly what made the earth move. “When you squeeze or stretch a rock, it propagates just like sound does,” says Terry Wallace, a Principal Associate Director for Global Security. Practically speaking, Wallace is a forensic seismologist, solving geopolitical mysteries by looking at signatures in the earth.Explosions, volcanic eruptions, and underground collapses predominantly compress rock, creating what’s called a P-wave. Earthquakes, which usually happen when two pieces of rock slip past each other, cause shearing and twisting that create S-waves. “Imagine you have a slinky. If you hit just one end of it, the slinky compresses, then releases in a wave from source to receiver,” says Wallace, describing a P-wave. “In an S-wave, you are actually going to shake the slinky from side to side.” Seismograph wiggles record shaking in three dimensions, which give telltale signs of what kind of waves come out.
North Korea conducted yet another nuclear test on Sept. 8, and it was seemingly the country's most powerful Registering some 10 kilotons, according to reports from South Korea, the blast was apparently twice as powerful as the last test in January. Both are significant increases in explosive power from the first North Korean test in October 2006, which U.S. intelligence officials estimated to be around 1 kiloton.
Japan confirms North Korea carried out its fifth and largest nuclear test yet
N Korean nuclear test raises fallout fears on China’s border, emergency monitoring activated
Even when radiation is claimed to be found indicating a potential use of nuclear material,
North Korea’s 2009 Nuclear Test: Containment, Monitoring, Implications Jonathan Medalia Specialist in Nuclear Weapons Policy November 24, 2010
There are several uncertainties regarding the use of argon-37 for long-range detection of nuclear explosions. First, what is the background level of that isotope from natural and human sources? While the background appears to be low, a definitive conclusion would require further study. Second, can an automated system for detecting this isotope be designed and fielded? While it can be detected in the laboratory, or in the field using manual equipment, an automated system would be needed if detectors are to be placed at remote locations, such as IMS radionuclide stations. Carrigan notes a third uncertainty: the detectability of argon-37 would depend on the rate at which it reaches the surface. If a nuclear test released a large quantity promptly, the isotope would be much easier to detect at long range than if it were released over days or weeks. Radioactive isotopes of xenon (“radioxenons”) are of great value for long-range detection, and the noble gas detection equipment deployed at some IMS radionuclide stations monitors only for them.51 They are produced by nuclear explosions and nuclear reactors. Nuclear explosions also generate iodine-133 (half-life, 20.8 hours) and iodine-135 (half-life, 6.6 hours), which decay into xenon-133 and xenon-135, respectively. Radioxenons can be detected in minute quantities at great distances, but such detection must be accomplished soon after a nuclear test because of short half-lives. The half-life of xenon-133, an isotope of particular value for identifying nuclear explosions, is 5.24 days, so long-range detection can only be done within about 3 weeks of a test.52 The other radioxenons of use for monitoring nuclear tests are xenon-135 (half-life, 9.14 hours), xenon-133m (half-life, 2.19 days), and xenon-131m (half-life, 11.84 days).53 53 Half-life data are from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, “Exploring the Table of Isotopes: Isotopes of Xenon (Z=54),” http://ie.lbl.gov/education/parent/Xe_iso.htm. Xenon-131m is of limited value for detecting nuclear explosions because they generate very little of it, and because, given its longer half-life, it is often in the background, at least regionally, generated by nuclear reactors or medical isotope production reactors. Lars-Erik De Geer, “Radioxenon signatures from underground nuclear explosions,” poster for the International Scientific Studies Project, Vienna, Austria, June 10-12, 2009, http://www.ctbto.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ISS_2009/Poster/RN-22D%20%28Sweden%29%20-%20LarsErik_DeGeer.pdf. The “m” in xenon-131m and
North Korea nuclear test: No radiation detected
14 February 2013
South Korean experts say they have not detected any radioactive isotopes from North Korea's nuclear test, hampering efforts to assess the device.Eight samples had been analysed but nothing found, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said.
Finding certain isotopes - xenon gases in particular - would help experts determine whether a plutonium or uranium-based device was used.
But a well-contained test could yield no radioactive isotopes, experts say.
and yet we have no proof.
North Korea later announced it had conducted its first successful test of a hydrogen bomb.H-bombs, also known as thermonuclear warheads, are massively more powerful than atomic bombs, using fusion - the merging of atoms - rather than fission to unleash enormous amounts of energy.
Though again it has never been confirmed,
This kiloton blast can be produced using what is called Ultra High Explosives, and in fact these are as secret as nuclear weapons are in the international market place,
and why would they go to all the trouble to do that?
Well for one its far easier to sell undetected and North Korea is a major illegal arms dealer who sells missiles, and explosive ordinances for them.
And two its all about face. Each generation of North Korean Great Leader, carries on the threat of Nuclear war against the West, encouraged as they were by General MacArthur who recommended using nukes against them during the Korean War. After that they knew
This US policy “North Korea Policy: Failure is the Only Option ” however, stems from several unique circumstances. By all indications, the North Koreans plan to keep their nuclear weapons and are not open to bargaining them away. Acquiring nuclear weapons was perhaps the only major accomplishment of the late “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il (father of current leader Kim Jong-un), under whom the country suffered severe economic austerity. Pyongyang seems to believe that entering the nuclear club will bring military security and transform relations with the United States. Pyongyang’s ability to defy the much more powerful United States is a consequence of the North Koreans holding Seoul hostage. The South Korean capital is within range of a massive collection of North Korean artillery and rocket batteries poised to rain down destruction in retaliation for any possible military action by the United States or South Korea. Finally, a rapprochement with North Korea may well be simply impossible no matter what America says or does, because Pyongyang sees peace as a mortal danger to the regime.
Analysis: Are we seeing the Madman Theory in action?
North Korea has drawn the ire of United Nations member states because it initially joined the Non-Proliferations Treaty but broke its obligations with nuclear weapons testing before withdrawing entirely in 2003.
Other nations believed to have nuclear weapons – including India, Pakistan and Israel – never accepted the treaty at all.
Prof Siracusa said much of what Kim Jong-un has done on the global stage, like his father and grandfather before him, has been to bolster their own position in North Korean society.
"I don't think Shakespeare would have any trouble with North Korea, because it is a hereditary communist rule," he said.
"One family has run the place since the late 1940s. They see these weapons as something that prevents other people from approaching them.
"In other words, these weapons are not only designed to hold off the larger powers but also to show their own people that there is some fear here.
"They have become an organising principle in North Korean politics."
Much Ado About Nothing: DPRK’s Latest Missile Test Reveals No New Capabilities
How to Hack and Not Hack a Missile
An attack on the manufacturing process will most likely result in defective components that fail even in ground testing. We would likely never know about this, except to wonder why the ground test phase is taking so long. Interestingly, North Korea’s KN-08 ICBM was first seen in mock-up form in 2012, but there was not a single successful ground test until last year. That may not be the result of a cyberattack, but it is at least what a cyberattack would look like. It would be preferable if the failures occurred in flight, and ideally late in flight, leaving the defective hardware out of reach of North Korean investigators. But this cannot be accomplished reliably—defects subtle enough to survive ground testing would cause some missiles to fail but leave others to complete their mission successfully. And, with properly realistic testing, some failures will still occur on the ground, leaving the North Korean engineers to connect the failed parts with the machines that built them. Such an attack can delay North Korea’s acquisition of advanced ballistic missiles, but will not prevent it in the long run.
This is literally rocket science. It is the epitome of a hard problem. And it becomes even harder when political pressure demands more than the hardware can yet deliver, then tries to wash away the embarrassment of failure by demanding an immediate retest without allowing time to investigate the original failure. We didn’t need cyberattacks to cause North Korea’s Musudan missile to fail in seven out of eight tests last year, and we don’t need cyberattacks for two conspicuous failures this year. Kim Jong Un will happily deliver those failures for us, just like we did for ourselves with Vanguard and Atlas and Titan, by imagining successful rocket tests can be conjured out of political dictates rather than tedious engineering. The young Kim’s father was generally more patient about this sort of thing.
A Paradigm Shift in North Korea’s Ballistic Missile Development?In Kim Jong Un’s 2017 New Year’s speech, he announced that North Korea is in the final stage of preparations to test launch an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM). Since then, North Korean media has repeatedly threatened that the launch will occur at a time and place of the North Korean leader’s choosing. On February 12, following multiple failures of the Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), North Korea conducted a test launch of a new type of IRBM, the “Pukguksong-2.” Although not quite a mobile ICBM, this test suggests that Pyongyang has made greater-than-expected progress toward the test launch of a solid-fuel ICBM. North Korea also unveiled what appears to be its new solid propellant ICBM, presumed to be the Pukguksong-3, enclosed in a canister in the massive military parade on April 15.
Limitations of the Musudan MissileThroughout 2016, North Korea test launched Musudan missiles employing high-energy liquid propellants eight times, with only one successful attempt. These tests used a lofted, high-angle trajectory, presumably to reduce the range of the missiles and avoid any escalated tensions that might occur from flying over Japan. However, from an operational perspective, a lofted launch can also make the reentry vehicle (RV) descend more quickly during the terminal phase, allowing missile defenses less time to intercept them. It seems that these consecutive test failures exposed the limitations of its engine, which was developed by reverse engineering the Russian R-27 submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). The one successful flight test of the Musudan, conducted in June 2016, was likely aimed at simulating the velocity and environment of ICBM reentry by reaching a higher peak altitude of more than 1,400 km with a decreased range of 400 km.
North Korea’s Evolving Nuclear StrategyWhile North Korea’s nuclear capabilities and threats have grown, little attention has been paid to its emerging nuclear strategy for three reasons. First, there is a common caricature of North Korea as backward, unserious and incompetent that has led some to dismiss and downplay its nuclear efforts over the years. Only after its third nuclear test, in 2013, have many analysts begun to take North Korea’s nuclear capabilities seriously. Second, there is a tendency for nuclear scholars to bypass North Korea because, as one suggests, “almost nothing is known about North Korea’s nuclear arsenal or the doctrine by which those weapons might be employed.”5 North Korea and its nuclear program are far from transparent, but this is not a unique problem. US scholars struggled for two generations to understand nuclear thinking in the Soviet Union based on sketchy evidence. It would be a mistake now, just as it would have been then, to throw our hands into the air. Moreover, a surprising amount of evidence about North Korea’s nuclear program actually exists from its past nuclear and missile tests, policy pronouncements and military parades as well as from commercially available satellite imagery
The third reason North Korea’s nuclear strategy receives scant scholarly attention is that many analysts assume that non-military goals drive its nuclear decision making. Some argue that its program is primarily aimed at garnering international prestige or rallying domestic support around a leadership with few other claims of success.6 Others see financial motivations; a North Korea bent on trading its technologies to countries like Iran and Syria.7 Still others believe that its nuclear program is a bargaining chip or blackmailing tool to gain diplomatic concessions.8 Such motivations do not lend themselves easily to rational-actor-based strategic analyses that explore connections between means and ends.9 Yet, it would be a mistake to assume that North Korea’s nuclear program is not guided by strategic logic. Its leaders must certainly weigh the costs and benefits of its nuclear investments and actions over time, given their resource limitations and the security risks they run by driving up military tensions.
The US says it because it makes them a go to threat when world
crisis slow down. They claim Kim Jung Un is a madman like their other old go to threat Qaddafi, but he is gone now, like Idi Amin before him.
Currently there is no difference between the Madman in the White House and those he accuses of being mad men.
China uses North Korea as a southern bulwark against the US.
They know North Korea does not have nukes, and they play along
to keep the US and South Korea off balance and staying on their
side of the DMZ.
Japan suspects that North Korea has no nukes, but it is reachable by missiles assault using standard explosives or ultra high explosives like MOAB. So whenever the US saber rattles, its Japan that get the shakes.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Harper and Flaherty's Conversion
Kevin Page asked Finance Deputy Minister Rob Wright to turn over details on the projected spending reductions in departments and asset sales that the government has said will generate $10 billion in savings over five years. These are seen as key to the maintenance of a federal surplus.
Page's letter, sent on Dec. 3, has now been posted on the budget office's website. It asks for a reply this week.
He also asked for economic data and assumptions used for the 2008 budget and recent economic statement. Finance refused to give the data for the 2008 budget even though the numbers are routinely turned over to Bay Street forecasters. The assumptions, key to estimating the impact of economic volatility, used to be published by previous governments.
In his economic statement, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty projected a budget surplus of $100 million for 2009-10 based on the sale of about $2 billion in assets that he didn't identify.
Page tabled his office's assessment of Flaherty's economic statement last week, but the report got lost in the storm of the political crisis sparked by the Liberal-NDP coalition's attempt to topple the Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative minority.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has misplayed the financial crisis from the start. The lack of political leadership in this country is staggering. Now Mr. Harper – who dictates lines to his Finance Minister – has finally woken up to the fact 2009 will be one grim year for the domestic economy. '10 doesn't look too hot either. Someone will wear responsibility for a deep recession. The Conservatives are skating hard as they prepare to pin this one on the banks. The politicians will claim the banks hoarded capital, and refused to lend, and that sent consumers and corporations over the cliff. It's nasty, it's cynical, it's destructive and it doesn't happen to be true. But that's clearly going to be Mr. Harper's line.
Rising card transaction fees may mean higher prices, retailers say
Hyer Questions Gov't on Credit Card Processing Fees
Friday, 28 November 2008
Ottawa, ON -- Thunder Bay Superior North MP Bruce Hyer was up in Question Period on Thursday. Hyer was questioning the government over the cost of credit card processing fees.Here is the transcript of the exchange in the House of Commons:
Canadians were besieged with advertising messages that promoted borrowing over those years. With credit so cheap and housing prices surging ahead, households took on a lot of risk. Now debt burdens look much too high.
We can take some comfort from the fact that the loans outstanding here are nowhere near as risky as mortgages in the United States. According to the Canadian Housing Observer, Canada has “a negligible subprime mortgage sector; [and] it is characterized by prudent underwriting.” And in Canada, mortgage insurance to protect the lender is mandatory for high-ratio loans.
But there is no insurance to protect the borrower when housing values decline or when someone in the family loses their job. If you ask people living in homeless shelters what sent them on a downward spiral, the common theme is a combination of losing their job, being unable to work because of injury or illness, and then losing their home.
This is a terrible price to pay for doing what was advertised as the smart thing to do.
Sunday, November 06, 2022
Banks have shut their doors and the central bank is no longer buying dollars, leaving Lebanese in a state of despair and panic
People use ATM machines at a closed Blom Bank branch in
By Adam Chamseddine in Beirut
Published date: 6 November 2022
Mahmoud Ramadan knocked on a metal gate sealing a bank’s entrance in Beirut’s Corniche el-Mazraa street to no answer.
The middle-aged Lebanese man stood back and scrutinised the heavy door separating him from a money transfer he urgently needed.
A sign hung on the gate read: “If you need to schedule an appointment, please call the following number.”
'No one dares to admit the bankruptcy of the entire banking sector, including the central bank, and that is why the circle will continue at a great expense to the economy'- Mounir Younes, Nidaa al- Watan newspaper
“I was told that this branch was open, but no one is answering,” Ramadan told Middle East Eye.
Ramadan looked at the sign again, and said, with nothing short of resentment, “I want to receive a wire transfer, not a hair cut.”
It was not a strange scene to witness in Lebanon. Signs hang despondent on large doors announcing a change in the way banking business is now being conducted, adding even more strain on a population whose majority has been forced into poverty.
The only sign indicating that the capital’s banks are even operating are the queues that form at attached ATM machines at the beginning of every month. Or perhaps, one may accidentally spot a reinforced door opening just enough to let a customer in or out.
Since the start of Lebanon’s financial collapse in late 2019, banks have fortified their entrances with metal, gradually transforming what were once considered the pride of the Lebanese economy into what now resemble army barracks.
But in recent months, a spate of raids by angry, and mostly armed, depositors on several bank branches demanding their money, which has been trapped in the banking system for years, have led banks to take even more precautions.
When the state refused to provide them with protection, arguing that they are responsible for the safety of their own employees and clients, Lebanese banks announced an indefinite closure, limiting their services to appointment-based operations and ATM transactions.
A source at the Lebanese Association of Banks said that a decision was made that each bank will decide its own operational capacity and the number of branches that will conduct corporate operations.
“The ATMs will be the link between depositors and the banks, and clients’ urgent needs will be based on pre-scheduled appointments,” the source told MEE.
Zombie banks
The decision to operate in what has been seen as an arbitrary manner has raised the question about the economic and financial role the banks should be fulfilling in any stagnant economy.
Experts who may differ on the origin point of the crisis agree on one thing: The banking sector in Lebanon is in a state of paralysis.
Unable to provide loans, liquidity, or, at the very least, open their branches without risking raids by angry clients, banks in Lebanon have transformed into what experts are calling “zombie banks”.
Mounir Younes, the head of the economic weekly supplement in Nidaa el-Watan newspaper, believes that the way that the banking sector has been operating of late is a clear indication that “banks are no longer banks”.
“The selective bank closures have had no visible impact on the economy, which demonstrates that banks are no more than cash stores that provide money printed by the central bank: they no longer have any role in lending to the private sector nor in contributing to the economic cycle and growth,” he told MEE.
Younes said no Lebanese bank has yet admitted that they are in a state of default. The majority claims that the US dollar deposits they owe customers are in the central bank, while the latter says that it has no obligation to return that money in dollars. Instead, Younes added, the central bank is providing the banks with the deposits’ equivalent in Lebanese lira at rates it specifies in memos.
“This vicious cycle has been ongoing for the past three years, why?” Younes said.
“It’s because no one dares to admit the bankruptcy of the entire banking sector, including the central bank, and that is why the circle will continue at a great expense and damage to the economy, with augmenting inflation and the ongoing collapse of the local currency.”
Black Sunday
The Lebanese lira has been officially pegged at 1,507 to the dollar since 1997, but with the currency in free fall and multiple parallel exchange rates coexisting, the official rate has not reflected its true market value for years.
On 23 October, a week after the Lebanese lira's market value fell to more than 40,000 against the dollar, the Bank du Liban issued a memo declaring that it will no longer buy dollars on its Sayrafa platform. The central bank said that it will limit its activity on the platform to only selling dollars.
Experts saw the move as an attempt to strengthen the Lebanese lira, which had hit a new record low after it had stabilised at around 38,000 for weeks.
In a matter of hours, the dollar exchange rate dropped to 35,000, creating a state of chaos within exchange offices, and panic among citizens who follow the daily market rate in order to benefit from a profit margin when trading their dollars.
The memo that came as a shock to many was described by an exchange tycoon as “black Sunday”.
“I had to turn off all of my phones. I just couldn’t listen to plea calls anymore from people begging to sell the dollars they had bought at a high rate to limit their losses after the rapid fall,” he told MEE on condition of anonymity.
But for the Lebanese, that Sunday was no more black than any other day on the country’s financial roller coaster that has pushed desperate people to take matters into their own hands.
Marwan, a bank employee who asked for his name to be changed, said what worried him the most during an armed holdup that unfolded at his branch was the situation getting out of control.
“It was evident from the start that this was an act of pressure and the depositor was seeking to squeeze whatever he can get out of the bank, but I felt agitated that the frustration was running too high,” he said.
Asked about what he felt working at a bank that has been accused of leaving people in ruins, Marwan said employees have also gotten the short end of the stick.
“We were all victims of this grand theft,” he said.
“I didn’t have any money in the bank, but I have many relatives whose life’s work was frozen in the bank I work in.
“I am a 50-year-old bank employee in a collapsed economy, what kind of job do you think I can have now?”
Thursday, February 01, 2007
BMO More ATM's Less People
The Bank of Montreal (BMO) is laying off 1000 workers while making record profits.
At Bank of Montreal, the company earned a profit of nearly $2.67 billion for the fiscal year ended last Oct. 31, compared with $2.4 billion in 2005.
The reason given for these cuts; said with complete ablomp and full of the heartfelt concern;
"It's not staff who really deal with customers face to face," said Ralph Marranca.
Right you don't have staff who deal with customers, you cut them years ago and replaced them with ATM's.
ATM's are the Daleks of the Banking business.
You are forced to use them, contrary to certain bloggers assertions otherwise, because the banks have replaced staff with them.
And BMO has replaced branch expansion with online banking. Which the staff being cut are the IT backbone of.
A spokesman for the bank said the employees affected will include support staff including back office, administrative and technical support workers.
And the guy making the cuts is the outgoing President of the BMO; Tony Gomper who earned this year a cool $9,981,608
|
And who once said this about why you don't layoff staff;
Investment in people, like investment in education, is the single best investment that a Canadian company can make. I think it is very short-sighted to go into massive lay-offs as a strategy, because you’d be throwing away a stockpile of goodwill and future value for the shareholders. I believe that massive lay-offs of that sort point to a failure of management to anticipate the kind of economic environment in which we are going to be operating.
Repeat that out loud, Tony. You and your management are a failure. But you are laughing all the way out of the bank while leaving your staff with the crying towel.
A tip o' the blog to Far and Wide
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